Uhm, what exactly is Lindsay Graham’s economic agenda?
by digby
Lindsay Graham fit to be tied. But not mad enough to call Trump what he is — a racist, opportunistic, know-nothing, blowhard clown. But he is a little concerned about the way he’s getting across his message. Maybe:
“Well, I think he said something that has brought people who are frustrated about our immigration system to light, but he also said it in a way that’s going to kill my party,” Graham said in an interview with CNN on Friday.
Actually, it’s this sort of thinking that’s killing his party. And unfortunately, everybody else too.
“I would prefer that Donald Trump bring his economic genius and his talents to the table in a more constructive way,” he added, noting the billionaire’s charity efforts with military veterans and their families.
“I think he should do better, because I think he’s a better man than that,” he said
Don’t go too far out on a limb with that criticism there Senator or someone might think you mean it.
But let’s talk a bit out that comment concerning Donald Trump’s “economic genius” shall we?
Donald Trump has filed for corporate bankruptcy four times, in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009. All of these bankruptcies were connected to over-leveraged casino and hotel properties in Atlantic City, all of which are now operated under the banner of Trump Entertainment Resorts. He has never filed for personal bankruptcy — an important distinction when considering his ability to emerge relatively unscathed, at least financially.
“Corporations, limited partnerships, and LLCs in which he had an ownership interest or companies that had his name attached have filed for bankruptcy,” said Michael Viscount of Atlantic City law firm Fox Rothschild LLP, who represented unsecured creditors when Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, as it was then called, filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2004. “Therein lies the big distinction.”
He did take a personal hit the first time around: he’d financed the construction of the Trump Taj Mahal with junk bonds and was unable to pay the high interest. His business was in the red, and so was he, to the tune of about $900 million in personal debt. By the mid-90s, he’d reduced most of that debt, selling his Trump Princess yacht, his Trump Shuttle airline, and his stake in a handful of other businesses. More importantly, he stopped guaranteeing debt with his own wealth. “The first bankruptcy was the only time his personal fortune was at stake,” said Ted Connolly, a Boston bankruptcy lawyer who used Trump as model for getting out of debt in his book The Road Out Of Debt: Bankruptcy and Other Solutions to Your Financial Problems. “He learned from it. He’s insulated.”
Trump has never apologized for using Chapter 11 as a business tool — indeed, when he spoke to my FORBES colleague Keren Blankfeld recently, he noted that many “great entrepreneurs” have used bankruptcy to restructure debt, free up capital and improve their businesses.
“I’ve cut debt — by the way, this isn’t me personally, it’s a company,” Trump said. “Basically I’ve used the laws of the country to my advantage and to other people’s advantage just as Leon Black has, Carl Icahn, Henry Kravis has, just as many, many others on top of the business world have.”
The article goes on to say that it’s very important to allow all this because job creators ensure that regular people are able to earn a living.
And anyway, when creditors don’t get paid back by rich people it’s no big deal, the creditors knew they were taking a risk. Regular people, on the other hand, must be required to pay back every penny with interest because a deal’s a deal and to not do it would cause a major moral hazard.
Atlantic City lawyer Viscount doesn’t believe Donald Trump himself should be held accountable for any of his company’s bankruptcies — his creditors, he said, knew what they were getting themselves into when they lent Trump money over and over again. “They’re all big boys and girls,” he said. “They’ve all played this game before, in the insolvency space. The company that possessed his name filed bankruptcy because it was overleveraged. What does that tell you? People want to lend him money. He does grandiose things with it.”
It’s just a game to them. But when it comes to us, they’ll put us in the street to teach us a lesson we won’t soon forget.
Anyway, Lindsay Graham appears to think he’s an economic genius whose ideas are valuable for running the country. I shouldn’t be surprised by that. It’s how Republicans always run the country.
Update: Also this comment from Graham makes me laugh coming as it does from the party that fetishizes Ronald Reagan:
It’s all about money and celebrity he said, blasting the use of national polling averages to determine the 10 candidates who will appear on the debate stage.
Brad Pitt would have a better chance getting in the debate at this point, Graham said.
“Anybody with any celebrity would be in the debate. I think this is a dumb way to weed out the field. I don’t mind weeding out the field over time, but a national poll tests celebrity, big states have an advantage versus small states,” the South Carolina senator and presidential candidate said. “People who have run before have an advantage over those who haven’t.”
“It’s July, for god sakes. So a national poll is a lousy way, in my view, to determine who should be on the stage, and I quite frankly resent it,” he said.
It’s such a shame they maneuvered to have their allies at Fox do these debates. They can’t blame the liberals so they just don’t know what to do.