Archive for the ‘Harry Reid’ Category

Harry Reid, what a Joke
It’s politically fashionable now to say you’ve helped reduce the nation’s debt. And at nearly $1 trillion annually, there’s a lot of debt to be reduced.

But during a speech this week on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Harry Reid claimed that over the past two years the government has reduced the deficit by $2.5 trillion – almost double the amount the deficit is right now.

“In the last two years we have reduced the deficit by $2.5 trillion,” he said. “The Senate budget continues this effort without jeopardizing our economic recovery or breaking our promises to seniors and veterans.”

The Congressional Budget Office, which does non-partisan economic analysis at the behest of Congress, estimates that the federal deficit will be $845 billion by the end of this year. Two years ago, in 2011, the deficit was $1.3 trillion. That’s hardly a reduction of the more than $2 trillion that Reid claimed.

In fact, CBO data shows that the deficit has only been reduced by about $450 billion over the last two years. That’s about 20 percent of what Reid claimed.

For mangling budget numbers in a way that gave Americans too rosy a picture of the federal decific, Harry Reid wins the Whopper of the Week, a distinction awarded by the Washington Guardian to inaccurate, false, or misleading statements made by political leaders.

Reid’s mistake was in making it sound like the budget deficits and their reductions over the next decade have already taken place, during 2011 and 2012. The Democrat’s current fiscal plan projects $2.4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next 10 years, according to documents released by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the Senate Budget Committee chairwoman.

What Murray’s letter actually says is that the work in creating policy that will reduce the debt has been done over the past two years. It’s the planning and preparation that have been done over the past two years, the policy changes that will lead to deficit reduction. But most of the reductions are years off.

“This memo first lays out the bipartisan work we’ve already done over the last two years to reduce our deficit and debt by at least $2.4 trillion,” Murray’s letter reads.

Exact numbers are often difficult to come by and sometimes a guessing game, but politicians need to be accurate in their claims, especially when presenting a timeframe. Reid’s comments made it seem like the government has already cut the debt and should be operating at a surplus. But the reality is trillions in new deficits are on the horizon before those $2.4 trillion in savings are achieved.

by Betsy Woodruff

His career in public service has ended up being remarkably lucrative.

Try this thought experiment. Imagine that someone grows up in poverty, works his way through law school by holding the night shift as a Capitol Hill policeman, and spends all but two years of his career as a public servant. Now imagine that this person’s current salary — and he’s at the top of his game — is $193,400. You probably wouldn’t expect him to have millions in stocks, bonds, and real estate.

But, surprise, he does, if he’s our Senate majority leader, whose net worth is between 3 and 10 million dollars, according to OpenSecrets.org. When Harry Reid entered the Nevada legislature in 1982, his net worth was listed as between $1 million and $1.5 million “or more,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. So, since inquiring minds inquire, let’s try to figure out how Reid’s career in public service ended up being so lucrative. He hasn’t released his tax returns, which makes this an imperfect science, but looking at a few of his investments helps to show how he amassed his wealth.

In 2004, the senator made $700,000 off a land deal that was, to say the least, unorthodox. It started in 1998 when he bought a parcel of land with attorney Jay Brown, a close friend whose name has surfaced multiple times in organized-crime investigations and whom one retired FBI agent described as “always a person of interest.” Three years after the purchase, Reid transferred his portion of the property to Patrick Lane LLC, a holding company Brown controlled. But Reid kept putting the property on his financial disclosures, and when the company sold it in 2004, he profited from the deal — a deal on land that he didn’t technically own and that had nearly tripled in value in six years.

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When his 2010 challenger Sharron Angle asked him in a debate how he had become so wealthy, he said, “I did a very good job investing.” Did he ever. On December 20, 2005, he invested $50,000 to $100,000 in the Dow Jones U.S. Energy Sector Fund (IYE), which closed that day at $29.15. The companies whose shares it held included ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, and ConocoPhillips. When he made a partial sale of his shares on August 19, 2008, during congressional recess, IYE closed at $41.82. Just a month later, on September 17, Reid was working to bring to the floor a bill that the Joint Committee on Taxation said would cost oil companies — including those in the fund — billions of dollars in taxes and regulatory fees. The bill passed a few days later, and by October 10, IYE’s shares had fallen by 42 percent, to $24.41, for a host of reasons. Savvy investing indeed.
Here’s another example: The Los Angeles Times reported in November 2006 that when Reid became Senate majority leader he committed to making earmark reform a priority, saying he’d work to keep congressmen from using federal dollars for pet projects in their districts. It was a good idea but an odd one for the senator to espouse. He had managed to get $18 million set aside to build a bridge across the Colorado River between Laughlin, Nev., and Bullhead City, Ariz., a project that wasn’t a priority for either state’s transportation agency. His ownership of 160 acres of land nearby that stood to appreciate considerably from the project had nothing to do with the decision, according to one of his aides. The property’s value has varied since then. On his financial-disclosure forms from 2006, it was valued at $250,000 to $500,000. Open Secrets now lists it as his most valuable asset, worth $1 million to $5 million as of 2010.

How Reid acquired that land is interesting, too. He put $10,000 into a pension fund his friend Clair Haycock controlled, to take over the 160-acre parcel at a price far below its assessed value. Six months later, Reid introduced legislation that would help Haycock’s industry, a move many observers said appeared to be a quid pro quo, though Reid and Haycock denied that the legislation was the result of a property deal.

We don’t know how much more money Reid has or how he made all of it. For that, we’d have to see his tax returns.

— Betsy Woodruff is a William F. Buckley Fellow at the National Review Institute.

National Review
By Betsy Woodruff

Try this thought experiment. Imagine that someone grows up in poverty, works his way through law school by holding the night shift as a Capitol Hill policeman, and spends all but two years of his career as a public servant. Now imagine that this person’s current salary — and he’s at the top of his game — is $193,400. You probably wouldn’t expect him to have millions in stocks, bonds, and real estate.

But, surprise, he does, if he’s our Senate majority leader, whose net worth is between 3 and 10 million dollars or more, according to OpenSecrets.org. When Harry Reid entered the Nevada legislature in 1982, his net worth was listed as between $1 million and $1.5 million “or more,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. So, since inquiring minds inquire, let’s try to figure out how Reid’s career in public service ended up being so lucrative. He hasn’t released his tax returns, which makes this an imperfect science, but looking at a few of his investments helps to show how he amassed his wealth.

In 2004, the senator made $700,000 off a land deal that was, to say the least, unorthodox. It started in 1998 when he bought a parcel of land with attorney Jay Brown, a close friend whose name has surfaced multiple times in organized-crime investigations and whom one retired FBI agent described as “always a person of interest.” Three years after the purchase, Reid transferred his portion of the property to Patrick Lane LLC, a holding company Brown controlled. But Reid kept putting the property on his financial disclosures, and when the company sold it in 2004, he profited from the deal — a deal on land that he didn’t technically own and that had nearly tripled in value in six years.

When his 2010 challenger Sharron Angle asked him in a debate how he had become so wealthy, he said, “I did a very good job investing.” Did he ever. On December 20, 2005, he invested $50,000 to $100,000 in the Dow Jones U.S. Energy Sector Fund (IYE), which closed that day at $29.15. The companies whose shares it held included ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, and ConocoPhillips. When he made a partial sale of his shares on August 19, 2008, during congressional recess, IYE closed at $41.82. Just a month later, on September 17, Reid was working to bring to the floor a bill that the Joint Committee on Taxation said would cost oil companies — including those in the fund — billions of dollars in taxes and regulatory fees. The bill passed a few days later, and by October 10, IYE’s shares had fallen by 42 percent, to $24.41, for a host of reasons. Savvy investing indeed.

Here’s another example: The Los Angeles Times reported in November 2006 that when Reid became Senate majority leader he committed to making earmark reform a priority, saying he’d work to keep congressmen from using federal dollars for pet projects in their districts. It was a good idea but an odd one for the senator to espouse. He had managed to get $18 million set aside to build a bridge across the Colorado River between Laughlin, Nev., and Bullhead City, Ariz., a project that wasn’t a priority for either state’s transportation agency. His ownership of 160 acres of land nearby that stood to appreciate considerably from the project had nothing to do with the decision, according to one of his aides. The property’s value has varied since then. On his financial-disclosure forms from 2006, it was valued at $250,000 to $500,000. Open Secrets now lists it as his most valuable asset, worth $1 million to $5 million as of 2010.

How Reid acquired that land is interesting, too. He put $10,000 into a pension fund his friend Clair Haycock controlled, to take over the 160-acre parcel at a price far below its assessed value. Six months later, Reid introduced legislation that would help Haycock’s industry, a move many observers said appeared to be a quid pro quo, though Reid and Haycock denied that the legislation was the result of a property deal.

We don’t know how much more money Reid has or how he made all of it. For that, we’d have to see his tax returns.

Comment by Jim Campbell, Citizen Journalist and Patriot.

In keeping with the DNC’s record of voter fraud we must remember these words. “It’s not who votes that matters, it is who counts the votes that determines the outcome.”~ Joseph Stalin.

Of course they hate him in Nevada, their unemployment is higher than that of California.

If it had not been for voter fraud and SEIU running the voting machines this whip would have got his butt kicked by a far more qualified Sharron Angle.

Please take a look at an article written by hour humble correspondent, ” The Low Down on Dirty Harry.” Further Evidence that Harry Reid’s election was rigged.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.
Dingy Harry Reid has a problem. His hometown paper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal (LVRJ) is calling him out for his latest criminal caper. Reid has been trying to help his son Emaciated Rory steal from us and his scheme has been exposed by the LVRJ.

Rory is a slimy lawyer who is trying to use Harry’s influence to strong-arm the state of Nevada, its main electric power supplier and the federal government to line their pockets with phony “green job” money.

By Kevin “Coach” Collins
The Reid family business is political corruption. Like any patriarch Harry Reid is trying to use his family business to help one of his sons.
In 2010 when the SEIU was stealing an election to keep Dingy Harry in office, Rory who was “running” for Governor of Nevada was so hopeless (he lost by 12 points) not even the Democrat’s voter fraud specialists could help him. So what could Harry Reid do?
Rory who is so emaciated looking he could pass as Harry’s father, needed a way to steal the “real money” Democrat Party corruption can give him. Harry is using the power of his office as the Senate Majority Leader to harass and maybe even destroy Nevada Energy (NV Energy) the main supplier of power for the state to help a Chinese “green energy” client of Rory’s law firm. Complete article from the Coach below:
Rory is a spokesman for the company which is trying to gain a foothold in Nevada. That “green energy” is a total fake and nothing more than a way to steal from the federal treasury means nothing to either man.

Because they are treacherous Democrats neither Dingy Harry nor Emaciated Rory Reid feel the slightest hesitation to help a Communist country destroy an American company, even one in their own home state.
Hiding behind phony excuses that NV Energy “could do more with renewable energy…” Reid blows off critics and insults us by insisting he and his emaciated son have never spoken about this issue. The LVRJ says Harry Reid deserves an ethics complaint for his persistent efforts to damage NV Energy, and who could argue otherwise? He is clearly acting in the best interest of his son and himself not the people who “elected” him.
While the disinfectant that is sunlight will keep this scheme from working – partly because Reid has raised the issue of his own ethics by attacking Mitt Romney – when we finally rid ourselves of Reid’s control of our Senate we must remember this and take whatever action is available to us. We must deliver justice to Harry Reid