Very Stupid Things!

I just read something that I think is very interesting. As a matter of course, people running for political office are required to make financial disclosures. Those disclosures often become fodder for opponent of the person making the disclosure. Sometimes those statements show the person to be fiscally responsible and sometimes…..welllllllllllll…….not so much. Such is the case of Norm Coleman. I was reading a blog that stated that he had refinanced his home a total of 12 times over the course of 14 years! In essence, he used his home like a giant credit card. Wow! Here are the amounts that were listed.

DAMN! Isn’t that stunning? A lot of people on the blog I was reading were upset because the writer didn’t point out his opponents issues with taxes. I don’t give a damn what his opponent, former comedian Al Franken, did. Refinancing your house 12 times in 14 years IS NEWS given the current state of our country!!!! I can’t even imagine why you would do such a thing. The house tax records show it was valued at a little over $600K. What the hell is this guy doing? Republican, Democrat or normal person - he is in over his head. Something is wrong when a man in his mid to late 50’s to be refinancing like this. However, after taking a look at this financial disclosure statement, you can see why he did it. This guy is in DEBT with a capital DDDDDDDDD. Damn! Instead of running for senate and fighting Al Franken for the seat (Franken won by recount and now Norm Coleman is challenging that recount in court), maybe Norm needs to invest in getting a better paying job. I don’t think what he makes as a senator, even if he took a few bribes (which I’m not saying that he did, but I am saying that he might need), would be enough to support his indebted lifestyle. I would have to say that he should be kept away from money. It looks like he might not know what to do with it. I should point out that Al Franken had some issues with money too, however, his issues were a little more understandable and easily fixed. He performs in a number of states and has to pay taxes in quite a few because of the whole business nexus thing. Just as a side note I think the whole state level corporate tax issue is bull. You should be able to use one form to pay your taxes in all of the states that you have a business nexus in. You shouldn’t have to use 50 different forms and write 50 different checks. There should be one submission point and then that agency should handle disseminating the money to each state on your behalf. That way, all of the states will get paid and the business will be in compliance with all of the taxes in each state. But that’s another story……Anyway, Franken was found to owe state taxes in some states that he did business in and he had to pay those taxes along with a few fines for not paying those taxes on time. That is bad but understandable. It’s nothing like the financial quagmire that Norm Coleman appears to be drowning in. 

I wish Norm Coleman the best. I don’t think he is a bad guy, but maybe he needs to call Suze Orman. I don’t know. Living up to your eyeballs in debt AND using your house as a credit card is really, really stupid. At least he isn’t alone in his plight…..if that is any consolation.

The original article I was reading was on Politico. 

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0109/ReFi.html