A Deficit of $100 Million Is Confronting the N.R.A.

[MarkTwain]

A Deficit of $100 Million Is Confronting the N.R.A.
By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: December 21, 2003

Costly legal, legislative and political battles in the last decade have left the National Rifle Association with a $100 million deficit, reopening a bitter debate within the group about how it manages its money.

In the past decade the group's efforts have helped Republicans win the White House and Congress and led to laws in more than 30 states banning lawsuits against gun manufacturers. In the last year the N.R.A. helped pay for a losing legal battle against campaign finance legislation, which the Supreme Court upheld this month.



But through many of those years, according to Internal Revenue Service and N.R.A. records, the organization spent more than it took in.

Even in 2000, when gun owners helped elect George W. Bush as president, pushing N.R.A. membership to a 10-year high, expenses outstripped revenues by $20.4 million, according to I.R.S. filings.

- SNIP -

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/21/politics/21NRA.html?hp

[pasadenaboy]

1. When have republicans

ever been able to handle money? They've never had a budget they don't borrow and spend into defecit and disaster.

[MarkTwain]

2. Well Put... What's equally as funny is....

... their attempt to see this as not only a non-issue, but a blessing!

"The N.R.A. contends that its deficit is a fiction manufactured by accounting standards. "Trying to do an analysis of the organization based on its accounting-created balance sheet is a futile attempt because it is driven by assets that aren't there, namely the quality of its members, and liabilities that aren't really there either," said Wilson H. Phillips Jr., the N.R.A. treasurer.

He said the deficit was a sign of strength, because the bulk of the liabilities reflect future obligations to long-term members. "What appears to be a growth in the deficit is actually a demonstration of membership growth and growth in longer-term commitments from members," Mr. Phillips said."

But, when you read on into the story you find that this opinion is not only seriously challenged but is compared to other groups who are financially sound (i.e., the Sierra Club, no less!).

Best of all: their Pension Fund is, likewise, in serious trouble. The older Gun Nuts may be forced to have a newly developed sense of respect for "Gover-b-ment" programs like Social Security, it seems.

[54anickel]

8. Sounds like Greenspan ;-) n/t

[MrBenchley]

38. Hilarious...

"assets that aren't there, namely the quality of its members"
Funny to see the NRA treasurer himself say his members are worthless....

"the deficit was a sign of strength"
Well, they're already pretending that the Second Amendment says neurotics can run around with popguns in their pockets...why not go out even further out of line with reality?

[snippy]

5. Eisenhower was the last republican president to have smaller deficits

than democratic presidents.

[0007]

10. Snippy, explain that one please! It seems to me that Clinton,

had a rather large surplus when he left office.

Dwight Eisenhower was no prize for the commoner. Like like all republicians he sign many bills that helped big corporations to beat the income tax. Other than that he played a lot of golf. Probably one of the least active presidents this country every had.

[pasadenaboy]

12. Snippy is right

prior to Clinton, Eisenhower was the last president to have a balanced budget.

[0007]

15. Snippy did not say prior to Clinton, if he had I would agree.

[The Zanti Regent]

30. Lyndon Johnson left office with a budget surplus

Which Tricky Dick frittered away

[snippy]

18. Snippy says oops. I was wrong.

In my initial statement I was referring (although I did not say so) to the president's entire time in office. However, I forgot that the budget deficit or surplus for the first fiscal year of a presidential term is from the preceeding presidential term. Because of that error I mistakenly included the 1991 Poppy Bush deficit of $269 billion in Clinton's total and omitted the 2001 surplus of $127.3 billion from that total. Using correct figures Eisenhower had an accumulated deficit of $15.5 billion and Clinton had an accumulated surplus of $61.8 billion.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2004/sheets/hist01z3.xls

Despite my mistake, my point that, since Eisenhower was president, republican presidents have accumulated much larger deficits than democratic presidents is still valid. It has always irritated me that republicans have created the opposite impression in the minds of so many people.

[loudnclear]

16. You mean those tax cuts didn't help the NRA?

I'm shocked!!

[Lisa0825]

3. Many of their members are pretty mad at Bush now....

They feel like he hasn't done a thing for them since he's been in office, as far as gun rights go. Hopefully that sentiment, along with their debt will mean less support for Bush's campaign.

[Robb]

4. Sooooo...

...they won't be buying that newspaper? ;)

[okieinpain]

6. no freakin way, nope must be a typo. everybody knows that the

repugs know how to run a business. somebody is telling a bigggg lie, because, well because it just couldn't be true. besides saddam is a evil man.

[Wapsie B]

35. Darn right repugs now how to run a bidness.

Those damn demoncrats are all on welfare anyway.

/sarcasm

[truthisfreedom]

7. what is it with the way rethugs run their businesses into the ground?

did someone cash out of NRA stock in a massive insider trading deal before they crashed, as well? or is that still coming? or is it that they simply are so fraught with felons that they can't keep count of the till?

i wouldn't trust a bunch of gun-totin' rethugs around my money... someone should tell those guys at the NRA.

[gristy]

9. I see a Washington bailout on the horizon

No doubt it will be buried in one of those bills that few get to read and they pass on a secret voice vote. :eyes:

[0007]

11. Maybe they're cooking the books and buying gold?

[goforit]

13. Absolute power corrupts absolutely!!!...Just ask Bush to print you more!!

Such a joke!!!!

LOL!!!!......Sweet karma!!!

[aquart]

14. So, how are they paying rent and salaries?

Who's floating this derelict barge?

[loudnclear]

17. I hope all the Bush contributors go broke...that's justice!

eom

[supernova]

19. Awww, po wittle NRA

I feel so sorry for them. Times are tough all over.

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[joeunderdog]

48. Looks like they shot themselves in the foot.

It's expensive to uphold the rights to kill innocent people.

[graelent]

20. Another reason I like Dean

I do not agree with his Gun Control stances, but Dean in the race plus their money woes allow the NRA to sit out this race and not run scare ads about Democrats taking people's guns in the South and midwest.

[Pale_Rider]

21. That office in the Whitehouse ...

... doesn't come cheap!

Flashback to 2000 ...

The NRA Brags That They'll Work Out Of President GW Bush's Oval Office
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/050400-01.htm

The National Rifle Association's second-ranking officer boasted at a closed meeting of NRA members earlier this year that if Republican nominee George W. Bush wins in November, "we'll have . . . a president where we work out of their office."

[emc]

22. donations

You can bet the next thing that the republicans will try to do since this crisis has come up,----- thats pass legistlation that on your next income tax form that you mail in, you can also check a box for a donation of 1 dollar to the NRA-

[Jacobin]

23. Bribes R Us gone broke

[mbperrin]

24. This just breaks my f**king heart!!!!!!!

(just kiddin')

[drscm]

25. Maybe they'll get some of those "faith based" funds

that our dear pResident* wants to handily give away, willy nilly, without any respect for the 'merurikan taxpayer.

[NickB79]

26. Wow, no one caught this quote?

"In the last year the N.R.A. helped pay for a losing legal battle against campaign finance legislation, which the Supreme Court upheld this month."

So, the NRA was fighting AGAINST legislation that Bush himself signed into law! They can't be too happy about that after helping get him elected, not to mention all the hell he's been doing to the environment (most hunters get pretty pissed at Bush's lack of protecting their hunting land). Not a good sign for Bush, methinks.

[DoNotRefill]

32. Not only that, but NRA's co-plaintiff was...

the ACLU. Strange bedfellows, indeed.

[MrBenchley]

39. By the way...

lead attorney in that effort was crotch-sniffer extraordinaire Ken Starr.

[DoNotRefill]

44. And Bob Barr...

works for the ACLU now, which was co-plaintiff with the NRA in the suit. What's yer point?

[Don_G]

27. The PNAC Sucks Money

Like a "black hole" to promote their agenda, don't they?

Little do they know that Dem's aren't so different but tend to be independant, think individually and works for all to achieve a common goal.

[pinto]

28. Outta my cold broke hands! (big applause)

[RussBLib]

29. Are you ready for NRA TV??

I understand from Moyers' NOW program that the NRA is aggressively pushing to create a TV network, the prinicipal reason most likely being so that they can circumvent the new Campaign Finance rules that prohibit any entity OTHER THAN MEDIA from running issue-oriented ads within 60 days of a general election.

They create a TV network, so they can be considered "media" so that they can run pro-Bush (duh) ads right up to the day of the election. You think that Murdoch's DirectTV will carry NRA TV?

The left must counter with its own media creations. It seems to be, if we can believe that Al Gore is working to do the same thing. We could use some others too.

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript247_full.html

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Now what?

There is evidence that with enough grit, wits and determination it may be possible to chisel a nice loophole into campaign finance laws, despite the recent victory for the law in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Associated Press is reporting that the National Rifle Association wants to buy some radio or TV stations. Reruns of GUNSMOKE or THE RIFLEMAN? Well, not quite. The plan is to use the stations to transform the NRA into a bona fide member of the news media. And why would the respected and powerful firearms lobby want to acquire the pitiful title of "news media"?

The answer lies in 2002's campaign finance law. It prevents groups that take corporate or union money from buying certain types of political ads on radio or TV 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election.

But there's a key exception…It's for the news media who are free under this law to write editorials for and against candidates, to cover the news, or to interview whomever they see fit right up to and beyond election day.

The NRA seems very serious about becoming a broadcaster, come hell or high water. The ap quotes the NRA's Wayne LaPierre saying the organization will look at every option to continue to exercise its first amendment rights-even putting a ship with a transmitter in international waters and "beaming in," if it comes to that.

In the profession, we call that pirate radio, a form of broadcasting with a swashbuckling and romantic history, but hitherto not much of a force in U.S. electoral politics.

clip:

And you have to admit that if the Second Amendment folks ever put some kind of "NRA-TV" on the air, it could make compelling televison…. It might even look something like this:

Item: The Mayor of Geuda Springs, Kansas this month vetoed a city council plan to force most households to own a firearm or face a ten dollar fine. The measure may come up again in February. There's a County Sheriff but Geuda Springs, population 210, has no local police force.

Item: About 12-thousand people showed up for the Knob Creek Gun Range Machine Gun Shoot in West Point, Kentucky earlier this fall. A 16-year-old won the women's submachine gunner prize. There was also a flamethrower competition.

Item: We're still monitoring one tiny piece of the massive 328 billion dollar omnibus spending bill that will come up again in Congress in January. It would force authorities to throw away firearms background check information after 24 hours. Currently, the government holds that information for 90 days.

And in sports…the final score is in from Northwestern New Jersey, after six days…the hunters defeated the black bears 328 to nothing.

That's our firearms update. NRA-TV is not real - yet - but those stories are as real as can be. Connect to pbs.org to see our sources.

That's it for NOW. Bill Moyers will be back next week with a special hour on a unique Christian vision. I'm David Brancaccio. Good night.

[Terwilliger]

31. quick! send them your guns!!

they can sell them to both sides in some war and make a tidy profit!

[Don_G]

33. Charleton Heston Was Another "Spend-And-Blow" Liberal?

Shocking, unless the Rethugs control everything including the media....

[The Zanti Regent]

34. If they are 100 million in the red, who's paying the bills?

OOPS, I forgot Scaife, Coors and the Olin Foundation still have deep pockets

[pinniped]

36. How are they gonna run that TV station?

Is their credit good?

[GRClarkesq]

37. I dont know about the nature of the deficit

but I heard NRA mortgaged their future by convincing members to buy "life" memberships for a one time fee which gave the NRA a nice chunk of chage today, but they then lose the annual dues stream of income.

All of this could be fund raising tactic to hit up their members. Would they be talking about buying TV station if they were broke.

[MrBenchley]

40. Sure they would

Lyinng is second nature for the NRA. Their entire recent history is based on a lie about the Second Amendment.

[DoNotRefill]

43. yup....a lie supported by Lawrence Tribe...

one of the premiere Constitutional scholars out there, and a big fat (D).

Didn't a poll by a gun control group (AGS) find that something like 90% of the American public thought the Second Amendment conveyed an individual right to keep and bear arms?

[MrBenchley]

46. And still a lie...

Now go snivel about it to someone who gives a steaming crap....

[moondust]

41. Going into an election year?

Time to borrow *'s credit cards.

[baldguy]

42. This reminds me of the people who overdraw thier checking . . .

. . . and then say "That can't be! I still have checks!"

[MrBenchley]

47. As Charlton Heston says

"I'll stop wrting checks when they pry the pen out of my cold dead hands..."

[DoNotRefill]

45. I'll think they're in trouble...

when they get evicted from their headquarters and have to fire most of their employees, like the MMM had to.

[Bandit]

49. " the organization spent more than it took in."

Republican through and through