Why Doesn't the New Speaker of the House Have a Bank Account?

Everyone has a bank account today. 

My 16-year-old granddaughter has a bank account. 

I have friends and family that have opened bank accounts for their children when they were in elementary school.

Everyone except the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, who apparently doesn't have a bank account. 

It gets stranger every day. Johnson hasn't filed any financial disclosures dating back to 2016, the year he joined Congress. He never reported having a savings or checking account in his name, his spouse's name, or in the name of any of his children. He doesn't have a retirement account and neither does his wife.

What's more he hasn't listed any assets. How is that possible? Didn't anyone notice this in the last seven years?

Consider this, he made more than $200,000 last year - in addition to his wife's salary. So, where the hell did that money go?

Some theories I've run across:

1. He hides his money in his mattress and other odd places throughout the house. Think Sen. Bob Menendez's house where agents found more than $480,000 in cash stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing.

2. He lives paycheck to paycheck. What money he has is in a bank account with under $1,000 in it so it doesn't have to be reported to any financial institution.

3. His money goes to offshore bank accounts under an alias.

4. He is terrible at managing the money he makes, and he may be in massive debt.

How common is it for members of Congress to not have a bank account - let alone no assets?

Brett Kappel who is a government ethics expert recently answered that question.

"It's very unusual for a member not to have to disclose at least one bank account."

Jordan Libowitz, communications director the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had an even more blunt assessment, "If Johnson truly doesn't have any assets, it raises questions about his personal financial wellbeing."

To Libowitz's point that could mean he's ripe for influence buying. It doesn't take a genius to suspect there's something rotten in Denmark the House of Representatives.

The fact is Johnson does owe a lot of money. Every year, he has listed two mortgages on which he owes hundreds of thousands of dollars and a personal loan on which he owes tens of thousands. In 2019, he opened up a home equity line of credit, also worth tens of thousands of dollars.

No matter how you look at it something financially shady has been going on for years. 

Suddenly this unvetted politician and little-known Republican with seemingly no money has been vaulted into a speakership in Congress. Just one step away from the presidency.

To top it all off they call him MAGA Mike because he idolizes Trump and has a track record of going after the LGBTQ community and seeking to abolishing abortion rights for women across the country.

As it stands, so what could go wrong? We'll find out soon enough if he shuts the government down on November 17th.