Sanders, who is anti-rich, was a millionaire
US Senator Bernie Sanders was a millionaire himself for a few years like the “millionaires and billionaires” he often railed against to drive his renegade campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, first in 2016 and now for a second shot at it in 2020.
Tax returns released by him on Monday showed a gross adjusted family income — jointly with wife Jane Sanders — of $1.14 million in 2017 and $1.06 million in 2016, jumping up sharply from $240,610 in 2015, the year before his first run for the presidential ticket. The family income dropped to $561,293 in 2018. The Sanders campaign attributed the 2016 spike to earnings from his book Our Revolution: A Future To Believe In, which, it said was translated into five languages and published in multiple countries, along with a version for the young titled Where We go From Here.
Sanders felt compelled to explain the turn in his fortunes. “These tax returns show that our family has been fortunate,” he said in a statement released by his campaign along with his tax returns. “I am very grateful for that, as I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck and I know the stress of economic insecurity.” The campaign also made clear the senator paid taxes at rates commensurate with his income — 35% and 30% in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Sanders and his campaign have faced some push-back from liberals about his rising income, putting him in the super-rich category in contrast with his frequent rants against the rich as he sought to align himself with working people and the middle class.
“It’s all very off-brand and embarrassing, but Sen. Bernie Sanders is a millionaire,” noted a report in liberal news blog Thinkprogress which was founded by Faiz Shakir, who now heads Sanders’s campaign. It noted that since becoming a millionaire, he dropped the word “millionaires” from his rants and focussed on “billionaires” or “multi-millionaires”.
Sanders complained to the parent body of Thinkprogress, Center for American Progress, that the report was “counterproductive” and called it a personal attack and a “bad-faith” smear. Democrats are releasing their tax returns to add to mounting pressure on President Donald Trump to release his own.