Another Monday, Another Lie

        Another Monday, another Soduku/Jumble/Crossword, another Good Morning America and yes, Virginia, another topic for discussion!  Our "esteemed" Governor, Rick "Skeletor" Scott heads a new super PAC (thanks, Citizens United) which, while nominally formed in support of Der Trump, is actually aimed at hurting the Clintons. There are several things wrong with the message of their first effort. It focuses on the Clintons, both Bill and Hill, and seems to cast aspersions on the family's wealth, which according to public records it over states by double.

        The first allegation is that somehow it was ill gotten gains. This in spite of the fact that Clinton foundation filings are public record, and of the over $2 billion donated by a very wide spectrum of nations and individuals, absolutely none of it has been taken by the Clintons as salary. The filings, unlike Trump's murky tax issues, are public record, and have been scrutinized to death. Scott, says it "doesn't pass the smell test". This of course from a man who knowingly supervised a corporation (Columbia HCA) which ran two sets of books (his former accountant admits it!)  and defrauded Medicare of a minimum of $8 billion. Scott should be doing these ads from a federal penitentiary, not the Florida Governor's mansion in Tallahassee.

        Second and far more revealing about the nature of Scott's psyche, as well as those of other Far Right sour grapes artists, is the apparent awe over the Clinton(s) speaking fees. Apparently to these retrograde  dullards whose lives revolve around profit, only they are allowed to benefit from their public efforts. The complaints re: the Clintons' fees for speeches are specious at best, and reveal more about those making the allegations than perhaps they would like.  The focus of the whiny complaint from Scott is that they (apparently, I don't know any other way to interpret it) "make too much" for speeches. The audience is , I suppose,  led to believe that they must be providing "special" concessions in exchange.

        There isn't any real (as in actionable in court) allegation that the relatively high Clinton fees are quid pro quo in nature, rather just the typical election year finger pointing without substance. So, I thought, "just how much DO they make and how does it compare with other contemporary speakers with similar backgrounds?"  What I found is revelatory. The Clintons from 2006 to the present have averaged about $250,000 per speech. Some have paid higher , some less.  This has amounted to what is now a sizeable family fortune, although not as measured against their political contemporaries. Right off the bat. "W" almost a functional illiterate, cleared a tidy $15 mil from a ghost written (actual author Christopher Michel)  book! I will show speaking fees in tabular form for simplicity  below:

Donald Trump: $1.5 million per speech times 17 speeches! for the Learning Annex's "Wealth Expos" in 2006-2007.  That is about a third  of the Clinton's net worth in less than two years for just these speeches, there were many others as well! Trump has made many more at  higher  numbers than the Clintons, including  $1.75 million in 2015. The Clintons meanwhile pay a marginal tax rate of over 30%  for their efforts. Wait for Trump's returns if we ever see them!

Ronald Reagan: $1 million per speech for several speeches in Japan (in 1989!)

  

Rudolph Giuliani: One of Mrs. Clinton's most vocal critics, received $9.2 million for speeches in just 13 months from 2006-2007

George W.   Bush: this semi-coherent ex Pres. routinely gets $150,000 per speech for more than  200 speeches since 2009. Condoleezza Rice earns the same amount but speaks far less, which is odd, since she has sooo much more to say. For the math impaired, "W" "earned" about $30 million for speeches closed to the press.

And the topper:   In March of  1997, investigators from the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services served search warrants at Columbia/HCA facilities in El Paso and on dozens of doctors with suspected ties to the company. Eight days after the initial raid, Rick Scott signed his last SEC report HCA CEO. Four months later Scott  resigned  as Chairman and CEO.  He was paid $9.88 million in a settlement, and left owning 10 million shares of stock worth over $350 million.

And Rick Scott didn't even have to make a speech!