There were of course many possible explanations for Republican South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s affair with an Argentinian beauty. There is of course love, lust, or simply a mid-life crisis. However, it took Rush Limbaugh to isolate the true reason: President Obama. Limbaugh was heard yesterday explaining that Obama’s economic policies pushed poor Sanford into the arms of this mistress.
LIMBAUGH: This Sanford business! I’ll tell you, one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind, with Mark Sanford … this is the first thought: What he did defies logic. This is … more than being 180 degrees out of phase because of lust, or love. To split the scene for five days, and we know he’s been separated, and he knows, by the way, that the newspaper in his state has the emails between him and his concubine down there in Argentina, he knows this. He knows that somebody knows what’s going on. He knows his wife knows. So he ups and leaves for five days, doesn’t leave anybody in charge of the state, in case there’s an emergency.
Here comes the swing . . .
LIMBAUGH: This is almost like: I don’t give a damn! Country’s going to hell in a handbasket. I just want out of here!
LIMBAUGH: He had just tried to fight the stimulus money coming to South Carolina. He didn’t want any part of it. He lost the battle and said “What the hell? The Federal government is taking over! I want to enjoy life!”
Apparently, Republican marriages are undone by macro economic policy and the stimulus money. Indeed, his email about the “tan lines” of his mistress is simply code for runaway deficit funding:
“You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night’s light – but hey, that would be going into sexual details … “
For Sanford’s email messages, click here.
The problem of over-stimulation under the Obama Administration remains a danger to all Republican governors. Fortunately, Dr. Russ Limbaugh is here to keep their marriages and budgets in line with monogamous free market values
For those interested in picking up an over-stimulated Republican Governor, the usual pick-up lines for economists are usually successful. Here are a few of the most successful at GOP parties and strip joints:
1. Do you work for the Fed, cause your raising my reserves.
2. My fiscal policy is all about contributing to your private sector.
3. You have a boyfriend? That’s ok. The wife and I are into credit-swapping.
4. Are you a Keynesian? Because you sure make my monetary policy inflate.
5. Pareto dominate me, baby!
For a tape and discussion of Limbaugh’s foray into marital conflict and macro-economic theory, click here.
I suggest that Mr. Turley do a new post on this subject, because this information will not be viewed by many on this old one.
Exclusive breaking at the Turley blog.
For many years Senators and Congressmen associated with the “Family” had lived at a house at 133 C Street, SE, Washington, DC, while it was exempted from property taxes as a religious property.
After a citizen complained to the Tax Fraud Hotline of the DC Government, the Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR) revoked the exemption.
It was first reported here at the Turley blog.
So, how is “C STREET CENTER INC C ST CENTER,” the listed owner of the property, doing now that their former “church” is classified as a residential, taxable property?
First of all, they have racked up nearly $1,200.00 in penalties for missing payment deadlines.
They have incurred nearly $500.00 in interest charges for late payments.
They are nearly six months overdue on $2,777.67 in taxes that were due on March 31st, 2010.
As of September 29, 2010, there is no online record that they have paid any of the taxes, penalties and interest that were due by September 15th, 2010.
The C Street house was nearly $8500.00 behind in its property taxes, as of September 26, 2010, according to records posted by OTR.
Here are details from down in the weeds.
DC Property Taxes are payable in two semi-annual payments, one due on March 31st, and the other on September 15th.
The online tax payment records for DC are searchable at OTR’s website, “Real Property Tax Database Search” at
http://otr.cfo.dc.gov/otr/cwp/view,a,1330,q,594345.asp
For tax year 2009, they owed $5053.85.
The penalty for late payment was $171.48.
Interest was $32.49.
The total paid was $5,257.
For 2010, first half, they owed $5116.92.
Penalty: $511.69.
Interest: $347.30.
The total owed was $5975.91
Paid so far: $3198.24
Still owing: $2777.67.
For 2010, second half, they also owed $5116.92.
The penalty is again $511.69.
Interest was 76.75.
The total due as of September 15, 2010, was 5705.36.
No payment at all was on record as of September 28, 2010, 4:01 PM.
(Payments made by other taxpayers by the September 15 deadline have already been posted).
Bottom line:
The “balance due for 2010 is $8483.03.
This looks like a great stimulus tax cut for the Members of Congress living there. It looks like the folks who vote to impose taxes on everyone else are pretty slow to pay their own taxes.
Bringing this issue up to date, two group have launched separate attacks on the tax status of the C Street House. Josh Marshall again has the details:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/ohio_pastors_file_irs_complaints_over_c_street_hou.php?ref=fpb
The first attack is by 13 minister, directed to the IRS:
[quote TPMMuckraker
Ohio Pastors File IRS Complaints Over C Street House
Rachel Slajda | April 1, 2010, 9:58AM
The C Street Center, a boarding house for Christian lawmakers made famous by its role in the Ensign and Sanford scandals, is facing two complaints from a group of Ohio pastors. The pastors allege that the center is improperly using its tax status to offer below-market rents to members of Congress — a charge that could ensnare the members as well.
The 13 pastors, who say they’re concerned about the separation of church and state, filed one complaint with the IRS arguing that C Street has improperly declared itself a “church” for taxation purposes on February 23. Their second IRS complaint, filed this week and obtained by TPM, alleges that C Street’s rent is much lower than market price. The problem, according to the complaint, is that the members are either not paying taxes on that extra income, or that they’re receiving unreported gifts.
Lawmakers who live in the house reportedly pay $950 a month in rent for a furnished room and housekeeping services. The complaint, written by the group’s lawyer and former director of the IRS’s tax-exempt department Marcus Owens, states that one-bedroom apartments in the area run about $1,700 a month. Corporate housing and hotels — which, like C Street, offer amenities like housekeeping — charge up to $7,000 a month, according to the complaint.
At the low end, that’s a savings of $9,000 a year.
The IRS did not respond to a request for comment.[unquote]
The other front was opened by CREW before the House and Senate Ethics Committees:
[quote]The watchdog group CREW, or Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, followed the pastors today by filing similar complaints with the Senate and House ethics committees.
The complaints name Sens. Sam Brownback (R-KS), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Jim DeMint (R-SC), and John Ensign (R-NV), as well as Reps. Mike Doyle (D-PA), Heath Shuler (D-NC), Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Zach Wamp (R-TN) as having received improper gifts from the C Street Center by paying below-market rent.
As a matter of policy, the committees don’t comment on complaints or confirm whether they are investigating.[unquote]
The story broke first on the Turley blog.
Vince,
Thank you for your submissions on C Street. The list of residents and prayer breakfast attendees was most helpful in trying to wrap ones head around this whole issue. My take is ominous. The more the truth is brought into daylight and the knowledge spread perhaps the Family’s undue influence might be countered.
A large number of United States Senators and Members of Congress, primarily Republican, as well as high-ranking military leaders, are known as either “associates” or “close friends” of the Fellowship. Many have resided at properties owned by the Fellowship or an affiliated entity such as Youth with a Mission (YWAM) where they pay below-market rents. The low level of rent, tax-free status of the Fellowship, and secrecy of its members which includes not disclosing the scandals of its politician members, among others, has raised concerns.
Boarders at the C Street Center currently include Senators Tom Coburn, R-OK; John Ensign, R-Nev.; and Jim DeMint, R-SC; and Representatives Zach Wamp, R-TN; Bart Stupak, D-Mich.; Heath Shuler, D-N.C.; and Mike Doyle, D-Pa.[20][21][22] (It has been reported that Joseph Pitts, R-PA, was a resident; this is in question.)
Other members, some of whom have lived at C Street Center or the Cedars, include Senators Sam Brownback, R-KS; Mark Pryor, D-AR; Charles Grassley, R-IA; James Inhofe, R-OK; Susan Collins, R-ME, and Bill Nelson, D-FL; Representatives Ben Nelson, D-NE; Frank Wolf, R-VA; Todd Tiahrt, R-KS; Mike McIntyre, D-NC; John R. Carter, R-TX and Ander Crenshaw, R-FL; as well as former Senators Pete Domenici, R-NM; Don Nickles, R-OK; George Allen, R-VA; Conrad Burns, R-MT; and Mark O. Hatfield, R-OR; and former Representatives Steve Largent, R-OK; Mark Sanford, R-SC; Chip Pickering, R-MS, Ed Bryant, R-TN, John E. Baldacci, R-ME, and J.C. Watts, R-OK.[16]
Senators Ensign, Inhofe, Brownback (a former C Street resident), and Susan Collins, R-ME, and former Senators George Allen and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have attended the Wednesday morning Senate Prayer Breakfast at the C Street Center. Former Attorney General Ed Meese under Ronald Reagan regularly presided over other prayer breakfasts.[16]
….
In 1980, Youth with a Mission, Washington, D.C., Inc. (also known as Youth with a Mission National Christian Center, Inc.) purchased a three-story, brick rowhouse 7,914-square-foot (735.2 m2) located at 133 C Street SE, behind the Madison Annex of the Library of Congress and near the United States Capitol. YWAM took a note from Alexandro Palau in the principal amount of $448,873.33 to purchase the property. A modification of the note recorded in 1981 was signed by Fellowship member Ron Boehme in his capacity as President of YWAM, Washington, D.C. and witnessed by Michael Davidson as its secretary.
When asked about YWAM, Richard Carver, a retired Air Force General and the President of the Fellowship Foundation, told the Washington Post that his Fellowship group is affiliated with the house, but that he has never heard of Youth With a Mission of Washington DC and that he did not have a phone number for it. Carver later said that he had spoken with someone who “at one time was involved with the house” and had “heard secondhand” that the organization that runs the house is “subscribing to the no-comment.”[59]
Sosurce: http://home.conservativebabylon.com/c-street-the-family-the-fellowship/
I checked back, and found that Zachary Roth added this footnote to his article at TPM Muckraker:
“* This post originally reported, based on online records for the city of Washington, D.C., that C Street is owned by Youth With A Mission (YWAM), an international Christian group, and that YWAM is affiliated with The Family. But YWAM official Ron Boehme told TPMmuckraker that the city’s records are inaccurate, and that his group sold the house to The Family in 1989. He also said that YWAM is not affiliated with The Family — though some reports suggest the two groups have close ties.”
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/c_street_house_no_longer_tax_exempt.php
Apparently referring to this, Concerned Citizen said that “According to a ‘Corrective Deed’ filed on September 28, 2009, the property was not sold to the Family as has been alleged” and that “Youth With A Mission, Washington, D.C., Inc. (YWAM-DC) currently holds title to 133 C Street SE.”
Actually, as of tonight at 8:47 PM, the DC Tax site listed the owner as “YOUTH WITH A MISSION WASHINGTON DC INC C ST CENTER,” which is almost, but not quite, what CC said is in the corrective deed. Legally, YWAM is the owner, as we said all along.
So why did Ron Boehme of YWAM tell Zachary that the property was sold to the Family?
Did he lie to TPM?
And, CC, what is your point?