Road to White House Paved in Gold

Obama's Chicago compats are mostly millionaires

Newly released financial disclosures from President Obama's White House staff indicate that most of the president's imported advisors from Chicago are millionaires. The disclosures are mandatory and were released over the weekend.

In a review in the Chicago Tribune, which focused on Chicagoans serving in senior White House jobs, it's shown that Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett all claimed assets valued at a million dollars or more at the end of 2008.

White House chief of staff Emanuel is at the top of the heap, with a reported 2008 investment income of at least $168,107 on a portfolio worth between $4.5 million and $11 million.

The Tribune points out that many of Obama's advisors came to Washington from the private sector, with big-city salaries that are above those found elsewhere in the country.  The report doesn't question the legitimacy of the money earned, indicating that each of the profiled advisors had successful careers, many of which were left behind in order to serve the president.

The Thursday report outlines the wealth of many of the president's closest aides and says that Obama's wealth skyrocketed in the past decade with a series of book deals and his election as state Senator.

Members of the Obama administration tend to be a more moderate crowd, the paper said, comprised of "former senators, governors and others who spent much of their careers working in the lower-paying public sector."

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