Free Republic

Clinton charities will refile YEARS of tax returns after misreporting tens of millions of dollars in donations from foreign governments A Reuters investigation uncovered errors in tax returns filed by the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Health Access Initiative For 3 years, the Clinton Foundation reported it had received nothing from foreign and U.S. governments - despite receiving millions previously It will now refile its tax returns from 2010, 2011 and 2012 but has not ruled out reviewing tax returns extending back as many as 15 years The Clinton Health Access Initiative is refiling forms from at least 2 years...

Link only per rules. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/23/us-usa-election-clinton-taxes-exclusive-idUSKBN0NE0CA20150423

Last week, GOP chief weasel, Reince Priebus, was squawking about Hillary Clinton and how she allegedly gotten all this money from the kings of other countries, which would, of course, be illegal. The supposedly unbiased PolitiFact decided to look at his claims. Their findings: "Priebus said Clinton took "money from kings of Saudi Arabia and Morocco and Oman and Yemen." The monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Oman have contributed to the Clinton Foundation, but Yemen, which does not have a king, has not.

Major contributors like the Koch brothers and Tom Steyer would get a break on gift taxes to secretive non-profit groups. The House on Wednesday with little fanfare passed legislation that would protect major donors like the Koch brothers and Tom Steyer from having to pay gift taxes on huge donations to secret money political groups. The legislation, which now heads to the Senate, is seen by fundraising operatives as removing one of the few remaining potential obstacles to unfettered big-money spending by nonprofit groups registered under a section of the Tax Code — 501(c) — that allows them to shield...

Is it a good thing or a bad thing that a presidential candidate demonstrates an ability to raise enough money to effectively reach the “inhabitants of America” with his political message? On Friday, National Public Radio’s The Diane Rehm Show took a further drag on our tax dollars to take incredulous note of the fact that four Super PACs supportive of Republican Ted Cruz’s campaign for president declared having collected, collectively, $31 million. One of Diane’s guests, Neal King, Jr., with the Wall Street Journal, explained that all four PACs associated with the Cruz effort sport the “Keep the Promise”...

Millionaire Robert Mercer helps him raise an 'eye-popping' $31M right off the bat.If other GOP contenders shrugged off Ted Cruz's chances of winning the nomination, it's a safe bet they're reassessing things after four new super PACS announced they'd raised a staggering $31 million to support his new candidacy. "Even in the context of a presidential campaign cycle in which the major party nominees are expected to raise more than $1.5 billion, Cruz’s haul is eye-popping, one that instantly raises the stakes in the Republican fundraising contest," writes Mark Halperin at Bloomberg. The super PACs in question are only a...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This is classic, too. You know these two guys, Heilemann and Mark Halperin, that we talk about a lot here? They've got this Internet show at Bloomberg, and they're classic. Halperin may be a little bit more informed about us than your average Drive-By Media person, but it doesn't do him much good. These are the two guys that write campaign books. They learn all the stuff that would kill a Democrat candidate, and they hold it for after the election for their book, it's those two guys. Halperin used to be at ABC, political director, whatever....

According to a Wednesday story in Bloomberg, the Ted Cruz for President Campaign has let it be known that a group of super PACs associated with the campaign expects to have $31 million in the bank by Friday. This feat is impressive considering that the Cruz campaign is not even two weeks old, and the super PACs in question were formed just this week. In the political fundraising game, this is what is called shock and awe. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is likely to be the champion fund raiser on the Republican side. But the news of Cruz’s feat,...

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush continues to lead the pack of Republican presidential hopefuls, but one candidate is making moves. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the only GOP hopeful to formally announced his candidacy thus far, has shot up in the rankings in a new CBS News poll. Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed said that they would consider voting for Cruz in March, up 14 points from when the same question was asked a month ago. By comparison, 51 percent said they would vote for Bush, just two percent higher than did in February. *** Sen. Ted Cruz has raised $4...

Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican senator, raised nearly $4 million in the eight days after he announced his presidential campaign, according to The Wall Street Journal. What’s important about that number is that almost all of it came in amounts of less than $100. That’s a big change for Mr. Cruz. During his Senate run in 2012, 80 percent of the money he collected from individuals were in donations of $200 or more, the threshold for when donor’s names are listed on Federal Election Commission reports. Assuming The Journal’s report is correct that about 95 percent of the donations raised...

Go Ted

Donations to Ted Cruz's campaign, during his presidential announcement.Ted Cruz's entire decision of whether to jump-start his presidential candidacy at the end of a fundraising quarter hinged on the ability to raise $1 million in the first week. The Texas senator ended up hitting that milestone in just over a day. Fueled by a team of 10 data scientists who are tasked with conducting real-time analysis of prospective supporters, the reach of and return on Cruz's rollout has already exceeded the initial expectations of even the campaign's top advisers. While initial media reports detailed Cruz raising $500,000 on the first...

After the theatrical launch of his presidential campaign Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz now faces a massive hurdle: raising the tens of millions of dollars it will take to mount a year-and-a-half long campaign. The Texas Republican and tea party darling is months behind his competitors in recruiting the megadonors and bundlers essential to a credible GOP primary bid. He’s not well-liked among cash-flush lobbyists. And his uncompromising policy positions and role in forcing the government shutdown in 2013 didn’t exactly excite the financiers and business executives who make up the elite donor class. Those considerations, along with the need to...

Madison — The state must revise its laws governing political spending — especially that done by independent groups — in light of recent free speech decisions by federal courts, the head of Wisconsin's elections agency told lawmakers Tuesday. Spurred by federal judges, outside groups and their own preference for less regulation, GOP lawmakers are considering changes to the state's complex campaign laws that would likely make it easier for independent groups to spend money to influence Wisconsin politics. Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the state Government Accountability Board, told a joint elections committee of legislators that decisions in federal appellate...

The first time we read the recent analysis by the Sunlight Foundation in which it combed through 14 million corporate records, including data on campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures, federal budget allocations and spending, in order to determine the "rate of return" on lobbying and spending to buy political goodwill, we were left speechless. To be sure, we had previously shown that when it comes to the rate of return on lobbying, the rates were simply staggering, and ranged anywhere between 5,900% for oil subsidies, to 22,000% for multinational tax breaks and even higher for America's legal drug dealers.  But...

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton defended his foundation's acceptance of donations from foreign governments on Saturday, pointing to the track record of his global philanthropy as Hillary Rodham Clinton nears an announcement on 2016 presidential campaign. In an interview at the Clinton Global Initiative University, the ex-president sought to address critics who have questioned the receipt of donations from foreign governments while the former first lady served in the State Department and after she departed in early 2013. "My theory about all of this is disclose everything and then let people make their judgments," Clinton told...

This morning, Hillary Clinton sent an email to supporters with the subject line, "Announcement." But the contents of the message did not explain the former secretary of state's future political ambitions. Instead, the message asked for money from supporters of what is now the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. "This is a season to give thanks for our many blessings and to remember our responsibilities to each other – that we're all in this together," Clinton wrote. "In my family, we're celebrating our first holidays with a beautiful new granddaughter. We're also celebrating the generosity and commitment of our...

Conservatives have long believed American culture is entrenched with a liberal bias, only to be scoffed at and called paranoid. However, three new charts dealing with political donations from academia, media, and Hollywood prove this to be the case. Business Insider was provided a data set of federal campaign contributions dating all the way back to 1980, making the sample size considerable. The data set confirms that media, academia, and the entertainment industry are some of the most liberal professions in America. The findings were provided by CROWDPAC, a non-partisan analytics firm based out of California. “In compiling all this...

Contributions from Celebrities to Obama, Barack (D) [Return to summary] Contributor Description Total Kauffman, Marta Producer $7,500 Landau, Jon Producer/Manager $7,500 Forman, Milos Director $5,800 Crowe, Cameron Director/Writer $5,750 Haysbert, Dennis Actor $5,500 Hathaway, Anne Actor $5,000 Henley, Donald H Singer/Songwriter $5,000 Howard, Cheryl Actor/Celebrity Spouse $5,000 Howard, Ronald Director/Actor/Producer $5,000 Jones, Quincy Record Producer $5,000 Kanal, Tony Member of 'No Doubt' $5,000 Johansson, Scarlett Actor $5,000 Johnson, Don Actor $5,000 Johnson, Earvin "Magic" Former NBA Player $5,000 Ferrell, Will Actor $5,000 Gregory, Tom Producer/Writer $5,000 Grenier, Adrian Actor $5,000 Griffith, Melanie Actor $5,000 Hall, Deidre Actor $5,000 Handler, Daniel...

Last month, the United Nations announced it would need nearly $1 billion to effectively fight the virus, which has killed more than 3,400 people across West Africa since March. If it is not contained, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there could be hundreds of thousands of Ebola cases in coming months. "Every day we delay, the cost and the suffering will grow exponentially," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said at the time. The United States and other governments have pledged tens of millions of dollars to pay for everything from medicine and protective clothing for aid workers to...