Not always. I bought a house that was about 80% through a total flip and renovation. Just as the owners were nearing the finish line he was pulled away for weeks on end for disaster related work out of town. The couple lived in the house. They did a lot of the work themselves, not subs. So, the wife is left to do the bulk of the remaining 20%, but sadly she comes down with a debilitating muscular condition. Not fatal, but precludes her from work. She trudges on, then one day calls her husband and announces sheās fed up, heās always gone, sheās tired and lonely. Weāre selling the damned house now or this marriage is over. I mean now!
I heard about all this from a realtor friend that knew them. Made an offer, low balled but sort of fair. Presto, got myself an almost finished house in a soon to be booming neighborhood. Never listed, private sale.
āThe gift ban is one of the most basic legal frameworks for preventing corruption. Lobbyist gifts to lawmakers is akin to a bribe.ā
This piece went on and on about how some kinds of overpayment are considered a āgiftā and some kinds of gifts are considered problematic like if they were meant to influence a decision and then it said the above and Iām all āFINALLY.ā Itās not like itās so rare and shocking we hardly dare say the word, is it? Yeesh!
This is likely a common scam to pay bribes to Republicans, and to otherwise launder ill gotten gains.
Sales of Trump properties at huge mark-ups after a few years to Russian oligarchs was a common tactic of the Trump Organization which has thus far gotten no legal scrutiny.
Legislation to control all manner of abuses like this are needed.
So maybe it was only a small bribe in this instance. Of course, they likely also saved broker fees, perhaps inspection & repair costs, market timing & risk. So that might make the bribe a little more.
At best, it is part of the clubby, Iāll-scratch-your-back approach to insider DC life!
Agreed, to the extent that lobbyists have far too much influence. But I think itās hard to argue that thereās a gift here, much less a bribe. Green and Co. bought the house at market value. He didnāt stuff Burrās pockets with extra cash (like Russians did Trumpās), or rescue Burr from an unsellable house.
We need a law that prohibits any member of Congress, and of their family, and any of their staff and their families, from ever receiving anything of any monetary value from any registered lobbyist or any firm that employs registered lobbyists.
Violating this law should be a felony, with large fines and mandatory jail sentences.
Additionally, all stocks, bods, or other securities owned by any member of Congress should have to be in a genuine blind trust.
That would go some distance in shutting down some of the corruption.
You may recall some people here calling a certain Congresswoman āanti-Semiticā for using that phrase not too long ago. They were incorrect, of course.
