Someone who knows how to save money, or someone who spends uncontrollably.
Senators John McCain and Barack Obama released their Senate financial disclosure statements on Friday, revealing that Mr. McCain and his wife had at least $225,000 in credit card debt and that Mr. Obama and his wife had put more than $200,000 into college funds for their daughters.
I know the McCains are richer than god, but I cannot fathom how you can run up that much credit card debt. But then, I can’t fathom how I could ever get a $225,000 credit limit.
cbear
I hear that makeup can be quite expensive when you’re plastering it on like a trollop.
kid bitzer
well that settles it for me.
real americans don’t save money; real americans bury themselves in credit-card debt.
i’m voting for the guy who’s just as pig-ignorant and irresponsible as i am.
and anyhow, how’d that obama guy actually get 200 grand to save?
that’s really suspicious, saving money.
i’m sending michelle over to peer into his kitchen and see what kind of counter-tops they have.
Otto Man
They probably put one or two of their eight houses up as collateral. Any non-elitist could do the same.
Hedley Lamarr
It’s possible he’s charging some campaign debt. To hide it?
maxbaer (not the original)
Would that be John or Cindy?
Mick
I remember one of the times Donald Trump faced bankruptcy and had a personal finance manager tell him that his monthly household expenses needed to be halved to $250,000. Made headlines here in New York. I would love to see what rich people deem to be necessity.
Bobzim
Why in the hell would a rich person pay interest – especially that kind of interest – on debt?!?!?!
That’s like Jack Whittaker stupid-and-rich! WTF!?!
Redhand
No kidding. John McCain: fiscal conservative.
Halteclere
My wife and I have a couple times looked into taking out the maximum on a credit card with one of those 0%-for a year offers.
When we first considered it Countrywide had an offer to pay 5%+ on a money market account. We calculated we could make a couple thousand (taking into account the transfer fees) just by moving the credit card money into the money market. We messed around and didn’t make the deal in time before Countrywide’s offer expired.
We’ve considered doing the same thing with other investments if we run across something that looks promising.
Basically, the point of all this is that it is possible to have large credit card debt and not be an idiot.
Mary
True, Halteclere, but it looks as if the McCains are carrying some painful interest rates on at least one of their cards:
dr. bloor
When you marry Croesus’s daughter, a 225K credit line is no sweat to get or carry. Bet their interest rate is a lot more attractive than yours or mine.
I think the story is Good For McCain! as it shows how he and Cindy are hardworking ‘Muricans saddled with the debt we all struggle with, while Obama is some latte-
coloredsipping elitist who has enough money to send his kids to the Ivy League.rob!
divorced guy with lots of cc debt is from the morally superior, fiscally responsible Republicans.
still on first marriage guy who has been saving his money for his kids is from the immoral, financially irresponsible Democrats.
makes sense to me!
Halteclere
I didn’t read the article so I missed this gem.
Are these “snapshot” figures – i.e. the dept that the McCain’s own at the exact moment of disclosure, or some kind of “average” figrues? I can understand a snapshot debt of $10,000 to $15,000 due to a fun shopping spree (i.e. a shopping spree for a family worth millions).
But what I find very surprising is the terrible 25.99% interest rate. Either the McCain’s have too much money to worry about reducing that interest rate, or they missed some payment dates resulting in the increased rate. Either way the 25.99% shows poor credit card management.
Eural Joiner
Badabing!
That was a good one!
Bill Hicks
I forget where I saw it (great orange satan?) but apparently most of the debt (~$200,000) is on a 0% AMEX card. I think McCain’s an anus but at least in this case not as dumb as he sounds.
RSA
That’s actually pretty weird. Cindy McCain is very rich, worth tens of millions of dollars. One of the perks that comes with being so rich, according to everything I’ve read, is that you don’t have to buy things yourself.
Cindy McCain is, let’s say, worth 20 times what I am. I can see myself charging and carrying a credit card debt of a couple of thousand dollars, and paying it off gradually. But can you see McCain handing over her card or giving out its number, reading over her monthly statements, and writing a check to cover the amounts? You and me, sure. But why the hell doesn’t she have a personal finance manager she can tell, “I want this. Buy it.” and “Pay my credit card bills every month”?
If I were someone who chose a President based on his personal or family behavior, I’d say that this is worrisome–can anyone else think of an entity that’s spending enormous amounts of money without much thought of where it’s going or paying it back?
Nitish
the obamas certainly know how to save money….
they saved $500+k when they had their (future convict) buddy Tony Rezco buy a piece of land next to their own lot (which itself was purchased mysteriously $300k below ask around the peak of the housing bubble).
that would help pay alotta debt.
do you think obama can swing deals like this as prez?
maybe his buddies jim johnson and [banking and housing chair(!)] chris dodd can help get favorable terms on the debt….
KCinDC
Looks like it’s actually a sweetheart deal with 0% interest. How much media coverage do you think that’s going to get?
Andrew
What the fuck is the big deal with a 100 millionaire with $200k in credit card debt?
Andrew
Especially when they’re running an high common expense activity like a presidential campaign? Barbecues for the press are expensive (but worth every penny).
Otto Man
Damn, he is old.
Dennis - SGMM
The McCain’s credit card debt is two tenths of one percent of their net worth. If the rest of America was in the same shape McCain would probably have a shot.
stm177
Their money might be tied up in illiquid assets, or in a trust fund that disburses money on a regular basis. If it’s a trust fund, then the McCains may not have any control on the amount of money they get every year.
Keith
Because her husband is trying to run a country currently holding a rapidly-growing trillion dollar debt.
Cassidy
Fixed
PaulW
McCain’s credit card debt COMPARED TO the Trillion-dollars debt the Republican Party has rolled up over the last 8 years proves that the Republicans have no focking concept of “balanced budget” or “fiscal responsibility”.
Andrew
I have something like 1/1000th of their net worth (optimistically). I often carry 1/100th of their credit card debt. (And it appears that it’s on charge card that gets paid, so it’s not even really debt, just a payment mechanism.)
They have private jets and mansions and personal staff and drug habits. Of course they are going to have a lot of expenses.
There’s plenty to criticize McCain about with respect to the economy. This is quite silly.
Cassidy
Why? You don’t think the person we’re putting in charge should be able to show some personal and fiscal responsibility and discipline in their own lives?
Andrew
It’s a fucking charge card. They are running a Presidential campaign. They spend a lot of money. They pay it off. That is responsible.
If you want to attack them for their other weird debt, like some high interest promissory note from the 90’s, fine. But their credit/charge card debt? That’s the equivalent of you or me buying a Nintendo.
Keith
It won’t affect how I vote in November, but plenty of aspects much sillier than this (i.e. “who would you rather have a beer with”) apparently affect other voters’ decisions, so it’s worth at least some discussion. And it does serve as a microcosm of sorts as to the underlying financial contrasts between the two candidates.
jake
A mere trifle next to Bush’s multi-trillion dollar deficit. Anyway, being a Republican means never having to pay for squat.
BC
Remember, McCain’s tax returns shows he only makes $400K+ per year. So his credit card debt should be a fraction of that amount, not the total asset amount of his wife. I think we should also look at why his campaign imploded last year. There was mismanagement of their donations. I think his mismanagement last year may have an impact on donations this year. Why give to a guy who’s going to blow it?
Crusty Dem
But is the $225,000 a long-term credit card debt (more than 3 months?) or is it just their monthly bill? I’ll grant you it’s an obscene number for a monthly bill, but given that they own 8 houses, I’m pretty sure they’re racking up some awfully big numbers.
But at least they’re not “elitists”, that would be bad.
And Andrew, the point is that:
1) They’re super rich (which is generally ignored by the press, if you remember all the talk during the primaries was that Romney and Clinton were rich and everyone else wasn’t. Well, the McCain’s are at least as wealthy as the Clinton’s, but it’s all in her name so they ignored it.)
2) They’re not careful with their money (not worrying about $225k when you’re worth $100 million is understandable, but if you treat the federal budget the same way, you’ll be wasting billions)
Andrew
Sorry, this doesn’t follow AT ALL.
They are running a Presidential campaign, one of the most day-to-day money intensive activities I can think of. Besides the campaign funded events, I can only imagine that they spend a lot of personal money too. Maybe there’s something there with respect to personal funds being used for the campaign, or whatever, but the amount is not an issue. Just buying fuel for their private jet probably eats up a huge chunk of this.
Since most of this debt is on a charge card, it gets paid off. This is like saying that a big company is millions of dollars in debt because they haven’t received their scheduled monthly payments.
Yes, obviously they’re rich as shit and the press is so far up McCain’s arse that their brown noses are sticking out of his mouth. But making an issue of this particular thing is silly.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Ummm, no.
They don’t “pay it off”. If they were paying it off their owed balance would be zero or close to it.
That’s the whole point – they have the assets to pay their balance down to zero after each billing period and for mysterious reasons have not done so, which for me and thee and 98% of the rest of the people in this country would be a fiscally dangerous and irresponsible thing to do.
Which many of the rest of us do anyway because we are scraping to get by and many have been using cheap liquidity as a substitute for income. Income which should have been rising but after inflation has been declining, for as long as our government has been dominated by Republicans, thank you very much.
Also, the point is that the financial state of our government resembles the financial state of a sorely pressed lower middle class wage slave who is up to his/her eyeballs in debt and is taking out payday loans to keep the car running and put gas in the tank, much more so than it does the financial state of rich people who don’t have to pay any attention to their credit card bills and don’t have to care what interest rates they may be paying on balances that could be cleared if they would take the time to deal with it.
Uncle Sam doesn’t have a trust fund to bail out the black hole that is our out of balance budget, unless you count SS. If McCain is going to run the country’s finances the way he does his personal finances, then I’d suggest you start asking that your wages be paid in Euros from now on.
RSA
So why is so much of it going on Cindy McCain’s personal credit cards? Is that the usual way of doing things? (I also think it’s an unimportant issue, by the way, but I’m curious about it.)
Bobzim
The bottom line is: Why would someone with millions pay $300,000 for something that cost $225,000 just so they could pay it off over time?
It’s stupid.
Andrew
Okay, looking at the actual disclosure, they’re letting it roll over month to month. It probably has a lot to do with the 0% interest rate on one card, and the very low rates on the other. They would be foolish NOT to charge things on the card at those rates.
How is it irresponsible of them to borrow money at 0%?
The well known scandal is that rich people can borrow money at little to no interest while the poor are screwed with usurious rates.
I think it is clear that McCain doesn’t know a thing about economics and that he would be incredibly irresponsible when it comes to managing the economy. But I don’t think a low interest charge card is a big deal.
Do you really worry about having a 1/1000th of your net worth roll over on your credit card?
Andrew
They’re probably making money by leaving the money invested and not paying it off because their rates are so low.
Notorious P.A.T.
Hey, if McCain is elected he’ll cut taxes for people in his income bracket by at least a quarter mil. Problem solved!
The Moar You Know
Andrew:
Why doesn’t Obama have the same credit card debt?
rachel
Oh! I know! I know! ‘Cause they’re… thrifty?
Andrew
Um, because he’s not nearly as rich, doesn’t maintain 8 mansions or whatever, probably doesn’t have a sweetheart 0% credit line, and has far more money in his campaign, so I imagine the campaign pays for everything.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Bingo.
Snark aside, I understand your point about how small this is compared with their net worth. The thing which to me makes this a more significant issue is that small things are often more revealing of a candidate’s habits of mind and attitudes than the bigger stuff which gets sanitized for public display.
The diligence with which the Obama’s have paid off their student loans and worked at saving money for the future (and more specifically for their children’s education) tells me something about their attitudes towards money and their values of thrift and prudence which I approve of.
The McCains are a different story. What this tells me is that the McCains don’t sweat the small details, because they don’t have to – the consequences for them aren’t big enough to worry about. That ties into a larger theme which has been emerging with John McCain on policy issues – he either doesn’t grasp, or doesn’t care about the details.
Now depending on the details of what kind of rate they were paying, you might be able to make a case that they were getting a higher rate of return investing the money that they could have been using to pay down those credit card balances. But playing those kinds of money shuffling games and making sometimes shaky and dangerours assumptions about investment risk is exactly the mindset that helped to create the mess in our credit markets today. CDOs seemed pretty smart right before the housing bubble burst.
Anybody who thinks that is what we need in the next POTUS, has to be a Republican.
But not an Eisenhower Republican, because that breed would have had no doubt about which kind of behaviour here is fiscal conservative and which is not.
John Cole
I really do not see why this is that big of a deal. Rich people spend more money, rich people feel comfortable carrying more debt than others, and rich people also get 0% interest rates at times. This really is no big deal.
If you wanted to make a stink about it, the point is not that they are not fiscally responsible, but that they are so rich 225k in debt is nothing to them and THEY THINK THEY NEED A TAX CUT. That would be what would resonate with people.
Darkrose
Andrew, I’m actually pretty pissed over this. I was late on one payment because I changed jobs, and I ended up with a 29% interest rate on my B of A Visa. When I called and pointed out that I’d been on time with every payment for the past 12 years, they said, “That’s nice.” And the McCains, who can fucking afford to pay off their bills–hell, who can afford to pay cash or use a debit card for everything–get a 0% interest rate, while I’m still fighting with B of A over a debt I’ve paid off?
The fetid icing on the rancid cake, of course, is that McCain voted for the Banckruptcy Bill of 2005, which basically told consumers to bend over, and if you ask for lube, we’ll laugh at you.
ThymeZone
The standard Amex card is not like revolving debt. The credit limit is dynamic, and is based mostly on a formula that acts on the history of the account. The more you charge and pay off, the more you can charge and pay off. Businesses and individuals use these accounts as a way to see and manage expenditures that otherwise might be difficult to keep track of. If you are worth $100m, as Cindy McCain is, a $200k Amex balance is not that big a deal. It’s just a way to manage cash flow. Which doesn’t mean that they are doing it well, or that they aren’t …. this information doesn’t tell us enough to judge that.
What it does tell us is that the McCain’s are royalty, live like royalty, and spend like royalty, which is their prerogative, but at the same time, something to keep in mind when you hear good old Mister Magoo delivering one of his wheezy lectures about the economy out there on the stump. The man is talking from Mars, and has no idea what the concerns of the average person might be.
ThymeZone
Actually, anyone, even me, who can qualify for the standard Amex card gets a 0% rate. The standard use for the card is to pay it off every month. Amex’s model is based on making profit from other aspects of the transaction: Charging fees to the merchant, using the account as a marketing vehicle for other products and services, and so forth. Only if you move balances into revolving debt is there interest paid on the balances, and that’s a separate transaction.
In any event, any account that loans money and charges zero interest is just a vehicle for the lender to be making profit some other way besides charging interest. Amex’s entire original card business model was based on this scheme.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
The scene: Townhall style debate
Senator McCain: “My friends, Senator Obama wants to raise taxes. He claims that he’ll only raise them for the rich but the truth is he want to raise them for the middle class too. He think that somebody making $200,000 a year is rich, but we know better”.
Senator Obama: “What Senator McCain doesn’t want to talk about is that he well knows how far $200,000 can go, since that is how much he owes on unpaid credit card bills that the banks are giving him an interest free ride. If it were you not paying the bills on that much money, the bank would take away your house and your car and leave you with nothing. Senator McCain can owe that much money and the only thing he gets from the bank is a thank you note for supporting harsher bankruptcy laws and for campaigning to make the Bush tax…”
[the rest of Obama’s statement is inaudible as an angry mob rushes the stage.]
Splitting Image
“The diligence with which the Obama’s have paid off their student loans and worked at saving money for the future (and more specifically for their children’s education) tells me something about their attitudes towards money and their values of thrift and prudence which I approve of.”
Also, their attitude towards education. Contrast with John McCain’s attitude towards being able to afford health care: “Oh, well!”
ThymeZone
No offense, but the lender told you he would do this when you agreed to the terms for the card.
The greatest protection you have against predatory lending is to refuse to borrow from the predators. If that’s not practical, then know the terms and be religious about your care and feeding of the accounts.
Also know that they’ll deliberately rig the thing to trip you up, by doing things like making your due date on a Sunday, and then processing payments only on M-F, which means that your real due date is two days earlier, and you can easily miss it by making just an honest mistake. That lets them jack up your rate AND charge you late fees.
Profit!
Darkrose
You can do a revolving line of credit with a standard Amex card–the “Sign and Travel” plan comes to mind. The normal interest rates for that are a lot higher than 0%.
I’m aware of that, thank you.
My point is that because my last name is not McCain, I can’t call and say things like, “Hey guys–I voted your way on the bankruptcy bill, didn’t I? Can you reduce my interest a little? I’ll pay it off, I just, you know, forgot this month. Thanks!”
Darkrose
Also, there’s this:
So John and Cindy are teaching their kids that the way to manage money is to spend whatever you want, because Mommy and Daddy will cover it.
And this guy wants to be in charge of the federal budget?
b-psycho
Wow…if I were a multimillionaire I wouldn’t even HAVE a credit card. Why bother when you’ve got enough to just write a fucking check or pay cash? Who the hell holds a quarter-mill of debt for no particular reason? My mind is screaming “does not compute” here…
This is just one more example of how far removed these kind of people are from normal life.
Darkrose
Maybe they really want the Amex Rewards?
ThymeZone
Yeah, uh, my point was that a 0% rate is not something special for the McCains. Anyone who can get any unsecured card is a pretty good candidate for the standard Amex deal which is: No revolving balances, and a 0% rate. And no fixed credit limit (today’s limit based on demonstrated ability to pay past balances).
The revolving balance option is a separate agreement and involves separate transactions. It’s even reported separately on the statements.
ThymeZone
Actually, quite the opposite is true. You would not bother to carry around cash, or checks, or spend time writing checks, when all you need to do is flash a card, and then have your administrative assistant review and pay the bill each month.
b-psycho
They need to fire their administrative assistant then.
ThymeZone
Really? Why would that be? Do, tell.
b-psycho
You said their job would be to review and pay the bills each month. I’d assume debt accumulating means something wasn’t paid.
Then again, I’m thinking this as someone who will never see that much money in their life unless they win the lottery. Who knows what the fuck the wealthy rules are? Grain of salt blahblahblah…
ThymeZone
Ah, bad management in the personal finances of the McCains. But we have no evidence of that, all we have is a few disconnected numbers that really don’t mean much of anything other than the fact that these very rich people live like very rich people. Which is relevant, given that one of them is running for president.
The McCains have a net worth of something like 1000+ times mine.
But their credit card debt is only somewhere in the ballpark of 10-20 times my own. So I don’t really see what the big deal is WRT to the actual debt.
My first rule for revolving debt is that I don’t have more than I can pay off, with cash, on 30 days’ notice if I have to. So if I had another heart attack and couldn’t work and had no income, or something rotten like that, I could pay off all those accounts within a month without crippling myself. In the meantime, I use the cash for other purposes and manage the credit as I see fit.
If I were the McCains and followed the same strategy, I’d wager that I could carry $1m in revolving debt and not really worry about it.
Zuzu's Petals
Maybe they get airline miles.
J. Michael Neal
TZ, please read the thread. They are not paying this debt off every month. It is rolling over at a 0% interest rate.
ThymeZone
Please read my posts. AMEX makes money in various ways on the accounts it provides. Interest on unpaid balances is only one of them. The fact that any balance is carrying a zero interest rate is not an indication that the McCains are somehow getting a sweet deal because they are the McCains, which was the implication of the original mention.
AMEX is a business and its aim is to make money, and it will make many kinds of agreements with customers to fit many busines models.
Almost any warm body with a job and FICO score over 600 can get an AMEX card with some zero interest provision, it is no big deal.
Further, for the McCains to have a credit card debt burden that is about 1/4 of one percent of Cindy McCain’s reported net worth is really not even worth mentioning. It’s pocket change.
The story is not the debt. The story is that they are people who live in that income zone.
I stand on my posts as written. Your petition is rejected.
J. Michael Neal
For $250,000 of rolled over debt?
Andrew
This is like the average person carrying $100. Is that a big deal?
Alex
I don’t see this as that huge a story. I imagine the reason they have such a large balance is *because* it is held at 0% interest, so there is no direct reason to pay it off immediately. The card is likely the “American Express Black” (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_Card), with lots of cushy benefits that AmEx gives the super-wealthy in order to get them to use their service. Remember, AmEx makes money on every transaction it handles (1-2%, probably), so there is much money to be made. If you’re interested in some real seediness going on, check out this DailyKos poster who dug into McCain’s financials:
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/14/101651/121/418/519263
J. Michael Neal
This is like the average person carrying $100. Is that a big deal?
Brachiator
This is not necessarily true at all, and one of the many tax and finance policies that both Democrats and Republicans are weasels about.
Currently, the credit card companies can unilaterally change the terms whenever they like, and do so by sending out dense small type amendments. The consumer has few practical options to negotiate more favorable terms.
Credit card companies used to just tack on a late fee for late payments. Later they would tack on a late fee and impose a higher interest rate for new purchases. Some are now recalculating the entire balance at a higher rate.
But you cannot say that a consumer knew the terms when those terms are subject to change without notice.
The credit card companies claim that they need new rates and fees to make up for losses from bad loans, but then they send out new cards to people with bad credit and increase the credit limits of people even though they have past payment problems.
The bottom line is that the credit card companies lobby Congress to write laws that allow them to exploit consumers to maximize their profits and to insulate their companies against losses.
No one knows what the McCain’s cash flow is, so no one can make any meaningful statements about whether or no they are handling their debt well. Even less meaningful are statements about how any of us manage or money or what we would do if we were the McCains — unless we have a net worth of at least $100 million.
But as John C notes, some of the tax policy implications are interesting.
What the GOP says: The rich need tax cuts so that they can invest in new businesses.
What the GOP means: The rich need tax cuts so that they can better manage their credit card debt. And oh, yeah, we can’t come up with policies that might lower consumer interest rates even though this might boost middle class incomes and improve the economy. Now please excuse us while we come up with new plans to use taxpayer money to bail out the credit markets.
passerby
My question is: are they not liquid enough to use a check card?
Paying 25% on a quarter million debt would suggest they have money to burn. Doesn’t seem to make sense.
T
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I think we are getting lost in the minutia of this story.
The larger story is about cultural attitudes about debt. The generatations of my parents and grandparents who grew up or were working adults during the Great Depression treated unecessary debt like Satan – get thee behind me. It was part of their cultural baggage from the bank collapses and housing and farm foreclosures of the 1930s.
That attitude faded out as its practitioners aged and left the scene. The next generation’s boomer attitudes towards debt were more like a stoner’s attitude towards munchies – DUUUUUUDE ! Come to papa !
McCain is older than the Boomers, but this story suggests he has similar attitudes towards debt.
Now we are in a new era. Thanks to Greenspan, et. al. and Boomer debt attitudes, we’ve spent the better part of the last decade or two substituting credit for income and doing everything possible to set up the leverage environment needed to create Great Depression 2.0.
We may yet dodge a bullet on that one, but the fact remains that one of the biggest and most dangerous timebombs threatening the prosperity and security of the US right now is our public and private debt. We need to do something about it, and a leader who can set the political and cultural terms of reference to lead us back to an era of hard work, savings, and prudent financial behaviour is needed now more than ever.
The way they handle their personal finanaces tells a glaring story of contrast between the Obama family and the McCain family. One of these families act like fiscal conservatives and the other does not.
Connect the dots please.
passerby
Nevermind, I had missed this comment from stm.
T
Eli Rabett
Swallowing the lede
Senator McCain, what do you think about Americans losing their jobs while your wife makes a fortune?
TenguPhule
The story here:One guy saves. The other guy spends money like it’s fucking water.
Who do you want in charge?
The guy who gave his kids a heads up in life?
Or the one who thinks nothing of debt that is more then most people will see after years of hard work?
Church Lady
Oh good lord, everyone get a grip. Our family’s net worth isn’t anything like the McCain’s, but we run around 10K to 15K per month on credit cards every month between business and personal expenses. However, we pay it off each and every month, thus accruing absolutely no interest expense on it. It is a way of not only accounting for business expeneses, but also an easy way to track stuff for tax purposes. Depending on the time of month that we had to file a financial disclosure, we might show debt, or we might not.
Given that the debt shown was on Amex, which expects to be paid in full with each statement, I don’t think much about it. Believe me, if you had that kind of annual income, you wouldn’t think about spending that kind of money. Not only that, I’m sure the McCains have not only already paid for or saved for their children’s college educations, but they’re also probably also pretty secure in their retirement planning. Given that the Obama family’s income was in the multi-millions for the last couple of years or so, they also don’t need to worry about eating Alpo in thier old age.
The financial disclosures are a very vague picture at a certain point in time, so it’s hard to discern what anyone’s financial picture is. I don’t think Barack or Michelle are shopping for their clothes at Walmart or looking at McDonald’s for a big night out. In fact, that spiffy purple silk number that Michelle sported on the night that Barack secured the nomination retails for $900 – not exactly middle class wardrobing. They can afford it, as can the McCains, so we just need to move on.
This doesn’t mean anything in the general scheme of things. Find something else to bitch about – god knows, there is plenty.
Church Lady
Oh good lord, everyone get a grip. Our family’s net worth isn’t anything like the McCain’s, but we run around 10K to 15K per month on credit cards every month between business and personal expenses. However, we pay it off each and every month, thus accruing absolutely no interest expense on it. It is a way of not only accounting for business expeneses, but also an easy way to track stuff for tax purposes. Depending on the time of month that we had to file a financial disclosure, we might show debt, or we might not.
Given that the debt shown was on Amex, which expects to be paid in full with each statement, I don’t think much about it. Believe me, if you had that kind of annual income, you wouldn’t think about spending that kind of money. Not only that, I’m sure the McCains have not only already paid for or saved for their children’s college educations, but they’re also probably also pretty secure in their retirement planning. Given that the Obama family’s income was in the multi-millions for the last couple of years or so, they also don’t need to worry about eating Alpo in thier old age.
The financial disclosures are a very vague picture at a certain point in time, so it’s hard to discern what anyone’s financial picture is. I don’t think Barack or Michelle are shopping for their clothes at Walmart or looking at McDonald’s for a big night out. In fact, that spiffy purple silk number that Michelle sported on the night that Barack secured the nomination retails for $900 – not exactly middle class wardrobing. They can afford it, as can the McCains, so we just need to move on.
This doesn’t mean anything in the general scheme of things. Find something else to bitch about – god knows, there is plenty.
Church Lady
Ooops, too much to drink tonight – sorry about the double post.
passerby
Church Lady, in my view, you’ve provided a clear and lucid essay.
I often fret about how easily we all run to sign up for the latest Oh-My-God Squad, but, there’s just no getting around the fact that it’s just plain fun.
Too much to drink?? I think the emotional components of your post give it just the right amount of zing.
T