Biden benefited from Senatorial perks

For the millions of voters getting to know him, Senator Joseph R Biden Jr, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate...

For the millions of voters getting to know him, Senator Joseph R Biden Jr, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, portrays himself at times as an average guy who takes the train to work, frets about money and basically has led a middle-class life.

8220;Ladies and gentlemen, your kitchen table is like mine,8221; Biden said when Barack Obama introduced him as his running mate. 8220;You sit there at night after you put the kids to bed and you talk8230; You talk about how much you are worried about being able to pay the bills.8221;

Biden certainly can trace his roots to the working class neighborhoods of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, where he was raised. But these days, his kitchen table can be found in a 6,800-square-foot custom-built colonial-style house on four lakefront acres, a property worth close to 3 million.

Although he is among the least wealthy members of the millionaires club that is the US Senate 8212; he and his wife, Jill, a college professor, earn about 250,000 a year 8212; Biden maintains a lifestyle that is more comfortable than the impression he may have given. A review of his finances found that when it comes to some of his largest expenses, he has benefited from resources not available to average Americans.

Biden has been able to dip into his campaign treasury to spend thousands on landscaping for his home and some of his Amtrak travel between Delaware and Washington. And the acquisition of his waterfront property a decade ago involved wealthy businessmen and campaign supporters, who bought his old house for top dollar, sold him four acres and lent him 500,000 to build his new home.

There is nothing to suggest Biden bent any rules. 8220;He was a VIP, so he was treated accordingly by the bank,8221; said Ronald Tennant, a former loan officer who handled the mortgages. The senator, said David Wade, his spokesman, 8220;has never forgotten where he came from, or how he grew up, and those middle class values motivate his work for the middle class.