Hillary Clinton has become the presidential front-runner despite being the namesake of the biggest PAC/charitable farce/personal ATM/slush fund in history.
The next round of allegations actually cast stones at the charitable nature of the worst foundation since some guy built his house on sand.
And this comes less than a week from the publication of the book “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” by Peter Schweizer, that examines the ever-controversial Clinton Foundation.
Jay GreesonAt best the Clinton Foundation appears to be one of the nation’s most powerful shell companies. At worst, potentially, it appears it could be somewhere between a Gotti-esque empire and an international favor-trading post for some of the world’s most nefarious governments.
And this is the foundation with the name of the Democratic front-runner for the White House? Sweet buckets of slush puppies and slush funds, this is ridiculous.
The latest round of allegations stem from the multiple news reports Wednesday that about 10 percent of the funds raised by the Clinton Foundation are actually used for charitable works.
Hey, 10 percent of $2 billion can do a lot of good work. Ten percent of $2 billion is a grand gesture, and if everyone tithed and gave 10 percent, it would be awesome.
But — there’s always a but, right — the Clinton Foundation has made claims that 88 percent of the money raised goes to charity. Yes, 88 percent.
The Clinton Foundation raised more than $144 million in 2013 and allocated $8.8 million to grants to other organizations, according to reports. The foundation’s tax filings show the organization spent $8.5 million — almost as much as the reported total in grants it awarded — on travel, and roughly half that figure on office supplies.
Well, I guess if Hillary wants the top office in the land, she needs to travel the globe and have the finest office supplies in the free world, right? In fact, if we think of all the good a random ink cartridge or a pack of Sharpies can do for the poor, well, God bless the Clinton Foundation.
And these claims against the foundation are not some partisan attack from some Fox-generated account. Two-plus years ago the Better Business Bureau reported the Clinton Foundation failed to meet its standards of being an accountable charity because it lacked transparency in its financial reports. A quick check of the BBB website shows the Clinton Foundation is again in its crosshairs with a new report on the horizon.
Seriously, it’s the newest chapter of head-scratching inequities in a foundation that has been riddled with mistakes, miscues and miscalculations.
A mistake — even one that spans 78 percent, as in the difference between what was reportedly donated to charity and what was allegedly donated to charity — is understandable. We all make them, and sadly, we as a country are ever-failing when it comes to math.
That said, the pattern of inaccuracies in the Clinton Foundation ledger is staggering.
The genesis of how a lot of these funds were raised has been questioned by Schweizer and others, who allege that Clinton has taken hundreds of millions from international bodies that may have benefited while she was Secretary of State.
The management of those funds was obviously handled carelessly since just last week the Clinton Foundation had to apologize and refile its taxes after mistakenly putting government grants into the charitable donation category. Feel free to insert your own joke here.
So it goes, and maybe at some point we’ll get over feeling like Clinton has “waited her turn” for a chance to lead the country.
This is not Upwards Government, and if she does get a turn as president, we need to make darn sure the finances are turned over to someone else.