What would say, if you learned that a powerful politician rigged legislation to generate over $100 thousand in personal profit for him, at the same time that it took food out of poor children’s mouths and prevented health care for the needy? Would you think he was heartless? Would you think he was greedy? Would you think he was a crooked man? That man is Paul Ryan.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the architect of the GOP budget plan, has put forth a plan that calls for ending a number of tax subsidies. However, he has hedged multiple times when asked about oil subsidies. When given the opportunity to end billions in taxpayer giveaways to big oil companies, Ryan voted to preserve the generous subsidies.
The Daily Beast’s Daniel Stone is reporting that Ryan’s protection of billions in wasteful oil subsidies may relate to his own personal fortune. Newly released personal finance disclosures reveal that Ryan and his wife “own stakes in four family companies that lease land in Texas and Oklahoma to the very energy companies that benefit from the tax subsidies in Ryan’s budget plan.” Stone reports that those companies are among his most valuable assets… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
Cenk Uygur provides the details.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Personally, I think that all elected federal officials should be required to cash out their investment holdings and place the proceeds in a blind trust to stay as long as they are in office. It’s a shame that has become needed. While there is corruption on both sides of the aisle, Republicans are so much so, that they are smug about it.
11 Responses to “There Was a Crooked Man”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
ONLY $ 100,000. That’s petty theft when you are talk’n Republicans. I’m surprised it wasn’t way up there in the millions. I guess the boy’s still learn’n! 😈
Give him time Johnny.
Ryan is the same hypocrite son of a bitch who went to school coutresy of Social Security survivor’s benefits and now wants to end Social Security. All he really cares about is Paul Ryan. He cannot be trusted – period.
Why continue it? He got his! 🙄
Elmer Fudd says: “Not only is wittle Paulie Wyan a wascally, wapacious Wepubican – he’s an Ayn Wand Wepubican … so of course he’s selfish!”
Paul Ryan says: “I’m not in Congress to bring riches to the poor in a bad economy – I’m here so in a bad economy the poor can bring riches to ME!”
Wight on!
I think that all federal employees should have to cash out all of their personal investments in anything (except for 401Ks) so they have no conflict of interest in ANYTHING. I had to do that when I worked in Public Accounting – I was not allowed to own, stocks, bonds, land, or options in ANY company so that I would not have any financial gain coming from a company that we could potentially audit – EVEN IF IT WAS NOT A CLIENT OF THAT FIRM. That was to follow one of the ethics rules in public accounting that you give the appearance and fact of independence of any potential client. And trust me, I lost a pretty penny on the stock that I owned through the company’s ESOP (Employee Stock Option Plan) that I had worked for prior to going into that particular firm. That way I could call my self independent in fact and appearance. Congress and all federal employees should be subject to those same rules. No blind trusts either – you dissolve all your assets before you are allowed to work for the government and you may not obtain any assets until you are out of federal office. Done and simple. 🙄
The ESOP gave you the option of buying stock in the company out of payroll deductions from your pay check. It was a nice benefit because you got to buy the stock at 15% discount of stock from the company and you could buy as much or as little as you wanted. I maxed mine out because your cost basis of the stock included the 15% benefit – in other words if the stock was selling on the open market, you got to buy it at 15% off that price every quarter. So if the stock was going up, like mine was, you automatically made 15% on the day you bought it. And that price would then become your basis for the stock, so when you sold it, let’s say at $50 your gain would be $24.50 instead of $20, so on the day they bought the stock, you’ve already made $4.50. Here’s the math on that – $30 * .15 = $24.50 (that’s you basis on the stock so you’ve already made $4.50 on the day you bought it). If you sold it at $50 the math on that would be $50 – $24.50 = $25.50 instead of $20.00. So, if you had 100 shares you would make $2,550.00 instead of $2,000.00. If you sold the stock at a loss, you’d still have that $4.50 cushion in there so you wouldn’t lose as much. Pretty cool, eh? 😉 Can you tell I’m a CPA?
Thanks for the lesson, Lisa. I had a similar deal with a company for which I once worked, but my discount was only 2%.
Ae we surprised? As I continue to say, the only good Republican is a dead one.
Charles, I have no problem with them surviving, as long as they are not working in government in any capacity.