A millionaire businessman running for mayor in Chicago blessed a multitude of churchgoers – and potential voters – Sunday by handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Willie Wilson, one of several Democrats who plan to take on incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel in next year’s election, handed out $300,000 to about 2,000 worshipers at a church on Chicago’s South Side Sunday morning, an aide told WGN-TV.
The giveaway at the New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church was orchestrated by the Dr. Willie Wilson Foundation, the nonprofit announced on social media. The foundation said it was “one of the biggest property tax relief assistance” events of the year, although “seniors and less fortunate will also receive a helping hand.”
Wilson allegedly said a portion of the donated money — $100,000 of it — came from Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who also attended Sunday’s event, Politico reported.
However, while Rauner has donated to the foundation in the past, he was not aware that cash would be distributed during the event, Alex Browning, a spokesman for Rauner, told Fox News.
“The governor respects Dr. Wilson’s philanthropic pursuits, but believes distributing cash is inappropriate for any candidate seeking public office,” Browning said.
F. Scott Winslow, Wilson’s campaign manager, claimed the donations were legal since it was “absolutely not” a campaign event.
“While he happens to be a candidate, he’s been a philanthropist for 30 years,” Winslow told WGN, adding he’s donated about $500,000 since announcing his mayoral bid.
The rest at Fox News
Nothing has changed in the Windy City of the Democratic Windbags more mindless braying coming from the Jackasses the name Chicago is dirived from a Indian word meaning Bad Smell it sure fits Crime,Coruption and Vice
He’s just carrying on the long tradition of crooked Chicago politicians. Buying votes is nothing new there… or anywhere that Democrats take control.
@Deplorable Me: They may be catching on to the democrats..get the cash up front.
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/07/25/maxine-waters-claims-god-sent-her-to-get-donald-trump/
Yeah, he didn’t even have the decency to buy favor with billions of dollars in tax cuts paid for using the taxpayers’ own credit card. How unethical is that?
@Greg: Best check out Illinois and Chicagos solvency due to Democrat policies before making mindless knee jerk comments.
@kitt, #5:
That wasn’t a mindless, knee jerk comment. The GOP has bought favor by legislating fiscally irresponsible tax cuts that are projected to push annual federal deficits beyond the trillion-dollar-per-year mark beginning next year. That’s 2 years earlier than the OMB previously projected.
The claim that the tax reform package would pay for itself was a lie, as anyone who was paying attention already knew. The tax reform package was a cash grab.
White House budget projects $1 trillion deficit in 2019
They’re unnecessarily putting the rise of the national debt on steroids, during a time when the economy has no need whatsoever for stimulus spending.
I’m not sure that actually compares favorably with passing out donated funds and one’s own money to the needy at church, which some might argue to have been an unusual act of charity. Given the private source of the funds that were given away, doing so had no effect whatsoever on the budgets of Chicago or Illinois.
@Greg:
You mean 8 months after it went into effect, they haven’t already paid for themselves? Why did the $10 trillion Obama wasted never bother you?
You liberals are wrong about everything economics. Keep your fear mongering hysteria to yourselves.
@Deplorable Bill, #7:
No, I meant what I actually said. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have said it.
Eight months after the GOP’s tax reform package went into effect, it has accelerated the rise of annual deficits to the extent that they are now projected to exceed one trillion dollars per year two years earlier than was previously expected.
By no stretch of the imagination does this somehow demonstrate that the tax cuts are going to somehow “pay for themselves.” What it demonstrates is the exact opposite. The people who pitched this line of b.s. are either stupid or liars. I’m going with liars, given that they’re essentially putting money borrowed in the taxpayers’ names into their own pockets. I’ll reserve the stupid tag for the people who can’t seem to figure the obvious out.
@Greg: You liberals think we still live in a world of 1% GDP growth. Like Krugman you let ideology guide your logic and reasoning. Like Maher, your ideology Hope’s for failure over prosperity for all.
@Greg: https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/income-tax-revenues-trump-tax-cuts-economic-growth/
Aww… sorry.
@Deplorable Me, #10:
Your linked article cherry-picks time periods, and cherry-picks phrases from the relevant CBO report. “That change largely reflects increases in wages and salaries” for example, was taken and used completely out of its original context. This is intentionally misleading.
Investor’s Business Daily is clearly pushing a tax cut agenda. You might want to read the entire CBO source document and make a comparison.
@Greg: It cites the government. It cites facts, and you don’t LIKE facts.
@Deplorable Me, #12:
Yeah, sure it does. What the CBO actually reports is that total tax revenue is up by only 1 percent over the first 9 months of Fiscal Year 2018, while total outlays are up 4 percent over the same period. This can be discovered by reading the report itself, rather than the Investor’s Business Daily article that quotes out of context bits of it.
That would be a factual observation. I suppose we could just sum it up by saying Investor’s Business Daily is lying. This shouldn’t be difficult to figure out.
@Greg: You DO understand what tax revenues UP over the period BEFORE the tax cuts means, don’t you? We got the tax cut AND revenues are, not the same but, MORE!!
THAT’S “paid for”. And then some.