Jeff and Sher Campaigning in Philadelphia?
Really. And the local GOP wonders why we think of them as the Gang Who Can’t Shoot Straight. Memo to Jeff and Sher: You are running for statewide office in Delaware — Pennsylvanians won’t save you from the craziness that is the Delaware GOP.
Yesterday, Jeff Craig Cragg and Sher Valenzuela spent the day in Philadelphia, meeting the RNC Chair Reince Priebus, where it looks like the RNC Chair needed some local R props to help sell the latest round of RNC bullshit. Or Jeff and Sher were leveling up (geek alert!) their Charlatan characters. Who knows. So instead of being here actually working for votes IN DELAWARE, Jeff and Sher were on hand to signup for more of the usual bamboozelement:
Priebus, visiting Philadelphia today, repeatedly said Obama’s administration had given more than $500 million to build cars in another country. And he repeatedly tried to link the money to Obama’s federal stimulus program, not the program started under Bush. Both claims are inaccurate.
Inaccurate. So the RNC Chair came to Philly to lie to people and needed the Delaware GOP candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor to help him do that. The Washington Post already gave this 4 Pinnochios. And while the Post’s Fact Checker often has an eccentric view of facts (still working on the he say she say model), Bloomberg provides a contemporaneous account of the money and Fisker’s work to date. So while Fisker got less than $200M of their loan (the part meant to design the mid-level car), the RNC Chair is trying to bamboozle people into thinking that Fisker got more than $500M to build cars overseas. Not true. So while Delaware has an idle car factory, and an European car maker is looking to build cars in the US, Jeff and Sher are spending their energy helping the GOP to sell a lie about the program. You’d think that people who want to lead this state’s government would want cheerlead for more manufacturing jobs here, but it looks like they’e got their GOP marching orders down pat: if there is a choice between your political advantage and and long term economic improvements — always choose your personal political advantage. And definitely go to Pennsylvania to do it.
More from Priebus:
And, though he repeatedly complained that the Fisker auto production in America never happened, Priebus said the money dedicated to fund that manufacturing should not be given to the company.
Really? This is from the guy whose party voted down the Bring Jobs Home Act — an effort to stop subsidizing the outsourcing of jobs overseas. it wouldn’t stop the outsourcing, a company could do that if it made financial sense, but it would stop making American taxpayers pay for that. And Americans do pay to move jobs overseas — to the tune of almost 120% of the actual moving cost. Why should middle class taxpayers fund their own destruction? (And remember this outsourcing subsidy next time someone wants to sneer at “they didn’t build that”). Because the GOP’s objection here isn’t that a company got taxpayer funds — it is that they just don’t approve of this company because President Obama does.
And don’t forget that Jeff and Sher don’t care enough about Delaware’s future to be here to fight for it — they’re going to be in Pennsylvania sucking up to the worst of the GOP bamboozlers.
h/t Anonymous tipster
Tags: Jeff Craig, Republican Bamboozlement, Republican Hypocrisy, Republican Liars, Sher Valenzuela
Sher Valenzuela is campaigning against the Fisker loans? Her company First State Manufacturing took a $700,000 federal small business administration loan, had their utilities paid for by the town of Milford, and has taken large amounts of money from DEDO and the bulk of their business comes from federal government contracts. All for less than 70 employees.
Someone needs to look up the amounts of money FSM has taken from the government, it will easily top $1,000,000.
Remember, if you removed the vowels from Reince Priebus’ name, you are left with RNC PR BS.
Take a vowel movement, if you will.
BTW, Jeffs name is spelled Cragg.
Thank you, SA, I’ll fix that.
Here is a list of what FSM has reveived. I did not include Federal contracts and their amounts. I can look that up if there is enough interest.
*Federal $650,000 Small Business Administration (SBA) 504 loan.
*Federally funded Service Corp of Retired Executives (SCORE)
*Federal and Delaware funded Small Business Technology and Development Center
*Federal $20,000 Express loan
*U.S. DoD and the Delaware Economic Development Office funded Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC)
*$96,500 SBA backed 7(a) loan
Granted these are government programs/services that are specifically designed to support small business, but under anyone’s small government concept, they would have not been available to her. No one denies her work ethic and moxy. However, without the government give her a hand up, it is not clear she would be where she is today. We’ll have to see what the messages coming from her campaign and how the align with the support she has received.
The Town of Milford pays for their utilities, and they’ve received money for training on top of the SBA money.
And this looks like FSM took $301,000 in stimulus money in 2010:
http://projects.propublica.org/recovery/locale/delaware/sussex
The more you dig, the more taxpayer money FSM has taken, all for less than 70 employees! I think the Valenzuelas need to show us their tax returns, with less than 70 employees, government contracts, and hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of taxpayer dollars going to them in loans and grants they need to show us where our money is going.
Since he announced for Governor, Jeff Cragg has been either totally absent or a buffoon. I predict the smallest GOP percentage in history for DE Governor’s race. Back to the Mial Boxes etc…….
From 15 June 2001 to 8 June 2009 First State Manufacturing had contracts with multiple DoD agencies for a total award of $5,302,743.00.
Data is not currently available for 2010 – 2012 because there is lag time between the contracts and the reporting by each agency (it’s not their highest priority). Eventually data will be available for those periods.
This also does not include micropurchases (below $3,000) or subcontract data if FSM was a subcontractor to another firm. I will run that data when I have time.
Included in that total were 3 contracts/purchases with HHS (go figure!) for graphic services for total of $405,000.00. That’s included in the $5M, not in addition to.
Get federal dollars by being a minority-owned business
Certified companies receive exclusive rights to government contracts
By TED GRIFFITH
The News Journal
Whenever they meet with prospective government buyers, Eli and Sher Valenzuela say right at the outset that their business, First State Manufacturing, is federally certified as minority- owned.
“We almost mention the certification before we say ‘hello,’” Sher Valenzuela said. “It’s very important to us.”
Getting certified as a minority- owned business about five years ago has given the small, Milford-based manufacturer a big edge in winning government defense contracts, the Valenzuelas said. Their company makes upholstered products, including cushions and floor mats for military aircraft.
The U.S. Department of Defense, like other government agencies, sets goals that a percentage of contracts go to minority-owned small businesses, said Sher Valenzuela. To qualify for those contracts, businesses must first get certified through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Getting the minority-owned business certification is a good way of effectively narrowing the competition, said Juanita Beauford of the Delaware Small Business Development Center. On certain federal contracts, the certified minority owned businesses would only be competing against other businesses with the same certification, said Beauford, who advises Delaware entrepreneurs on bidding for government contracts.
By winning several defense contracts, the Valenzuelas saw First State Manufacturing’s revenue to jump nearly $2 million last year doubling their 2004 efforts.
http://www.firststatemfg.com/shopexd.asp?id=15
Conservatives say what about Obama getting into Harvard?
That is awesome crowdsourcing by anon and Dave of FSM’s piece of the government dole. How much of FSM’s business is non-government? It looks like most of their business is driven by government contracts. Which is fine, but one wonders how someone who is absolutely benefiting from government spending can have the nerve to complain about someone else getting the benefits of similar spending?
Revision of data for First State Manufacturing:
Data from all years: $15,175,503. 66% awarded with no competition.
Government dole? You sell products that save money and that is government dole while taking money for noting is an entitlement. I see. Newspeak lives.
FSM is creating more jobs here per dollar than Markell’s projects. Maybe we should dump the bankruptcy attorney and get the businesswoman in to show us how it is done.
Oh, David. You really are as stupid as the mods here make you out to be. Here is someone sucking on the gubmint tit, yet you make her out to be a self-made woman. You really are a clueless douche.
70 employees for $15M? Please! Give me a few more $50K french fry vending machines instead.
Yes, David, she can show us how she took advantage of her minority status to get federal contracts with no competition and grants and loans, she can show us how to get our hands on that lovely Obama stimulus money that FSM is so fond of, and then she can show us how to get the city to pay our utility bills. FSM is built on government money.
I’ll take the attorney with no government subsidies.
I predict that the statewide GOP ticket doesn’t break 30% in November.
The stuff about Sher Valenzuela’s ENTIRE business being built on government subsidies is pretty damaging.
“Give me a few more $50K french fry vending machines instead.”
LOL.
If FSM was a green company Valenzuela would be all over it for taking so much government money, especially stimulus money, and feeding off of taxpayer funded contracts, just like she’s doing with Fisker.
Yesterday Romney did a town hall meeting where he attacked Obama’s “You didn’t build that” while surrounded by government contractors.
Ginger Gibson tweeted: “Of the business owners with Romney today, three are described as being federal contractors, two defense contractors.”
Wish someone could explain to me how it is that the government does not create jobs — except for GOP government contractors.
I wonder what the taxpayers in Milford think about footing the bill for FSM’s utility bills when so many people are struggling to make ends meet. If the company is doing so well, why don’t they remove their burden from taxpayers?
DuPont sells Kevlar and Nomex and hundreds of other products to the Government, which is, get this, a customer of DuPont. There’s absolutely nothing untoward about having the government as a customer. It’s paying for a product, just like any other customer. In fact, it’s harder to sell to the government than to other private companies due to all sorts of regulations which don’t apply to private transactions. The fact that First State Manufacturing is selling products which the government wants to buy is no criticism at all. When someone sells something to the government, or to any company for that matter, it’s not a handout from the government. It’s called the free market system.
Except when you get no bid contracts set-aside for certain economic classes of firms. That’s not free market, by even the government’s definition.
And isn’t interesting that we have someone who will note that government demand for goods and services actually helps create jobs. For GOP companies only apparently.
Some of you need to get some life experience.
My wife worked for 29 years at a company in eastern Sussex County that produced millions of ‘widgets’ every year. This was kind of a niche market because there were only two other companies in the US that manufactured them. These widgets are widely used by large manufacturers, small enterprises, and the federal government. The owner did not invent them, but he did invent the machines that made them better than his competitors, and built up his business through hard work, with NO assistance from any governmental entity, ever. No loans, training, grants… nothing.
He received numerous invitations to bid on government contracts, yet he rarely did because of the ridiculous amount of bullshit and paperwork required, and the low profit margin. The government usually bought an inferior product from his competitors, and ultimately China.
Like everyone else who actually produces, he paid for his use of the infrastructure by paying a shitload of taxes – town, county, state, and federal. Bear in mind that there are many who don’t work, contribute, or produce anything, who use the same ‘roads and bridges’.
He paid a fair wage, and was able to resist numerous attempts of union organization, which would have sucked the life out of the business, and complied with OSHA requirements. His business thrived and survived for over 40 years, IN SPITE of the government.
“Government dole? You sell products that save money and that is government dole while taking money for noting is an entitlement. I see. Newspeak lives.”
Dude, some of the people here believe that being employed the government is being on the public dole. Good luck reasoning with that idiocy.
“Except when you get no bid contracts set-aside for certain economic classes of firms. That’s not free market, by even the government’s definition.”
I am not completely against set-aside contracts, although I think the government goes overboard with the number of disadvantaged classes. What I am against is the intellectual hypocricy (I take that back it is not even intellectual) to talk out of both sides of their mouth by decrying government, regulation, taxation, spending, inefficiency, doesn’t create jobs, et al, ad nauseum while sucking at the very teat of the government they berate and owing their success (both commercial and government sales) to the hand that they bite.
I’m not against the set-asides, either, but, like you, object to the hypocrisy that somehow government supports and help are somehow all wrong until you are the beneficiary of them.
The bottom line is that an anti-government teabagger, Sher Valenzuela, built her ENTIRE business on government subsidies. That is pretty damaging.
It’s the hypocrisy, stupid.
Like everyone else who actually produces, he paid for his use of the infrastructure by paying a shitload of taxes – town, county, state, and federal.
He also got to take advantage of tax policy which helped him write off equipment, expenses, even some of the cost of compliance of the regulations he had to comply with. That write off = business subsidy. So unless your story includes this guy not paying taxes, he sure as heck did get help from the government by way of the tax code. Like most businesses do.
But your one anecdote doesn’t take away from the fact that on republican for statewide office here went to Philly to decry business subsidies that she has been a beneficiary of. And this entire conversation is about taking advantage of government supports of various types while campaigning against them. Whether or not they are selling stuff to the government at any price is a bad deflection from that.
“Like everyone else who actually produces, he paid for his use of the infrastructure by paying a shitload of taxes – town, county, state, and federal. ”
To pay a shitload of taxes you need to make a bigger shitload of money. And if others before him had not paid for that infrastructure, he wouldn’t have had the money to pay the taxes or even made enough to owe them at all.
Now rich Republicans even resent the wages earned by the workers who build the infrastructure and provide the services that make them rich.
@puck,
“It’s the hypocrisy, stupid.”
Thanks, I usually spell check before I post but I was on the phone. I appreciate your kindness in pointing out my error.
Dave, sorry, I didn’t even see your comment and wasn’t referring to your or your spelling at all. Now I see how it can be read that way.
I was riffing on “it’s the economy, stupid” to point out that nobody is attacking FSM’s subsidies, just that it Shar is campaigning against that sort of thing, so it’s the hypocrisy, not the subsidies that critics are pointing out.
I tend not to care much about spelling, and I don’t think I’ve ever commented on anybody’s spelling.
@puck,
Oh. Ok I get it, Sorry I was being thinned skinned.
“He also got to take advantage of tax policy which helped him write off equipment, expenses, even some of the cost of compliance of the regulations he had to comply with. That write off = business subsidy.”
Tax code is the law. He simply obeyed the law. If they are bad laws, there is a process to get them changed. EVERY productive individual, or business, has the same opportunity to take advantage of those laws. Only an idiot, or a grandstanding progressive, say they wouldn’t.
“To pay a shitload of taxes you need to make a bigger shitload of money. And if others before him had not paid for that infrastructure, he wouldn’t have had the money to pay the taxes or even made enough to owe them at all.
Now rich Republicans even resent the wages earned by the workers who build the infrastructure and provide the services that make them rich.”
He, and other producers, paid his share for his use and maintenance of the “infrastructure”, as did the people who contributed to its construction. Fortunately, EVERYONE has the right to use the infrastructure whether they contributed, or not, even those who produce absolutely nothing.
He was not a Republican, so he doesn’t conveniently slip into your stereotype. Many times we discussed voting across party lines. You seem to have a hard time wrapping your head around the concept of someone working their ass off to make a shitload of money, and then paying taxes on it accordingly.
Where do you get this shit? Talk about doubling down on stupid.
Tax code is the law.
So are the set-aside programs, loan guarantees and all of the other business subsidies that Ms. Valenzuela was campaigning against while she was benefiting from them. We’re not the ones arguing for this changing — Sher is — and we are pointing out the sheer hypocrisy of it all.
I know this isn’t the argument you want to have, but you are the one doubling down on stupid by pretending to argue something that isn’t on offer here.
Valenzuela was in Philly with Priebus to badmouth Fisker because they took federal money:
Priebus, visiting Philadelphia today, repeatedly said Obama’s administration had given more than $500 million to build cars in another country. And he repeatedly tried to link the money to Obama’s federal stimulus program, not the program started under Bush.
How can Valenzuela do that with a straight face when she takes government no bid contracts and government money including over $300,000 in “Obama’s federal stimulus program” money?
People like her are held hostage by faith based beliefs. That is they believe something is true in the absence of any evidence that it is true. Thus handicapped by their mental representation of the world, they are forced to either ignore that which disrupts their beliefs or contort things to conform to their belief.
In her mind, she believes that her success was entirely her doing. It is the same kind of belief that is employed by those who dismiss the role and value of the interstate highway system or contract law or food safety, or anything that exists because of government. Their beliefs even explain putting a man on the moon as the outcome as the sole achievment of private companies who had contracts with the government. This dismissive attitude towards government is absolutely critical to maintaining their belief bubble that defines their world.
“So are the set-aside programs, loan guarantees and all of the other business subsidies that Ms. Valenzuela was campaigning against while she was benefiting from them. We’re not the ones arguing for this changing — Sher is — and we are pointing out the sheer hypocrisy of it all.”
Should that actually be the case, I totally agree that she is hypocritical.
“I know this isn’t the argument you want to have, but you are the one doubling down on stupid by pretending to argue something that isn’t on offer here.”
OK, possibly the wrong thread, but no pretense.
Should that actually be the case, I totally agree that she is hypocritical.
It is the case, check out the links in the comment section.