From Sodahead
You might wonder why the Romney people haven’t made more of a public cause celebreout of his stewardship of this highly successful event featuring 2,400 athletes from 77 countries. I think they’re probably waiting for the London Summer Olympics scheduled to open July 27 and close August 12th.
You’ll probably see a bunch of 2002 hyperbole, again characterizing Mitt as an indispensable leader made of stern presidential stuff.
You’ll probably see a bunch of 2002 hyperbole, again characterizing Mitt as an indispensable leader made of stern presidential stuff.
Besides the 2002 Winter games, Mitt also headed the summer companion competition, the Paralympic Games; another 416 athletes from 36 countries. Let’s first take a quick look at the Paralympic games and
Mitt so you’ll get an idea of where I’m going here. Paralympic athletes can have any number of physical ‘disabilities’, including cerebral palsy, blindness, amputation, degrees of intellectual impairment and
ironically multiple sclerosis, a condition that Mitt’s wife Ann was diagnosed with 14 years ago. It’s currently in remission.
Mitt so you’ll get an idea of where I’m going here. Paralympic athletes can have any number of physical ‘disabilities’, including cerebral palsy, blindness, amputation, degrees of intellectual impairment and
ironically multiple sclerosis, a condition that Mitt’s wife Ann was diagnosed with 14 years ago. It’s currently in remission.
The committee was some $379 million shy of revenue projections with 700 employees to pay and a Winter Olympics to mount. Man, where are you going to come up with $379 million? Romeny could open a barbershop franchise for gays or maybe sell star-maps to offshore tax avoidance havens…naw, not enough time. Then it came to him. He’d flood the halls of congress with lobbyists in search of scads of discretionary
taxpayer-funded earmarks for the games. He came away with $382 million. There were also additional fed funds for security in the wake of the horrific 9/11 attacks, but well over a billion went to the games, themselves. Fellow homophobe and chaser after the republican presidential nomination, Rick Santorum was livid. The flaming heterosexual told a Columbus, Ohio Tea Party crowd that “He (referring to Romney) heroically bailed out the Salt Lake City Olympics by heroically going to Congress and asking them for tens of millions (it was far more) to bail out the Salt Lake City Olympic games, in an earmark.” “Does the word hypocrisy come to mind?”
taxpayer-funded earmarks for the games. He came away with $382 million. There were also additional fed funds for security in the wake of the horrific 9/11 attacks, but well over a billion went to the games, themselves. Fellow homophobe and chaser after the republican presidential nomination, Rick Santorum was livid. The flaming heterosexual told a Columbus, Ohio Tea Party crowd that “He (referring to Romney) heroically bailed out the Salt Lake City Olympics by heroically going to Congress and asking them for tens of millions (it was far more) to bail out the Salt Lake City Olympic games, in an earmark.” “Does the word hypocrisy come to mind?”
Before it was all over the 2002 Romney-run Salt Lake City Winter Olympics had sucked up roughly $1.3 BILLION in fed dollars according to the General Accounting Office. More than the government had awarded to all previous U.S. Olympic venues combined. That included some highly questionable expenditures for the owner of Sinclair Oil, Earl Holding. Holding also owned Snowbasin ski resort. Earl sat on the SLOC committee that Romney headed. The committee awarded him $14 million for hosting 3
men’s and 3 women’s ski races. The old boy was worth in the billions at the time and roughly $3.1 billion as of last year. But we’re just getting started. Congress approved a deal that added 1,300 acres of
pristine national forest land to his resort. AND…Uncle Sam built him a neat old road from the resort to the Salt Lake City airport. There were other rich-guy raids on the fed money as well, a private little
piggy-bank as it were. Did Mitt partake? Almost impossible to tell with his secret accounts around the world.
men’s and 3 women’s ski races. The old boy was worth in the billions at the time and roughly $3.1 billion as of last year. But we’re just getting started. Congress approved a deal that added 1,300 acres of
pristine national forest land to his resort. AND…Uncle Sam built him a neat old road from the resort to the Salt Lake City airport. There were other rich-guy raids on the fed money as well, a private little
piggy-bank as it were. Did Mitt partake? Almost impossible to tell with his secret accounts around the world.
Many media claimed the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics were fraught with so many sleazy deals that, had all been properly investigated it would have made the original bribery scandal look like a 5-year-old breaking into a cookie jar.
And what did the fabulous leadership of Romney accomplish for Salt Lake City? According to a study by the University of Utah, very little once Michelle Kwan had landed her last triple axel. Sure there were jobs
and money pouring in for the duration of the competition and a trust fund has been set aside to preserve some venues. But after that the study was hard pressed to find any positive consequences on a
Macroeconomic scale and even during the halcyon days of the competition, the games constituted but a tiny fraction of the state’s economic gains.
and money pouring in for the duration of the competition and a trust fund has been set aside to preserve some venues. But after that the study was hard pressed to find any positive consequences on a
Macroeconomic scale and even during the halcyon days of the competition, the games constituted but a tiny fraction of the state’s economic gains.
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