Welcome to the first in what I expect to be a series of bipartisan postings about the current electorate. This should be fun. Or depressing.
Someone commented on a friend's Facebook entry - "From what I understand, Sanders was on welfare when he was elected to the Senate. (I just heard that - could be completely inaccurate). His net worth is $300,000. He's been in the Senate for years. Where did the money go?"
Welcome to Gossip Down The Lane, Politics 2016 version, made possible by social media.
The person acknowledges that he has no idea if the statement he reports is "completely accurate" (by which I suppose he meant to include "if at all"), then proceeds to ask a question that presumes that the statement is true.
Oh, the value of doing an online seach...
Bernie Sanders had been serving in the United States House of Representatives for over ten years when he won his senatorial seat. It would have been quite a scandal & a hissing had a congressman been on welfare & certainly would have precluded him being elected, even by Vermont's wild-eyed liberals.
Had the gossip monger bothered to surf the internet, he would have discovered* that Bernie Sanders had a net worth of $188,504.00 in 2006, the year he was elected senator. His lowest financial ebb since serving the good people of Vermont was in 2009 (post-financial meltdown), when his worth was pegged at $105,003.00, an amount he more than tripled the next year.
Am grateful for the fellow's strange comment, as it inspired me to take the time (60 seconds) to discover the answer to what strikes me as sloppy thinking & an irresponsible query. No worries - Keep 'em comin'!
The American electorate 2016 - scary, but endlessly intriguing.
*According to Center for Responsive Politics and Money Nation data:
- Bernie Sanders Net Worth August 2015: $528,014
- Bernie Sanders Net Worth May 2015: $440,511
- Bernie Sanders Net Worth 2014: $330,408
- Bernie Sanders Net Worth 2013: $330,506
- Bernie Sanders Net Worth 2012: $460,506
- Net Worth 2011: $308,005
- Net Worth 2010: $429,004
- Net Worth 2009: $105,003
- Net Worth 2008: $219,504
- Net Worth 2007: $345,503
- Net Worth 2006: $188,504
- Net Worth 2005: $128,001
- Net Worth 2004: $115,501
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the inimitable Sasha Silveman
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