Among the many faults of the Obama Administration was the complete disregard for private property, which the former president had no problem exploiting to fund his own desired policies.
Take the case of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For anyone whose memory needs jogging, Fannie and Freddie were the two mortgage giants responsible for providing liquidity to the mortgage market by creating a secondary market for mortgages. Both needed to be bailed out during the financial crisis. In September of 2008, the two giants received $187 billion of taxpayer money as a lifeline. Miraculously, they returned to profitability quickly, and fully paid back the government.
But the Obama Administration wanted more, and given that the bailout had handed the government effective control over the companies, they could enact whatever corporate policies they wanted to benefit the federal government at the expense of Fannie and Freddie shareholders. In 2012, long after the bailout, the Obama Administration enacted what became known as the “net worth sweep,” which required the two mortgage giants send a check to the Treasury every quarter equal to 100% of their profits.
Ironically, such a scheme made the two firms more likely to require another bailout in the future, as it makes it impossible for them to create a cash cushion for themselves when times get tough. That didn’t matter for the Obama Administration, who used the funds to help pay for ObamaCare. That’s no conspiracy – Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has confirmed it.
And it doesn’t end there. Obama was clever enough to get corporations to help his favored leftist causes. That’s what a new lawsuit from Judicial Watch is alleging. According to the lawsuit, the Obama Administration has a policy of settling agency lawsuits against certain corporations by requiring that those corporations make forced “donations” (kinda like how taxes are forced “charity”) to left-wing groups, including La Raza, the Urban League, and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, among others. Here’s more:
Judicial Watch filed the suit after the Justice Department failed to respond to its April 7, 2017, FOIA request seeking: “All records discussing the policy or practice of settling [Department of Justice] lawsuits against corporate defendants by requiring donations to La Raza, the Urban League or the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.” The time frame of the request was identified as January 1, 2013 through January 20, 2017.
The investigation, announced in February by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), revealed that the Justice Department used the mandatory “donations” to direct nearly a billion dollars to liberal activist groups over the past two years. According to the investigation, “activist groups which stood to gain from mandatory donation provisions were involved in placing those provisions in the settlements.”
To put in perspective just how massive a billion dollars is when it comes to funding special interests, the biggest conservative think tank (and thus the one with the largest amount of donations, and the largest budget), the Heritage Foundation, took in just under $100 million in 2014, and spent $82 million.
In a March 1 report, Fox News outlined how what it termed the “slush fund” worked:
Findings spearheaded by the House Judiciary Committee point to a process shrouded in secrecy whereby monies were distributed to a labyrinth of nonprofit organizations involved with grass-roots activism.
“Advocates for big government and progressive power are using the Justice Department to extort money from corporations,” Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton told Fox News. “It’s a shakedown. It’s corrupt, pure and simple.” …
When big banks are sued by the government for discrimination or mortgage abuse, they can settle the cases by donating to third-party non-victims. The settlements do not specify how these third-party groups could use the windfall.
H/T Judicial Watch
Even though corporations are making the payout, don’t be fooled into thinking you’re not paying for it. Corporations are composed of millions (sometimes tens of millions) of shareholders, so it’s effectively their money being blown on special interests. The cost may be minuscule relative to the company’s overall profit, but it’s still a seizure of private property.
It’s a tax by any other name – and one done to solely benefit the left.
Wouldn’t the media be HOUNDING Trump if it was revealed that he had been diverting funds to conservative interest groups? Liberals would be treating it as grounds for impeachment. Get the word out – share this post on Facebook and Twitter.
