PRESIDENTIAL MONEY

Donald Trump is a billionaire. Some of his wealth was inherited. Most of it was made in real estate investments. Mr. Trump buys and builds and sells. That is how he makes his money.

Hillary Clinton is a millionaire. She and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, are reputed to be worth around 80 million dollars.

I asked myself, “How did, how do, they make their money?”

Bill Clinton has clamed that when they left the White House they were “dead broke” and in debt.

ABC News has reported:

After they were criticized for taking $190,000 worth of china, flatware, rugs, televisions, sofas and other gifts with them when they left, the Clintons announced last week that they would pay for $86,000 worth of gifts, or nearly half the amount. Their latest decision to send back $28,000 in gifts brings to $114,000 the value of items the Clintons have either decided to pay for or return.

Both Hillary and Bill Clinton are lawyers. Both of them make speeches for compensation. In short, they make their money by performing personal services. The only product they have to sell is their time, attention, advice and influence.

The Clintons are the quintessential career politicians. People give them money in exchange for ‘access.’  People give them money for what they know and for what they can do. People give them money because they have political power and to influence the way they exercise their political power.

That may sound like a fancy way of saying that they take bribes. It isn’t. No one has ever suggested that President Clinton or Secretary Clinton have taken bribes from anyone. But neither does anyone insist that money doesn’t affect what they do.

Much has been written and said about the power of money in politics. There is an almost universal abhorrence of lobbying by the ‘big money.’ Still, the same politicians who rail against ‘big corporations,’ ‘Wall Street,’ and the influence of professional lobbyists are typically engaged in the same business of selling access to political power.

Despite the hoopla of an apparently successful nominating convention in Cleveland, the Republicans are still deeply divided. A long list of supposed Party leaders remains opposed to The Donald.

Perhaps the most puzzling is Ohio Governor John Kasich. His snubbing of the GOP convention was more than mere political pique; it was a failure to represent the people of Ohio in his official capacity as Governor. If it had been a convention of any other organization; the American Bar Association, for example, that was bringing thousands of people and millions of dollars into Ohio, the citizens of the Buckeye State would expect their Governor to extend an official welcome. And to do it in person.

John Kasich, Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney are not the only big name Republicans who are sitting out the election in a tissy. The two party system establishment in Washington that has inspired the Tea Party and the Donald Trump “Outsiders” is a combination of career politicians and inbred elitists from both major political parties.

To say that the ‘system is broken’ is almost a cliché these days. The House is supposed to represent the people, the Senate is supposed to represent the  States, the President is supposed to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, and the Supreme Court is supposed to protect the Constitution.

They don’t.

Donald Trump and his supporters are fond of saying that his candidacy represents ‘a movement.’  Whether it does or not, one thing is clear. Trump doesn’t need the job. He already has fame and fortune. He already has a private jet airplane.

It looks to me like the choice will boil down to this: Do we want a career politician who has amassed a fortune by selling access and influence and who promises to deliver the same old, same old; or do we want a political neophyte who has amassed a fortune in private enterprise, and who promises to shake things up?

I think it’s time to declare that Hearts are Trump and run the table.