Look, I know lots of people took a terrible beating in the recent financial inconvenience. But lots of people aren’t President Pro Tem of my State Senate. Nor do they sit on the Florida Select Committee on Florida’s Economy, or the Banking Committee, or the Finance Committee..
Senator Mike Bennett, along with a business partner, was a player in commercial real estate. From my paper yesterday:
All told, Bennett and Kaplan spent nearly $18 million on these acquisitions. Court records and ethics filings show all but the Ellenton rink are in foreclosure or deeply underwater. . .
Unable to meet interest payments from the rents generated from these businesses, Bennett and Kaplan’s company defaulted on their $3.14 million in loans from Cadence Bank in late April.
Like I said, just like people who borrow $100K to buy a family home, people who borrowed $18 million to speculate a bit, got into trouble.
But . . . I don’t recall those homeowners passing moral judgement on others who lost their shirts. You know, like Bennett’s party does.
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
Whatever Works 