Be as clear and concise as possible in your posts, and avoid using jargon or unnecessarily complex language. Use proper spelling and grammar, and make sure that your posts are easy to understand.
- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy❤
No. of Recommendations: 13
When you're the House Speaker from nowhere, people start digging into your background. Reporters this morning are wondering why Speaker Johnson has no assets and no bank accounts, both of which are required to be listed on his financial disclosure forms (individual household bank accounts of at least $1,000 and combined bank accounts with a value of more than $5,000 must be listed).
Johnson has made at least $174,000 per year from the combination of his representative salary and any additional payments he received, such as from a teaching appearance. Johnson's wife has two streams of income, from two different employers.
But on his financial disclosures, Johnson has listed only one asset: a retirement account. In 2016, he listed a state government Fidelity account valued between $1,000 and $15,000. He transferred those savings to a Thrift Savings plan, a federal program, the following year. Johnson appears to have cashed out the entire account in 2021, because he lists no assets at all on his 2022 form.God knows where but there's probably an innocent explanation somewhere, like from that Clarence Thomas fella' who simply forgot to declare a $300,000 loan that was forgiven and all those luxury vacations around the world.
https://newrepublic.com/post/176550/where-mike-joh...
No. of Recommendations: 3
LOL.
So you're saying he should have been using his job to Get Rich like most Congresscritters do. Famous examples of that would be Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.
It's nice to have a Speaker for once who doesn't insider trade the shit out of his job.
No. of Recommendations: 5
Dope1: It's nice to have a Speaker for once who doesn't insider trade the shit out of his job.
There's a difference between not being rich and not having a fricking bank account. Who doesn't have a bank account?
And the guy makes $170,000 a year. What's he do, keep it under his mattress?
Dope1: So you're saying he should have been using his job to Get Rich like most Congresscritters do.
I'm saying that the cult can find an excuse for anything.
Jan 6? Sightseers.
Trump sending armed protesters to the Capitol? Freedom of speech.
Trump bilking elderly supporters through endless fundraising? The billionaire needs Grannie's last nickel to pay his legal bills.
Trump having some of the nation's most sensitive documents in his personal possession? Presidential Records Act.
And I guess there was nothing but praise from republicans about Joe Biden's lack of wealth when he was a senator.
Oh wait, republicans laughed at his financial situation back then.
No. of Recommendations: 0
There's a difference between not being rich and not having a fricking bank account. Who doesn't have a bank account?https://www.thedailybeast.com/does-new-speaker-of-...Of course, it's unlikely Johnson doesn't actually have a bank account. What's more likely is Johnson lives paycheck to paycheck'so much so that he doesn't have enough money in his bank account to trigger the checking account disclosure rules for members of Congress.Carry on.
No. of Recommendations: 13
I'm guessing the Speaker is still using the bank account he co-opened with his mom back in 1982 when he was ten years old at Bayou Building and Loan. (eyeroll)
There is no legitimate explanation for a grown adult making $170,000 per year as a United States Representative to not have at least a checking account. If you serve in Congress, you have to fly. You presumably have to stay in a hotel once in a while when not staying at home or at an apartment in DC. You have to have a credit card to book a reservation for a plane, hotel or rental car. Sure, you can PAY in cash when you arrive at the counter, but no airline, hotel or rental car company will make a reservation without a credit card. I'm not sure how you can obtain a credit card without referencing a checking or savings account on the credit card application. How is he paying his monthly utility bills? By paying cash for gas to fill up the car to drive to the Winn-Dixie to pay his electric, water, sewer, gas, telephone and internet bills in cash?
No way.
Either he is dodging reporting requirements -- in which case, how does that pass first review when election officials are reviewing those forms? -- or he is a member of a very strange financial cult. Either way, this is not the sign of an adult that should be second in line to the Presidency.
WTH
No. of Recommendations: 5
Dope1: What's more likely is Johnson lives paycheck to paycheck'so much so that he doesn't have enough money in his bank account to trigger the checking account disclosure rules for members of Congress.
Carry on.
Umm, he's made a million dollars in the past six years and doesn't have $1000 in the bank?
Well, sure... that's the guy we need leading the House and funding the government, a fiscally irresponsible 51-year-old with a $250-500K mortgage, a home equity loan, and a personal loan who lives paycheck to paycheck. No wonder he doesn't understand the CBO.
And it's not like he's the exact kind of guy who'd be a target for bribery.
Oh wait.
So what's his retirement plan...sell classified information to Russia, lobby, or become a Fox News analyst?
Thanks for proving me right, though: the cult can find an excuse for anything.
No. of Recommendations: 6
If the end times are near, who needs to worry about a bank account.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Umm, he's made a million dollars in the past six years and doesn't have $1000 in the bank?
I don't know how much he has in the bank. He appears to be below the limit of what he's required to report.
What's hilarious here is that you're criticizing him for not being corrupt enough. He should have been pulling a Harry Reid and using his position to buy up land and then get the government to buy it off him. Or be like Nancy Pelosi and have his wife trade stocks based on all kinds of juicy inside information.
Here's an adage that some on this board will understand. Some others, not so much.
When you go out about your day and you run into an a$$hole, you've run into an a$$hole.
When you go out about your day and you run into nothing but a$$holes, *you're* the a$$hole.
Food for thought.
No. of Recommendations: 1
And since critical thinking isn't something that obsessive-compulsive types are sometimes good at:
Replace "a$$hole" with "cult".
No. of Recommendations: 11
What's hilarious here is that you're criticizing him for not being corrupt enough.
No, they're not.
The criticism is essentially that he made material omissions in his financial disclosures. That any grown adult with a job that pays as much as a House Rep (about $174K per year, plus benefits) would have to have a bank account which would need to be disclosed under the House rules.
I mean, the limits are super low for someone in that salary range. It's just $1K. I don't know whether members get paid biweekly or monthly, but his take-home paycheck has to be at least $5K per pay period. How could he not have a bank account that had a balance of $1K - anywhere? I mean, even just a checking account so that he can pay his mortgage and whatnot?
It strains credulity that someone who makes that much to be completely unbanked. Which is the criticism.
No. of Recommendations: 1
The criticism is essentially that he made material omissions in his financial disclosures.
How do you know that?
No. of Recommendations: 3
Dope: The criticism is essentially that he made material omissions in his financial disclosures.
How do you know that?
Let us know how it goes!
Let us know what they say.
Let us know when you're done.
Us? Us? Us? Off yer meds? Sounding a tad like schizoaffective disorder
We know 'the criticism is essentially that he made material omissions in his financial disclosures' because we know the criticism we are making. It's just a criticism. And that's okay because so far, unlike the MAGA claim that Joe Biden is a criminal, it's just a criticism. Maybe he does cash his check and stuff the green in his mattress and pay his bills in cash every month, driving from office to office with fat envelopes of cash.
Yeah, that's the ticket.
drip drip drip.
No. of Recommendations: 0
God knows where but there's probably an innocent explanation somewhere, like from that Clarence Thomas fella' who simply forgot to declare a $300,000 loan that was forgiven and all those luxury vacations around the world.
A black man taking luxury vacations.
oh the horror.
Sorry, some escape the Liberal plantation.
No. of Recommendations: 5
How do you know that?
Because, again, it is highly improbable that a person could have a job that pays $174K per year (in addition to the income from his working wife) and not have a bank account with a thousand dollars in it. It's far more likely that he has a bank account, and failed to disclose it. Note that the amount of effort required to earn nearly $200K per year (presumably paid in a paycheck, not cash) and not have a bank account would be ridiculously large, which would also raise concerns if he made a deliberate choice to remain unbanked and do all of his transactions in cash.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Because, again, it is highly improbable that a person could have a job that pays $174K per year (in addition to the income from his working wife) and not have a bank account with a thousand dollars in it. - albaby
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Agreed, to deny it just goes against common sense. Quite similar to claiming to not having or being unable to obtain an id.
No. of Recommendations: 8
Quite similar to claiming to not having or being unable to obtain an id.
Not really.
Prior to the widespread adoption of the automobile and the creation of Social Security, many people never had a need to get a government-issued id - much less one with a photo. So if you became an adult prior to, say, the mid- to late-1960's, there's a non-trivial chance that you might be one of the people who never needed to get a government-issued id. And if you're poor and lack access to a birth certificate, there are obstacles to recreating the baseline documentation necessary to get a government-issued id.
None of that is true for a U.S. Congressman. He's earning close to $200K. Unlike an average person in the 1950's, who has no practical need to get a government-issued id if they don't drive, earning that much money absolutely creates a need to have a bank account. And unlike the small percentage of the elderly population who never got an ID back in the day and who are now rather poor, the Congressman absolutely has the means necessary to get a bank account - he has full-time employment and a large paycheck.
