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This answer may contain sensitive images. Click on an image to unblur it.The easy answer is that he spent more than he earned. What he spent it on and how much he spent tells you about the man, some of his motivations and desires.(Michael Jackson portrait by artist Guy Peellaert for the book Rock Dreams.)He made a total of $175 million on Thriller. At the height of his fame in 1988, he earned $125 million. His lawyer John Branca negotiated for him to buy the Beatles catalog for $48 million. It generated $11–$18 million a year life time income. His living expenses were three times that much. Michael bought Neverland for around $19 million. He put in excess of $55 million, building the amusement park, zoo, movie theater. He peppered the grounds with millions of dollars worth of commissioned bronze statues. It cost a minimum of $5 million a year to maintain. It had a salaried full time staff, up to 150 people. The interior was littered with literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of marble statues, gold candelabras, gilded pianos, antique toys, mannequins, commissioned portraits, arcade games and grandiose clutter.He was never poor . He died asset rich with debt and cash flow problems, but not poor. His family was considered working class in Gary, In. Michael was living in Hollywood and receiving $25,000 a month royalty checks by age 10.Michael had several estates besides Neverland, the Jackson family compound Hayvenhurst worth $4.2 million, a luxury condo in a gated millionaire enclave in CA, a three story condo in Encino CA, a mansion in Hollywood Hills, CA.He had an extensive art collection insured for $600 million, and antiques collections.In 1990 Michael signed a $50 million contract with Sony.He flew in private chartered luxury planes that were tricked out like palaces in the sky at an average cost of $198,000. per ride.His possessions fill 9 warehouses in Los Angeles and it cost $1,485,000.00 a year to store and keep an archivist.Michael spent months at a time in the most luxurious hotels in the world. He would rent an entire floor (or two) of suites for $9,000. -$17,000. per suite per night. To put that in perspective that’s a $63,000- $119,000 per week hotel bill.Michael actually held the record for highest rent paid in NYC after he rented an upper east side townhouse for $75,000. a month while working on The Wiz. This is in the late 1970's when the average rent was $105.00 a month.Between 1998–2000 Michael borrowed $200 million from Bank Of America to cover lifestyle expenses. He used his Sony/ATV ( Beatles) catalog as collateral.Michael borrowed $25 million at high interest for living expenses, using his own company MiJac as collateral . The interest totaled $67 million.(Inside Michael’s favorite limo, a 24k gold clad 1999 Rolls Royce Silver Seraph.)Michael was a profligate spender. Example: he bought 3 bottles of a perfume called Gianni Vive Sulman Parfum VI at a cost of $89,000.00 PER BOTTLE. He paid $1.5 million for the Gone With The Wind Academy Award statue, $659,000 for a ferris wheel, $978,000 for a custom made carousel, a $2 million Vacheron King kulla diamond watch.He had 75 cars registered in his name. He commissioned a $1 million replica of a 1909 Detamble Model B Roadster. He owned at least 6 Rolls Royces. His favorite Rolls Royce was a 1988 $350,000 Phantom which is now in a storage warehouse in Los Angeles. He owned a 1997 Neoplan bus with an 18K gold bathroom and hand embroidered crown on the plush carpet. Price $2.7 million. A 1999 Silver Seraph Rolls Royce Limo clad in 24K gold, antiques ,cut crystal, bar, video game consoles. In 2001 when he was living on loans he bought a $98,000 Bentley Arnage.He earned $125 million on the Bad tour. After tour expenses and taxes etc , his profit / income was $40 million. Pepsi paid $15 million worth of tour expenses.Court documents filed in LA superior court Sept 1999 for his divorce from Debbie Rowe show his financial disclosure for BASIC cost of living at Neverland ( excluding other residences, dependents and non essential personal expenses) the time averaged an astonishing $2,339,300 PER MONTH (yes you read that right, two million, three hundred thirty nine thousand and 300 dollars A MONTH).The breakdown follows:$95,700 a month on gardening (Neverland)Security, 52,900 per month.Upkeep on zoo and Amusement park, $66,200 per month.Housekeeping and PR expenses $60,000 per month.Legal fees $178,100 per month.$120,000 personal and property insurance per month.$25,600 monthly medical needs.$42,000 gifts.$85,500 monthly transportation.$475,300 monthly costs for MJJ productions, Optimum productions.(Gold sequined duvet costing $50,000. Sits beneath a $500,000 commissioned portrait of Michael in the last supper with Elvis, Walt Disney, Abe Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison as apostles.)Michael paid $63 million to make the short film Ghost.Michael owned and paid expenses for the Jackson family compound in Encino, CA since the 1980’s, where his mother lived. He initially bought the mansion from his father for $2 million after Joe purchased it in 1971. Michael had it bulldozed to the ground and an even BIGGER mansion completely rebuilt to his taste as the new Jackson family compound, with a Snow White Diorama, candy store, ponds, swimming pool, water park, statuary, fountains, recording studio, mini zoo. The SECOND mortgage went into arrears around 2006(Jackson family home, Encino, CA.)Divorce settlement to Debbie Rowe, $10 million lump sum plus a $2 million house (Washington post 2005).10 Carat diamond and platinum custom Engagement ring for Lisa Marie Presley, 470,000.He paid Disneyland Paris $2 million per day to close down so he could have it to himself.You get the idea right?Michael's earning potential dwindled after the 1993 child molestation allegation. Product endorsements disappeared. His clothing line cancelled. Record sales never did as well as off the Wall, Thriller or Bad.He had not been on tour since 1997. His tours were wildly expensive and enormous productions. Besides the usual tour expenses an artist is responsible for there were millions of dollars in special effects and personal luxuries, which the producers would not approve but Michael wanted, coming out of his pocket. He could only perform three times a week due to the exertion but paid dancers $550,000 a week out of his pocket for their full time employement.In the nineties legal and personal troubles caused him to become deeply distrustful of everyone. He disbanded his original business team and advisors, most of whom were advising him well, and replaced them with a rotating carousel of sycophants, yes men, enablers, parasites, questionable characters. He also blamed everyone from longtime trusted manager Frank DeLeo to Quincy Jones for Bad not outselling Thriller and fired them all.His expenditures remained as outlandish as ever but there was now no one to execute lucrative ideas or see profitable, or even charitable, projects to completion. He overspent, even for a multimillionare and there was no one to tell him no. Anyone who tried was promptly gotten rid of. He began to rely heavily on high interest loans and advances to fund his lifestyle.Many of these new advisers were kept incommunicado with each other or actually competing with each other, which resulted in contradictory advice. They knew they were considered disposable and there was no loyalty on either side. There was only greed on their part and favoritism on Michael's part, which creates unfavorable outcomes.His income was enormous and stable and had not dipped below $13 million a year since 1979. Lawsuits were expensive, but not as draining as his lifestyle.His finances were collapsing due to chaotic handling and whimsical overspending.Sales of INVINCIBLE were "disappointing" in 2001 and despite the SONY /Tommy Motolla / Michael Jackson blame fest, claims to have sold 10 million albums. His earnings that year were $34 million but that money, taken as advances and loans, had already been spent on his lifestyle before it was in his hands.Sony spent $40 million on producing and marketing Invincible in a time when the average cost for making an album was $ 1 million. Jackson claimed racism when Sony would spend no more .He borrowed millions using his half of the ATV catalogue as collateral, putting himself in conflict with his SONY ATV business partner. The 22% interest on that debt was unaffordable even for Jackson but he believed Invincible would be a mega hit and he would recoup.Michael lived in an abundant amount of luxury even for a multimillionaire. One of his homes in Las Vegas had, among other amenities, a full size medieval chapel. He wore custom made sterling silver boots to a white house visit. His bed quilt was covered in hand sewn gold sequins and cost $50,000. He spent $700,000 on 4 Sworovski dining room chairs. He paid close to $10 million for a 17th century oak floor from a French Chateau to be brought to Neverland. The grandiose clutter was astounding.(Private Chapel in Vegas home.)Michael earned $16 million making Captain Eo. He spent it on a Rolls Royce, Mercedes Benz, hotel suites, toys.In 1994, despite earning well over $118 million Michael arranged a $300 million pay out from SONY in exchange for a percentage of the Beatles catalogue (known as the Sony /Atv merger), to pay debts and fund his lifestyle. Michael sold a piece of his most valuable asset to a corporate entity he was antagonistic to, and in future would accuse of trying to kill him . Michael became a part of the SONY music publishing division but SONY NOW OWNED A PIECE OF THE CATALOG and this merger became a constant issue full of paranoia, accusations, lawsuits.Michael, along with a consortium of investors, bought a 50% share of EMI MUSIC publishing catalog. His cost is unknown however his estate just sold it to SONY for $358 million. Some of the catalog songs were Michael’s own.The Dangerous tour and album earned Michael close to $100 million. The tour was cut short due to Michael’s opioid addiction. Liz Taylor, dripping in diamonds and with cameras rolling, took Michael to London where she handed him off to Elton John, who was the person who REALLY took him to rehab. Michael stayed one week at the $27,000 per day facility before he called his manager to check him out. Thus began, by not completing rehab, drug problems on and off for the remainder of his life.The tour production company sued him for breach of contract (because he did not finish the Dangerous tour). Undisclosed multimillions. After paying his usual zillions in tour and personal expenses, lawyers, settlement, taxes, and his own salary, he donated the remaining to charity.Interestingly, it went to his own charity organization Heal The World. Michael technically “donated tour profits to charity” according to his management . He then sold the broadcast rights to his Dangerous tour to HBO for $24 million recouping his donation to Heal The WorldMichael grossed $60 million on the History tour, before taxes, expenses, salaries and AGAIN technically “donated tour profits” . It was incorrectly broadcast by media as the entire $60 million. But why correct that mistake if it makes you look Good ?He donated his $1.2 million Superbowl earnings to charity then sold the superbowl performance footage to a Network media company , recouping some of the donation.He donated $5 million from the Victory tour to charity. Each of the brothers,including Michael, earned $6 million apiece for the tour.Michael donated a settlement from Pepsi for $1.5 million to a Los Angeles hospital.He Did NOT donate the entire $70 million We are the World profits to charity. He paid (millions in) production costs out of the anticipated profits, then donated a percentage of HIS royalties, which were shared with Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie.His Heal the World foundation, which existed for 4 years, donated and recruited donations to 39 childrens charities before it dissolved in administrative chaos. Michael insisted on being CEO, but had no experience as a nonprofit foundation executive. The millions it had cost to set up and run the corp were wasted.He DID give millions to charity but his Guinness record is “giving to the most charities” (39) . That makes him a generous, philanthropic-minded person who donated millions, but the myth of MJ personally donating $300 - $500 million of his own money does not add up.It's a myth that the Chandler settlement cost him $23 million. His insurance company Lloyds of London paid the settlement.He borrowed heavily against Neverland beginning in the nineties, partly to pay the expenses for living at Neverland.(Michael in his closet with lots of stuff.)After a second child molestation charge in 2003 and subsequent multimillion dollar trial, that was one of the costliest trials in California history, he stopped paying many expenses including on Neverland.In 2005 MJ abandoned it, millions of dollars in contents, the zoo animals, the amusement park. His income that year according to Forbes magazine was $23 million.He moved to Bahrain, bought a $1.2 million mansion, lived in it less than 10 months, then abandoned it. He was sued by a member of the Bahrain royal family for breach of contract. $5 million. More lawsuits began from unpaid employees, breach of contract suits, business partners, psychos, and users.In 2008 a Beverly Hills pharmacist, Mickey Fine, filed a lien against Jackson for not paying his prescription bills, a total of $101,926.66 .A $2.4 million settlement was made to a former maid who sued Michael for molesting her son. I’m NOT claiming he did it, I am stating he was sued and settled.Obviously by the late nineties, early 2000’s the downward spiral was picking up speed.(A few of the antiques and commissioned portraits from Neverland.)Neverland was going into foreclosure by April 2008, but that action was stopped by an agreement with an investment bank, Colony Capital. Colony was willing to take over the costs, while allowing Michael to keep 87% percentage of ownership. Michael had to sign over the deed to Neverland. Don't feel too bad. If your house was in foreclosure, no bank would offer that deal to you.Colony Capital paid off the foreclosing bank for $23 million. Michael had bought Neverland in cash but had borrowed over $23 million second mortgaging it. He defaulted on those second mortgages.Michael THEN sold Colony Capitol another unknown percentage for $35 million according to the Santa Barbara County assessment office.His continued ownership dwindled as he had borrowed against his 87%. The property was renamed Sycamore Valley Ranch, its original name.MJ and Colony were betting on Neverland selling for over $100 million, making money for all. It did not. The price was reduced to $67 million, then to $31 million.Immediately after the Colony deal was struck and Neverland was no longer in foreclosure, Jackson as a percentage owner would not agree to sell but have it sit there abandoned and bleeding money as a shrine to himself. It was only listed for sale after his death.By 2005, Jackson had his monthly living expenses to pay PLUS was he making MONTHLY payments of about $4.5 million on a debt of $270 million .Lets talk about Michael’s spending style despite that $270 million debt. In the 2005 child molestation trial, Michael wore a different handmade suit every day to keep his spirits up and encourage fans. Each hand-crafted suit by Michael Bush cost an average $10,000 - $17,000 per suit, plus an (undisclosed) salary, for working round the clock. The trial lasted 14 weeks which is approximately $750,000 - $ 875,000 worth of suits.It was spare change compared to the millions in lawyer fees, security, media damage control experts, medical needs, and transportation. Use your imagination, do the math.(Michael had a collection of jeweled crowns, jeweled military medallions, thrones, insignia)Michael paid for his 30th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in NYC. Ticket prices for "chair" seats were $5,000-$10,000 and the remaining venue seats sold out for two nights. Michael paid (millions in) production costs with advances against ticket sales. There was $275,000 for personal security, $1 million payment for Marlon Brando to appear , a $250,000 necklace as payment to Elizabeth Taylor, he paid his brothers to perform, unknown millions to Britney Spears, producer David Gest, other performers and " gifts" to friends and guests. Madison Square Garden always takes a percentage.Michael was in a very active phase of his Demerol addiction at the time, and it showed. He “overslept “ in his $12,000-a-night Plaza Ritz penthouse suite and was 2 hours late to his opening. He earned $15 million for the 2 concerts but most was spent before he hit the stage.(MJ and Taylor on the red carpet for 30th anniversary concert, high on Demerol, fly open and no one says anything. Wow, what great friends!)He bought Elizabeth Taylor a $362,000 diamond-encrusted Vacheron watch , $320,000 diamond ballerina ring, $600,000 necklace as a thank you for rebutting the Martin Bashir documentary, $194,000 diamond bracelet, Van Cleef & Arpels $87,000 diamond heart, $200,000 Massoni “monkey” necklace and earring suite, along with MILLIONS more in jewelry during their friendship.Michael paid $1.5 million to host her last wedding at Neverland. That’s a lot of wedding cake.(One of many gifts to Elizabeth Taylor, 22 ct diamond, sapphire, platinum ring. $700,000.)Michael liked to shop. He filled his world with stuff.There is the infamous scene in the Martin Bashir documentary, Living with Michael Jackson, where Michael spends over a half million dollars purchasing the ugliest antiques ever in a Las Vegas mall, in 10 minutes. This was not a performance for the film, this was a very frequent feature of Michael’s life and representative of his spending, which was unflagging until the end.Jackson's yearly expenditures remained triple the income, no matter how many millions a year that income was.He had spent the $1.2 BILLION he earned in his adult solo career.(Michael's last estate on N. Carolwood Dr. in Holmby Hills, CA when he was considered "penniless" and “ forced “ into a deal with AEG to perform 50 shows. Rent, $100,000 a month )When he negotiated with AEG LIVE to do a series of 50 concerts, it’s true the schedule was unreasonable, but AEG expected him to work hard for his projected multimillions, even if he was 50 years old. AEG had already spent about $40 million on production, Michael’s expenses and cash advances to Michael.Michael was desperate for the money that HE BELIEVED 50 shows, a projected world tour, product endorsements, merchandise, would generate. Initial ticket sales totaled $85 million. He was now $500 million in debt.Most associated with “This Is It” believed he might be able to do two weeks of shows but the rest would never happen. By then Michael had well-known drug problems, was mentally and physically unstable, and had not been onstage in almost in 10 years.He had been asked to leave at least 4 luxury hotels that year when his credit cards were declined (according to body guards).UNBELIEVABLY, Michael had begun spending his anticipated “This Is It” earnings, ADVANCED TO HIM BY AEG, even as he struggled in rehearsals, was being administered propofol and benzodiazepines at night, and was seeing Dr. Arnold Klein again for a cocktail of opioids, benzos, and cosmetic work.Around the time of his death Michael was paying, with money advanced by AEG, Dr Conrad Murray a salary of $150,000 a month and $40K a month to Dr Arnold Klein for Botox, Demerol, Restylene and Midazolam (a surgical sedation benzodiazepine).He was also paying $180,000 a month on security and transportation. $100,000 a month rent on his Carolwood Drive mansion, while preparing to move to a rented English castle outside London.(Above, Michael's future home, a castle outside London.)The excess continued for upcoming London despite the debt and money being advanced from AEG (thereby accruing even more debt).Items later auctioned off at Julien’s Auctions reflect a particularly sad shopping spree at this time . A Cadillac Escalade van, a $400,000 gold desk, $700,000 red velvet couch etc., etc., etc….etc….The continued grandiose excess is mind boggling considering the stress it had caused him and his children.(Part of spending spree for London home. Ebony and gold antique desk.)It has been estimated by those who knew him that this trend of living a life far exceeding income would have continued had he lived.On his trajectory of spending profits taken as advances and loans while not cutting his lifestyle costs, he would have found himself financially back at square one after “This Is It.”For this reason, it is speculated Jackson had no true intention of completing his tour obligations despite rehearsing. He was in poor health and of questionably sound mind. He was getting old. His financial investments and tangible assets could have afforded him a comfortable life away from his debts, performing, prying eyes, the chaos his life had become, and the despoilment of his legacy.Michael Jackson’s $1.1 million private family funeral costs was paid by Jackson’s estate and a $50,000 loan from Janet Jackson.A few of the expenses were:($35,000 burial outfit custom made of pearls and beads by Thompkins and Bush.)$15,000 Tompkins and Bush design fee.$590,000 Internment at forest Lawn Mausoleum.Endowment care at forest lawn $88,500.Promethius gold-plated casket $25,000.Flowers $16,000.Invites and programs $11,760.Security $175,000.Clothing for Jackson children $15,000Post funeral private family reception :•bar tab $10,800•Dinner $24,500•tray food $4,200And saddest of all, framed photo of Michael - $4,300.RIP Michael. We miss you.Sources:Katherine Jackson v AEG LIVE court transcripts, financial disclosures, medical records.Conrad Murray murder trial,court transcripts.Forbes Magazine, Michael Jackson yearly career earnings 1979-2009.Michael Jackson Inc, book, Zack O’Malley Greenburg, Simon and Schuster publishing.Rolling Stone magazine, monetization of music.Julians Auctions, catalogs, Michael Jackson home contents, memorabilia with known original purchase prices.Public records. Financial disclosure statement filed with LA COUNTY superior court, Jackson v Rowe.Buying The Beatles: Inside Michael Jackson's Best Business BetPublic records. Sycamore Valley ranch sale William Bone to Jackson.Interviews: John Braca, Jackson lawyer, Frank DeLeo, Jackson manager.Sony/Atv music publisher, "Beatles" catalogue aquisition, sale, income.Interview: Elizabeth Taylor discussing Jackson jewelry gifts and Christies Elizabeth Taylor jewelry auction with original purchase prices and designers.NY Times real estate, sale of Michael Jackson's former townhouse.

If by “legislative accomplishments” you mean “Has he authored a lot of bills that have been voted into law?” not very much. He’s not really a grand-stander. (NOTE: I’ve gotten some blow-back on this assertion because he ran for President (nearly won too). Nonetheless, I stand by my characterization.)His biggest accomplishments have been the hundreds of amendments he has gotten passed attached to bills introduced by other members of Congress (of both parties) that have improved those bills or made them less harmful to American’s freedoms.Bernie’s accomplishments(The actions I consider to be “legislative accomplishments” are shown in bold face type.)Elected by the state of Vermont 8 times to serve in the House of Representatives.The longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history.Is by far the member of Congress best regarded by his constituents.He was dubbed the “amendment king” in the House of Representatives for passing more amendments than any other member of Congress.Ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee.Former student organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).Led the first ever civil rights sit-in in Chicago history to protest segregated housing.In 1963, Bernie Sanders participated in MLK’s Civil Rights March. One of only 2 sitting US Senators to have heard MLK’s “I have a Dream Speech” in person in the march on Washington, DC.Former professor of political science at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and at Hamilton College.Former mayor of Burlington, VT. In a stunning upset in 1981, Sanders won the mayoral race in Burlington, Vermont’s largest city. He shocked the city’s political establishment by defeating a six-term, local machine mayor. Burlington is now reported to be one of the most livable cities in the nation.Co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus and chaired the group for its first 8 years.(BTW the CPC has for each of the last 7 budget years authored and published a Federal Budget proposal that would have created more jobs and reduced the National Debt significantly faster than the proposals of either political party or the Executive Branch. ‘The People’s Budget’: Analysis of the Congressional Progressive Caucus budget for fiscal year 2018)Both the NAACP and the NHLA (National Hispanic Leadership Agenda) have given Sanders 100% voting scores during his tenure in the Senate. Earns a D- from the NRA.1984: Mayor Sanders established the Burlington Community Land Trust, the first municipal housing land-trust in the country for affordable housing. The project becomes a model emulated throughout the world. It later wins an award from Jack Kemp-led HUD.1991: one of a handful in Congress to vote against authorizing US military force in Iraq. “I have a real fear that the region is not going to be more peaceful or more stable after the war,” he said at the time.1992: Congress passes Sanders’ first signed piece of legislation to create the National Program of Cancer Registries. A Reader’s Digest article calls the law “the cancer weapon America needs most.” All 50 states now run registries to help cancer researchers gain important insights.November 1993: Sanders votes against the Clinton-era North American Free Trade Agreement. Returning from a tour of factories in Mexico, Sanders says: “If NAFTA passes, corporate profits will soar because it will be even easier than now for American companies to flee to Mexico and hire workers there for starvation wages.”July 1996: Sanders is one of only 67 (out of 435, 15%) votes against the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal benefits to same-sex couples legally married. Sanders urged the Supreme Court to throw out the law, which it did in a landmark 2013 ruling – some 17 years later.July 1999: Standing up against the major pharmaceutical companies, Sanders becomes the first member of Congress to personally take seniors across the border to Canada to buy lower-cost prescription drugs. The congressman continues his bus trips to Canada with a group of breast cancer patients the following April. These brave women are able to purchase their medications in Canada for almost one-tenth the price charged in the States.August 1999: An overflow crowd of Vermonters packs a St. Michael’s College town hall meeting hosted by Sanders to protest an IBM plan to cut older workers’ pensions by as much as 50 percent. CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and The New York Times cover the event. After IBM enacts the plan, Sanders works to reverse the cuts, passing a pair of amendments to prohibit the federal government from acting to overturn a federal district court decision that ruled that IBM’s plan violated pension age discrimination laws. Thanks to Sanders’ efforts, IBM agreed to a $320 million legal settlement with some 130,000 IBM workers and retirees.November 1999: About 10 years before the 2008 Wall Street crash spins the world economy into a massive recession, Sanders votes “no” on a bill to undo decades of financial regulations enacted after the Great Depression. “This legislation,” he predicts at the time, “will lead to fewer banks and financial service providers, increased charges and fees for individual consumers and small businesses, diminished credit for rural America and taxpayer exposure to potential losses should a financial conglomerate fail. It will lead to more mega-mergers, a small number of corporations dominating the financial service industry and further concentration of power in our country.” The House passed the bill 362-57 over Sanders’ objection.October 2001: Sanders votes against the USA Patriot Act. “All of us want to protect the American people from terrorist attacks, but in a way that does not undermine basic freedoms,” Sanders says at the time. He subsequently votes against reauthorizing the law in 2006 and 2011.October 2002: Sanders votes against the Bush-Cheney war in Iraq. He warns at the time that an invasion could “result in anti-Americanism, instability and more terrorism.” Hillary Clinton votes in favor of it.November 2006: Sanders defeats Vermont’s richest man, Rich Tarrant, to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Sanders, running as an Independent, is endorsed by the Vermont Democratic Party and supported by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.December 2007: Sanders’ authored energy efficiency and conservation grant program passes into law. He later secures $3.2 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for the grant program.September 2008: Thanks to Sanders’ efforts, funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding doubles, helping millions of low-income Americans heat their homes in winter.February 2009: Sanders works with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley to pass an amendment to an economic recovery bill preventing Wall Street banks that take taxpayer bailouts from replacing laid-off U.S. workers with exploited and poorly-paid foreign workers.December 2009: Sanders passes language in the Affordable Care Act to allow states to apply for waivers to implement pilot health care systems by 2017. The legislation allows states to adopt more comprehensive systems to cover more people at lower costs.March 2010: President Barack Obama signs into law the Affordable Care Act with a major Sanders provision to expand federally qualified community health centers. Sanders secures $12.5 billion in funding for the program which now serves more than 25 million Americans. Another $1.5 billion from a Sanders provision went to the National Health Service Corps for scholarships and loan repayment for doctors and nurses who practice in under-served communities.July 2010: Sanders works with Republican Congressman Ron Paul in the House to pass a measure as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill to audit the Federal Reserve, revealing how the independent agency gave $16 trillion in near zero-interest loans to big banks and businesses after the 2008 economic collapse.March 2013: Sanders, now chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and backed by seniors, women, veterans, labor unions and disabled Americans, leads a successful effort to stop a “chained-CPI” proposal supported by Congressional Republicans and the Administration to cut Social Security and disabled veterans’ benefits.April 2013: Sanders introduces legislation to break up major Wall Street banks so large that the collapse of one could send the overall economy into a downward spiral.August 2014: A bipartisan $16.5 billion veterans bill written by Sen. Sanders, Sen. John McCain and Rep. Jeff Miller is signed into law by President Barack Obama. The measure includes $5 billion for the VA to hire more doctors and health professionals to meet growing demand for care.January 2015: Sanders takes over as ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, using the platform to fight for his economic agenda for the American middle class.January 2015: Sanders votes against the Keystone XL pipeline, which would allow multinational corporation TransCanada to transport dirty tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.March 2015: Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced legislation to expand benefits and strengthen the retirement program for generations to come. The Social Security Expansion Act was filed on the same day Sanders and other senators received the petitions signed by 2 million Americans, gathered by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.September 2015: Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) today introduced bills to ban private prisons [which have been 3 to 4 times as expensive with much higher rates of prisoner abuse, guard injury than government run prisons], reinstate the federal parole system and eliminate quotas for the number of immigrants held in detention.January 2016: Sanders Places Hold on FDA Nominee Dr. Robert Califf because of his close ties to the pharmaceutical industry and lack of commitment to lowering drug prices. There is no reason to believe that he would make the FDA work for ordinary Americans, rather than just the CEOs of pharmaceutical companies.———————ADDENDUM: Several people have asked about Senator Sanders accomplishments since 2016. Which is a tough question, because the US Senate has done almost no legislating since 2016 of any sort. Senator Sanders introduced 397 bills (sponsored or cosponsored) in the current Congress, but like so many others, his bills are sitting on the Majority Leaders’ desk, not being acted upon.Bernard Sanders Legislation in Process 115th and 116th Congresses.I believe that the 457 bills he introduced during the 115th Congress all lapsed when that Congress ended.

This Man's Job: Make Bill Gates RicherSecretive Money Manager Michael Larson Helped Microsoft Co-Founder's Fortune Balloon to $82 BillionINVESTMENTS THAT HELPED MAKE BILL GATES RICHERIn 2013, Mr. Gates and other buyers paid $161 million for the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco. The hotel is now valued at about $200 million, positioning Mr. Gates for a profit if he decides to sell. JOHN SUTTONInvitations to a dinner party from Bill and Melinda Gates at their mansion near Seattle in February included an unusual request: Wear pink or platinum. Spotlights installed for the occasion bathed the room in a pink glow.Mr. Gates raised his glass to toast the guest of honor, Michael Larson, who sat nearby wearing a pink button-down shirt, his favorite color. The Microsoft Corp. co-founder said Mr. Larson has his "complete trust and faith," according to people who were there."Melinda and I are free to pursue our vision of a healthier and better-educated world because of what Michael has done" for the past 20 years, Mr. Gates told about 40 dinner guests. Because of Mr. Larson, the world's richest man said, he sleeps well at night.The arrangement is simple: Mr. Larson makes money, and Mr. Gates gives it away. Since 1994, the 54-year-old Mr. Larson has managed Mr. Gates's investment empire, mostly through a firm called Cascade Investment LLC.Few people know much about Mr. Gates's assets or Mr. Larson's tactics—and the two men want to keep it that way. Real-estate investments, which range from the fancy Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Mass., to a 490-acre ranch in Wyoming once owned by William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, are often cloaked in nondescript names to make it harder to trace the deals back to Mr. Gates.Cascade's headquarters are in an unmarked building in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland. Mr. Larson is so protective of his boss that he used to be nicknamed "the Gateskeeper," says someone who worked with him. Employees who leave often sign confidentiality agreements barring them from talking about Cascade, people familiar with the matter say.Mr. Gates's net worth has swelled to about $82 billion from $5 billion since he hired the former bond-fund manager and gave him autonomy to buy and sell investments as he sees fit. In addition to Cascade, which holds most of the billionaire's personal fortune, Mr. Larson oversees the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's $41 billion endowment.Cascade doesn't publicly disclose its performance results, but people familiar with the firm say it usually churns out steady annual gains. Because of Mr. Larson's relatively conservative strategy, Cascade's losses when the financial crisis hit in 2008 were smaller than the 27% drop by the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the full year, people familiar with the results say.Since 1995, Mr. Larson has delivered a compound annual return of 11% for the Gates Foundation and two predecessors, outperforming the S&P 500 stock index by more than one percentage point.Mr. Gates, 58, would be worth about the same if he had kept all the Microsoft stock he got after starting the company in 1975. Mr. Gates owned a 45% stake when Microsoft went public in 1986. The shares are now worth about $150 billion, excluding dividends. Microsoft shares have nearly tripled in the past five years.But Mr. Gates has sold nearly $40 billion of Microsoft stock since 1994 as part of an effort to diversify his investments. The Gates Foundation also has given $30 billion to charitable causes.Messrs. Larson and Gates declined to comment on their relationship, but people who know them say it has evolved into a bond that is crucial to the billionaire's philanthropy. Mr. Larson's many profitable investments on behalf of Mr. Gates and sales of some of his Microsoft shares have increased the size of donations by Mr. Gates and his family to the Gates Foundation.That means more money can be plowed into the foundation's mission to fight disease and improve education in the developing world.Bill and Melinda Gates plan to donate 95% of their wealth to the foundation, the world's largest philanthropic organization. In addition to $28 billion from Mr. Gates, its endowment includes $12 billion in gifts from Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s Warren Buffett."They're not two buddies, for sure," says Steve Walsh, former chief executive of Legg Mason Inc.'s Western Asset Management unit, about Messrs. Gates and Larson. They rarely mingle socially, people close to them say.Mr. Walsh says he was struck by how much effort Mr. Gates put into the dinner party for Mr. Larson at the former Microsoft chief executive's 66,000-square-foot mansion on the edge of Lake Washington. The reference to platinum on the invitations was a nod to the metal's 20th-anniversary symbolism."It was almost tender—and endearing," says Mr. Walsh, who has known Mr. Larson for decades.The Wall Street Journal pieced together a snapshot of Mr. Gates's investments from interviews with more than two dozen people familiar with Cascade, securities filings that detail some holdings of the firm and real-estate records. Few of Cascade's investments have been publicly announced.The Wyoming ranch is part of a bet by Cascade on the steep rebound in real-estate prices since the financial crisis. The firm owns at least 100,000 acres of farmland in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana and other states—or an area seven times bigger than Manhattan.Cascade also owns more than $24 billion of shares in companies such as Canadian National Railway Co., AutoNation Inc. and Republic Services Inc. The holdings reflect Mr. Larson's value-conscious, buy-and-hold philosophy, mirroring Mr. Buffett, a close friend of Mr. Gates. Canadian National shares are up 207% in the past five years.While much of Mr. Gates's money is in stocks, Mr. Larson has plowed smaller chunks into private equity and other types of adventurous, so-called alternative assets, according to people familiar with the matter. Sizable bets on the bond markets have been reduced recently.Some investments have been duds. In 2007, Cascade and other investors bought a 13% stake in PlanetOut Inc., the publisher of Out magazine and a cruise-line operator targeting gays and lesbians. The company's shares soon sank, and it sold some assets and was acquired by another firm in 2009.Surprisingly, Mr. Gates has few technology-related investments. As of June 30, he held a 3.6% stake in Microsoft, worth about $13.9 billion based on Thursday's closing stock price.Mr. Gates makes his own tech and biotech investments, which aren't held by Cascade. He started digital-image company Corbis Corp. in 1989. Smaller investments include stakes in nuclear-reactor developer TerraPower LLC and meat-substitute maker Beyond Meat.Mr. Gates is updated on all the other investments every other month. "At the end of the day, all decisions go through Michael," says Mike Jackson, chairman and CEO of AutoNation, who considers Mr. Larson a friend. Mr. Larson is a director of the auto retailer, and Cascade owns a 14% stake in AutoNation valued at about $841 million.Mr. Gates decided to hire Mr. Larson after the Journal reported in 1993 that the entrepreneur's money manager at the time had previously been convicted of bank fraud. Mr. Gates was a close friend of the money manager and already knew about the conviction, the Journal said, but began looking for someone new after the uproar.After an extensive screening process, a recruiter invited Mr. Larson to meet Mr. Gates. The money manager had worked for a mergers-and-acquisitions firm and run bond funds for Putnam Investments, now a subsidiary of Canadian insurer Great-West Lifeco, Inc., before striking out on his own.The two men hit it off. Mr. Gates was impressed by Mr. Larson's self-assured yet low-key personality, people familiar with Mr. Gates's thinking say.After taking the job, Mr. Larson decided to go "off the radar," says Roger McNamee, a co-founder of Elevation Partners, a Silicon Valley firm that was an early investor in Facebook Inc. He says Mr. Larson believed a low profile was the best way to approach such high-profile investing following the bad publicity about his predecessor.Mr. Larson farms out more than $10 billion in assets at any given time to roughly 25 outside money managers, partly as a way to drum up new investment ideas. The outsiders aren't told any nonpublic details about the size of Mr. Gates's portfolio or its holdings, people familiar with the matter say.A news release announcing last year's acquisition of the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, a neoclassical gem in Nob Hill, identified only Cascade's co-investor in the $161 million purchase. A publicist for the Charles Hotel said she had no idea Mr. Gates is a co-owner of the hotel."It's an extraordinary tribute to Michael that if you think about Bill Gates and his reputation, you never hear about Cascade," Mr. McNamee says.Married with three children, Mr. Larson prefers Levi's jeans and dark pink shirts. Some current and former employees say he can be brusque and controlling, even deciding the seating chart for the investment firm's annual holiday party.James Floyd, chief investment officer at Claremont McKenna College, a liberal-arts school in California from which Mr. Larson graduated in 1980, says he is "brutally honest, but in a refreshing way. You know exactly where you stand with him." Mr. Larson advises the college's investment committee.Cascade employees are expected to be frugal. Even though Mr. Gates owns nearly half of the Four Seasons Holding Inc. luxury-hotel chain through Cascade, the investment firm's executives stay at less-expensive hotels, even when traveling on Four Seasons business.The $3.8 billion acquisition with Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal came in 2007 near the real-estate market's peak."There's a symbolic value to continually reminding their partners that Four Seasons is a financial investment, not an ego investment," says Philip Maritz, co-founder and president of hotel investment firm Maritz, Wolff & Co. He sold the Four Seasons in Houston to Cascade last year.Mr. Larson also is known as a golf nut who enjoys networking more than working on his backswing. People who know him say he puts immense value on personal relationships, cultivating them with an intensity that can feel tiring.He attends Allen & Co.'s big-name conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, with Mr. Gates.Bill and Melinda Gates also attend Mr. Larson's daylong round-table discussion held every December in Cascade's conference room. Invited high rollers from the finance and corporate worlds discuss themes and topics for the year ahead. Recent guests include Liberty Media Corp. Chairman John Malone, TPG co-founder David Bonderman andEdward Lampert, the hedge-fund manager who is CEO of Sears Holding Corp.Cascade has grown to roughly 100 employees, compared with 1,200 at the Gates Foundation. Mr. Larson likes to hire recent Claremont McKenna graduates. Employees are discouraged from using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media—and from sending email from their work accounts to outsiders who aren't business partners.In 2009, Mr. Larson dispatched a 25-year-old Cascade employee to negotiate the purchase of multimillion-dollar mansions in Jupiter Island, Fla., hoping the firm could squeeze bargains out of homeowners burned by Bernard L. Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, people familiar with the matter say.The employee was told to say he worked for a Cascade subsidiary called Front Range Investment Holdings LLC, not Cascade or Mr. Gates, these people say. The employee nailed down the purchase of one mansion for $5 million, real-estate records show. It was on the market for $12 million in 2008.Front Range is described on the deed that recorded the purchase as a Colorado limited liability company, and other public records include an address at a post-office in Kirkland, Wash., where Cascade is based.Online real-estate firm Zillow Inc. estimates that the four-bedroom, nearly 12,000-square-foot "European villa" with a private dock is now worth $6.4 million. The mansion is for sale for about $5.3 million. Cascade is willing to walk away with a small profit.http://uds.ak.o.brightcove.com/47628783001/47628783001_4586448579001_4586439397001.mp4Sources: https://www.ft.com/content/ce87f48a-7208-11e5-9b9e-690fdae72044This Man's Job: Make Bill Gates Richer