What’s wrong with Florida State Pensions? Follow the political donations.
“DeSantis Allows Anti-“Woke” Giveaway To Big Wall Street Donors” – The Lever
“As private equity donated to groups supporting Ron DeSantis, he oversaw a billion-dollar transfer of state employees’ retirement dollars into underperforming firms.
… the most imminent threat to Florida public employees’ retirement dollars appears to be the massive state pension investments that have gone to some of the Republican Party’s Wall Street donors under DeSantis’ watch. A Lever review found that had the state pension fund instead been invested in a simple, low-cost index fund, compared to its present mix of holdings, teachers, police officers, and other state employees would have about $10 billion more in their retirement funds.” – The Lever
Follow the money
This Relationship Map was designed with the free Kumu app based on the excellent article by Matthew Cunningham-Cook in Lever News “DeSantis Allows Anti-“Woke” Giveaway To Big Wall Street Donors“
Political donations
“Wall Street interests benefitting from DeSantis’ private equity investments have donated money that has ended up funding the Florida governor’s political committee.“
“Aeolus Capital Management. The hedge fund which received a $50 million commitment from the Florida pension fund in May 2019, four months after DeSantis became governor, and has since delivered a negligible 0.7 percent annual return for state pensioners in four years, compared to an average annual 15.75 percent return for the S&P 500 index of major stocks. Three weeks after Singer’s donation, the RGA transferred $2 million into the Friends of Ron DeSantis group, which raised $177 million in the 2022 cycle.
Thoma Bravo. Then there’s the private equity firm Thoma Bravo. At the end of March 2022, just four weeks after the Florida pension put $150 million into a Thoma Bravo fund, the group’s co-founder Carl Thoma donated $40,000 to the RGA.
Freeman Spogli. Bradford Freeman of the private equity firm Freeman Spogli, meanwhile, donated $50,000 to the RGA in 2018, just 17 days before the RGA gave $1 million to the DeSantis political committee.
Stone Point Capital. James Carey of Stone Point Capital donated $10,000 to the RGA just weeks before the 2018 election. The firm received two $100 million commitments from the Florida pension under DeSantis’s governorship, in 2020 and 2022, records show. – The Lever
What’s this got to do with the MAGA Created Debt Crisis?
The pattern is the same: Republicans increase the deficit by giving big tax cuts for their wealthy donors and then cut benefits for hard working Americans to pay the bill they racked up.
“MAGA House Republicans’ Default on America Act Would Have Devastating Impacts Across America. Congressional Republicans are holding the nation’s full faith and credit hostage in an effort to impose devastating cuts that would hurt veterans, raise costs for hardworking families, and hinder economic growth. The Default on America Act would cut veterans’ health care, education, Meals on Wheels, and public safety, take away health care from millions of Americans… Republicans are demanding these cuts while separately advancing proposals to add over $3 trillion to deficits through tax cuts and giveaways skewed to the wealthy and big corporations.” – The WhiteHouse
TakeAway: Vote to fix this rigged system where Republicans sacrifice public retirement funds for political donations and then hold the country hostage.
Deepak
DemLabs
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Title image generated is AI generated with MidJourney
Reposted from Democracy Labs with permission.
