Gingrich backer willing to give $100M to benefit former House speaker

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Tue Feb 21, 2012, 02:39 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57381758-503544/gingrich-backer-willing-to-give-$100m-to-benefit-former-house-speaker/

The billionaire casino magnate backing Newt Gingrich said he is prepared to give $100 million to help the former House speaker in his quest for the White House if he decides it is necessary.

Sheldon Adelson, who has already given $11 million to the outside group backing Gingrich and is expected to give another $10 million in the coming days, told Forbes magazine he is prepared to spend five times that amount.
....

Forbes estimated Adelson's net worth at $25 billion, making the $11 million already given to "Winning our Future" a mere 0.044 percent of his fortune. The Huffington Post has calculated Adelson makes about $3.3 million per hour.

"I'm against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections," Adelson said.

Edited, because the link thingy wasn't working.

[INdemo]

1. Schools across the country are in need of new computer labs that

are centurys old while this guy wastes money on a dead end candidate...

[humblebum]

2. It's rewarding to hear that he is against the wealthy influencing elections.

SARCASM

[mazzarro]

17. Hmmmmm! The pot calling the kettle 'black' - eh? -- n/t

[wordpix]

49. yeah I caught the irony, too

[allan01]

3. re: Gingrich backer willing to give $100M to benefit former House speaker

and what about paying thier fair share of taxes?

[golfguru]

5. That $100 Million

is after tax money. He had to earn $166 million to keep $100 million.

Top 10% pay 70.5% of taxes,

Bottom 50% pay 2.3% of taxes.


http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html

[cstanleytech]

9. The bottom 50% like myself pay so little because we earn so little.

It would take most of us hundreds if not thousands of years to earn what most of the 1% earn.

[golfguru]

32. This is one of the few countries

where any one can hope to reach the top 1%. There are only a handful of countries
in the world today where that kind of success is achievable.

[Suji to Seoul]

35. The Haves and the Soon-To-Haves?

Mitch Daniels, is that you?

[golfguru]

37. No, I am much taller n/t

[Suji to Seoul]

47. Marco Rubio, is THAT you?

[cstanleytech]

59. Granted however the point is

that imo in our nation we should not have 40+ million people living at or below the poverty level especially if those same people are working full time and the 1% might want to consider addressing the issue before we get to the point of trying the French answer to the problem.

[golfguru]

69. can you give me 2 example of countries

where 99% of people are living better than US average living standard?
Please exclude some small countries with enormous oil & gas deposits,
such as Kuwait, Bahrain, Norway etc.

My point is, countries which have tried to equalize incomes have caused
general reduction in living standards....examples: formerly USSR, Mao's China,
Nehru's India, Formerly East Germany, etc. Amazingly, all have improved average
standards of living since accepting nascent capitalism. China created more new
millionaires last year than any other country. Some Indians now boast to be in
the top 10 richest people in the world. No system is perfect but if standards of
living for most people is the criterion, then capitalism has the best historical record.

[cstanleytech]

71. Does this link help you?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index

[xocet]

64. Interesting statement...

Actually, "any one (sic)" living anywhere can "hope" to reach the top 1%. Hoping for a goal to be achieved and actual achievement of a goal are substantially different things.

[bluedigger]

70. Yeah, anybody can "hope".

Actually achieving that success is another matter.

A recent article by Walt Gardner of Education Week, entitled “Policies Trump Schooling in Upward Mobility” states:

“In 2008, when 29.4 percent of the population held a college degree, the bottom 90 percent got less than 52 percent of the national income, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. But in 1970, when only 11 percent of the population had a degree, the bottom 90 percent got 67 percent of the national income.”

These findings seem to be in line with the earlier international report “American Exceptionalism in a New Light: A Comparison of Intergenerational Earnings Mobility in the Nordic Countries, the United Kingdom and the United States” by Germany’s Institute for the Study of Labor, which claims:

“The main driver of the difference in the pattern of male intergenerational mobility in the U.S. from that of each of the other countries in our study is the low mobility out of the lowest quintile group in the United States. Indeed, it is very noticeable that while for all of the other countries persistence is particularly high in the upper tails of the distribution, in the U.S. this is reversed – with a particularly high likelihood that sons of the poorest fathers in the U.S. will remain in the lowest earnings quintile.”
http://www.nationofchange.org/republicans-and-myth-upward-mobility-1329412132

[Tom Ripley]

75. Damn! I thought you were dead, Horatio.

[Hugabear]

77. Sorry, that is just pure absolute right-wing bullshit

You honestly expect us to believe that anyone could reach the top 1% in this country?

Please, don't peddle that bullshit here. It is simply not true. Go tell that to someone struggling through 2-3 jobs trying to make ends meet and take care of their family.

[liberalmike27]

13. First, I think you mean Federal Income Taxes

Second, usually people that get paid that much, make it gambling in the market, through stocks and hedge funds, and they only have to pay 15 percent, no payroll taxes, and such.

Third, while to me and the poster above, sales, gas, tolls, fees, interest on various things, utility taxes, property taxes, alcohol and cigarette taxes, along with the hefty 15 percent payroll taxes (and let's face it, that's pretty much FIT anyway, as it's tossed into and spent from the same pile), represent an incredibly significant portion of income, it's a relatively small percent of income to the rich. Plus they only pay the 15 percent on amounts up to 108,000/year anyway.

So I think those guys need to pay MORE taxes, and I'm not crying for them one bit. We need a maximum wage, all earnings in any way including capital gains should be subject to the same tax rates and payroll taxes with no cap, as anyone else too. And on amounts over ten million, we should just tax the rich at least 75%.

Anything we can do to fix maldistributed incomes and wealth, we should do. It's broken, and we should fix it!

[golfguru]

31. I agree on taxes for income from gambling

such as short term paper transaction in stocks & options. Granted they are risking their
own cash to make a profit, but it serves not much useful purpose to anyone.

However people who "invest" in a company stock for a long time provide very
valuable service to the company by providing capital without which no business can
operate.

I think long term capital gains should be taxed same as earned income provided there
is a factor allowed for inflation.

[Fearless]

23. 135 million.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States#Year_2011_income_brackets_and_tax_rates


And that isn't the point. The point is that there are people who NEED that money and Newt Gingrich is NOT one of them.

[golfguru]

29. We can agree on that 100%

Newt Gingrich is the least deserving person of $100 donation.

My $166 million estimate was based on old tax rates, since that Adelson dude
has been making money for a very long time.

$166 million x 40% tax bracket = aprox $100 million

[Suji to Seoul]

33. Are you assuming his income is wages?

Top Tax Bracket is 36%, not 40%, according to every EA I've ever spoken to.

If his wages are Super Long Term Cap Gains, is tax rate is 15%.

[golfguru]

36. Adelman is older than the hills

He has made money through 35%, 39.6%, 50% rates. He has been at this a
very long time. I assumed 40% average tax rate, 166 at 40% tax = 100 net.

[Suji to Seoul]

39. Then his tax rate is SLT Cap Gains of 15%.

[golfguru]

44. You must be very young. The 15% tax rate is young also.

I am 70 and I have paid much much more on capital gains. Adelman is older than me.

[Suji to Seoul]

46. I've been around taxes and taxation my entire life

Father is an Enrolled Agent tax accountant, uncle is a tax Attorney, grandfather was a CPA.

I'm getting my PhD in Economics as we speak from Johns Hopkins, which has an outreach program for Americans here in Nanjing at Nanjing University, so I can go to NJU using John Hopkins standards and get a Johns Hopkins PhD through NJU.

And I'm 35.

[Incitatus]

25. .

Being in the top 10% that pays 70% of the income tax that is collected by the government does not mean you pay a 70% income tax rate.

The bottom 50% that pays 2.3% (many of them performing labor that is exploited by the owners) makes less than $33k. You can't get blood from a turnip.

The question we should be asking isn't why do billionaires pay so much in taxes, it's why are so many people making so little while a few are accumulating astronomical sums of wealth. Do you have any theories or do you think it's because they just don't work hard enough?

[golfguru]

34. Re-read my post

I did not say top 10% pay at 70% rate. What i said is top 10% pay 70% of federal
income tax dollars collected by US Treasury.

[Incitatus]

43. .

[golfguru]

45. Why are you hung up on numbers? The main point is

one has to earn a lot more to donate a big amount.

[Incitatus]

51. My math was off too, but he doesn't pay as much as you originally claimed.

So the tax and wealth disparity issues aside, if your point is that one has to make a lot to donate a lot, then I can't disagree.


I do have a problem with the way wealthy people can influence elections. In this case he is just throwing his money away. In other cases the rich can influence elections for their own benefit.

[golfguru]

66. If you research my posting history, you will find I am for tax payer funded elections n/t

[Suji to Seoul]

26. Why are you using material used by Rush Limbaugh on his website?

Are you kidding me?

[golfguru]

28. Why do youlisten to Rush Limbaugh?

If he is using this it is news to me. I Only listen to him for a few seconds when
my radio dial accidentally hits his station.

And by the way this material is factual.

[Suji to Seoul]

30. I live in China. I don't listen to any of those jerks because when they are on

I am asleep.

I just know that this Tax Foundation organizations are composed of right wing thinkers and its two leaders are former advisers to Bush and McCain, while another is Bill Reynolds (see link #1), a former Blue Dog that too over George Bush's CD in 1969 and switched to be a Republican.

So, anything they say are completely unreliable, as noted, and respected, economist Paul Krugman (see links #2 and 33) proved.

Again, I ask, why are you using an organization Rush Limbaugh proudly quotes on his website?

1: link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Reynolds_Archer,_Jr.
2: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/the-tax-foundation-is-not-a-reliable-source/
3: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/stocks-flows-and-fuzzy-math/

[golfguru]

38. That tax data is straight from IRS

last time I hear IRS was not a vast right wing conspiracy.

[Suji to Seoul]

40. Again, you are defending an organization with a noted right wing bent

on Democratic Underground. Be prepared for people to call BS.

[golfguru]

42. Only thing I can and will defend are facts

there is no such thing as right wing facts or left wing facts.

[gateley]

56. The bottom line, though, is after the 1% pay their taxes,

they still have plenty of money left to live on. There are many of us who don't. That is what needs to be addressed, IMO.

[golfguru]

67. Yes, I am for 100% tax payer funded elections

but SCOTUS will need new faces to accomplish that.

[gateley]

72. Agree and agree. nt

[quakerboy]

54. Somehow I seriously doubt that

he paid 66 million in taxes. That would be 40%. Seeing as most unearned income is gotten at a lower tax rate than that for which the rest of us work, I seriously doubt that he paid anything like 40%.

[golfguru]

68. If you are as old as I am,

and I am almost certain you are much younger, I was in 42% tax bracket
while earning an average salary in late 1960's before tax brackets were indexed
for inflation. This Adelman bloke is older than me, so his past income has seen
some pretty high tax brackets. 40% is what I assumed as well.

[quakerboy]

73. Bologna

Billionaires do not make their money on salary. They make it on money. They pay a different tax rate.

[stockholmer]

4. how could somebody worth $25 billion be so stoopid? Am I missing something?

[lark]

6. K&R your post

Totally excellent picture.

[Bozita]

7. There's an "R" missing from the word "cooked" in that pic

[cstanleytech]

10. Hmm suddenly I am craving a BLT.

[go west young man]

11. U.S. Capitalism.

The shit rises to the top.

[pwb]

8. Hey Adelson, remember what brought Hitler to power?.

It was people like you.

[Tansy_Gold]

12. He would take that as a compliment. n/t

[LynneSin]

14. Think of what 100million could do to help feed the hungry instead

n/t

[FrodosPet]

27. A weeks worth of groceries for 2 million people

$7 a day for 2 million people for 1 whole week. And the money would STILL end up back in rich people's hands.

That's what I don't get. Rich people gotta know that when they give poor people money, the poor people are going to spend it, so they will end up with even MORE profits.

[LynneSin]

15. Here's a list of his hotels - ones to avoid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Sands#Properties

[DFW]

16. Roberts and Alito are probably both thinking...

"Gee, how can I get in on some of that?"

(Easy--retire, go to work for some PAC that gets "anonymous" donations from Adelson, and collect a $5 million
a year salary for "consulting work.&quot

[Mz Pip]

18. I guess this is his idea of job creation.

That's an awful lot of money to get one guy a job. I wonder how much his employees earn?

[fantomas]

19. If this money has to be wasted like this

$90 million dollars more of mud against Romney is OK in my book! His negatives can only go higher the longer and dirtier this goes.

[thelordofhell]

20. He's given almost 7 times as much to charities

Yet this is absurd. A fool and his money................

[JHB]

21. You misspelled "tax deductions"

[BadGimp]

22. This is Nuckin Futz

Is SCOTUS listening to this shit? the question is rhetorical of course..

[CindyT44]

24. he didn't really say that

if you read the whole article, he didn't really commit to spending $100 million. He just said "I might give $10 million or $100 million;" to me, it read as just a hypothetical range, not a firm commitment.

[DaveJ]

41. Casino magnate / Republican

He got rich taking advantage of others misfortune, so naturally he's republican.

When people like him with no scrupals are still becoming masters of the universe, it's obvious we need more Democratic government.

[Nihil]

80. Sadly, he's not the worst of them ...

> He got rich taking advantage of others misfortune, so naturally he's republican.

He got rich taking advantage of other people's gullibility, their stupidity and
their ignorance but not particularly their "misfortune".

The ones who deserve that label are those who've got filthy rich from the
medical insurance scam (kills thousands every year yet is still supported
by loads of politicians of every shade) and those who've got rich from the
armaments industry (kills millions every year yet still being praised as one
of the most profitable American export industries).

Simply holding your pocket open to allow idiots to pour their money into it
isn't even as lacking in scruples as working as a lawyer (who relies on the
misfortune of others to provide a case for them to which they book their fees.)

[wordpix]

48. some poor kids' parents go broke gambling & this jerk is a billionaire

& supports Ging-Rich. Something is wrong with this picture of Amerika.

[Suji to Seoul]

50. (knock knock, knock) Newty. (knock knock, knock) Newty. (knock knock, knock) Newty.

{Newt opens door}

Here's $100 million. Divide the Republican Party for me and keep this going.

Newt looks at the money.

CALLISTA!!! I'm going out for a while."

Newt closes the door.

"Sheldon, can I be your mistress? My wife will never know."

[Rozlee]

65. Well, that's one post I agree with you on.

Sheldon's business is gambling. One would think he'd know when he's betting on a sure thing or when he's got an ace up his sleeve. Like it's been conjectured, he might want to keep Gingrich in the race to keep splitting the vote between Santorum and Romney so that no clear winner would emerge from the primaries and maybe back his own favored dark horse in a brokered convention. Hell, he might want Obama to win at the rate he's dragging this whole business out and weakening his opponents. But, I'm giving him too much credit. Intelligent Machiavellian thinking got washed out of the GOP gene pool by too much inbreeding a generation or so ago.

[Beartracks]

52. Weird. This is just like saying, "I want to buy a president." n/t

[amuse bouche]

53. Adelson must be addled

That money could do so much good. What a vile waste

[Historic NY]

55. Wow thats a lots of book sales....of "Newt gone Wild".

[cliffordu]

57. Glad to see another asshole waste money on

this shitbag.

Perfect.

[donheld]

58. He probably won't give a nickel to help people in real need.

[diane in sf]

60. I hope this idiot spends all his money without accomplishing his goals.

[Turbineguy]

61. So those voting Newt

want a bought and paid for President?

[Nihil]

79. That's all any voter gets in America ...

... and it's certainly all voters in the post-Kennedy decades have got.



(Applies to many other countries too BTW but the subject was US Presidents.)

[jimmac1959]

62. crazy

money thrown around in GOP presidential nomination process is beyond obscene. if the fat cats donating all this cash had used it to get people hired....we'd much better off. however, clown car patrol could never go for that- it would make OBAMA a hero or something. it's so sad.

[Botany]

63. Department of pounding sand down a rat hole

Latest poll out of Michigan


Santorum 35
Romney 37
Paul 13
Gingrich 8

[mudstump]

74. Adelson is buying himself a war with Iran..

Why is Gingrich talking so much about Iran? He said Iran is going to attack the US and he supports an Israeli strike on Iran. I guess a war with Iran can be bought for the right price.

[Tom Ripley]

76. Bingo! ""The uniform that I wore in the military, unfortunately, was not an Israeli uniform, it was

an American uniform."

[squicked]

78. The price of free speech...

I wish I could afford that kind of speech.

[eringer]

81. $100 Million Wow!! Groundbreaking in Jerusalem for New Embassy -- February 22, 2012

Tell those diplomats to pack their bags -- they are moving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem! Hope they told the architects to include a bomb shelter.