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Yes, Mike Johnson has a Checking Account. [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-11-10
Johnson’s recent launch from obscure congressional backbencher to one of the most powerful people in the country has come with a wave of scrutiny. Reporters are combing through his past and finding weird stuff — his curious arrangement with his son to monitor each others’ digital devices for porn, for instance. One less salacious but perhaps more consequential discovery involves his finances. In his most recent annual financial disclosures, released last year, Johnson (R-La.) reports no assets at all . Zero.
Very suspicious. Does he cash his checks at MoneyMart and spend his $$$ on beer and chicarones from the liquor store? He doesn’t seem broke. But he’s apparently never reported an account or any income at all since 2016. That’s fucking weird.
The guy makes six figures, after all.
maybe he had bank balances so low that they’re below the required reporting threshold — which is $1,000 for any given account, so long as the combined value of all bank accounts (including those of spouses and dependent children) is over $5,000. This would suggest that the speaker was living hand to mouth. That is, whatever money comes in might be going right out the door.
AHA! My beer and chicharones theory is sounding more plausible now, isn’t it?
Luckily people, including Catherine Rampell of EVIL CORPORATE BEZOS MEDIA WASHINGTON POST, are on the story:
Johnson’s office did not respond to questions I sent about his financial disclosures by publication time. Then, early Tuesday morning, Politico reported that his office told its own reporter that Johnson does indeed have a bank account. His account does not pay interest, though, which makes it exempt from House disclosure rules. Holding your family’s entire savings in a non-interest-bearing account is a strange choice for a high-income household, particularly during a period of high inflation. But more important, this arrangement still leaves voters in the dark about Johnson’s financial well-being. Whatever Johnson’s motivation for managing his money this way, the effect is to obscure what his resources actually look like and whether he’s under the kind of financial strain that other parts of his disclosures might suggest.
Damn, there goes my beer and chicharones thesis. So it sounds like Mike found a way to keep his assets a secret, by foregoing interest on money in his account. It’s a strange choice, and I’m guessing whatever shenanigans he’s up to is worth losing out on interest on his account. I’ll leave the last word to Catherine:
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/10/2203941/-Yes-Mike-Johnson-has-a-Checking-Account?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
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