Big Worries About Betsy DeVos

[spanone]

The director of the Office of Government Ethics, the nonpartisan agency charged with vetting the financial disclosures of cabinet nominees for potential conflicts of interest, sent an extraordinary letter to Senate Democratic leaders late last week. Never in the four-decade history of the agency, he wrote, have ethics officials felt such “undue pressure ... to rush through these important reviews,” leaving “some of the nominees with potentially unknown or unresolved ethics issues shortly before their scheduled hearings.”

As the Senate races forward with confirmation hearings this week, the spottiest disclosures have come from wealthy private-sector nominees with no governing experience and many potential conflicts. In other words, the people most in need of a complete ethics review.

Exhibit A is Betsy DeVos, a billionaire and education lobbyist who is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for education secretary. Ms. DeVos’s finances are a tangle that could take weeks to investigate. Despite that, Republicans had set her confirmation hearing for Wednesday. But late Monday night, they pushed it back to next Tuesday.

People who have seen her financial disclosures so far say that Ms. DeVos and her husband, Dick DeVos, have investments in some 250 companies registered to a single Grand Rapids, Mich., address, entities whose investments could take weeks for the ethics office to research. Already, though, there are reports that the DeVoses are indirect investors in Social Finance Inc., a private company that refinances student loans. Private lenders like Social Finance are banned from most of the direct student lending market; their lobbyists have already written to the Trump transition team pitching to change that. That’s only one potential conflict. What if her family has holdings in educational technology or for-profit colleges? Given time, the ethics office will learn this, and reach an agreement with Ms. DeVos to sell off assets that could pose a conflict.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/opinion/big-worries-about-betsy-devos.html

[mdbl]

1. just another example of trump refilling the swamp with sludge

Why would anyone ever vote for a republican again? Oh yeah, because they couldn't give a shit about our country.

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. Republican voter screw everyone else over, thinking they'll

remain unscathed themselves......which NEVER happens and they NEVER learn that. Vicious cycle with them.

[Dustlawyer]

2. Betsy is a classic example of what is wrong with our government.

She and her husband have investments that would benefit greatly from privatizing our public education system. She has openly declared she donates her campaign contributions and other monies to groups like the Kochs to buy influence. It has obviously worked given her current nomination. She helps to assure our public education system fails to enhance her arguments.

She is not the only one, in every area of government these leeches suck up our tax money in the form of government contracts. They have the laws written specifically to their benefit at our expense. The worst part is they pay little to no taxes themselves!

What do we expect when we allow legalized bribery of our politicians and judges? Let's put a stop to this and focus on publicly Funded elections

[safeinOhio]

3. Amway is not my way

On multi-levels.

[mdbl]

7. Heh

You mean you don't need overpriced laundry detergent?

[longship]

4. All one needs to know is AmWay and Black Water. But much more

Plus the Dutch Reformed Church (worldwide headquarters in Grand Rapids) and her cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs religious beliefs which inexorably leak into her political positions.

The DeVos family is utter poison on the state of Michigan. Half the buildings in Grand Rapids are named DeVos, in addition to their horrible church, a further poison on a great city.

She wants private schools so that more children can be brought to her twisted Calvinist predestinational so-called salvation. (No amount of faith or good deeds will save your miserable soul from an eternity in Hell upon your death. Your judgement was predestined at your birth. Welcome to Betsy DeVos' church, as well as that of the rest of her utterly despicable family.)

[femmocrat]

6. This was in the news yesterday:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-betsy-devos-anti-union-donation-senate-20170113-story.html

She failed to disclose a $125,000 anti-union political donation.