A college psychology professor's observations about public policy, mental health, sexual identity, and religious issues
One thing you can say for Gingrich – he has created an odd coalition of endorsers.
According to the Atlanta Constitution-Journal report, Donald Trump is set to endorse Gingrich in Las Vegas today. He will join the AFA’s Don Wildmon, Liberty Council’s Mat Staver, gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson, and actor Chuck Norris as endorsers.
UPDATE: Now the New York Times is reporting that Trump will endorse Mitt Romney.
Really?
According to the Miami Herald:
“At the risk of offending some of my friends who’ve been very helpful,” Gingrich said, “I worry about the degree to which the poor are the most likely to spend a large percentage of their income gambling.”
If Gingrich is worried about the poor and the dollars they spend, then why did he show favor to the gambling industry while Speaker of the House? Is this a new worry?
Related:
Some reporting is now examining the ties between Newt Gingrich and gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson. I have looked at various angles of the connection, including Gingrich’s favorable treatment of the industry by thwarting an oversight committee and backing a tax break sought by casino owners.
Yesterday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported some uneasiness among evangelicals about the significant ties between Gingrich and Adelson. One Gingrich backer, Matt Towery, said Gingrich wouldn’t do any favors for Adelson. However, as I noted earlier in the week, he already has.
Today’s Toronto Star examines the relationship and quotes Fred Wertheimer as saying that Gingrich has opened himself up to questions regarding his policies on gambling and Israel by being so dependent on one donor.
Just an hour ago, ABC News Brian Ross looked at the investigation of Adelson’s gambling empire by the Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission.
Finally, The Nation’s Ben Adler reports on a conversation he had with Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist convicted of bribing Congress while Gingrich was speaker. In this conversation and in his new book, Abramoff describes Gingrich’s response to a request from Abramoff that Indian casino gambling profits go untaxed. Gingrich reportedly said that the Indian tribes had a good deal and didn’t need special treatment.
If this story is true, then in effect, Gingrich favored special tax treatment for the gambling industry but not for Indian tribes.
Related:
In May 1998, Newt Gingrich held a three-tiered fund raiser in the Las Vegas Sands Expo and Convention center, a large casino and hotel complex run by Sheldon Adelson’s company, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Hoping to raise $100,000, Gingrich provided a private briefing to supporters for $2,500, appeared with others for $500 and then held a rally which cost $35 to enter, according to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
According to the Las Vegas Sun, Gingrich struck the right chord during his meetings with Las Vegas politicians and casino interests.
Nevada’s casino industry gained an ally with clout Sunday when House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he would work to block an Internal Revenue Service plan to tax meals casinos provide employees.
While in Las Vegas, Gingrich informed then Rep. John Ensign that he would block an IRS effort to collect taxes on meals provided by casino employers to workers. The gambling industry pushed both Democrats and Republicans to prevent the IRS from collecting these taxes. Eventually an amendment was added to an IRS reform bill which changed IRS rules regarding meals provided to workers. If 50% of employees are allowed to take free meals supplied by hotel owners in order to stay on their post, then all meals provided in that way to all employees would not be taxed as a form of compensation. To read the exact language, see the law with amendment at Section 5002. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the move cost the Treasury $316 million dollars (see below).
The Las Vegas Sun outlined the changes in a June 23, 1998 article:
The exact language of the amendment is still being drafted, but is expected to amend the tax code to allow all employees at a “business premises” to receive meals tax-free as long as more than half of the employees at that location are allowed to receive tax-free meals under current law.
In other words, as long as more than half the employees at a casino are food and drink servers or dealers — job classifications the IRS already recognizes as exempt from the meal-tax — then everyone else at that location is entitled to a tax-free lunch.
That language was drafted after casino operators throughout Nevada said it would solve the problem, Ensign said.
Rep. Ensign gave Speaker Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott ample credit for the change. According the Las Vegas Sun:
In the end, Ensign claims his personal lobbying carried the day.
“I went to the Speaker (of the House, Newt Gingrich), and to Trent (Lott, Senate Majority Leader) and said, ‘We have to have this,”‘ Ensign said in an interview.
A June article in the Review-Journal sounded the same theme:
“This really started getting momentum about the same time (House Speaker Newt) Gingrich came to Las Vegas (in May), and he held a news conference to support us,” Ensign said. “Then we got Lott on board.”
Gingrich also demonstrated favor toward the gambling industry in 2006 when he supported the removal of subpoena power from a commission devised to investigate the gambling industry.
As far as I know, none of these activities are illegal or unethical. I am not insinuating wrongdoing. Rather, I think Speaker Gingrich activities are noteworthy because he is now presenting himself as a Washington outsider. However, while in Washington, he was quite involved in fund raising and working as an insider to respond to donor requests.
The other interesting aspect to this story is the clear tie between Gingrich and the gambling industry. While he courts evangelicals and other family values voters, the lifeblood of his campaign and his non-profit work since the mid-1990s has come from Sheldon Adelson, the CEO of Las Vegas Sands. Gambling profits from the US and Asia are powering the Gingrich campaign. Given that evangelicals consider gambling to be a vice, it seems out of character for them to support a candidate with such a friendly relationship to that industry.
The provision [on employer provided meals] is estimated to reduce Federal fiscal year budget receipts by $20 million in 1999, $33 million in 2000, $34 million in 2001, $35 million in 2002, $36 million in 2003, $38 million in 2004, $39 million in 2005, $40 million in 2006, and $41 million in 2007.
Of course he says that.
Adelson would defeat his purposes if he said, “I want Newt to keep the Christians and/or Federal government away from my gambling empire.”
ABC News is at least looking into the matter. According to a report from ABC late yesterday, an unnamed source reportedly close to Adelson told ABC News that
Mr. Adelson is “puzzled” by the attention the recent Super PAC gift has received.
The source told ABC News that Adelson wants nothing in return.
Adelson has given over $7 million to Gingrich’s non-profit organizations since the mid-1990s. As I noted yesterday, Gingrich was cozy with the gambling industry during his time as Speaker of the House. On one occasion, he was instrumental in weakening a commission that investigated the gambling industry.
The ABC report is a bit odd. Why wasn’t the source named? Why did ABC News not interview the Gingrich campaign? How about asking some of Gingrich’s religious right supporters about how they feel about gambling profits being the main lifeblood of their family values candidate.
This denial only raises more questions.