Republican Congressman (and doctor) John Fleming (R-LA) says that even though he is a multi-millionaire who made $6.3 million last year, after he pays his employees, taxes, buys clothes, and feeds his family, he only has $400,000 left in net profit to put in the bank.
Alex Seitz-Wald at Think Progress reports:
Taking up the typical GOP talking point, Fleming said raising taxes on wealthy “job creatorsâ€Â is a terrible idea that kills jobs because many of these people are small business owners who pay taxes through personal income rates.
Fleming is himself a businesses owner, so Jansing asked, “If you have to pay more in taxes, you would get rid of some of those employees?†Fleming responded by saying that while his businesses made $6.3 million last year, after you “pay 500 employees, you pay rent, you pay equipment, and food,†his profits “a mere fraction of that†— “by the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over.â€
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Considering that he has $400,000 “left over,†it seems that Fleming could actually afford to hire workers and still bring home a respectable pay. The average household income in the U.S. in 2010 was just under $50,000 — down 2.3 percent from 2009 and lower than it was in 1997.
And how hard does the congressman work to make the equivalent of eight median household incomes? Fleming told the Wall Street Journal that “he spends very little time on day-to-day management, though he weighs in on broad strategy decisions.†“I monitor the reports. I’m certainly in communication with the managers,†he told the paper.
People like  John Fleming are killing America.
Someone should remind the Congressman that he wasn’t elected to worry about paying his family, to worry about those who cannot.
Here’s Fleming’s bio via Wikipedia:
Fleming defeatedDemocratic nominee Paul Carmouche in the 2008 election by a margin of only 356 votes.
He is a second cousin five times removed to Henry Clay of Kentucky, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. senator, and secretary of state. Fleming is a direct descendant (4th great grandson) to Lt. Abia Clay (1747–1791), a regular in the American Continental Army and ninth great grandson to John Clay born 1587 in Wales who immigrated to America and settled in the original Jamestowne, VA settlement. A soldier in the British Army, John Clay gained the rank of Captain by the age of 21 and was sent to Virginia to control problems that were developing. Clay was placed in charge of the fifty Muskateers aboard Captain Samuel Argall’s ship, the Treasurer, which was sent to protect the settlers at Jamestown. John Clay eventually became sympathetic to the cause of the settlers and resigned his military post. All three ancestral ties are derived through Fleming’s maternal grandmother, Mary Pauline CLAY Giles. Fleming is a member of Sons of the American Revolution and Jamestowne Society.
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[In the 2008 election] Fleming supported the FairTax, which would replace the income tax with a sales tax rate, as defined in the legislation, of 23 percent of the total payment, equivalent to a 30 percent traditional U.S. sales tax ($23 on top of every $77 spent before taxes.)