Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/726387
Howrefreshingitis,a erweeksandmonths of faux Clinton Foundation "scandals," a er all the fatuous media talk about "optics" and "perceptions," to finally have a real Founda- tion scandal to chew on. An actual example of pay-to-play, of money given and a favor granted. Anditcomes touscour- tesy of Donald Trump. The Washington Post has done most of the spadework, but most of the so-called "lib- eral" media has inexplicably ignored it. Fortunately, Trump himself pumped some oxygen into the story when he denied any and all wrongdoing. Three years ago, the Don- ald J. Trump Foundation, the family's nonprofit char- ity, gave a $25,000 campaign contribution to a group that flacked for Florida attorney general Pam Bondi. That do- nation was illegal, because nonprofits are barred by the IRS from giving money to po- litical campaigns. And at the time the illegal donation was made, Bondi was deciding whether to go to bat for all the Floridians who had been allegedly bilked by the phony Trump University. Should she join the State of New York's class action lawsuit, or not? Trump's foundation sent the money to Bondi. A month later, Bondi decided not to prosecute Trump University. She claimed that her office had received only one com- plaint. That was a lie. More than 60 aggrieved Floridians had sought her help, hoping to recoup their money from the scam school. The donation, followed by the decision not to pros- ecute... what timing. By the way, you may remember Bon- di's gig at the Republican convention in Cleveland. She was the one who spoke in rapt terms about champion- ing the rule of law. It gets worse. After The Post and a citizens watch- dog group raised hell earlier this year, the Trump Founda- tion paid a fine to the IRS — right there, we have a proof of guilt, far beyond any of the Clinton "optics" and "per- ceptions" — but the Founda- tion still insisted that it had merely made what it called an "honest mistake." Sup- posedly, it had intended to send the money to a charita- ble group in Kansas that had roughly the same name as Bondi's political committee, but gee, somehow the money went to Bondi's committee, not to Kansas. It gets even worse. Under IRS rules, the Trump Foun- dation is supposed to with- draw its illegal donation. Bondi's political group has tried to give it back; as the group's treasurer told The Post, "I wrote a check, sent it via FedEx." But what hap- pened next? "I received a call from the Trump Foundation, saying that they had declined to accept the refund." Which brings us to Trump's remarks. He de- nied that he had ever tried to buy Bondi for $25,000 in the hopes that she'd leave Trump University alone. "I never spoke to her, first of all. She's a fine person beyond re- proach," Trump said. "I never even spoke to her about it at all. She's a fine person. Never spoke to her about it. Never." Well, that was interesting. Because, just three months ago, Bondi political consul- tant Marc Reichelderfer told the Associated Press that Bondi and Trump had spo- ken — personally, one on one — about a possible Trump donation. The AP quoted Reichefelder on that, and ref- erenced it in the opening paragraph of its June story, and neither Bondi or Trump denied it. So was Trump lying yester- day when he said that he and Bondi "never" spoke about a donation that turned out to be illegal? An illegal dona- tion that landed in Bondi's political account shortly be- fore she decided to leave ag- grieved Floridians high and dry — a decision that bene- fited Trump as well? That's how the game works — according to Trump him- self. You give money to pols, you get political favors. In the summer of 2015, he told The Wall Street Journal: "As a businessman and a very substantial donor to very im- portant people, when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do." When he was asked about that statement during a de- bate last winter, he replied, "You'd better believe it." And he said this, at a rally in Iowa: "When I want some- thing, I get it. When I call, they kiss my ass." Now let's try a little test. Reread all the aforemen- tioned info, and replace Trump's name with Hillary Clinton's. If she had ever con- cocted a fake school that al- legedly defrauded consum- ers, and if she had made an illegal political donation to an attorney general who then opted not to prosecute fraud, and if she had tried to cover it up by insisting that the money was supposed to go to Kansas, and if she had ever denied speaking with that AG despite recent state- ments from an AG ally that she in fact had spoken about a donation ... Well. The main- stream media would be bang- ing on this 24/7. You know, for the sake of "balance." And that's more dis- graceful than Trump's actual scandal. DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. DickPolman The Donald Trump pay-to-play scandal has been ignored Cartoonist's take Fifteen years ago, we watched the riveting, abom- inable images of radical Is- lamic terrorist attacks in New York and Wash- ington. Heroic passengers in a doomed plane thwarted a third attack over Penn- sylvania. Insuffi- cient resolve, po- litical correctness and foolish intransigence in our counter- terrorism apparatus leave us less safe — as San Bernardino and Orlando have shown. God (and our leaders) willing, we will defeat terrorists where they breed their jihadist plots. You, someone in your family, or someone you know may be unemployed but ready, willing, able and seeking work. Eco- nomic freedom is restricted ei- ther by one's skills or, more likely, by the lack of openings in the job market. Economic ability and freedom for compa- nies to grow limits the options of not only businesses but also would-be employees. Many are depending on ex- isting employers letting some- one go, replacing someone who quits, or are depending on someone hiring for a new busi- ness. Some marshal their skills and knowledge, and provide a product or service of their own making to consumers. In every case, people de- pend to some degree on the health, vibrancy, flexibil- ity and, yes, freedom of the economy. The Gross Domes- tic Product growth rate, the rate of unemployment and those who've given up and left the work force, the number of businesses starting, growing, giving up, closing and fail- ing—all impact your income, budget and health. The indicators mentioned above point to the elephant in the room: Obama's pathetic re- covery, relative to any other re- covery in 70 years. I've written of the irrefutable facts: GDP has grown at half the rate of other recoveries, contributing to a weak economy that pro- duced fewer goods, services and jobs than Americans right- fully should have expected. Unemployment rates look good on the surface but — when the long-term unem- ployed and those who've dropped out of the job market are factored in — rates are two times higher. We have the high- est levels of those no longer in the work force since the 1970s. Plus, cumulative jobs created under Obama have failed to keep pace with the population growth of the labor force. All are worse than even President Bush's tepid recov- ery, decried as a jobless re- covery (even though unem- ployment was comparable to Obama's rates). Jobs lost dur- ing Bush's first years were fully recovered, and then some, be- fore the 2008 financial crash. Recovering lost jobs took lon- ger under Obama and subse- quent job growth has been marginal (all per BLS figures). With all of that as context, let's look analytically at busi- ness growth, start-ups and failures over recent history. In September of 2014, J.D. Har- rison wrote, "More businesses are closing than starting. Can Congress help turn that around?" He summarized the testimony, before the House Small Business Committee, of John Dearie, executive vice president of the Financial Ser- vices Forum, a trade organiza- tion in Washington, D.C. In terms of the start-up economy, he said, "all signs are flashing red. Americans are starting fewer businesses, new companies are going out of business more quickly, and the new firms that do get off the ground are creating fewer jobs. None of that bodes very well for an economy still try- ing to find its footing. Ameri- ca's entrepreneurs need help." "Dearie cited research in his testimony showing that new firms historically account for virtually all net new jobs gen- erated each year in the United States (rather than small busi- nesses in general). However, their annual hiring contribu- tions have dropped about 40 percent since 2000, acceler- ating a downward trend that has been going on for the past three decades. "In part, that's because the number of new businesses has steadily declined. Data from 2011 showed that only 8 per- cent of companies are less than one year old, down from 15 percent of all firms back in the 1970s, with a particularly sharp decline taking place during and in the years imme- diately following the Great Re- cession. Meanwhile, the num- ber of young firms going un- der within the first few years has increased. Consequently, for the first time in 30 years, business deaths now outnum- ber business births, according to the U.S. Census Bureau." More recently, Michael S. Malone wrote "A Lost Gener- ation of American Entrepre- neurs" (6/2/2016, Forbes). He cited a report by the Economic Innovation Group that "the years 1992 to 1996 saw a net increase in the U.S. of 421,000 new businesses, and 2002 to 2006 saw 405,000 new com- panies; however, the compara- ble interval from 2010 to 2014 saw just 166,500." There was a year-over-year loss of new companies in 2009, 2010 and 2011. "In other words, the Ameri- can economy is about 300,000 new start-up companies short as we stumble out of the long aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession…How many Ama- zons, Facebooks, and Ubers were in those thousands of lost companies because they never gained financial traction, were crushed by regulations, or were never started at all? "These results are yet one more reminder that among the various legacies of the Obama Administration, this one — the loss of a generation of new entrepreneurs, their start-up companies, and the millions of jobs they might have created — may be the most enduring." The percentage of adults un- der age 30 owning or involved in "privately-held business is just 3.6 percent, the lowest in 30 years — half that of 2010, and a third of 1989's figures" (per the Federal Reserve). Suggestions for Congress, and the next president, from Dearie and business experts: 1) Overhaul the immigration system, 2) Help rein in student debt, 3) Reduce regulatory burdens, 4) Increase access to capital, 5) Create a start-up tax status. One can support those broad concepts; details are needed; timely, effective policies are crucial. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. Don Polson Where do jobs come from? Trump's foundation sent the money to Bondi. A month later, Bondi decided not to prosecute Trump University. She claimed that her office had received only one complaint. That was a lie. More than 60 aggrieved Floridians had sought her help, hoping to recoup their money from the scam school. GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. 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Box 220, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS By Dick Polman StateandNational Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558- 3160, governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Rich- ard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, Kristina Miller, 824-7033 Your officials Don Polson OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, September 13, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6