Quote:
Originally Posted by spence
Big difference between "poor" and "poorest". The point being that he's made out to be the "elite" when in fact compared to his peers he's quite modest in means and has never been super rich. 200K might seem like a lot to you and me, but it's not a ton of money for a sales professional, and we're talking about someone trusted with helping to lead the Legislative branch of our government of 300 million people.
And the 30% figure is a red herring. By this measure alone John McCain stands at 64% votes missed! When you look at "votes cast" Joe Biden is higher than many Senators who have missed less than 10%.
-spence
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Spence, I appreciate your argument, but maybe saying that Biden has "one of the lowest income levels among his peers" would have been a better choice of words. "poorest" is different than "poor", but it's a derivation af the same word and using it to decribe Biden is a little over the top. Not many people are going to feel sorry for a guy making around $200K and who has many more "freebies" and "perks" handed to him than them. Remember that he writes off a lot of things that most people can't. Oh, and don't forget the income derived from his book. I'm sure he got something for that.
And he has a lot more time off than the salepeople you mentioned. Remember, the Senate is not in session all year and he gets paid whether he is there or not. Salespeople who make the big bucks are usually on commission and work long hours with only a few weeks of vacation a year. They only get paid for the sales they make. Don't diminish how hard it is to support a family when you income is directly tied to you being successful in making sales. If they don't sell, they don't get paid.
As for the voting in the Senate, I counted him as having missed the 5th most votes, behind McCain (#1), Obama (#3) and Clinton (#4). I would think that preparing to run for President and campaigning might explain why those 3 may have missed some of their votes. And I actually looked up "votes cast" and Biden only has more than 3 other Senators with less than 10% missed. Unless you want to count Craig Thomas who died last year.
And to your earlier point about him taking the train home to Delaware each day for his family. That is admirable, but he's not the only person to make great sacrifices for his family. A lot of people have suffered through terrible personal tragedies and have had to go on living. Kudos to Biden for doing what should be expected of him, because there are other people out there who wouldn't have done what he did.