Vice President Joe Biden provided his answer to Hillary Clinton's recent ham-fisted attempts to portray herself as someone who can relate to the financial struggles of average Americans, saying Monday that though he makes good money as Vice President of the United States, he’s still the poorest man in Congress, and asking his audience, “Don’t hold it against me that I have no savings account and I don’t own a single stock or bond...”
Biden made the remarks at the White House “Working Families Summit,” arguing that corporate America could do more to help working families, at some points drawing from his own personal experience. The most noteworthy moment was when he touted his own relative penury in comparison to other politicians. Here’s the transcript:
You know, you’re going to get to discuss all of these things today and more, but if you excuse, as we used to say in the Senate, a point of personal privilege, I can speak a little bit from my own experience.
Now the first thing you’re going to say is, “Look at Biden, man, he’s got a mildly expensive suit on... He’s Vice President of the United States of America. He makes -- notwithstanding he’s listed as the poorest man in Congress -- he still makes a lot of money as Vice President of the United States.”
And I do by the way, I do. Don’t hold it against me that I don’t own a single stock or bond... that I have no savings account. But I got a great pension and I got a good salary.
Biden was officially the poorest man in the Senate when he first ran with Obama in 2008. According to USA Today, in this year’s White House financial disclosure, however, Biden listed assets valued at $276,000 to $940,000.
As for his claim about not having a savings account, as TIME’s Zeke Miller points out, that’s not true; though it currently contains less than $15,000.
Hillary Clinton, whose recent comments on wealth have been blasted by critics on both sides of the aisle, has a reported net worth of upwards of $50 million, while President Obama listed assets from $2 to $7 million this year.
