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| I'll bring a business mentality to Illinois. |
Bruce Rauner: How
Does a Hedge Fund Manager Apologize for Loss of Life?
The WGN/Tribune
Republican Gubernatorial Debates took place this evening. It was a more casual and open-ended debate,
one that kept the conservative threesome of Brady and Dillard and Rauner in
play, while Rutherford sat quietly on the bench.
Chief Editor
Bruce Dold of the Tribune tossed the question of attack ads run against Rauner
to the would-be candidate, “There’s this ad that’s running…essentially that the
company you chaired, JTCR, invested in a healthcare company that was the target
of hundreds of millions of dollars that was given to families of alleged
victims of the company (suffering in nursing homes). Can you tell us what happened?”
Rauner’s response
was a political description of his personal credos he would bring to the
State of Illinois as Governor.
First the
platitudes: “My heart goes out to
families who lost loved ones – always a tragedy.”
Secondly, a
counter assault on those who pointed out such unseemly corporate indiscretions:
“This is an outrageous political attack, taking advantage of death… (Imagine how those dead might feel?).
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| "I apologize...We lost all our money." |
When questioned
about the facts in this assertion, Rauner said what really mattered to him.
“The company,
uhm, uhm, was an investment my company made in a nursing home company. The company failed. It went bankrupt.”
“We lost all our money.”
After that comes
a series of sorry explanations about how the company that Rauner supported
could not defend itself because it was out of money or thinking that these
suits were frivolous. (By the way, remember always that Mr. Rauner
wants every bill sent to him to be accompanied by three de-regulations bills,
especially in tort reform.)
In the end of the
exchange, Rauner told the panel that he would never have tolerated inadequate care.
Unless there was
a profit…
I want to projectile vomit on Rauner.
ReplyDeleteYesterday (March 5th) after watching the debate for Republican governor I noticed that candidate Bruce Rauner was stumbling over the question posed about his daughter getting preferential treatment for admittance to Walter Payton Preparatory High School. He stated that the family moved downtown to his wife could be closer to her non-profit work with early childhood education. This is now his main residence, not the house in Winnetka.
ReplyDeleteBut in watching further it seemed strange to me that no one has asked Rauner to publicly disclose his tax returns. So I emailed Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune with this question. He thought it was a good question and forwarded it to Mike at the Rauner campaign.
I wrote to Eric Zorn: "My question to you and other media, why has nobody asked him to release his tax returns so we can see exactly where his money is coming from and, more importantly, what he pays in taxes (or more pointedly, how does he manipulate the tax code for his own enrichment). I think all regular citizens would be interested in this."
Zorn wrote to Mike:
"Mike,
What about it? Seems like a sensible and standard request. Will Rauner release his tax returns before the primary?
EZ"
Mike's reply to Zorn:
On Thursday, March 6, 2014 12:14 PM, Mike wrote:
"Bruce and Evelyn pro-actively released 3 years of state and local 1040's back in November. Additionally, when filling out the Statements of Economic Interests, the Rauner-Sanguinetti ticket used a broad definition of “doing business in Illinois” to determine what to include. In fact, Rich Miller of Capitol Fax said the disclosure report "is infinitely more detailed than mandated by law."
Zorn forwarded this reply to me which also included a link to Rauner's 2012 federal and state tax return (only the first two main pages of each). It was quite the read. Rauner earned over $53 million in 2012! Also interesting was that Rauner's return listed his Winnetka as his principal address, which directly contradicts his statements in last night's debate.
http://brucerauner.com/downloads/Rauners_2012_Tax_Returns.pdf
After reading through the tax return and Mike's reply to Zorn, I wrote Mike the following email asking two other questions:
Mike,
This is certainly an interesting read, but I find the information in complete. I see a lot deductions, yet where are the other schedules that gives the specifics for what they are?
Also, it lists a Winnetka address on the filings...Last night Mr. Rauner stated that they live in a high-rise downtown. So which is correct?
Thanks,
Lee
I have yet to receive a reply from Mike or the Rauner campaign.