A Cautionary Tale

The only reason we might have been surprised at this


is because we never learned things like this.

A close examination of their finances shows that the Obamas were living off lines of credit along with other income for several years until 2005, when Obama's book royalties came through and Michelle received her 260% pay raise at the University of Chicago ...

In April 1999, they purchased a Chicago condo and obtained a mortgage for $159,250. In May 1999, they took out a line of credit for $20,750. Then, in 2002, they refinanced the condo with a $210,000 mortgage, which means they took out about $50,000 in equity. Finally, in 2004, they took out another line of credit for $100,000 on top of the mortgage.

Tax returns for 2004 reveal $14,395 in mortgage deductions. If we assume an effective interest rate of 6%, then they owed about $240,000 on a home they purchased for about $159,250.

This means they spent perhaps $80,000 beyond their income from 1999 to 2004 ...

The Obama family apparently had little or no savings during this period since there was virtually no taxable interest shown on their tax returns.

Of course, there was always the data point from Obama's stint running the Annenberg Foundation Challenge where he and William Ayers blew something like $150M on useless education projects in Chicago.

If only we'd known. Maybe next time it would be helpful to have a free press, one that actually tries to examine both candidates. Otherwise, we could end up right back here.