Municipalities in California are considering a scheme whereby they seize home mortgages that are underwater through the process known as eminent domain, pay off investors at reduced rates, and allow new investors to refinance the underlying homes at current value.
“The eminent-domain gambit is being advocated by Steven Gluckstern,” reports the Wall Street Journal, “the chairman of Mortgage Resolution Partners, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that has been the guiding force behind three California municipalities that are considering the approach.”
And like all schemes weird and wacky in this Occupy Anything country we have become, it’s the brainchild of someone with deep ties to the Obama administration.
Steven Gluckstern raised $120,900 for the Obama campaign in 2008 as a bundler, according to opensecrets.org, the web site that tracks political donations.
A bundler is someone who raises campaign cash from others on behalf of a campaign and then gets special treatment from the president if the candidate wins.
Gluckstern was also the founding chairman of the Democracy Alliance, a George Soros-sponsored liberal money machine matrix ;-), that meets secretly in luxury hotel rooms across the country and has dispersed reportedly $150 million in donations to liberal causes since 2005.
Like all true Obamtrepreneurs, Gluckstern has- gasp and surprise- opened a new company, Mortgage Resolution Partners (MRP) to “partner” with local government in this extra legal scheme to steal from some mortgage companies and give to other mortgage companies with the full sanction of the government.
And the only thing that MRP wants in return is a small “fee”- a “fee is very similar to the fee paid by the government to banks that modify mortgages under federal programs.”
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Oh, so: It is only a fee that is very similar to other government-sponsored theft?
How nice of them.
Would any Obama bundler that isn’t trying to bilk the country with some private venture that steals from others please raise your hand now?
Thought so.
Gluckstern joins list of professional fundraisers who have sought to cash in on their ability to raise money for Obama that includes recent scandals such as Solyndra and Lightsquared.
Gluckstern has told the Journal that he has “wound down” his political involvement in recent years, besides the $2,500 check he wrote recently to the Obama campaign. However, opensecrets.org actually shows two $2,500 donations this year to Obama from Steven Gluckstern, plus two $2,500 donations from Judith Gluckstern on the same dates, AND two donations from Sarah Gluckstern of $2,300 from previous election cycles. Gluckstern’s wife and daughter are named Judith and Sarah, respectively.
I know in my family, when I’m trying to wind my political involvement with someone, I generally try to keep the combined contribution checks just a tad under $15,000.
That goes double if I think the “investment” in the candidate isn’t working out that great.
To do more would just “look” bad when I’m meeting secretly in luxury hotels rooms with bags full of cash to disperse to liberal causes.
Did I tell you the Democracy Alliance distributed a reported $150 million in cash to liberal groups since 2005?
I did?
Good.
The Journal reports the White House is “skeptical” of the Gluckstern plan, which is probably a polite way fo telling Gluckstern that he has to come up with more cash. Once a bundler, after all.
The White House could have said that they have grave constitutional concerns about government seizure of private property just because it seems like a cool idea that can generate a lot of fees.
They might have denounced it as incompatible with private property rights as protected under the Fifth Amendment.
But instead, they weakly mentioned that it as a “local” issue while saying they have “concerns.”
I’m wondering if there is any part of the constitution that Professor Obama has actually read. Or did he just color between the words?
And all this time I thought Obama wasn’t very business-friendly.
I guess the rest of us non-bundlers better get into the bundling business.
Because under Obama, that business is booming."Like" me on Facebook and you'll get sneak peeks of columns and, as an added bonus, I will never raise your taxes. Send me email and I just might mention you on Sunday.
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