Posted on 08/17/2012 9:18:43 PM PDT by maggiesnotebook
When this story broke today that John Hynansky received a taxpayer funded $20 MILLION loan to build two luxury car dealerships and expand others in the Ukraine, Conservatives decried it and Media Matters bashed Conservatives. Media Matters says the loan by Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is not taxpayer funded. The truth is, it all depends on what the meaning of "self-funded" is.
Photo: John Hynansky
Hynansky is a close friend and contributor to Joe Biden's political adventurers as well as a contributor to Barack Obama, so a $20 MILLION loan with US taxpayer funding to be sent overseas, made a big splash.
OPIC is a federal agency, classified as "independent." The President and CEO, Elizabeth Littlefield was appointed to her position by Obama. OPIC is governed by a Board of Directors, President and CEO, and Executive Vice President, all nominated by the President of the United States and approved by the US Senate." We are told that taxpayers provided start-up funding which was eventually repaid. The website says there is no "net cost to American taxpayers" BUT OPIC is "appropriated administrative funding," (which can only come from taxpayers) and that funding is "reauthorized," ongoing, by Congress.
Question: Each year that the administrative funding is appropriated by Congress and added to the budgets that haven't materialized in years, do we assume OPIC returns the administrative cost back to taxpayers, as it claims it continually makes a profit.
And it begs the question: can we actually believe that there is no net cost to taxpayers?
From the Congressional Research Service: The Overseas Private Investment Corporation - June 5, 2011:
While OPIC’s budget is fully self-sustaining from its own revenues, Congress annually provides OPIC with the authority to cover its administrative expenses and credit subsidy funding from its offsetting collections, which include user fees and interest from U.S. Treasury securities.OPIC is the US Government's "development finance institution." It offers assistance to US businesses wanting to expand into emerging markets. It ensures that the projects meet "Congressionally-mandated requirements" to protect the environment. They collect Greenhouse Gas Accounting reports, ya-da ya-da. OPIC is very green.For FY2011, Congress provided $52.31 million for OPIC’s administrative expenses and authorized a transfer of $18.115 million from OPIC’s noncredit account to conduct its credit and administrative programs (P.L. 112-10). President Obama’s budget proposal for FY2012 requested $57.89 million for OPIC’s administrative expenses and a transfer of $31 million from OPIC’s noncredit account to conduct it programs.
OPIC loans are to have no negative impact on the US economy, and therein lies the rub with me (ignoring that the loan likely did come about because of Biden-Hynansky chumminess). Where is the government agency that actually guarantees loans real money to small businesses?
From what I hear, there are no loans for small businesses in this country. This week I heard small business owner and entrepreneur Amilya Antonetti tell Neal Cavuto that even with her stunningly successful record, she cannot get a business loan without having 60% of the loan amount in the bank for collateral. If she had 60% of the loan, she said, she wouldn't be applying for a loan in the first place. Her advice to help small businesses: drop the requirement to 30% and loosen up the funds.
Assuming that it's truthful that only private capitalization is used for these loans, OPIC is still a federal agency, so why not raise the private funds for US companies to develop in the US rather than in the Middle East, North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, where the focus seems to be, and where diplomatic niceties are lip service? The Ukraine and other areas of the world are a part of OPIC's mission but not a huge focus.
Under OPIC rules, the entity receiving the loan must have a 25% ownership or majority ownership in the project. The total projected cost of constructing the two dealerships is $26.8 MILLION. The $20 MILLION loan is fairly heft, don't you think, but perhaps the Ukraine existing dealerships are considered collateral??? Hynansky receives a minimum principal payment deferement for 2-1/2 years during construction.
Under “U.S. Economic Impact,” the summary document says, “This project will have a positive developmental impact on the host country, Ukraine. The project will generate a significant number of new local jobs. Running a dealership for premium automobile brands requires a highly trained sales force, mechanics, accountants, communications and advertising specialists, IT specialists, service personnel, warehouse managers, and customer relations specialists.” Source: Daily CallerThe dealership sells Porsches, Land Rovers, and Jaguars. Either the company or the person has be American. At one time Jaguar was owned by Ford but today these companies belong to Germany and the UK according to this article. Hynansky is a US Citizen.
Other examples of Independent Government agencies: (with funding information on a selected few):
AMTRAK (TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED - HUGE LOSSES)
The CIA - funded through Department of Defense appropriations
The Commission on Civil Rights - 2013 Appropriations Request $9,400,000
Director of National Intelligence - 2013 $526 BILLION (unclear what part of US Intelligence this covers)
FDIC (self-funded)
Federal Labor Relations Authority - 2012 s $24,792,000
For necessary expenses to carry out functions of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, pursuant to Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1978, and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, including services authorized by 5 U.S.C. § 3109, and including hire of experts and consultants, hire of passenger motor vehicles, and including official reception and representation expenses (not to exceed $1,500) and rental of conference rooms in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, [$24,723,000] $24,792,000: Provided, That public members of the Federal Service Impasses Panel may be paid travel expenses and per diem in lieu of subsistence as authorized by law (5 U.S.C. § 5703) for persons employed intermittently in the government service, and compensation as authorized by 5 U.S.C. § 3109: Provided further, That notwithstanding 31 § U.S.C. 3302, funds received from fees charged to non-Federal participants at labor-management relations conferences shall be credited to and merged with this account, to be available without further appropriation for the costs of carrying out these conferences.Federal Reserve System - (self funded)
Federal Trade Commission
General Services Administration (GSA) - self funded, but...
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) FY 2013 Budget Request provides $272 million in discretionary budget authority for GSA annual appropriations. In addition, GSA requests $(1,071) million as net budget authority (NBA) for the Federal Buildings Fund (FBF).NASA (practically defunct due to a lack of taxpayer funding)
National Endowment for the Arts (partially taxpayer funded)
Office of Personnel Management
The list is long. View it all here.
Do the taxpayers have a buck in this as many reports have said today? I don't know.
People like Hynansky don't need US federal help, but they get it because they can.
the biggest problem is the economic illiteracy. They think theres no negative consequence to low interest rate loans
The title of the article needs to be fixed. The loan is for $20 million, not $20.
bump
An outrage.
p
Politico.com
By KENNETH P. VOGEL and DAVID STERN
01/11/2017
<>Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire; foreign aid billions threatened
<>Kiev scrambles to make amends with president-elect Trump after working to boost Clinton.
<>President Petro Poroshenko’s administration, and the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, insists that Ukraine stayed neutral in the presidential race.
Donald Trump wasn’t the only presidential candidate whose campaign was boosted by officials of a former Soviet bloc country.
A Politico investigation found
<><>Ukrainian govt officials helped Hillary and trashed Trump, questioning his fitness for office.
<><>They disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption
<><>They suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election.
<><>They helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers.
A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.
The Ukrainian efforts had an impact in the race, helping to force Manafort’s resignation and advancing the narrative that Trump’s campaign was deeply connected to Ukraine’s foe to the east, Russia. But they were far less concerted or centrally directed than Russia’s alleged hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails.
Russia’s effort was personally directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, involved the country’s military and foreign intelligence services, according to U.S. intelligence officials. They reportedly briefed Trump last week on the possibility that Russian operatives might have compromising information on the president-elect. And at a Senate hearing last week on the hacking, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said “I don’t think we’ve ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process than we’ve seen in this case.”
There’s little evidence of such a top-down effort by Ukraine. Longtime observers suggest that the rampant corruption, factionalism and economic struggles plaguing the country — not to mention its ongoing strife with Russia — would render it unable to pull off an ambitious covert interference campaign in another country’s election.
And President Petro Poroshenko’s administration, along with the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, insists that Ukraine stayed neutral in the race.
The Strategic Costs of Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian Corruption
Townhall.com ^ | February 16, 2022 | Austin Bay
Posted on 2/16/2022, 7:12:24 AM by Kaslin
Often a bribe is more destructive than a bullet.
In Afghanistan, the U.S. and NATO could never defeat the endemic corruption that riddled the Afghan government and army. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, U.S. military and diplomatic assessments insistently bemoan the damage corruption does to Ukraine’s economy, civil institutions and war effort.
Military analysts use the buzz phrase “weaponized corruption” to describe 21st century gray-area warfare corruption tactics and techniques employed by Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin and Xi Jinping’s China.
Corruption, however, is a very ancient and effective weapon of war. The Roman historian Sallust tells us in the late second century B.C., Berber rebel Jugurtha used bribery, murder and raids to build a personal power base in Numidia (modern-day Algeria). Jugurtha repeatedly thwarted Roman army efforts to defeat him.
With its legions bogged in a no-win North African sand trap, Roman authorities co-opted Jugurtha’s father-in-law and ally, Bocchus. They bribed Bocchus by promising him territory. The palm-greased in-law sent Jugurtha to Rome in chains.
Bribery, used as a weapon, secured Rome’s strategic goal. Of course, Roman soldiers gave Bocchus a heavily armed reason to accept Rome’s deal. From Rome’s perspective, the combination of legions and bribery defeated Jugurtha.
Both Russia and China use corruption to further espionage and propaganda campaigns and undermine vulnerable nations.
As I pointed out in a recent column, Communist China has been particularly effective in purchasing favorable media coverage and stymieing criticism. China has co-opted American scientists with grants (disguised bribes) in order to gain access to their research.
Russia targets leaders and institutions everywhere but particularly in three nations it covets: Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The Ukrainian government contends the Russian-backed war in its Donbas region prevents it from effectively pursuing economic and political reform. The war slows reform, but since 2015 many Western creditors disagree argue Ukraine hasn’t treated corruption as the grave security vulnerability it is.
Why? Fair question. U.S. government and media preach reform — but there is increasing evidence that U.S. leaders and institutions don’t practice what they preach.
Earlier this month John Solomon, reporting in “Just The News,” analyzed State Department emails obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request.
One email, written on Nov. 22, 2016, by former U.S. embassy official George Kent, was particularly chilling. It directly contradicted mainstream media reports in 2020 and public testimony by U.S. officials that “insisted Hunter Biden’s lucrative job with the allegedly corrupt Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings ... had no impact on U.S. efforts to fight corruption in that country.”
Solomon reported that in 2016 State Department officials in Ukraine told Washington “that Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine ‘undercut’ U.S. efforts to fight corruption in the former Soviet republic.”
Kent included this guidance: “The real issue to my mind was that someone in Washington needed to engage VP Biden quietly and say that his son Hunter’s presence on the Burisma board undercut the anti-corruption message the VP and we were advancing in Ukraine.”
Kent added: “Ukrainians heard one message from us and then saw another set of behavior, with the (Biden) family association with a known corrupt figure whose company was known for not playing by the rules in the oil/gas sector.”
Hunter Biden’s blatant corruption and hypocrisy had and still have real world strategic and national security costs. If defending Ukraine is a U.S. security interest, American participation in corruption undermines our security efforts. Hunter Biden was hindering Ukraine’s warfighting and corruption-fighting effort.
This is not a conspiracy theory. The Kent email is a fact that was hidden from the American people and is still ignored by benighted and politically corrupted media.
To forward Ukrainian anti-corruption efforts and to add spine to U.S. anti-corruption diplomacy globally, Hunter Biden must be penalized. The correct penalty is criminal investigation and public trial.
Hunter has made millions exploiting his father’s political connections. Even scarier....his father was grooming him for elective office (yikes). Biden let Hunter speak from his father’ VP’s podium (gag).
Hunter has made millions exploiting his father’s political connections. Even scarier....his father was grooming him for elective office (yikes). Biden let Hunter speak from his father’ VP’s podium (gag).
Does the Biden WH know what theirdoing??
WH: US won’t send $100 million military aid package to Ukraine just yet
PSAKI: in the run-up to the U.S.-Russia Summit—we provided a $150 million package, including lethal assistance.”
112.international ^ | June 20, 2021
Posted on 6/21/2021, 11:22:48 AM by elpadre
National Security Advisor to the United States President Jake Sullivan confirmed that the United States has frozen $ 100 million in military aid to Ukraine. It is reported by The Washington Post.
Sullivan said it was additional help if Russia continues to build up troops on the border with Ukraine.
“Given that the threat has subsided, the United States has frozen this additional $ 100 million. The United States is ready to help Ukraine if Russia takes aggressive action,” media quoted the adviser to the American president.
Earlier the Politico, citing sources, reported that the White House temporarily froze a package of military aid to Ukraine for $ 100 million.
It is noted that the package included short-range air defense systems, small arms and other anti-tank weapons.
The interlocutors also noted that the package was frozen ahead of the meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
As you know, in Geneva on June 16, negotiations were held between US President Joe Biden and the leader of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. The talks between the leaders of the two countries lasted about 4 hours.
Vladimir Putin was the first to speak at a press conference, during which he said that the negotiations with Biden went “well.”
In addition, it was reported that the presidents raised the issue of Ukraine.
and also in the news today the White House says the report that they are withholding military is “nonsense.”
“In a statement after this article was published, White House press secretary Jen Psaki took issue with the characterization that aid to Ukraine was lacking: “The idea that we have held back security assistance to Ukraine is nonsense. Just last week—in the run-up to the U.S.-Russia Summit—we provided a $150 million package of security assistance, including lethal assistance.”
Joe Biden tried so hard to make Hunter into a “pitiable victim but outside of Deep State,
Hunter is seen as a crasswidow-diddling opportunist with an
insatiable sex drive, and a weak crackhead w/ an industrial strength penis on steroids.
Hunter has made millions exploiting his father’s political connections.
Even scarier....his father was grooming him for elective office (yikes).
It’s impossible to believe, seeing Hunter constantly at his father’s side
that Joe Biden would not ask Hunter where he’s getting tons of money to support
his expensive cocaine habit, his lifestyle of pricey homes, luxury cars and clothing,
his various girlfriends, wives, one-night stands, and Biden children born in and out of wedlock.
As Prospero (no relation to Ross Perot) has said:
These Irish gangsters, as I foretold you are State-supported con-artists, so dreams of bringing them to justice shall dissolve into air, into thin air.
And like the broad fabric of their extortion targets -- Kiev's gold capped domes, the gorgeous palaces of Bahgdad, the solemn temples of the Far East, yea, their robbery across the great globe -- will continue.
And even as evidence of this substantial crime pageant is hidden and eventually fades, the riches seized are enormous: for the Bidens leave not a rack behind.
The Bidens are the kind of gangsters dreams are made on, and their little Deep-State-enabled lies and schemes shall grow and never sleep.
Thanks poconopundit.
Nice deconstruction.
You omitted the absolute worst of the worst, Hunter’s “best friend and business partner” the KGB, oops, the top agent of the CCP who was disappeared.
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