by Mark Silva
Page for page, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s book, Living History, has made more money for the senator from New York than her husband’s book, My Life, has made for the former president.
This, according to summaries of the couple’s income taxes released today – the summaries that reported a gross income of $109 million for the Clintons since 2000. They gave a lot away to charity too, leaving their after-tax earnings over the seven years covered in today’s released returns at $57 million.
While the former president made nearly half of that money for them with his high-paid speaking engagements – starting with a closed-door appearance before a convention of stock brokers in Boca Raton soon after he left the White House in 2001 – the celebrated, high-advance books of the former first couple have drawn well, too.
Yet, page for page, the former president’s doorstop of a memoir, My Life, weighing in at 1,024 pages in the summer of 2004, has not produced as much revenue as the former first lady’s memoirs, Living History, which registered a relatively svelte 352 pages the summer before.
Now, it’s true that Hillary Clinton had a year longer than Bill Clinton to rack up some book sales, and it’s also true that his tome is a lot thicker, and higher-grossing.
But, with reported earnings of $10,267,895, Hillary Clinton's book has generated $29,170 per page for the author since its introduction. And, with reported earnings of $23,280,525, Bill Clinton’s book has generated $22,735 per page for the author since it hit the bookshelves and Amazon.com.
If there’s been a lot of interest in the lives of this power-couple, there’s been a lot of interest on the campaign trail in the long-promised tax returns of the Clintons that the Clintons have filed since he left the White House and she started in the Senate. The campaign today released returns from 2000 through 2006 and a summary of the couples’ earnings and taxes in 2007.
They highlight the senator’s salary over the past seven seven years: $1,051,606. They include the president’s pension in that time: $1,217,250.
They include the couple’s publishing revenue, but most notably the former president’s speaking fees: $51.86 million.
The couple also reports paying $33,783,507 in federal taxes during that time –31 percentof their adjusted gross income. And the campaign points to data available from the IRS showing that in 2005 taxpayers earning $10,000,000 or more paid on average 20.8% of their adjusted gross income in taxes – by way of making the point that the Clintons have paid more than their fair share.
They have given $10,256,741 to charity, they report -- 9.5 percent of their adjusted gross income – which is darn close to a traditional tithe.
According to IRS data, the campaign says, in 2005 taxpayers earning $10,000,000 or more contributed 3.1 percentof their adjusted gross income in cash contributions to charity – making the Clinton’s well above average in the generosity department.
And, as we already knew, he is a lot wordier.
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Comments
"FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSIONER SPEAKS"
TWO DOWN AND ONE TO GO. JOHN MCCAIN.
4 MILLION DOLLAR CHOCTAW BINGO NIGHT WITH RICK RE NZI, RE NZI RICK RENZI!
20,000 HERE, 20,000 THERE, 20,000 ON FLIGHT WITH VICKI ISEMEN EVERYWHERE.
SO SHOW ME THE MONEY MR. MCCAIN.
SHOW ME THE "PUBLIC FINANCING"
SHOW ME WHERE YOU SPENT 58 MILLION DOLLARS MR. MCCAIN.
OH WHERE OH WHERE ARE YOUR TAXES AT, OH WHERE OH WHERE ARE THEY AT?
SHOW ME THE MONEY, MONEY,SHOW ME THE MONEY, JOHN "STRAIGHT TALK" MCCAIN.
Posted by: Roger Morris | April 4, 2008 7:04 PM
The Clintons have now released 30 years of tax returns - more than anybody ever has! NOW what will they find to complain about regarding the Clintons? Oh I know it's coming and so do they. They are damned if they do and damned if they dont! Wish people and the media would leave them alone!!!
Hillary Clinton has MORE than EARNED the nomination for the presidency, and one way or the other she is who I will be voting for in November!
Posted by: Carol | April 4, 2008 7:59 PM
What's mentioned in the Tax returns is not necessarily true. If she cares so much about the poor, like she claims, why hasnt she donated even more. Carol, when will you understand that these people just dont care for you. Its politics lady! Thats their job....to bluff people.
Posted by: Chris | April 4, 2008 8:14 PM
Will somebody find something in those $51mil speaking fees? Time will tell. Are they just fees for "speaking" or are some involved in "something" shady?
I bet people are delving themselves into just where these speaking fees are coming from.
Posted by: Buj | April 4, 2008 8:15 PM
I hope the Clintons just go away...They sold out the workingman too many times
Posted by: Jim | April 4, 2008 8:18 PM
Let me get this straight: the Democrats are for the little guy ... and so are the Clintons. Right!
(Wink) (Wink)
http://OsiSpeaks.com
Posted by: KYJurisDoctor | April 4, 2008 8:24 PM
I am amazed at how unfair the media and Obama's supporters are towards Clinton. It is perfectly fine to have a candidate of choice, but just to blindly hate somebody because they are rich is just petty.
Obama gives 1% to charity, Clinton gives 10% to charity. Clinton releases over 30 years of their tax returns to the public, how many for Obama, a handful in drip and drap.
Why do people feel jealous that Bill gets $50M for speaking fees when he earns them legally? It shows that people in the world love Bill, except for Obama who is constantly bashing the Clinton's years as something bad for the country.
Posted by: vote4thebest | April 4, 2008 8:25 PM
Wow, Dick Cheney gave 6 million in 2005 alone. That was 2/3 of his income.
Posted by: Rose | April 4, 2008 8:40 PM
how more transparent clintons can after releasing 30 years tax returns. sen . obama has been crying foul for a long time now what other slur he will find to throw mud on hillary clinton.clintons are wiser than many. they gave them enough time to throw mud of lies and accusations and now the accusers like obama should feel ashamed.
CLINTONS ARE THE BEST GIFT GOD GAVE TO AMERICANS AFTER JFK AND BOBBY KENNEDY AND HILLARY WILL BE THE BEST PERSON TO LEAD AMERICA THROGH THE CURRENT DARK TIMES.OBAMACAN DO NOTHING MORE THAN CROWING AND THAT DOES NOT RESOLVE PROBLEMS.
WAKE UP AMERICA AND DO YOURSELF GOOD BY VOTING FOR HIILLARY.
FINALLY SUPER DELEGATES AND SENIOR DEMS ARE WAKING UP TO REALITY
bhagwan deol . los angeles
Posted by: bhagwan deol | April 4, 2008 8:41 PM
I Believe the World - Needs a Team
Yes the Super Delegate Vote Should Hold, as everyone New about Florida .
Obama - just chose not to Go !
Pulled His Name from - Michigan !
Slow Cheated - to Tip the Delegates ( Vote )
I'm just to Slow to Get to Florida and I'm to Slow to Get to Michigan .
BS - they new all along what They
were doing Under Handed Politics.
Hillary - Running a Clean Machine.
They have Clean Record .
Bill will make a Great World
Ambassidor.
Go Team !
Posted by: Danny | April 4, 2008 8:51 PM
What the friendly media won't note is how the Clinton's released this on a Friday afternoon when reporters are looking to get away, when most folks don't watch the news or read the papers on Friday and Saturday, on a Friday that is the anniversary of the King assassination, etc.
Also, Friendly Media didn't Mark Penn, the Clinton campaign manager say something very controversial??? Will we see some reporting on that?
Posted by: John D | April 4, 2008 9:16 PM
No wonder Hillary is pushing hard to fundraise the last two days.
Hearing she earned $109 million and she wants people to scrape by and give her money, so she can pay Mark Penn his millions, and he can fly off to Colombia and push for Free Trade, to take away jobs from Americans?
Posted by: kanuk | April 4, 2008 9:51 PM
I don't think it is charity when you give to yourself. Most of their donations went to Clinton charities.
She made a lot of money off of books that she used ghost writers for, one of which she didn't give credit to.
Why were the returns amended so many times?
How has Hillary "earned" anything. You don't win, you don't "deserve" it. If you have the name, the money and the party backing and you lose to an unknown you don't "deserve" squat.
Posted by: mike | April 4, 2008 9:55 PM
No problem with writing books, but look deeper into those tax returns figures released - they clearly show that Hillary and Bill are so out of touch with the real American people the voters except for there rich friends and backers.
Hillary has no identity with the ordinary voters, she would never have stood in New York if there had been a vacancy in Montana, all both Hillary and Bill use office for is to pursue their own selfish self interests.
It would be best for Hillary to write another book, do the TV chat show circuit and after dinner speaking on reminiscence's of Fiction rather than Truth and leave Politics alone.
Posted by: John B Sheffield | April 4, 2008 10:01 PM
Wow, it's not making sense at all. And please make your comments right and polite.
Posted by: Dinh Le | April 4, 2008 10:05 PM
Clinton releases over 30 years of their tax returns to the public.
THEY DID NOT RELEASE 30 YEARS. Try 7 years. Also, they practically gave nothing to charity from their personal income. The $10 million came from Hillary's Book.
$50+ millions is speeches is just crazy. Please. Please. In speeches. What type of speech did he give to net 50 million?
Posted by: Maxwel | April 4, 2008 10:08 PM
Not bad for someone to make 50 million dollars making speeches and then turns around and criticizes Obama for giving good speeches. Do you think that it was coincidence that the returns were release today. Friday..... Martin Luther King Holiday. Maybe the Clintons thought no one would notice. It will be interesting to see what happens when Hillary has to talk to those poor suckers who are making 30 thousand a year.
Posted by: Ron | April 4, 2008 10:48 PM
Today's Wall Street Journal reports that Clinton consultant Mark Penn is shilling for a free trade agreement with Colombia that Hillary says she opposes.
As can be seen from the Clintons' tax returns, those friendly people in Dubai give millions to Bill Clinton while Hillary claims she opposes Dubai ownership of American seaports on national security grounds.
Marc Rich, the fugitive international financier and union buster, was pardoned by Bill Clinton, who enjoyed a social relationship with Rich's wealthy wife.
Hillary's brothers, Tony and Hugh Rodham, also profited from dubious presidential pardons offered by the would-be First Filanderer.
Tony Rodham helped gain a presidential pardon for a Tennessee couple convicted of bank fraud.
Hugh Rodham pocketed $400,000 in legal fees after two of his clients were granted last-minute pardons. One, Carlos Vignali Jr., was convicted for transporting 800 pounds of cocaine; and his pardon was granted against the wishes of the Justice Department.
The list goes on and on ...
One of the best compilations was done by the very reputable Stuart Taylor of the National Journal, who asked:
"Hillary Rodham Clinton is supposed to be smart. But how smart is it for a woman with such a bad reputation for truthfulness and veracity to put those character traits at the center of the campaign?)" ...
Christopher Hitchens, the ubiquitous conscience of the Fourth Estate, is right.
Hillary's "offenses to veracity and decency rival," he said, "if not indeed surpassed, the disbarred and perjured hack who is her husband and tutor."
Parents, can anyone in their right mind think this pair of co-dependent "grifters"--the word Jimmy Carter's chief of staff, Hamilton Jordan, used to define them--is a good role model for today's children?
Personal responsibility is the key to government accountability.
Just today, Hillary is blaming "the boys" for her tanking campaign ...
Forget the pharonic and wasteful spending by her campaign, the vicious infighting among her key advisors, race-gate, the made-for-Hollywood portrayal of Full-Metal-Jacket St. Hillary of Bosnia, etc., etc., etc.
When Hillary is losing, it is always because she is the victim of dark and sinister forces.
Except that these are an ever changing cast of characters (witness her making nice-nice last week with the man who in the 1990s she claimed headed the "vast rightwing conspiracy"--Pennsylvania mogul Mellon Scaife).
If you begin to add up the list of all those Hillary has blamed at one point or another for her being unable to realize her agenda or her ambitions you come up with at least the beginnings of an interesting profile ...
It is of the American people themselves.
Posted by: Martin Edwin Andersen | April 4, 2008 11:09 PM
It wouldn't matter if the Clintons released every tax form they had ever filed and showed that they gave 100% ot earned income to charity, the Obama fans would still find reason to bash the Clintons.
Why is this, I wonder? Usually, such irrational animosity says more about the person exhibiting it than about the object of it. Envy and fear are the most common reasons. What is it you Obama fans find so threatening about Senator Clinton? Are you afraid she's smarter and more qualified? Or do you think that by diminishing Senator Clinton you are making Senator Obama look better by comparison?
If Senator Obama is a worthy opponent, then why not list your reasons for supporting him? What are his accomplishments? What awards has been given by his peers? What, specifically, did he accomplish as a community organizer in Chicago? What did he do for the people in his district? What ideas and programs has he created and implemented? What civil rights cases has he won?
If you answered these questions or similar ones you would come nearer to garnering votes for Senator Obama. What you are doing now is angering the Clinton supporters who refuse to vote for a man who can't even inspire his own fan base to unite with others, so why should we believe he can inspire and unite an entire country?
Posted by: Judy Kilgore | April 4, 2008 11:57 PM
I guess the Clintons have done pretty darn good during the Bush years. That would be true for Obama, Edwards, and most especially Al Gore. Nobody is making the kind of cash Al is when he speaks. The US voter continues to elect the rich lawyer types and then get upset with those candidates when they fail to understand how the average joe lives. When do you suppose is the last time any of these folks have done a load of laundry, or cut the lawn, or grocery shopped. I am sure they have to ask their employees how life really is outside the bubble.
Posted by: Verycold | April 5, 2008 12:11 AM
Doughboy,
Do you really want to start a media conspiracy?
Jeff Gannon and the Iraqi/American news agency are looking for junior reporters.
They might pay you for a 40 hour week.
Posted by: Bubba | April 5, 2008 12:15 AM
LOOK AT THAT PIC!
STONE COLD FOX!
WHAT A LUCKY DUDE, WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON!
Posted by: Haywood Jablome | April 5, 2008 12:19 AM
For the past month, Hillary Clinton has repeatedly attacked Barack Obama because one of his economic advisers met with Canadian officials in Chicago to discuss NAFTA.
Now the Wall Street Journal reports that her own chief campaign strategist did the very same thing on a new free-trade agreement with Colombia.
"Hillary Clinton's chief campaign strategist met with Colombia's ambassador to the U.S. on Monday to discuss a bilateral free-trade agreement, a pact the presidential candidate opposes." (less)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6ZbTM3QvV4
Posted by: JedReport | April 5, 2008 1:43 AM
It shows only one thing - The Clintons should spend the rest of their times doing something most retirees do - to enjoy the last part of their lives, away from the heart-burning politics and avoid those either faithful nor appreciative. But why then allow themselves to be insulted in seeking another public office? Money no enough? It is quite obvious that the motivation is either power and glory or to right the wrongs. Americans can see for themselves that Clintons, especially Hillary does not need the formal. Those who have put some times to research on Hillary will find concurrence in the later - A sense of duty. To put things right and to lead America into another golden age. Americans should allow Hillary a chance to recover from economic disaster and along the way, make another first by putting a woman to the world's most powerful office.
God bless America and Americans help America - Hillary 08.
Posted by: Substance | April 5, 2008 3:10 AM
Hillary supporters shouldn't be saying that "Obama was picking on her, what's he going to pick on her about now?!?!". Screw all that.
The returns are something every candidate releases. Now Hillary (finally) has. After months of prodding. Great. That's that.
The "sniper fire" lie (err... misspeak... multiple time misspeak), that'll stay there tho. Oh, poo.
Posted by: Gene | April 5, 2008 3:23 AM
What type of speech did he give to net 50 million?
The kind that whomever hired him at that price wanted. Didn't "America's Mayor" make the same kind of cash? Maybe he still does? Get off it. You would take the money if someone offered it!
Posted by: lochnessmonster | April 5, 2008 6:53 AM
Back when Bill Clinton's book was out the dollar was worth more. Figure that into your dollar per dollar estimate on who's book is worth more.
Posted by: whatever | April 5, 2008 9:00 AM
Over $20,000 per page?
Some acquaintances have borrowed the books from the libraries. How many people do I know that have bought any of the books? None.
Makes me wonder -- yet I believe that all the $millions reported in book sales actually/verifiably/cleanly came from the sale of the books.
Posted by: chokora | April 5, 2008 2:21 PM
The Clintons donate to the "Clinton's Library" and claim a cool $1.5 million deduction each year. Check their schedule-A and try to find where that money go. Guess what - you can't find it anywhere.
Posted by: dave | April 6, 2008 7:20 AM
The Clintons are well above average in the generosity department? Look a little closer. More than 90% of the Clintons' “charitable” donations went to their family foundation (not the famous Bill Clinton Foundation). This one they run from their home. They’re the officers. And many of the foundations’"gifts" are in key primary states or to pet charities of super delegates!
Posted by: Susie Barney | April 7, 2008 4:37 PM