Clinton pocketing campaign donations?

[Zueda]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0208/Hillarys_loan_with_interest.html#comments

Over $60,000. Absolutely incredible.

[gateley]

1. Kind of a side note that when people have to borrow money -- in the MILLIONS --

to run for President of the United States, that's fucked up.

[grantcart]

49. new figures out - shes 7.5 million in debt

[Diane R]

2. How sad. Lots of people are digging deep to donate, and it's going to enrich the Clintons.

[anamandujano]

34. Bull. I consider my two $50 donations morale boosters and nothing more.

When they were in the White House, people were agog at how poor they actually were.

I'm sure even now they still make the top ten of poor, yet prominent, politicians.

[Laurab]

43. I wouldn't be so sure.

"Poor" politicians don't have 5 million to "loan" to themselves. They're doing quite well with book sales and speaking fees. Bill himself said so recently.

[woolldog]

44. Are you kidding me?

Disclosed records indicate they have a net worth of 30-50 million dollars.

[Adelante]

56. If you call $50M "poor"

Okay.

[Whisp]

3. humph. so how many people did she rip off?

how many that donated 10, 100, 1000, thinking it was going to her campaign, probably not being able to really afford it in many cases, how many did she RIP OFF?

what will she end up spending this money personally on? baubles? artwork? expensive make-up? her retirement fund?

this is disgusting, if true.

Can't wait to hear her excuse on this one.

[Zueda]

4. "...if true."?

tis true.


http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00431569/324192/sc/ALL

[Whisp]

5. Obama should hint at this in the debate tomorrow.

if she starts with the yelling and pointing fingers at him.
that should shut her attack mode down a few notches.

[UALRBSofL]

6. John Kerry's loan was a bank loan, and the campaign paid interest to the bank.

It's a modest rate which means that -- if she pays herself back with donor contributions -- she still would have been better off putting her money in a savings account at a commercial bank.

Clinton's loan has not, however, been paid back.

(Thanks to the reader who pointed this one out. Both candidates filings are now up at fec.gov; let me know what you find, as many eyes are better than two.)

Campaign finance documents filed today show that she's charging her campaign an interest rate of 1.26%.

CORRECTION: John Kerry's loan was a bank loan, and the campaign paid interest to the bank.

[mkultra]

7. seems odd to charge interest to your own campaign

[quantass]

11. Bank Loan is different for Kerry since no choice -- But for Hilary, that is a Disgrace to charge...

I mean like HELLO HILARY, your donators were doing this to help you and you are turning around and earning profit from them. The money they donate was to help you win the election not line your pockets so you can go home and buy yet another $63,000 lexus.

[Whisp]

13. she could always donate that 63,000 to cluster bomb victims

or clean water for Iraqi's.
or Blackwater.

grrrrrr.

[woolldog]

45. Not really.

[yourguide]

62. yes but banks arent going to give you a non interest loan

if nothing else, just to keep the APPEARANCE of propriety you either give yourself a no interest loan or you loan the money from the bank, you dont make money off your own donors.

[quantass]

9. AGREED!!

[OzarkDem]

53. Hope he brings it up, he'll look like a fool

refusing to discuss issues like the economy and choosing to peddle phony scandals instead.

[cali]

54. You're bound to be disappointed- yet again.

I doubt he'll touch it, and he'll deal with Hilly just fine- another disappointment pour vouz.

[quantass]

8. HOLY CRAP she is stealing $63,000/year from her own Donators!! MSM is going to go nutz on this

[rodeodance]

14. with many Obampuppies jumping on the bandwagon. Your leader will stay away from this.

[ObamaFan]

18. She's shady..and actually ripping off her donors...how much did you send ?

I'd ask for my money back...yowzer

[rodeodance]

24. like I said---your Leader will stay away from smut like this.

[Laurab]

26. Is there nothing HRC could do that would bother you?

And you call Obama supporters all kinds of names - Obamapuppies now I see. At least I'm able to admit when the candidate I support (or his wife), screws up.

And Obama supporters are a cult...:eyes:

[rodeodance]

39. no, I just don't think making a moutain out of a molehill is worth it. this is boring. bye

[ObamaFan]

28. Ask for your money back...I would..

[anamandujano]

29. cause he's a uniter, not a divider (credit where credit is due, GWB)

[meow mix]

37. i would ask for my money back

thats ridiculous

[LittleClarkie]

33. Whatever happened to Obama babies

or did you get sick of that insult?

[GarbagemanLB]

36. If Hillary was found guilty of murder you'd still be supporting her. Sad.

[Eric J in MN]

22. The value of money is relative to inflation.

If she didn't charge interest, she would effectively be losing personal money.

[Colobo]

10. This is quite shady.

[quantass]

12. She's really gettin' desparate.

[Eric J in MN]

23. Would you lend an organization thouands of dollars interest-free? NT

NT

[ContinentalOp]

27. Not one that she was in charge of.

[OzarkDem]

52. Obama supporters are getting desperate

I suppose they would have attacked her also if she had loaned the money interest free. :eyes:

[Arkansas Granny]

57. As I recall, there were several negative posts when she loaned

the money to her campaign even before they knew the details, so I think you are correct with that assumption.

[tammywammy]

15. Why would she charge her own campaign interest?

It's not like the loaned money to just anyone, she loaned money to herself. Strange.

[Eric J in MN]

16. She gets more money personally that way.

Otherwise, she would be taking a loss on the loan, relative to inflation.

[tammywammy]

17. Yes, I understand that

It just doesn't sound right to charge your own campaign interest on a loan from yourself to your campaign. Even Romney didn't do that.

[Eric J in MN]

19. Mitt Romney didn't have a choice.

He spent most of the money he took in, including his own money.

As far as we know so far (more campaign reports will be available after the quarter ends), he'll never see the $35 million of his own money he spent, because he didn't proceed to take in over $35 million without spending it.

[dugggy]

20. Clinton's are known to pilfer things

They tried removing furniture from WH upon moving out.

[MonkeyFunk]

47. That's an old right-wing lie

[TheDonkey]

21. That is bullshit you should not be pocketing interest off this Hillary. You have enough money

stand up for what you believe in and PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOU MOUTH IS. That is pretty embarrassing she did that.

[Eric J in MN]

25. This is a ridiculous scandal.

I could understand if someone argued that since the Clintons have millions, they should donate millions to her campain instead of making it a loan.

Making a big deal about the 1.26% interest on the loan, which is less than she would getting from a CD, is ridiculous.

[Laurab]

42. Okay, they should donate millions to her campaign

instead of making it a loan. How's that? And particularly a loan which her supporters contributions are going to pay back - with interest. I don't think it's ridiculous - it seems somewhat dishonest to me, and maybe it wouldn't if she had informed her contributors about it. But, in true HRC style, she didn't.

Instead, she was "broke", her workers were "working without pay", etc., and the donations poured in for "poor" Hillary. If she has 5 million to "loan" herself, she doesn't need to earn interest on it through her contributors.

[CreekDog]

50. That's what I think is odd

She's getting all the flack of collecting interest, but only collecting 1.26%. It will probably cost more than 60k of Penn's time to figure out how much collecting the interest costs her politically. And all for 1.26%! :banghead:

[meow mix]

30. nice little chunk of money there

sweet

[meow mix]

31. didnt she sell her donators names too?

i cant remember..

[Independent-Voter]

60. Yes - her 2006 donor list was sold for

[ContinentalOp]

32. I thought giving herself money was kind of embarrasing in the first place.

If you can't get people to give you $5 million, what hope do you have of winning an election? Granted, it's not Romney level embarassing but it still seems like a dumb move from a business point of view.

[ObamaFan]

38. Her camp has been in trouble for awhile it seems...she lent herself

the money...hoping she would smash Obama on Feb 5th and all would be right in the world..but it didn't workout that way...so she had a real "firewall" in place, just in case..

If this shit doesn't pan out, at least I can get my money back with interest...I just have to sucker a few more contributors into covering me until this is over...:rofl:

[Jersey Devil]

35. She had to do that or the IRS would impute higher interest for taxes

1.24% is probably a rate she was advised to collect by her tax advisors. If you make a loan and it has no interest stated the IRS can impute interest at market rates, maybe around 5-6% today. Hey, I am an Obama supporter but this hit piece is a non-starter.

[ObamaFan]

40. It didn't have to be a loan all together..though

[Levgreee]

41. are you sure the same rule applies to loans given by a person to their political campaign?

Also, could you show a source?

[Jersey Devil]

48. No, I am not sure about a loan to a campaign

I am a lawyer but not a tax lawyer or a cpa. However, I do have a general knowledge of imputed interest and often advise clients in family loan situations to have written loan documents with stated low interest rates to avoid the IRS imputing a higher rate of interest.

Here's an article that may be of interest to you that explains imputed interest:

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=427414

[GumboYaYa]

58. Imputed interest rules apply to individual loans and not corporate loans.

I bet that loans to a campaign fall in the category of corporate loans and no interest is required to avoid an imputed gift.

[loveangelc]

46. Sad.

[OneBlueSky]

51. I'm no Hillary fan, but this "issue" is just bullshit . . .

if she wants to loan money to a political campaign -- be it her own or anyone else's -- she has every right to charge reasonable interest . . . now if the rate were 30% or so, I might have a problem with it . . . but this just seems to an attempt to create an "issue" where there is none . . .

[yourguide]

64. she has the right to but...

isnt it really the principle of the matter...you have a politician saying BELIEVE IN ME, vote for me, donate to me - then it turns out that the candidate is lining her own pocket with interest donated to her by her contributors.

yes, she has the right to, and yes it's legal, but even Romney had the sense to not give an appearance of impropriety.

[Perry Logan]

55. In case you haven't noticed, the anti-Hillarites make up a new bullshit accusation every day.

The accusations get debunked, but they go on repeating them. Welcome to the creepy Bizarro World of the anti-Hillary contingent.

[thevoiceofreason]

59. Actually, I don't think she's doing anything wrong

For it to be a legal loan, she HAS to charge interest. I am sure she set the rate at the lowest allowed by law.

Not uncommon.

BTW, I'm an Obama fan. Let's focus on what's important.

[Marrah_G]

61. Yet another nasty and pathetic hit piece. You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Vinca]

63. It appears a little unseemly, considering she's touting her base

as the little guys making under $50,000 a year. She's got Bill raking in millions in speaking fees (talk is NOT cheap) and yet she's using her campaign as an investment vehicle? Legal, but a bit stinky.