Originally published June 1 2013
Obama Commerce Secretary nominee 'accidentally' forgets to disclose $80 million in investment income
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) Remember during the 2008 and 2012 election cycles when candidate-then-President Obama railed against Americans who were successful, claiming that they don't "pay their fair share?" Now he can count a member of his own administration as being equally guilty - but will the president now call her out? Doubtful.
On the surface it might seem like a good idea to nominate a billionaire to run the Commerce Department, but Chicago philanthropist and major Obama fundraiser Penny Pritzker would make a lousy IRS secretary because she can't seem to report all of her annual income - and thus doesn't "pay her fair share." Maybe it's because she makes so much money she can't count it all.
From Brietbart News:
Barack Obama's close friend and major fundraiser, Penny Pritzker, who has been nominated to be the new Secretary of Commerce, didn't include more than $80 million in income in financial disclosures she filed last week. Pritzker, who is a billionaire, supposedly "inadvertently omitted" this tiny part of her fortune.
Opps! It's just an $80 million 'error'
Pritzker's lawyer, Robert Rizzi, wrote the department May 21 to say that the money was not included in her May 15 filings which were reviewed by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics "because a clerical error and through no fault of Ms. Pritzker."
I guess Obama only despises rich Republicans like Mitt Romney, who meticulously report all of their incomes - not political bundlers and ideological soulmates like Pritzker, who under-report their income then hide behind lawyers and rounding errors made by other people.
In addition to a lawyer - several lawyers, most likely - Pritzker also has a "personal spokeswoman" as well. Her name is Susan Anderson, and she says her boss' "financial advisors" discovered the error within her 184-page submission. The money came from 10 years' worth of consulting fees for more than 400 domestic trusts, "which were being restructured because of an intergenerational family feud that split into 11 family lines," Breitbart reported. Those included the Marmon Corp., Hyatt Hotels, Union Tank Car, Conwood Company and the Hyatt Center office structure in Chicago.
"Pritzker provided advice on the restructuring, managing and in some cases, selling various trust assets," said Anderson.
Republicans in the Senate - the chamber charged with confirming or rejecting presidential appointments - are not institutionally opposed to Pritzker, but there may be reasons to look further into her financial dealings, now that this $80 million "mistake" has been discovered (and wouldn't you like a "consulting" job that paid an average of $8 million a year?).
They include the 2001 failure of Superior Bank, a Hinsdale Savings and Loan her family controlled and which she once tried to revive with "an expanded push into subprime loans," said Breitbart.
"There were also some tax avoidance strategies that her trusts and business empire used that may be looked into," said the news site.
Capitalist hypocrites
Pritzker has already been schmoozing senators in advance of her confirmation hearings. One of those who will "question" her is her a junior financial peer, Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, himself heir to a famous family fortune. His grandfather was John D. Rockefeller, who made his fortune as an oil baron (which is ironic, given Democrats' penchant for green energy over fossil fuels and given that West Virginia is a heavy coal-producing state). Rockefeller is only worth about $87 million, however - not quite the billionaire status of Pritzker, who made double that amount in 2012 alone.
Understand that it is not the capitalism Obama hates, per se; it's the capitalism as practiced by his political opponents that he despises. Obama is constantly spending his time around money - in Hollywood; at various fundraising events hosted or organized by people like Pritzker; with sports and entertainment stars - and he and his wife are millionaires themselves. So his alleged aversion to success is little more than a political tactic he uses to elicit support from a segment of the U.S. population that has been programmed to treat "other people's success" with suspicion.
In other words, it is Obama's hypocrisy - and those of his associates - that strike a nerve with freedom-minded Americans. Pritzker's $80 million accounting "error" is just another example of that.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.breitbart.com
http://www.suntimes.com
http://www.naturalnews.com/038470_Obama_children_armed_guards.html
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml