And Whose Welfare Would That Be?
Requesting an FEC advisory opinion allows a candidate or PAC to ask the FEC for their opinion if something is legal prior to them spending or raising money in a risky way. This opinion was requested by Trump’s former deputy White House general counsel Stefan Passantino – the lawyer in the White House General Counsel’s Office who was in charge of enforcing ethics requirements. And I tell you this because the irony is so thick it could only be cut with a diesel powered chain saw.
Tom Price
The request for their opinion was answered. This draft FEC advisory opinion would allow former HHS Secretary and congressman Tom PrIce (R-GA) to use his $1.7 million in excess campaign funds to create a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization in Georgia.
Of course, once the social welfare organization is created, it can do what it wants with the money except pay Price and his wife a salary but according to the draft opinion, Price could be reimbursed for expenses and we all know how that goes.
So if the social welfare organization wants to spend that money, say, opposing Stacey Abrams’ run for Governor or Senator or advocating for additional voter suppression tactics it could do that.
Guys, we’re witnessing the birth of a shady political nonprofit in a state where there have been serious allegations of election improprieties to begin with. Plus, we’re not dealing with a guy who has always been above board about his “expenses.” Price still owes the taxpayers $341,000 for his private travel while HHS Secretary.
Thanks to Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen for the heads up.
So, this sounds like it’s actually a good thing.
If the money is in a place where Price can get his sticky little paws on it, he’ll make it vanish so fast that very little will be available to spend on any “social welfare”. Because no welfare is as important as Tommy Boy’s own.
As for the $341K, I guess the gummint will just have to sue him for it. Is he out of favor, or is he still on the Do Not Touch list?
1Walter Shaub, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, has thrown up his hands in the face of the Trump administration’s disregard for, well, government ethics. The veteran public servant sent a short resignation letter to Donald Trump today, half a year before his five-year term expired.
Shaub’s office was founded in the wake of Watergate, and oversees 4,500 employees who work on ethics-related issues across the government. But Shaub himself was little-known before Donald Trump became president. However, once it became clear that Trump intended to take his seat in the White House while doing next to nothing to resolve his conflicts of interest, Shaub, in consultation with Obama ethics lawyer Norm Eisen, hatched a plan to get Trump’s attention through Twitter and public speeches.
Just last month, for example, the Justice Department’s top lawyer for compliance resigned. Hui Chen, whose career includes public service as a federal prosecutor as well as stints as a lawyer for Pfizer and Microsoft, said she couldn’t ask companies to act ethically when the administration was so willing to flout the rules.
“Trying to hold companies to standards that our current administration is not living up to was creating a cognitive dissonance that I could not overcome,”
https://billmoyers.com/story/the-head-of-the-government-ethics-office-just-quit/
Miller’s Crossing: Ethics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGXWmUib8OU
2Ethics and _____ <—- insert name of anyone in this maladministration as the beginning of a series of very bad jokes or an acid trip gone very wrong. With Billy Bob Barr as the speedbump to derail the DOJ, Old Scratch McConnell riding hell beast over the Senate, without an intervening coronary episode or a nice little brain aneurism we're pretty much screwed until 2020. But the irony Democrats? Eating our own instead of standing fast with the ladies of the House, including NDP. Chuck and Nancy could nail IQ4.5 to a flaming cross with ten inch nails, but unless we get out the Democratic vote it will be just another event, not a solution. "Relying" on Independents and 'persuadable' Republicons gave us 8 years of Dubya and now this Donnie disaster.
Look at what Stacey Abrams was able to do in Georgia and Beto in Texas. More of that and we've got this.
3Actually, Walter Shaub resigned in disgust two years ago, leaving office on July 19, 2017. He now works for CREW and is very outspoken on twitter about the current leadership and their lack of ethics.
Emory Rounds III has been the OGE director since July 2018, which ethics experts were happy about at the time. Don’t know how they feel now.
4that mans’ net worth has some astounding fluctuations
5https://www.opensecrets.org/personal-finances/net-worth?cid=N00026160&year=2015
Yes, the date was on the article. The history of violations started almost to the second after he lied his oath of office.
6megasoid@6, where to begin? Seriously. With all the criminals in this maladministration it is impossible to name one who shouldn’t be prosecuted for multiple crimes. Lying to Congress and defrauding the taxpayers are requirements for consorting with IQ4.5. From Betsy DeVos to Ryan Zinke, they all scream for erecting an avenue of scaffolding.
7Jane & PKM @ 7 The lapse of ethics was always there. It was the lighthouse guiding the corrupt in droves to comfortable harbor without surcease that has shell shocked average people.
8megasoid, the boiling of the ethics frog began before we were born, but damn since IQ4.5 oozed down that escalator of corruption it’s all out of the pot and onto the flame of the gaslighting fluffers surrounding Donnie. Sarah Chuck-a-Load Sandbag, Kellyanne Mare “alternative facts” Conway, and Merciless Schlapp to reality cast a spell on all the ***king morons in the electorate.
9s@5: That link shows he was getting lotsa money from investments in the “unknown” category. Then after that it is “insurance, finance, real estate”. In the categories of things that actually build something that could be useful to the world, it’s down in the noise level.
Wanna bet that “unknown” involves things that he could (and did) profitably affect as HHS honcho?
Also: thanks for the opensecrets link, it’s not one I normally browse. Gonna add you along with Alfredo to the list of people we owe a triple ice cream cone to, for digging out the data.
10Almost as good a scam as the ol Campaign Contribution con.
“Senator here’s a $100,000 campaign contribution. Now that your re-elected, how about lowering my taxes so it doesn’t cut into my profit margin and I can keep the contributions $$$ coming?”
11Ka-ching!
How about what Louie Gomert is worth?
The site https://www.opensecrets.org/ has a world of info on all the politicans money etc!
https://www.opensecrets.org/personal-finances/net-worth?cid=N00026148&year=2015
12