So, by now most people have heard or seen Louisiana Congressman John Fleming's appearance on MSNBC when he bared his soul to us all about how hard these poor multi-millionaires have it. With tears obviously about to glisten in his eyes, he confessed that so many of his millions go back into operating all of those businesses he owns, he has a mere $600K left over. From that $600K, after "feeding his family" he has a mere $400K left to scrape by on.
Wait a minute, let's back up a step. So, "feeding his family" takes $200K?
Let's back up another step.....who is in this so-called "family" of his? One might think by the way he is visibly worried about them knowing where their next meal might come from on that $200K reserve that there are several small, big-eyed children waiting at home and shivering in front of the fire for the Congressman to bring home a (albiet expensive) crust of bread to feed them.
Not exactly.....no.
In June of 2007, the Meridian Star did a profile piece on the Congressman(Merdian, Mississippi being the town from whence he hails) regarding his being awarded the 2007 Louisiana Family Doctor of the Year. It's a nice piece about how a small town kid became a pretty well-regarded family doctor, and kudos to him for all that he seems to have accomplished.
At the very bottom of the piece, I did find something interesting that I believe to be relevant to the current story though.
Fleming and his wife, Cindy have been married since 1978. They have four children, ranging in age from 17 to 27.
Okay, let's do the math shall we? If we extrapolate the kids' ages in 2007, then his four children now range in age from approximately 21 to 32. Looks like the family he is struggling to feed are all actually fully grown adults, which one would ostensibly think are perhaps now fully productive, salary-earning, tax paying members of our society rather than the hapless young waifs one might have pictured during his interview as he spoke of them. So, that means he's basically budgeting approximately $200K a year for what? Dinners out with his wife?
I'll certainly grant that the interviewer in question likely wouldn't have known this information, or had reason to since she couldn't possibly have thought he might play the "I have to feed my family on a mere hundreds of thousands of dollars a year" card.
But, wouldn't it have been great if she had?
I'll say this much....if anyone ends up being able to get this guy to interview again, I'd sure love to see them call him out on this "feeding his family" business by pointing out they are actually all adults now.
What's also kind of appalling to me is that a guy who supposedly comes from a small town and seemingly humble means (though I can't confirm that part of it), also seems to have next to no sympathy for the working class any longer. I wonder how well that would go over these days in Meridian, Mississippi.
Here's the MSNBC interview video clip, btw: