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Trust or hustle: Wall St Journal on Bush

By David E. Scheim, compiled from the Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, [?]
16 October 2000

In 1992 under Bush Sr., taxpayers were stuck with a $500 billion S&L bailout and the largest budget deficit in U.S. history. After eight years under Clinton-Gore, we now have the largest surpluses ever. Coincidence? Consider the Bush family financial record (WSJ=Wall St. Journal, WP=Washington Post):

George W: Refused to answer news questions about an $848,000 stock sale probed by the federal SEC (WSJ 4/4/91,WP 7/30/99). US News and World Report (3/16/92) compared his financial record to brother Neil's.

Brother Jeb (campaigned recently with George): Lobbied to enable a Mob-linked Florida HMO to receive $1 billion in Medicare payments; its owner later fled the U.S. under indictment, suspected of up to $100 million in Medicare fraud (WSJ 8/9/88). Jeb helped trigger the $285 million collapse of a Florida S&L by defaulting on a $4.5 million loan that was arranged thru a front with no repayment schedule specified (WP 10/15/90).

Brother Neil: Played a key role in the $1 billion collapse of Silverado Banking (WP 7/4/92).

Uncle Jonathan: Fined in two states for violating securities laws. (WP 7/4/92).

Uncle Prescott: Arranged investments for a Japanese Mob front in two U.S. firms; both later filed for bankruptcy (WSJ 12/6/91, WP 7/4/92).

George Sr.: Disbanded the independent federal organized crime strike forces, which had been successfully prosecuting S&L looters (WP 12/28/89).

The above is meticulously documented with details and links to 36 cited major media sources on http://www.campaignwatch.org.

Republican pundit Kevin Phillips called this Bush family record a "never-ending hustle" (WP 7/4/92). Do we really want this bunch to do to privatized social security what they did to the S&Ls?