Frost Family Draws Ire Of Conservatives (Refuse To Release Tax Records)

When Halsey and Bonnie Frost agreed to go public with how the State Children's Health Insurance Program helped them after a car crash left two of their children comatose, the Baltimore couple expected to hear from critics of government-funded health care.

But while the Frosts were helping a bipartisan majority in Congress sell a plan to expand the program, they were not prepared for...

Pretty decent article considering its the Baltimore Sun. They do cherry pick some harsh comments from the blogs but I'm amazed they asked about the family releasing their tax return Which the family refused to do).

Lets take a look at some key points:

"A contributor to the conservative Web site Free Republic noted Graeme's enrollment in the private Park School and the sale of a smaller rowhouse on the Frosts' block for $485,000 this year and questioned whether the family should be taking advantage of the state program."

Fair explanation.

"It was the news coverage of that broadcast that set off the blogo- sphere. A pseudonymous contributor to Free Republic cataloged the $20,000 cost of tuition at the Park School, the $160,000 Halsey Frost paid for his warehouse in 1999 and the $485,000 for which a neighbor sold his home in March. Links were provided to photos of the Park School's 44,000-square- foot Wyman Arts Center and the Frosts' 1992 wedding announcement in The New York Times.

Getting it right.

The Frosts say the description of their family's circumstances now circulating is misleading. Halsey, they say, is a self-employed woodworker - he has no employees - while Bonnie works part time for a medical publishing firm. Together, they say, they earn between $45,000 and $50,000 a year.

Just as I had said.

The Frosts declined to show The Sun their 2006 income tax returns

You already told everyone how much you make, you do it in every interview. The tax info from both your 3,000sf home and your commercial property is already in the public domain. What is it that you don't want the Baltimore Sun to see? Would the tax return show activity of the LLC or rental income from your tenant(s) at the commercial property?

"and the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene would not confirm their enrollment in the program. But John G. Folkemer, the deputy secretary for health care financing, said yesterday that applicants must prove their income levels through Social Security numbers or tax returns to be accepted for coverage.

Folkemer said a family's assets are not considered in determining eligibility. Halsey Frost purchased the family home for $55,000 in 1990, according to city records, and refinanced in 2005, he says, to make improvements to accommodate the return of Graeme and Gemma from the hospital. The 1936 brick rowhouse, on a side street near Patterson Park, has an assessed value of $263,140.

"Halsey Frost purchased a 1920 warehouse in East Baltimore for $160,000 in 1999, according to city records. It is assessed at $160,500. Frost says he is still paying off the mortgages on both properties."

That bold part is going to get some comments.

"The four Frost children depend on financial aid to attend private school, the Frosts say."

Olberman? What happened to full scholarships Keith? Since you were a little off in your reporting I guess we should dismiss your entire argument right? So it appears that the full vs partial scholarship issue still isn't settled but the quote seems to back up the reporting that the family is paying, albeit less than others, to send their child to private school. The lefty blogs will still argue all day that since the family doesn't write a check for the full 20k tuition that somehow the entire original article was all wrong.

"The Frosts say they stand by their support of the State Children's Health Insurance Program."

Supporting an existing program is not what they were doing. They allowed their son to be used by democrats to push for EXPANSION of the program to families that earned higher incomes.

This added information. First, we now know that all 4 children go to private school (we knew the girl went to a different school now paid for by Maryland because of her disability, which is fine of course).

We know they get financial aid. I presume that every resident of Baltimore doesn’t have access to this school and the financial aid needed to attend it, but the school does offer financial aid.

It’s still possible the grandparents paid for a lot of this, as they’ve never told us what makes this family special enough to be desirable members of the school. We are just speculating, maybe the kids are all really smart, but it could also be that their parents are really well-connected.

We could make them the poster children for why we should have school vouchers. Apparently the democratic-controlled public school system isn’t good enough for this family.

If they bought a house for $55,000 in 1992, they wouldn’t have had much of a mortgage on it. So most of their payments on that one would be for the 2nd mortgage they took out for home improvements, which probably aren’t a large portion of the value.

I wonder if their latest assessment included those improvements though.

We have been told though that their mortgage payment is $1200 a month, so assuming an average interest rate we could figure out how much they owe. Commercial mortgage probably has a higher interest rate.

I presume their tenant pays rent, and it pays most of the commercial mortgage though, and his company probably pays the rest through a “lease”. Just a speculation, but that’s how you would set it up — the building shouldn’t cost him a dime from his own reported income unless he’s a really bad businessman and doesn’t have a lawyer.

But he should have had a lawyer to set up the LLC.

Then there’s the reports that his LLC isn’t active. Don’t know what to make about that.

$1200 a month doesn’t pay for too much of a mortgage, so I’m pretty sure it doesn’t include the commercial property.

I wonder if he operates an “office” for his business out of his house. I would, and that would allow him to lease the house and pay part of the mortgage and taxes from his business, again taking it out of his personal expenses.

But I’ve never cared to attack this family for getting SCHIP. I like highlighting how much they seem to have, and how the SCHIP program AS IT ALREADY EXISTED took care of them.

They are a perfect example of why the program doesn’t need to be expanded. Certainly people better OFF than the Frosts don’t need the coverage. We can say that, without saying the Frost’s don’t deserve coverage.

That way, we can also note that the FROSTS don’t have coverage now because the democrats are holding them hostage to blackmail the president into signing an unwarranted expansion of the program.

The President would sign a bill that kept the SCHIP program for families like the Frosts. It’s not the President that took the program away, it’s the Democrats.

That the Frosts are willing to say otherwise makes them dishonest.

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