Progressive Political Campaign Funds Embezzlement Case May Be Largest To Date

A legal analysis by the California state's campaign finance watchdog agency says that donations never deposited into candidate accounts by accused treasurer Kinde Durkee can be solicited a second time. But now, the multi-million dollar question in the allegations of embezzlement against Durkee: which donations were actually deposited ... and thus are now final ... and which were not? Problems! Problems! Problems! Image Credit: KQED/John Myers

Progressive Political Campaign Funds Embezzlement Case May Be Largest To Date

Ever notice how when the control freaks on the left wish apply their control over human activity, there are no boundaries to their law-making (e.g. we are already seeing how Obamacare is turning out at SCOTUS hearings) and enforcement efforts but when it comes to looking after their own activities, there exists a huge blind spot?

Look at the Obama Administration's effort to promote green energy. Solyndra became a legalized form of embezzlement through bankruptcy and a way to funnel campaign money back to the progressive cause through the Democrat Political Party.

On the other hand, these control freaks, after legally embezzling taxpayer money on a wholesale level, continued their blind spot ways when it came to the financing of their campaigns. Millions of dollars went missing for years and the facts that came to light last year are proving to be just the tip of a large embezzlement iceberg.

This excerpted and edited from Roll Call -

Campaign Treasurer to Be Charged With Embezzling Millions
By Amanda Becker - Roll Call Staff - March 27, 2012, Updated: 11:24 p.m.

Government prosecutors indicated today they are preparing to formally charge Democratic campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee with embezzling millions of dollars from dozens of political campaigns and nonprofit organizations in California.

Durkee was arrested in early September on suspicion that she used her firm Durkee & Associates to siphon nearly $700,000 from the election campaign of California Assemblyman Jose Solorio.

Since her arrest, the scope of the probe into misused funds has grown, implicating hundreds of accounts that collectively held millions of dollars raised by county-based political party groups and lawmakers who include California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Reps. Susan Davis, Linda Sánchez and Loretta Sanchez.

Feinstein’s re-election campaign alone reported that roughly $4.5 million was missing.

The details in the government’s filing, which is called an information and used in place of a grand jury indictment, will be the first complete accounting of what is known to be the largest political embezzlement scandal to date.

Court records show at least 50 victims and a total of $7 million were involved in the case.

Documents filed earlier this week in a related property seizure case indicate that Durkee and her husband, John Forgy, are cooperating with the government’s investigation and prosecution.

Durkee and Forgy agreed on Monday that the U.S. Marshals Service could sell a piece of property they own in Burbank, Calif., that was valued at more than $600,000 in 2005. The proceeds from that sale, minus liens and unpaid taxes, will be held by the court while her case proceeds.
[Reference Here]

These folks were working the wrong end of the progressive "stolen money" pipeline ... Durkee & Associates needed to set up a green energy company, manage the taxpayer money loan assets it received from Obama's Department of Energy, declare bankruptcy, and walk away with Billions of dollars as opposed to only Millions ... here during Carter's Second Term.


** Article first published as Progressive Political Campaign Funds Embezzlement Case May Be Largest To Date on Technorati **

Paul Ryan's Path To Solvency

Now, there are certainly different types of goals: long-term, short-term, financial, physical, personal, family, educational, artistic, religious, health, etc. A country without a budget/goal is like a ship without a rudder. Image Credit: Weider Fitness

Paul Ryan's Path To Solvency

Today, the American Enterprise Institute has released a plan put forth by Wisconsin Congressman, Paul Ryan, by which our country could become prosperous and solvent through making the economic purpose of our federal government be right-sized and focused on its key reasons for existence.

This plan was issued as a response to the expansion of federal government in everyday life (through both the 43rd Presidency of George Bush and doubled-down upon during the 44th Presidency of Barack Obama) ... and most recently, the latest budget released last month by the Obama Administration.

Forget the fact that our Democrat Political Party controlled Senate, run by Nevada Senator Harry Reid, which has the responsibility to draft, pass and implement a budget, has seen fit to not pass or operate from a formal budget in over 1,000 days (blowing the lid off of spending controls). Basically, this abandonment of responsibility and public trust leaves our ship of state operating without a rudder.

So, what is the best path forward?

Image Credit: Paul Ryan via AEI

This excerpted and edited from the American Enterprise Institute -

Paul Ryan’s new budget offers a path to prosperity and solvency
By James Pethokoukis - AEI - March 20, 2012, 10:00 am

Barack Obama doesn’t have a long-term, debt-reduction plan. Paul Ryan does. So under the Geithner formulation, Ryan wins by default.

But the latest version of Ryan’s Path to Prosperity, released today, does far more than defeat a rival who’s decided to forfeit the field. It presents a bold and sweeping solution to America’s twin problems: too much debt and too little economic growth.

– By 2022, under the Ryan Path, debt as a share of GDP would be 62.3% vs. a projected 73.2% in 2012. Under the Obama budget debt as a share of GDP would be 76.3% in 2022, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Over that period, the Ryan Path would spend $5.3 trillion less than the Obama budget by, in large part, axing Obamacare and block-granting welfare programs — including Medicaid — to the states.

– Longer term, the differences between the Ryan Path and the Obama budget are even starker. By 2030, debt-to-GDP would be 53% under Ryan, 128% under Obama. By 2040, debt-to-GDP would be 38% under Ryan, 194% under Obama. By 2050, debt-to-GDP would be 10% under Ryan, over 200% under Obama – assuming that under the Obama scenario, the economy hasn’t collapsed.

How does Ryan do it? Medicare reform is at the heart of the Path to Prosperity. Where Obamacare relies on unelected bureaucrats to keep costs down, the Ryan path uses competition. Under Ryan’s revised “premium support” plan – essentially the Wyden-Ryan proposal — seniors beginning in 2023 could use their Medicare dollars to choose from a menu of private plans, along with Medicare’s traditional fee-for-service system. Every year there would be a competitive bidding process among all plans to determine the dollar amount of the federal contribution that seniors would use to purchase coverage. (The benefits in the private plans would have to be as least as good as Medicare.) The second least-expensive approved plan or Medicare, whichever is least expensive, would establish the benchmark that determines the premium support amount.

Seniors who prefer pricier plans would have to pay the difference between the premium subsidy and the monthly premium. Seniors who choose a less expensive plan could pocket the difference. As a backup — and so CBO could score the plan — per capita costs could not exceed nominal GDP growth plus 0.5%.

The Ryan Path reforms the tax code by creating a two-rate system — 25% and 10% — for individuals, while lowering the corporate rate to 25% and moving to a territorial system. Now because of CBO budget rules, the Ryan Path assumes tax reform doesn’t boost growth, though it almost assuredly would. So when you factor in faster growth, Ryan’s budget numbers look even better. By contrast, Obama would take the top income tax and dividend tax rates to 45%, capital gains to 24%. Talk about austerity.

The Ryan Path isn’t perfect. It takes a pass on Social Security reform and fails to specify what tax breaks would be scaled back or eliminated. But even with those flaws, the Ryan Path presents a vivid contrast with the Obama budget. One leads to prosperity and solvency, the other leads to a debt crisis — with the likely response being massive tax increases and healthcare rationing by Washington – and decline.

As Ryan puts it: ”The choice of two futures presented in this budget is premised on the wisdom of the American people to build a prosperous future for themselves and for generations of Americans to come.
[Reference Here]

It is time to think about the economic future of our country and recognize the serious consequence of continuing along the path our leaders insist on taking our country over these last 11 plus years. Our country demands economic direction through strong leadership and a change to a federal government that is right-sized and focused on results versus intention in its outsized foreign-financed debt/spending agenda experienced here during the 44th Presidency of Barack Obama ... Carter's Second Term.


** Article first published as Paul Ryan's Path To Solvency on Technorati **