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Originally Posted by Sly
Where exactly would Bush "pocket" this money? All of his finances are disclosed. He has to claim the $5k bike somebody just gave him.
One thing a lot of people don't seem to realize about politicians is that when they get into politics they take a huge pay cut. If they worked in the private sector they would make a significant amount of more money, and they can anytime they get out. The Presidents salary of $400k? That's nothing to a man that owns and has stake in many successful companies. They take office because they like power, and believe it or not, they do care about the country and have an idea of what's best for the country.
"Stealing" money here and there just wouldn't be worth it. Now doing favors for others? Yes, every politician returns favors to those that help him/her get into office. That's how people work.
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Of course they don't just take the money directly because they would get caught pretty easily. There was actually a case a little while back where a guy from the house of representatives ( I think he may have been a senator though) sold all of his postal items provided, like stamps and things like that and pocketed the money. It was around $2500, and he got reamed hard for doing it. A couple of typical ways they take money is they have people make donations to their re-elections campaign and to charities they run. They take a salary for running the charity and get some money there, with the re-election campaign, they could buy a lot of stuff and claim it was needed to help them get elected. There are not a lot of rules limiting what they spend that money on.
Mostly though they use the contacts they make in politics to cash in later. Bush actually makes 1million a year. Clinton made 500K, Bush got a raise and whoever is next will get another raise. When he leaves the white house he will get paid a huge chunk of cash to write a book or two and he can really cash in on the lecture circuit. Clinton makes around 100-150K to show up and speak at an event. Other politicians will use these connections for jobs. Dick Cheney is a great example. Before he was Vice President he was Sec Defense under Bush Sr and before that he was a Representative. He took his connections at the pentagon as Sec Defense and parlayed them into a CEO job for Halliburton. They wanted a Washington insider to run the company and he was a perfect fit. I don't know what he made as Sec Defense, but it was nowhere near the 12+million a year he made running Halliburton.