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Keyword: crony

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  • Sen. Harry Reid strikes gold with home sale

    06/09/2014 3:30:21 PM PDT · by Oldeconomybuyer · 30 replies
    The Washington Times ^ | June 9, 2014 | By S.A. Miller
    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has sold his home in Searchlight, Nevada, to a mining company for $1.7 million and is moving to Las Vegas, his office announced Monday. Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, sold his house with 110 acres of land to Nevada Milling and Mining, which plans to develop a gold mine in Searchlight. The $1.7 million deal closed Friday, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Mr. Reid grew up poor in the dusty mining town of Searchlight, about 60 miles south of Las Vegas, but as a lawmaker he managed to accumulate a personal fortune estimated at $5...
  • Texas Gov. Perry throws support behind McConnell

    03/16/2014 9:26:23 AM PDT · by TADSLOS · 148 replies
    The Washington Times ^ | Saturday, March 15, 2014 | Adam Beam
    MURRAY, Ky. (AP) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry threw his support behind U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell on Saturday, telling 300 fellow Republicans that the minority leader will win re-election. McConnell finds himself in a GOP primary fight with wealthy businessman Matt Bevin, who attended the event but wasn’t allowed to speak. “I love the number six,” Perry told the crowd at the Lincoln Reagan Dinner of West Kentucky. “Sam Houston was 6 foot 6 inches tall. And Mitch McConnell is going to be in his sixth term as United States senator.” Organizers said the dinner was supposed to unite the...
  • $1 Trillion Farm Bill Full of Subsidies, Special Favors

    02/18/2014 9:32:51 AM PST · by MichCapCon · 17 replies
    Capitol Confidential ^ | 2/15/2014 | Jarrett Skorup
    President Obama was in Michigan last week to sign a 10-year, $1 trillion farm bill. While much of the debate has centered around the spending on food stamps, buried in the 1,000-page plan are many other provisions that are indefensibly bad policy. While some are praising, and others complaining, about slightly rolling back spending on food stamps and eliminating some of the direct payments to "farmers" (who did not actually farm), the bill goes far beyond that. This bill continues special subsidy deals to farmers in every area in the country — from corn and beans to rice and peanuts...
  • The Obamacare Scam

    02/05/2014 2:59:40 PM PST · by TurboZamboni · 11 replies
    CCHF ^ | 2-5-14 | Twila Brase
    Many health plans are smiling. We've essentially been forced by Congress to buy their catastrophic policies at first-dollar coverage prices. But because many Americans don't remember catastrophic policies or know what real insurance is or how much insurance should cost -- or how low cash-based medical prices could be -- they don't know badly they're being scammed. To be clear, this is not the first act in this Congressional scam. True insurance got more difficult to buy after Congress favored first-dollar health plans with the HMO Act of 1973. Most employers were forced to offer HMO plans. Like the frog...
  • Hill’s $nub of U.S. companies in purchase of crystal stemware is clear

    12/30/2013 1:58:02 PM PST · by afraidfortherepublic · 12 replies
    New York Post -- Page Six ^ | March 15, 2010 | Geoff Earle
    WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton’s State Department is spending $5.4 million to buy fine crystal stemware for American embassies — but it won’t give the US economy much of a boost. The contract was given to a tiny Washington, DC, interior designer, which in turn subcontracted the crystal work to a Swedish firm — snubbing such US companies as the famous manufacturer in Clinton’s own back yard, Steuben Crystal of upstate Corning. The firm didn’t even get a chance to bid on the contract, which will outfit embassies and ambassadors’ residences with fancy crystal for ritzy functions. Ironically, under the...
  • Sebelius dodges question about whether she offered resignation

    12/13/2013 5:27:35 PM PST · by Sub-Driver · 27 replies
    ByStephanie Condon CBS News December 13, 2013, 6: 31 PM Sebelius dodges question about whether she offered resignation Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Friday refused to say whether she's offered to resign in the wake of botched rollout of the new Obamacare marketplaces. "I'm not going to discuss what I talk about with the president," Sebelius said from Miami, where she was promoting the new marketplaces. Earlier this week at a congressional hearing, Sebelius acknowledged to lawmakers that the launch of HealthCare.gov, the Obamacare website, was "flawed and failed and frustrating." She hasaccepted responsibility for the failed...
  • US Cancels Russian Helicopter Deal Amid Syria Standoff – Senator

    11/13/2013 1:15:58 PM PST · by Navy Patriot · 39 replies
    RIA Novosti ^ | November 13, 2013 | Staff
    WASHINGTON, November 13 (RIA Novosti) – The United States has scrapped plans to purchase additional helicopters from state-run Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport amid pressure from federal lawmakers over Russian arms deliveries to Syria, a top US senator said Wednesday. “I applaud the [US] Defense Department’s decision to cancel its plan to buy 15 additional Mi-17 helicopters from Rosoboronexport,” US Sen. John Cornyn said in statement, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, has been leading a push in Congress to oppose the Pentagon’s purchase of Russian helicopters for deployment in Afghanistan due to Moscow’s weapons shipments to...
  • Exec at HealthCare.gov contractor went to school with first lady, donated to Obama campaign

    10/29/2013 7:08:04 PM PDT · by RoosterRedux · 10 replies
    FoxNews.com ^ | 10/29/2013
    As the problems pile up for HealthCare.gov, attention is now turning to the relationship between the Canadian company largely responsible for the website and the Obama administration. Top officials at CGI Federal, a lead contractor tasked with developing the site, have a three-decade link to the Obamas. Toni Townes-Whitley, a senior vice president at CGI Federal, is also a Princeton University classmate of first lady Michelle Obama -- and a political donor. Mike Caddell, a spokesman for Princeton University, confirmed to FoxNews.com that Townes-Whitley went to the school and graduated in 1985. According to a Princeton alumni publication in 1998,...
  • Michelle O's Princeton classmate is exec at company that built Obamacare website

    10/26/2013 10:15:19 AM PDT · by MinorityRepublican · 31 replies
    The Daily Mail ^ | 26 October 2013
    The Obama administration has been accused of cronyism after it was revealed the First Lady's Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company contracted to build the beleaguered Obamacare enrollment website. Toni Townes-Whitley is senior vice president at CGI Federal, the U.S. arm of a Canadian company, which won the no-bid contract for the problem-plagued website. Townes-Whitley, from the Princeton class of ’85, and Michelle Obama are members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni, according to The Daily Caller.
  • Is Cronyism Private Enterprise's Fault or the Government's?

    10/17/2013 11:27:12 AM PDT · by 1rudeboy · 25 replies
    Coyote Blog (Dispatches from a Small Business) ^ | October 16, 2013 | Warren Meyer
    Oddly enough, this is perhaps the most frequent argument I have with people on the Left in cocktail party conversations.It begins this way -- some abuse of "private enterprise" is cited.  Almost every time, I have to point out that the abuse in question could not occur if private companies were not availing themselves of government's coercive power to [fill in the blank: step on competitors, limit choice, keep prices high, rake in subsidies, etc.] Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story is very much in this mold, blaming bad outcomes that result in government interventions on free market capitalism.Kevin Drum...
  • Surprise: Obama brother’s charity faced no hurdles in IRS approval

    05/15/2013 9:27:51 AM PDT · by tflabo · 5 replies
    The Blaze ^ | May. 15, 2013 10:37am | Meredith Jessup
    Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years.
  • Seagate plans $180 million research complex at former Solyndra site in Fremont

    03/02/2013 8:58:39 AM PST · by ProtectOurFreedom · 25 replies
    San Jose Mercury News ^ | 3/1/13 | George Avalos
    Seagate Technology on Friday unveiled a $180 million cutting-edge research and development complex at the former Solyndra solar factory in Fremont, a site the company will use to invent next-generation disk drives. Up to 600 people could work at the facility, depending on product demand, Seagate executives said. "It's a big deal to be keeping high-tech research and development jobs in Silicon Valley," said Mark Re, a Seagate senior vice president and R&D executive. "This is going to be a state-of-the-art facility." Late Thursday, Seagate installed a huge sign with its name and logo on the side of the 411,000-square-foot...
  • Obama ally got $340 million to set up health care co-ops

    02/22/2013 8:33:25 AM PST · by george76 · 23 replies
    The Washington Examiner ^ | February 21, 2013 | Richard Pollock
    A health insurance company headed by an old friend from Obama's days as a community organizer got a $340 million federal loan to establish Obamacare co-ops in New York, New Jersey and Oregon despite having a chronic record of consumer and regulatory complaints. The New York-based Freelancers Insurance Company has been rated the "worst" insurer for two straight years by state regulators, and data compiled by a national insurance association show an extremely high rate of consumer complaints. The firm was founded in 2008 by Sara Horowitz, who worked with Obama before his career in elective politics to launch Demos,...
  • Obama's Crony Capitalism (PIMCO Management Now in Bed with the White House)

    01/08/2013 7:13:30 AM PST · by SeekAndFind · 7 replies
    Reason ^ | 01/08/2013 | Ira Stoll
    On the Friday before Christmas, President Obama announced that he was appointing Mohamed A. El-Erian, the CEO of Pacific Investment Management Company, as the chairman of his Global Development Council. The announcement didn’t get much attention, but it should. It exemplifies what’s wrong with Obama’s approach to economic policy, which amounts to: insult rich people as “fat cats,” raise their taxes, and then choose a favored few of them for special access. If you’re not familiar with El-Erian, you must not be watching CNBC or attending the World Economic Forum at Davos. The son of an Egyptian ambassador to France...
  • Wells Fargo CEO: Get gov’t out of “the home loan business”

    01/07/2013 12:25:29 PM PST · by SeekAndFind · 11 replies
    Hotair ^ | 01/07/2013 | Ed Lasky
    Policy-wise, this is an oldie but a goodie, I guess, even though we’re still spending tons of money on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae more than four years after the crash. Wells Fargo CEO Robert Kovacevich can't believe that we haven't learned the lesson from 2008 and gotten the government out of the home mortgage industry, and tells CNBC's Squawk Box that the two organizations made that crash exponentially worse than it needed to be: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exacerbated the 2008 mortgage crisis, and that’s why the U.S. government should get out...
  • When Capital Is Nowhere in View

    12/13/2012 9:19:55 AM PST · by Mr. K · 7 replies
    Ludwig Von Mises Institute ^ | Tuesday, May 10, 2011 | Jeffrey A. Tucker
    A Travel Channel episode of No Reservations, [..], took viewers to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I had heard that the show offered unique insight into the country and its troubles. I couldn't imagine how. But it turns out to be true. Through the lens of food, we can gain an insight into culture, and from culture to economy, and from economy to politics and finally to what's wrong in this country and what can be done about it. Through this micro lens, we gain more insight than we would have if the program were entirely focused on economic issues. Such an episode...
  • REPORT: Fox News Is Taking Karl Rove Off The Air (Over election night meltdown)

    12/04/2012 4:57:34 PM PST · by SeekAndFind · 185 replies
    Business Insider ^ | 12/04/2012 | Grace Wyler
    New York's Gabriel Sherman reports that Fox News is scaling back airtime for Republican pundit Karl Rove, in what appears to be a reprimand for Rove's meltdown during the network's live election broadcast. Sources told Sherman that Fox News chief Roger Ailes has ordered his staff to bench Rove and his fellow GOP pundit Dick Morris, two of the network's most vocal partisan voices whose predictions turned out to be spectacularly wrong. According to Sherman, producers must now get permission before booking Rove or Morris on Fox shows. The move comes as Fox takes steps to rehab its image in the wake...
  • Obama-Promoted Battery Plant Moves to 'Rolling Furloughs' As Company Pulls Back on Jobs Projections

    09/27/2012 1:09:04 PM PDT · by MichCapCon · 12 replies
    Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 9/26/2012 | Tom Gantert
    Two years ago, when President Obama visited the LG Chem battery plant in Holland, it was hailed as part of the transformation of Michigan to a “green economy.” The battery plant, which supplies batteries for the Chevy Volt, got $151 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. Today, $133 million of that $151 million has been spent, but since April, the company's 200 workers have been on "rolling furloughs" because the electric vehicle market has failed to blossom as promised by many. In 2010, the plant was projected to create 443 new jobs within five years. Those projections have been...
  • Worse than Solyndra: Obama Admin Buying Maine Senate Seat with Crony Energy Loans

    09/11/2012 1:05:50 PM PDT · by Izzy Dunne · 10 replies
    Breitbart.com ^ | 10 Sep 2012 | Ben Shapiro
    The Obama administration is famous for its crony capitalism. It’s famous for wasting money on disastrous investments like Solyndra to pay off its political allies. It now appears, however, that they go a step further: they put public funds in bad investment loans, then double down on their bad loans with free cash grants.
  • New video: When I grow up, I want to be a crony

    08/23/2012 10:42:05 AM PDT · by wewillnotcomply · 2 replies
    Children used to have aspirations to achieve greatness in the private sector. But what are they learning now? Watch this video at Fox Nation and click "Fire it up!" on the top left if you really like it.