# Bernie Sanders $600,000 House: So What? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 13, 2016, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730 "2016-08-13T23:28:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/61 "2016-08-14T22:48:52Z")
> [@Giraffes\_Can\_t\_Dance](#): > > • Sanders used the same tax deductions that he has so long admonished, and that would no longer exist under his tax plan. > > • Sanders has claimed that the rich fail to pay their fair share, meanwhile he pays less than 14% on an over $200,000 income; giving less than 5% to charity. > > • Sanders pays his staffers less than $13 an hour, as he has publicly lobbied a $15 minimum wage. I agree that these are facts that probably make Sanders look a little hypocritical, but as someone who never supported Bernie or any of his bros, I don’t really have a major problem with it. I fully expect people to pay less in taxes where the opportunity exists. I fully expect a person to invest in property as a way to improve their financial security. If paying someone $13 is what he thinks he can afford, that’s fine. He’s running a campaign. These ideas of his aren’t reality yet and he’s not under an obligation to behave in ways that make him some sort of ideological puritan. Where I do have a problem is when he tried to make Hillary Clinton appear to be somehow unethical for using resources at her disposal that were completely legal. She played her game, just like Bernie played his. He really shouldn’t have claimed that Hillary is a somehow a corporate candidate who sold herself to the devil when it’s clear that someone could look at his and his wife’s behavior and conclude that they are not exactly flag bearers of the working class. In other words, don’t be a sore loser…which we now know he kinda, sorta was. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/62 "2016-08-14T22:54:23Z")
> [@Giraffes\_Can\_t\_Dance](#): > > • There is nothing illegal or uncommon about the tax deductions being used by Bernie Sanders. It is however hypocritical for Sanders to use those same deductions, in which he deems “tricks used by the rich”; especially when he not only admonishes them, but eliminates them from his proposed tax plan. He does not eliminate the mortgage tax deduction from his proposed tax plan. You are wrong. He proposed a cap of $300,000. > [@](#): > > • There’s nothing illegal about Sanders paying less than 15% on more than $200K. It is however hypocritical to admonish the rich for “not paying their fair share”, yet continue to pay a below-average tax rate of his amount of income. One may ask Sanders: “Why aren’t you paying your fair share?” I think taxes on the weathly should be increased. Am I obligated not to take legitimate deductions? > [@](#): > > • Sanders having 3 homes only magnifies his hypocrisies in that he constantly asks: “Why do the rich need X, when there is so much income inequality in the US?” One may ask Sanders: “Why do you need 3 homes?” I’m now unsure if you know the meaning of hypocrisy. I think it’s been covered in this thread that he has one raise debt in Vermont, one in DC, and he has a vacation home. Having three homes doesn’t make someone rich: his net worth is apparently among the lowest in Congress. > [@](#): > > • It’s not illegal for Sanders to only give less than 5% if his income to charity. It does however make one scratch their head as to why he isn’t “giving back”, as he challenges so many to do. Cite for where Sanders urged people to give some amount to charity? > [@](#): > > • There’s no “if this is true” regarding Sanders’ employee payments. He pays them less than $15 an hour. Again, not illegal; but highly hypocritical. I looked up this claim. He pays INTERNS $12. As you know, interns are very often unpaid because they are NOT employees, as determined by the Supreme Court. So, he pays student interns $12 more than he’s allowed to. If he paid actual employees less than $15, I’d agree that this would be embarrassing. But I think paying interns in Washington is pretty exceptional, so I think he’s actually being a role model. I guess you were misinformed about him paying campaign workers less than $15! ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/63 "2016-08-14T22:58:39Z")
And\*\* Giraffes Can’t Dance\*\* regarding your demands for purity before you consider any change. I think even a notable conservative like **Bricker** will tell you that until the law changes points like the one you are spinning like a dervish are mostly a nothing burger. It would be like demanding a conservative to not use a new law to his/her advantage after he or she opposed the new law. Or to put it close to an issue I know it would be like demanding a member of parliament in the England of old to make his own sewage line before voting to create one of the first modern era sewage systems in Europe. Thing is there were some that also launched that accusation and it was silly then because the real hypocrisy would had come if the member of parliament had not paid the taxes than then all had to pay so then things like cholera would become a thing of the past. So it is with an issue of paying $15 dollars an hour, until the law changes this gotcha is weak sauce. But, there is something else: The ones that told you about Sanders paying his employees less than $15 an hour lied to you. Unless the new minimum wage laws are talking about interns, and they are not, an intern is not a regular employee. > **[Bernie Sanders Pays Interns $12 an Hour?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sanders-interns-minimum-wage/)** > > A meme claiming Bernie Sanders paid his interns $12 an hour while campaigning for a $15 per hour minimum wage misses some key points. > [@](#): > > First, the above-displayed meme uses the confusing term “staff interns,” which has led many people to believe that the senator only pays his staff members $12 per hour. This pay rate, however, applies only interns (who in many occupational fields work without compensation or for very low pay in return for gaining valuable experience) filling positions available to college students and recent graduates seeking work in Congress: > > > [@](#): > > > > ``` > > Interns are an integral part of our Senate operation and contribute greatly to the senator's work on behalf of Vermont and the nation. Senate interns have the unique privilege of gaining an insider's perspective on the legislative and representative process. Our Washington and Burlington offices offer paid full- and part-time internships tailored for recent graduates and current students at the undergraduate or graduate level. > > > > ``` > > Second, the national minimum wage does not apply to internships. The Fair Labor Standards Act lists six criteria (such as “the internship experience is for the benefit of the intern”) that private sector companies may meet in order to offer unpaid internships, and Congress has further exempted itself from some of these standards. **According to an article published in the Atlantic, only one third of U.S. senators paid their interns anything at all in 2013.** \* > > It should also be noted that these $12 per hour internships are for positions working as aides to Sanders in the U.S. Senate, not for positions on his 2016 presidential campaign staff. \*This BTW is key to me, like **Ravenman** said, Sanders is actuallly a role model on what to do with interns. The fact that the ones that told you that meme forgot to tell you this demonstrates how unreliable your sources of info are, time to remove a few bookmarks from your browser or defriend some “friends” that do not mind to see you burn in a discussion. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/64 "2016-08-14T23:02:41Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > And\*\* Giraffes Can’t Dance\*\* regarding your demands for purity before you consider any change. I think even a notable conservative like **Bricker** will tell you that until the law changes points like the one you are spinning like a dervish are mostly a nothing burger. It would be like demanding a conservative to not use a new law to his/her advantage after he or she opposed the new law. I oppose the mortgage deduction, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going use it. If it didn’t exist, my house would have cost less than it actually did. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/65 "2016-08-14T23:17:24Z")
Bricker explains that playing by the rules is not hypocrisy. > [@To the liberals who utterly dominate the season-ticket holding ranks for the Wash Nat Opera](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/49): > > I’ve used this story before, but since it seems necessary again. > > When I was young, we had the board game “Monopoly,” as did many of my friends. My friends almost universally played with a “house rule,” in which the money collected from fines, and sometimes even from house and property sales from the bank, went into the center of the board, and was claimed by landing on “free parking.” > > That’s not how we played when my house was the locale. Our “house rule” was the actual Monopoly rulebook, which clearly provided that Free Parking was just a resting spot, and garnered the player no money or other benefits. I would argue, when playing at someone else’s house, that we should follow the actual rules of the game. Often I would be outvoted, and the game would use the money-in-the-middle/Free-parking rule. > > Taking the money, if I then landed on Free Parking, is not hypocrisy. > > Do you understand why, **sylmar**? Hypocrisy is being judgmental about the actions of others, while giving yourself a free pass. There’s nothing hypocritical about advocating laws that are against your economic interest. The applicable word for such behavior is “Commendable”. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffes\_Can\_t\_Dance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Giraffes\_Can\_t\_Dance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffes_Can_t_Dance)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/66 "2016-08-14T23:26:06Z")
You Sanders supporters express the logic equaled only by a pile of dildos. Your hypocrisy is just as stark as your leader’s. Your ignorance is exhausting. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/67 "2016-08-14T23:47:29Z")
> [@Giraffes\_Can\_t\_Dance](#): > > You Sanders supporters express the logic equaled only by a pile of dildos. Your hypocrisy is just as stark as your leader’s. Your ignorance is exhausting. Oh boy, lets talk about logic, do you know the difference between an intern and an employee? Do you know what test the interns under Sanders are failing so as to not be considered interns and therefore subjects to the minimum wage laws? > **[Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/71-flsa-internships)** > > Wage and Hour Division Fact Sheet - U.S. Department of Labor Can you ever notice when a source you used pulled your leg? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/68 "2016-08-15T00:01:22Z")
> [@Giraffes\_Can\_t\_Dance](#): > > You Sanders supporters express the logic equaled only by a pile of dildos. Your hypocrisy is just as stark as your leader’s. Your ignorance is exhausting. Giraffes Can’t Dance, what candidate do you support? We really want to know who this ethically pure candidate is that by comparison you can call Bernie Sanders a hypocrite. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/69 "2016-08-15T00:32:17Z")
> [@Giraffes\_Can\_t\_Dance](#): > > You Sanders supporters express the logic equaled only by a pile of dildos. Your hypocrisy is just as stark as your leader’s. Your ignorance is exhausting. That would be on a par with your understanding of the rules of this forum. This is a Warning to refrain from posting insults against other posters. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/70 "2016-08-15T00:44:22Z")
Not particularly a big supporter of Bernie, though I do like some of his policies. But I’m a big pile of “Who cares?” on this issue. It’s not even a thing. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/71 "2016-08-15T02:47:24Z")
Anyone who has a problem with Sanders being able to afford a moderately priced holiday home is the sort of drooling cretin that thinks that european style democratic socialism is equivalent to Mao style collectivist communism. Or that people in Australia aren’t “free” because you can’t own a gun and we have universal healthcare. In short their opinion can be dismissed entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/72 "2016-08-15T14:07:27Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I’m now unsure if you know the meaning of hypocrisy. I think it’s been covered in this thread that he has one raise debt in Vermont, one in DC, and he has a vacation home. Having three homes doesn’t make someone rich: his net worth is apparently among the lowest in Congress. He might not be rich compared to most members of Congress, but I think that his net worth and owning three homes makes him rich compared to America, and definitely compared to most of his supporters. But that’s not to criticize Sanders, it just shows how much richer Congress is than the average American. I agree with others that it’s commendable that advocates against income inequality when it doesn’t directly affect him and could negatively affect his net worth, but I’m also not terribly surprised that some of his supporters who might have sacrificed to donate just $27 to him are somewhat disillusioned by the news of him buying a $600,000 vacation home. ---
**Author:** ![Zach29](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Zach29](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zach29)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/73 "2016-08-22T02:13:31Z")
You should see Hillary’s house(s). And I can assure you, the cheapest of them costs a lot more than $600,000. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/74 "2016-08-22T02:56:40Z")
> [@Zach29](#): > > You should see Hillary’s house(s). > > And I can assure you, the cheapest of them costs a lot more than $600,000. If people wanted to pay you money to hear you speak, your house would be worth more than $600K. Hell, I was a pretty good programmer/engineer in Silicon Valley, and my house is worth way more than $600K. Deal with it. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730/75 "2016-08-22T03:11:26Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > He might not be rich compared to most members of Congress, but I think that his net worth and owning three homes makes him rich compared to America, and definitely compared to most of his supporters. But that’s not to criticize Sanders, it just shows how much richer Congress is than the average American. I agree with others that it’s commendable that advocates against income inequality when it doesn’t directly affect him and could negatively affect his net worth, but I’m also not terribly surprised that some of his supporters who might have sacrificed to donate just $27 to him are somewhat disillusioned by the news of him buying a $600,000 vacation home. If he used their donations to buy the home, they’d have every right to be upset. I’m sure he didn’t. One problem with the US, perhaps part of the anti-government slant, is that people who think CEOs getting a million bucks for destroying stockholder value think there is something wrong with high level government officials, with tons of responsibility, making more than they do. If Senators tend rich it is because our crazy electoral system almost demands it. $200K a year is chickenfeed given their responsibilities. One of my good friends was treasurer of an entire major state. His lifestyle was the same as mine - very middle class. When he got lucky and his party lost, he got a job with much less stress that paid a lot more. And if he’d been a CFO of a company with a balance sheet as big as the state, he’d be in a mansion not a nice suburban house on a nice suburban street. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-600-000-house-so-what/762730.md?page=3)