Paul Singer, the billionaire head of the most aggressive vulture fund, Elliott Management, is the top financial backer of New Hampshire Republican U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte. She recently introduced legislation to sock 4 million Latinos with an average tax-hike of $1,800.
Apparently, the Republican Party's "no new taxes" pledge doesn't prohibit tax-hikes against the poor -- only against the rich.
Singer has an interesting background. His firm had controlled the bankrupt Delphi Auto Parts company in 2009 when U.S. taxpayers were rescuing the U.S. automotive industry. Singer's people then told the U.S. Government that if they didn't buy them off to the tune or $12.9 billion, Delphi would shutter its factories, and the U.S. auto plants of GM and Chrysler would have no steering columns and other vital parts, which would mean that the entire rescue of GM and Chrysler would fail. So, Singer's people got the money they demanded from U.S. taxpayers: U.S. auto workers took the hit instead (in addition to U.S. taxpayers).
One of Elliott Management's major investors then was Mitt Romney, the man who condemned the bailout of Chrysler and of GM, and who now walked off with "at least $15.3 million from the bailout--and a few of Romney's most important Wall Street donors made more than $4 billion. Their gains, and the Romneys', were astronomical--more than 3,000 percent on their investment," according to the great investigative journalist Greg Palast's account in the Nation, on 17 October 2012.
The Wall Street Journal has called Singer "one the biggest donors in the country now to the Republican cause," at $2.3 million of his own money in 2012 alone. Additionally, he had donated more than a million dollars to the Koch brothers' bundling operation for far-right Republicans in 2011, a campaign season when the Kochs were bundling $400 million+ for Republicans. Roll Call reported, on 1 February 2014, that Paul Singer in the current political season has already given $1.25 million to the Republican Governors Association, while David Koch has given them only a paltry $250,000 -- just one-fifth as much.
Senator Ayotte's proposed bill would have increased the income taxes that undocumented workers already pay to Uncle Sam under an existing program that taxes the earnings of workers who lack a Social Security number. While Republicans admire vulture fund operators such as Singer, that Party wants to squeeze undocumented workers as hard as possible, in the hope that they'll go back to their country of origin.
Senator Ayotte's bill failed to pass, however, because it was proposed to be part of the Republican Party's price for extending long-term unemployment benefits, and not enough Republicans were willing to support extending those benefits, even if undocumented workers were to take a hit from doing it.
Senator Ayotte is considered to be a rising star in the Republican Party, and a possible 2016 Vice Presidential nominee. Her proposal to punish undocumented workers is thought by some to be a play for support by Republicans not only now but also looking forward to 2016.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.
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