“Meet Bernie Sanders” Column Covers Candidate’s Past-Truth! & Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
An editorial headlined “Bernie Sanders, The Bum Who Wants Your Money” that paints a dismal picture of the Vermont senator’s past has gone viral.
The Truth:
The Bernie Sanders editorial was published by Investors Business Daily, which offers a step-by-step strategy “anyone can use” to achieve financial freedom, on January 26. The editorial paints Bernie Sanders as “an angry radical agitator who never accomplished much of anything.”
We’re not going to weigh in on whether or not that sweeping claim is true, but the editorial does make a number of specific claims about Bernie Sanders that we can fact-check to help you form your own opinion.
Sanders collected his first paycheck in his late 30s-Fiction!
Bernie Sanders didn’t have a stable career after graduating from the University of Chicago in the early 60s, but he worked a variety of jobs (and collected paychecks) throughout the 60s and 70s. He was elected the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in 1981.
Before that, Politco reports that Sanders worked as an aid at a psychiatric hospital, as a pre-school teacher for Head Start, as a property tax researcher for the Vermont Department of Taxes, and for a non-profit called the Bread and Law Task Force.
Aside from a municipal pension, Sanders has no assets-Mostly Fiction!
It’s true that Bernie Sanders listed only a municipal pension under his name on a financial disclosure form, but that doesn’t account for all of his assets.
Bloomberg Media explains that assets like real estate, cars and federal retirement plans are not included on presidential financial disclosure forms. Candidates also give their financial holdings in broad ranges, which “offers a window into a candidate’s financial holdings, but the window is not crystal clear.”
For example, Sanders and his wife, Jane, listed between $194,026 and $750,030 in financial assists (all in Jane’s name). The only asset listed under Sanders’ name was a municipal pension, but gain, that doesn’t mean it’s his only asset.
For starters, he owns multiple properties. A campaign spokesperson has disclosed that Sanders owns two homes, one in Vermont and one in Washington. In his 2012 Senate personal financial disclosures, Sanders reported having a rental property in Burlington valued at up to $250,000 that generates up to $15,000 in annual income.
So, it’s true that Sanders’ assets are minimal compared to other presidential candidates — but it’s not true that a municipal pension is his only asset.
Sanders has $65,000 in credit card debt-Mostly Truth!
Bernie Sanders disclosed between $25,002 and $65,000 in credit card debt in on financial disclosure forms filed in mid-2015. A campaign spokesperson said that the senator’s debt “rises and falls” with expenses like weddings for his daughter and niece that were held in 2015. The spokesperson said before that, Sanders’ credit card debt was zero.