This couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.
After big losses in the stock market, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s campaign committee is short of money to cover a bank loan that was due in August, records show.
The committee’s most recent filing shows a little more than $10,000 was paid on the $360,000 loan from U.S. Bank.
Records show Frist’s committee had losses in the stock market totaling more than $524,000 since November 2000. After paying other expenses, the committee had $312,807 in its accounts as of Sept. 30, according to records reviewed by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
This hasn’t generated a lot of national attention quite yet, but it’s a fascinating little controversy that raises a host of questions.
* How could the Senate Majority Leader, who helps write the national budget and shape the government’s economic policies, lose over a half-million dollars when the stock market was going up? And how does this reflect on this future presidential candidate’s money-management skills?
* If U.S. Bank gave you or me a $360,000 loan, the money was due back in August, and we only paid off $10,000 of it, would the bank treat us with the same flexibility that it gives Frist?
* Let’s say a senior citizen had invested heavily in the market to save for his or her retirement through a private account (in lieu of Social Security), but lost $524,000 over four years. The person would now be facing a personal fiscal crisis, and possible bankruptcy. Has Frist’s first-hand look at the fluctuations in the market made in any impact on his zeal to privatize Social Security?