Dems spend money for building on other items

AUSTIN - The Texas Democratic Party won't buy its Austin headquarters building anytime soon, after spending the allotted $250,000 on political campaigns and other expenses.

Chairman Charles Soechting said he made a "command decision" to tap the funds for legislative campaigns, a bus tour of the Rio Grande Valley, modernized voting records, staff pay raises and furniture.

The money was left to the party by Martha Hughes, of Dallas, who died at 91 in 1999.

The party's former finance vice chairman, Hilbert Ocanas, of San Antonio, said the executive committee voted in 2003 to buy the building.

In response to criticism about his decision, Soechting said it is more important to have a viable political party than to worry about an address.

"I could watch a party go down, or I could step in and make a difference," Soechting said.

Washington (AP) - John Kerry (website - news - bio) 's unsuccessful presidential campaign left him with millions of dollars in seed money for a 2008 Senate or presidential bid.

The Democrat transferred $4 million in leftover money from his 2004 presidential-primary campaign to his Senate campaign fund, campaign finance reports he filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission show.

Kerry's primary campaign had nearly $10 million left after the transfer. Kerry can use that money and the millions moved to his Senate campaign to seek re-election to his Massachusetts seat in 2008 or to run for president again.

Kerry's general-election campaign was about $3.5 million in debt and had about $800,000 in the bank as of Dec. 31, the last date covered by the reports.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0105/204087.html

This practice needs to be publicized whenever it occurs. This is what happened to Social Security. The Democrats took the money earmarked for the program and spent it on other things..Things which would benefit their political careers and reelection. Now, we are into a crisis which the corrupt do not want to face because they do not want the responsibility for confronting real issues which will make or break the lives of real people in the future. They will let the "court" decide. In KY, a Republican, is trying to do this same thing with a college fund, set up for people by Jonathan Miller, a Democrat..Miller's idea is a good one..Parent's set aside a certain amount of money now in this fund while a child is very young and, with the growth of the fund, the child will be able to have the money to go to college. It allows people to be responsible for their own kids. Well, the fund now has quite a bit of money in it and guess what..David Williams, the Republican President of the Senate, wants to raid this fund to balance the budget..Of course, the money would actually be used to pay off political cronies, I am sure. I understand that people in KY are quite irate over this. And, what a shame..This state has it's first Republican Governor in many years and now this man, David Williams, is giving the party a black eye with this kind of "Democratic" political behavior. In my view, it is nothing but fraud for politicians to lure people to give money for a specific reason and then, when the coffers are full, to take that money and use it for other purposes. How awful that this kind of thing is going on in governments and the male media pundits are spending all their time tracking and making cruel comments about Martha Stewart! It is depressing!!

The Democrats took the money earmarked for the program and spent it on other things.

I don't think Social Security withholdings were EVER earmarked. The program was designed as a federal slush fund from its inception. There was never supposed to be a "lockbox."

In fact, the original program was designed so that most people would die long before they every collected anything from Social Security. It was simply another form of tax to fill government coffers for congressional squandering. Unfortunately, Americans are living too long to continue the scam.

I think your description of Social Security is pretty much correct. But my understand was that SS did have a surplus up until the 60's and then Kennedy signed legislation that allowed that surplus to be used in the general fund. I believe that this was to fund Viet Nam.

I know I read this quite some time ago but I'm not entirely convinced of the accuracy of it or the source at that time.

Maybe time for some googling..

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