Clinton Money Says More Than Clinton Words
The story indicates the Clintons were of modest means and deeply in debt when they arrived in the White House in 1993 due to legal bills from scandals. Something you rarely hear during these days of Presidential campaigns. The report uses the plural ’scandals’. when most people would remember only the Whitewater scandal. To what else does the report refer upon their entering the White House? And if they wiped out the debt and amassed wealth from books and speeches, does that mean they were financially strained over eight years as the First Family?
Say one thing and do another. The blind trust’s holdings highlight the insincerity of politics. Questionable investments in overseas interests and a host of Big Pharma profits while espousing the need for health care reform including prescription drug prices. All the while investing in the very companies that contribute to the problems. A careful review of the history of their blind trust would be more telling than any paid speech by Bill or campaign fluff from Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The capital gains hit they will take from converting the holdings to cash may appear substantial as a dollar amount but be relatively modest as a percentage of the total. When millions of dollars are involved, the loss from capital gains taxes will not severely diminish their wealth. Most people will find it difficult to feel sympathy for anyone with that much money. The point that people should take away from this report is more about truth. The Clintons’ profit making philosophy is much more revealing than anything they can say or write. And as far as conflict of interest in concerned, simply converting investments to cash, taking a capital gains hit and moving on do little to convince anyone about the motives of either Clinton. Those who favor the Clintons will ignore this report and any implication it provdies while those opposed to the Clintons will have more reason to maintain their position.
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com
Clintons Dissolve Blind Financial Trust
Millions in Stock Converted to Cash to Avoid Campaign Conflicts
By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 15, 2007; A01Bill and Hillary Clinton have dissolved the blind trust that has managed their investments since they entered the White House in 1993, converting all stocks to cash to avoid financial conflicts as she runs for president, according to documents to be filed today with federal ethics officials.
The documents reviewed by The Washington Post provide the most complete accounting of how the Clintons accrued the $5 million to $25 million in the trust — nearly all since leaving the White House — through investments in foreign companies, oil giants and drugmakers without their input or knowledge and without public disclosure.
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June 15th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
With modern American Socialists (formerly Democratic Party members), it’s always “socialism for thee - and not for me.” There’s yet more to it… this may be more about appearance than than substance.
If Hillary has her way, “big pharma” and “big oil” and “big wal-mart” will all come tumbling down. She may just be hedging her bets against her own success, figuring it’s better to have the cash than paper that will be worthless after her depredations.
As a side note: The real problem with high prescription costs isn’t “big pharma” in the first place. It’s socialist healthcare ala medicare and “big insurance” having a stranglehold on how people pay for their healthcare. When people don’t actually pay the bill themselves, but have an insurance company do it for them, there’s no price competition.
Just my $0.02
June 16th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Big Pharma loves telling us about the immense cost to bring drugs to market. I’m not so sure they are being honest. With the money they shove at academic research and anything they retrieve from national labs, etc., I wonder how much it really costs them.
I’m not saying Big Pharma is the beast of health care. There is plenty of blame to go around. What has been added to Medicare as ‘legitimate’ charges for unnecessary expenses is one. But besides the medical and insurance community, the public must shoulder equal burden for this mess.
I miss the 80/20 days of 100% employer paid health insurance. I appreciated it then and would like to have it now. I have two anecdotes from years ago I may share in another post some time.