Posted on 09/30/2015 12:12:30 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Leaked Audio: Hillary Clinton Calls at Private Fundraiser for Infrastructure Bank to Resemble Clinton Global Initiative
Hillary Clinton told donors at a private fundraiser in New York last Thursday that she plans as president to create a “national infrastructure bank” modeled on the Clinton Global Initiative, according to a recording of her remarks obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
This was the first time that Clinton, who has long supported the formation of a government-controlled bank to invest in national infrastructure projects, cited the Clinton Global Initiative—the flagship arm of her family’s controversial foundation—as an investment model for her proposed bank.
Clinton said CGI’s “public-private” partnership with labor unions has created tens of thousands of jobs, and argued that a federal infrastructure bank could take on this type of project.
“Think of what we can do on a national scale,” said Clinton.
Clinton’s plan for a national infrastructure bank dovetails with the financial interests of some of her most prominent supporters. Her comments could also give ammunition to critics who say that the Clintons’ philanthropic operations, including CGI, have been plagued with conflicts of interest and financial mismanagement.
“I want to see if we can create what is called an infrastructure bank,” said Clinton. “It’s like a revolving loan fund so we can take it out of to a great extent the annual fight over appropriations. If we can get it funded with a combination of public and private funds, we can do this.”
Clinton cited as an example a $15 billion project she said the Clinton Global Initiative is running with labor union pension funds to train people for “clean energy work.”
“The Clinton Global Initiative that my husband started has a project with a lot of labor union pension funds. They have put $15 billion into a fund to train workers to be able to do energy efficiency and other clean energy work,” said Clinton. “Think of what we can do on a national scale. … There is no doubt in my mind this is a win-win.”
The Clinton fundraiser was hosted at the Greenwich Village home of John Zaccaro, a convicted felon. Clinton did not take questions after her remarks, which is unusual for a prominent candidate at a closed-door fundraising event.
Clinton’s campaign website says the proposal would “leverage public and private capital to invest in critically important infrastructure projects, including energy infrastructure projects.”
Supporters of such a bank say it would help spur investment and job creation by letting the private sector invest in public projects. But the concept has also been criticized as a magnet for cronyism that could allow government officials to hand out loans to allies as political favors.
“The basic premise is if we throw enough public and private money into a bucket and then let private parties sort of draw on it to build better roads, the whole problem will sort itself out,” said Adam J. White, counsel at Boyden Gray & Associates, a law firm that focuses on federal regulation. “That strikes me at best a recipe for a failed transportation policy and at worst an opportunity for wasting billions of dollars.”
White said recent controversies over the green energy company Solyndra and the Export-Import bank also show the potential for “favoritism, waste, politicalization.”
Clinton’s plan could also be a windfall for some of her top financial supporters.
One likely beneficiary would be Robert Wolf, a Clinton donor and former bundler for the Obama campaign who previously chaired UBS Americas. Wolf runs the consulting firm 32 Advisors, which has contributed between $10,000 and $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
The firm announced the formation of a new infrastructure practice in April to help clients obtain funding for infrastructure projects. It brought on Michael Likosky, an expert in infrastructure financing and government planning, to lead the practice. Likosky has also advised CGI on infrastructure projects, and billed himself in July as “an Expert to the Clinton Initiative.”
Another donor that could benefit from a national infrastructure bank is Mary Scott Nabers, head of the consulting firm Strategic Partnerships, Inc. The firm helps clients to procure government contracts for public-private infrastructure projects. Nabers has contributed between $10,000 and $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
Labor unions, which represent a major voting bloc and well of financial support for Clinton, would also benefit significantly from a national infrastructure bank.
Union officials said they hoped that their project with CGI—which was cited by Clinton at her recent fundraiser—would help “spur creation of a National Infrastructure Bank to spur subsidized bonds for public works projects,” the Chicago Tribune reported in 2011.
The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Check this out:
Randi Weingarten AFT [American Federation of Teachers] President
and Richard L. Trumka, AFL-CIO President
and BCTD
are investing pension funds in Democrat initiatives [GREEN and CLINTON GLOBAL ready].
*******************************************************
December 2011: “......At the White House event today, the labor movement committed to work to invest $150 million in energy-efficient retrofit projects in the coming months.
President Obama announced that nearly $4 billion of investments have been committed already, including $2 billion by workers’ pension funds, CEOs, mayors and university presidents for energy-saving upgrades. This builds on 14 private sector commitments announced at the Clinton Global Initiative conference in June, including the labor movement’s aim to invest $10 billion in pension fund assets in job-creating infrastructure projects over the next five years.
“The Better Buildings initiative has all the right components to make a real difference—it will create profitable investment opportunities for worker pension funds, create badly needed good jobs, increase America’s competitiveness around energy savings, and address the dangers of climate change,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
“This is about smart investments in America’s future,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said at the White House event. “The initiative is a win-win-win. It puts skilled laborers back to work on projects that will cut energy bills and pollution, reduce our dependency on foreign oil and create tens of thousands of new jobs. It’s exactly what America needs now to strengthen our economy.” The Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO said the initiative will have a profound impact on the U.S. construction industry, which is suffering a 14 percent unemployment rate nationwide, by providing apprenticeships and jobs.
“It will create much-needed pathways for Americans to gain access to job and career training while making great strides to address our critical energy and environmental challenges,” said Mark H. Ayers, president of the Building and Construction Trades Department.
The AFT has been retrofitting its headquarters building in Washington, D.C., to become LEED Silver certified, and the AFL-CIO has committed to a Better Buildings Challenge retrofit of its headquarters, expected to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent.
“We not only are asking others to commit to energy-saving retrofits, but we’re also doing it ourselves,” Weingarten said.
Over the past year, the AFL-CIO, AFT and BCTD have been working with a broad coalition of pension funds, money managers, public officials and employers to focus investment in our nation’s infrastructure projects, with a particular emphasis on energy-efficient retrofits.
The AFL-CIO has exceeded its initial Clinton Global Initiative commitment of working with existing real estate-focused investment funds to invest between $10 million and $20 million of additional capital in energy-efficient retrofits of commercial, industrial, institutional and public buildings over the next six months. — AFL-CIO, AFT and BCTD Laud $4 Billion Commitment to Presidential ‘Better Buildings Challenge’ Initiative [Dec - 2011]
Lockbox ?
Yet another giant scam of our hard- earned money. Who has the seven Trillion dollars Obama stole from us — supposedly for Infrastructure “shovel ready jobs” we never got???????????? Follow the money ( gawd, if we only had a free press !) and throw the thieves in prison !
She want to blur the line between private and public investment...in order to make it easier to line the pockets of political favorites and cronies.
new lockbox, the old one looks like a sack of raisens
Lets build roads with the Clinton Foundation !!
Sure …………..
WTF?!?! Do my eyes deceive me, or did Hillary just say something undeniably truthful?
so the Arkansas Mob will be able to take a cut of everything that gets built in this country.
Tiny Turds
Its acronym will be GSF, for Global Slush Fund.
soaked in gin, they are sick people
she wants the WHOLE world’s money
I wouldn’t let a Clinton even be the “banker” for a game of Monopoly...
How does one”do energy efficiency”?
Here in Washington State they have what is called the “Public Works Trust Fund”, and both the Departments of Ecology and Heath each have a state revolving fund loan program for sewer and water projects.
The 2 revolving programs work to provide low interest loans (0 to 3.5% last I checked) (as opposed to bonds) to cities and counties and they work great but the drawback is they are underfunded so it can take several years to get funding for a particular project. They reason they work great is that water and sewer agencies are solvent and have good reserves so the chances of default are very, very slim.
The Public Works Trust Fund worked like the other 2 programs but also funded street/road projects. But a couple of years ago the state legislature decided the state general fund needed the money and went in and took it. So now there is a program in name only because they do not have any funds to distribute. And the projects that were paying back into the program, those proceeds go into the state general fund as well.
Is anyone else pretty much worn out with Hillary like I am?
Clinton told donors at a private fundraiser in New York last Thursday that she plans as president to create a "national infrastructure bank" modeled on the Clinton Global Initiative...
Texas State Infrastructure Bank
The senate tried in 2007 to create a NIB and the House tried in 2008, but those were tied to the Bush stimulus, but Bush rejected any infrastructure spending in his stimulus.
Hammer meets nail. What you said is the sum total of all goals and the mission of Hillary from Hell.
Strangely, Hillary is very confident she WILL be president.
Romney, reportedly, is very confident Trump will NOT be president.
Where does such assurance come from? And, IF, they can so confidently take dismiss Trump, who the hell else do we think can possibly stand against global forces at play? Marco? Ha! Cruz? Crucified, overnight! Carson? Ha!
These two world class money pots, Hillary Inc., and Romney types are confident that America collapses, to be remade in the image of money. I believe we must pray.
Quibbling over Trump’s fussiness and bombasity is tiddly winks to what is coming against him and without him.
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