Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jay Williams is calling for a complete and independent audit of all Federal programs that are administered by South Dakota boards, agencies and other entities. “The experience we have had with the EB5 program and now the Gear Up program suggests we may have a culture that is shot through with deceit and mismanagement” Williams said. “This audit should look carefully for conflict of interest issues, double billing for expenses and double salaries”.
With the deaths of one person directly related to the EB5 program and the murders and arson associated with the Gear Up program, Williams believes an audit is appropriate to clear the air for all federal programs in which the State Government participates [Jay Williams for Senate, press release, 2016.03.22].
EB-5, GEAR UP… connect the dots, says Williams. The EB-5 scandal may not have stuck to Mike Rounds in the 2014 Senate campaign, but the combination of new developments in the EB-5 and the blatant negligence and corruption in GEAR UP make 2016 a prime year for candidates to talk about the corruption that has happened on their incumbent opponents’ watch.
Williams invites our sitting Senators to support a full audit of South Dakota’s use of federal tax dollars:
Williams hopes others will join his call for greater transparency. “We need to work together to root out corruption. We need a fair, non-partisan investigation to ensure public money is being utilized responsibly,” he said.
Although South Dakota’s auditor general has released findings of widespread problems with the Gear Up program, Williams believes a complete independent audit of all Federal programs is warranted. “The auditor general seems to be doing a fair job of investigating the Gear Up program”, Williams says, “but we need a more complete and independent look at all Federal programs” [Williams for Senate, 2016.03.22].
Senator Thune, you’re all about stopping waste, fraud, and abuse of our federal tax dollars, right? Join candidate Williams in calling for a full review of South Dakota’s use of federal grants.
As president of a non-profit that sometimes handles Federal grants I know there are two types of audits, those that check to make sure receipts are in place and checks paid out have corresponding receipts and necessary documentation in place. And audits that dig deeper and make sure the audited group isn’t paying more than market rate for goods and services. Bad decisions on money spent (airplane rides for Indian kids rather than help with college tuition) might not be against the rules of the grant.
96Tears
I agree with Nick. It will be difficult to keep the topic of a systematic federal audit process from quickly drifting deep into the weeds. How about the approach of saying as U.S. Senator Jay Williams, “Making rules for everyone is easy, but I believe in starting at home. Getting federal programs to finance education, health and economic incentives here in South Dakota is half the job. Making sure it isn’t being used as a feed trough to line the pockets of pals is the other half of the job. It’s the people’s money, and if state agencies choose to be slackers on enforcing the laws and making sure widespread graft is prevented, then it’s my job to use my position to shine the spotlight on widespread graft and illicit cronyism.”
All politics are local. Spotlighting illicit cronyism and graft which we all know has happened with two federal government programs is a prime target for a successful candidate. Even Marty Jackley appears to now be grasping this concept.
“Running against the corrupt machine in Pierre” should be what all smart candidates are tooling up with this year.
Interesting balance that Williams would have to strike as Senator. He needs to advocate continuing to bring home the bacon for South Dakota, but he needs us to demonstrate that we can clean up South Dakota’s corruption so that the feds won’t decide to pull the plug on everything. Our corruption stems from cronyism and one-party rule in Pierre, but that state-level corruption impacts our federal representatives’ ability to do their job and deliver for South Dakota.
M.K.
Mr. Williams better tread lightly. It could be the death of him. Someone needs to fix this. Not destroy South Dakota. It’s not all bad.
96Tears
Treading lightly is how challengers always lose to incumbents who get the teflon treatment from the press. Your advice, M.K., seems to imply that Mr. Williams or anybody else should just let John Thune and the Pierre machine get yet another unearned pass.
Nick Nemec
Mr. Williams needs to yell loud and long that he’s mad as hell and isn’t going to take it anymore.
Mark Winegar
It seems our state government earned their “F” in ethics and reputation as one of the most corrupt in the nation. It would be foolhardy not to do a complete audit of all federal dollars coming into the state.
Vote for IM #22 and restore an ethics commission in South Dakota.
Jeff Barth
Millions are missing and people are dead.
Trust but verify was Reagan’s line. Those we trusted refused to verify.
John Kennedy Claussen
The Williams campaign needs to paint Senator Thune as a “Dribbler” who only works three days a week and never misses a South Dakota high school basketball game:
I would also recommend the Williams campaign use the Harmon Globetrotters theme song “Sweet Georgia Brown” in describing the theme of their campaign and what they are up against and what they will defeat by showing what are merely the theatrics of their opponent without any true substance:
And as I have suggested before, they need to get a prop to bring with Mr. Williams wherever he speaks. This prop should be a director’s chair and chalkboard, and a bunch of play money to symbolize Senator Thune’s 11 million dollars in the bank; collected “Three Days A Week” at a time over the last 11 years of his senatorial peerage. The chair and chalkboard would symbolize how the Thune tenure has been a Hollywood creation and nothing more…
My ideas may seem silly to some or many, but to win a statewide congressional race in South Dakota now days I truly believe you have two choices. You can either paint yourself as bigger than life as a Hollywood creation or you can entertain the voters with substance presented in a humorous way.
Right now, the Williams/Thune race is either Pressler/Cunningham ’84 revisited or it could be Wellstone/Boswitzch ’90….. Only time will tell…..
leslie
meanwhile speaker paul ryan(R.), ayn rand discontent, is now saying his attacks on the poor were wrong, and other conservative law makers are professing their raison d’etre is looking out for the welfare of the poor. ouch, my neck!!!!!!!
Hillary and/or Bernie are gonna rip these obstructionist frauds a new one. pardon my reaction and expression.
mike from iowa
Make it a totally independent,outside ethics committee with zero vested interests in South Dakota or partisan politics.
Roger Elgersma
Thune and his republican friends can complain all day about Washington corruption. But fix it back home they must or lose, unless we give them a free pass.
Douglas Wiken
I read Williams bio at Rapid City home show and signed his petition. He has a very interesting and impressive background.
MOSES
This guy Thune nothing but photo ops and basketball.
M.K.
96Tears — to clarify my statement — my thought was that when critics come out — we certainly need that — but so often politicians come out and challenge another — but don’t always have a plan of action. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t approve of any of our Senators or House in Washington D.C. I’d like to see them all replaced. They are party followers. When Pres. Obama introduced his healthcare bill; the Republicans had a fit along with all the mechanisms that made money off of healthcare. And yet, no one else, ever, introduced an Affordable Care Act. so come out swinging, but have a plan of action. Some of the ACA stuff needs tweeking — but at least it was a plan of some kind or moving in the right direction. When you talk of a full investigation from the federal government, you run the risk of cutting off funds for ALL programs in South Dakota. We need a shake-up in Pierre as it is Rep. run; however, we need support for the good programs in SD. That was my concern. Our population in SD is small compared to other states so we need support. There is that threat of closing down the DOE in Washington, D.C. I have read where congressional members have sought that effort nation-wide.
MK, I dig what you’re saying about the possible practical impact of the investigation for which Williams is calling. Dig into all the corruption in Pierre, and the feds might find our leaders as unworthy of receiving other federal dollars as they’ve determined Pierre is of handling EB-5. But if such a fiscal cataclysm took place, the blame wold fall fully on the corrupt pols in Pierre who would draw such a federal punishment, not on us Dems who have called for accountability.
Williams offers the plan to investigate. We Democrats running for Legislature this year offer the plan to fix what the investigation will reveal, to be the watchdogs against further corruption, and to restore the trust of the feds and the public.
Naturally, I’m with 96, Nick, and John KC. 2016 is not an election year in which to tread lightly. 2016 is the election year to campaign boldly… and crank out those campaign songs on YouTube!
As president of a non-profit that sometimes handles Federal grants I know there are two types of audits, those that check to make sure receipts are in place and checks paid out have corresponding receipts and necessary documentation in place. And audits that dig deeper and make sure the audited group isn’t paying more than market rate for goods and services. Bad decisions on money spent (airplane rides for Indian kids rather than help with college tuition) might not be against the rules of the grant.
I agree with Nick. It will be difficult to keep the topic of a systematic federal audit process from quickly drifting deep into the weeds. How about the approach of saying as U.S. Senator Jay Williams, “Making rules for everyone is easy, but I believe in starting at home. Getting federal programs to finance education, health and economic incentives here in South Dakota is half the job. Making sure it isn’t being used as a feed trough to line the pockets of pals is the other half of the job. It’s the people’s money, and if state agencies choose to be slackers on enforcing the laws and making sure widespread graft is prevented, then it’s my job to use my position to shine the spotlight on widespread graft and illicit cronyism.”
All politics are local. Spotlighting illicit cronyism and graft which we all know has happened with two federal government programs is a prime target for a successful candidate. Even Marty Jackley appears to now be grasping this concept.
“Running against the corrupt machine in Pierre” should be what all smart candidates are tooling up with this year.
Interesting balance that Williams would have to strike as Senator. He needs to advocate continuing to bring home the bacon for South Dakota, but he needs us to demonstrate that we can clean up South Dakota’s corruption so that the feds won’t decide to pull the plug on everything. Our corruption stems from cronyism and one-party rule in Pierre, but that state-level corruption impacts our federal representatives’ ability to do their job and deliver for South Dakota.
Mr. Williams better tread lightly. It could be the death of him. Someone needs to fix this. Not destroy South Dakota. It’s not all bad.
Treading lightly is how challengers always lose to incumbents who get the teflon treatment from the press. Your advice, M.K., seems to imply that Mr. Williams or anybody else should just let John Thune and the Pierre machine get yet another unearned pass.
Mr. Williams needs to yell loud and long that he’s mad as hell and isn’t going to take it anymore.
It seems our state government earned their “F” in ethics and reputation as one of the most corrupt in the nation. It would be foolhardy not to do a complete audit of all federal dollars coming into the state.
Vote for IM #22 and restore an ethics commission in South Dakota.
Millions are missing and people are dead.
Trust but verify was Reagan’s line. Those we trusted refused to verify.
The Williams campaign needs to paint Senator Thune as a “Dribbler” who only works three days a week and never misses a South Dakota high school basketball game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AfZEqsYS1s
As obnoxious or Trumpian as this idea may seem, I do believe it to be the truth and the message needs to get out to the people of South Dakota.
Perhaps the Beatle’s song “Eight Days A Week” with a lyric change to “Three days” could be interjected into this theme.
And maybe “Basketball Jones” would be a better title for the Senator than “Dribbler:”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIbp5C-5WXM
I would also recommend the Williams campaign use the Harmon Globetrotters theme song “Sweet Georgia Brown” in describing the theme of their campaign and what they are up against and what they will defeat by showing what are merely the theatrics of their opponent without any true substance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opmwfRqdGsg:
And as I have suggested before, they need to get a prop to bring with Mr. Williams wherever he speaks. This prop should be a director’s chair and chalkboard, and a bunch of play money to symbolize Senator Thune’s 11 million dollars in the bank; collected “Three Days A Week” at a time over the last 11 years of his senatorial peerage. The chair and chalkboard would symbolize how the Thune tenure has been a Hollywood creation and nothing more…
My ideas may seem silly to some or many, but to win a statewide congressional race in South Dakota now days I truly believe you have two choices. You can either paint yourself as bigger than life as a Hollywood creation or you can entertain the voters with substance presented in a humorous way.
Right now, the Williams/Thune race is either Pressler/Cunningham ’84 revisited or it could be Wellstone/Boswitzch ’90….. Only time will tell…..
meanwhile speaker paul ryan(R.), ayn rand discontent, is now saying his attacks on the poor were wrong, and other conservative law makers are professing their raison d’etre is looking out for the welfare of the poor. ouch, my neck!!!!!!!
Hillary and/or Bernie are gonna rip these obstructionist frauds a new one. pardon my reaction and expression.
Make it a totally independent,outside ethics committee with zero vested interests in South Dakota or partisan politics.
Thune and his republican friends can complain all day about Washington corruption. But fix it back home they must or lose, unless we give them a free pass.
I read Williams bio at Rapid City home show and signed his petition. He has a very interesting and impressive background.
This guy Thune nothing but photo ops and basketball.
96Tears — to clarify my statement — my thought was that when critics come out — we certainly need that — but so often politicians come out and challenge another — but don’t always have a plan of action. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t approve of any of our Senators or House in Washington D.C. I’d like to see them all replaced. They are party followers. When Pres. Obama introduced his healthcare bill; the Republicans had a fit along with all the mechanisms that made money off of healthcare. And yet, no one else, ever, introduced an Affordable Care Act. so come out swinging, but have a plan of action. Some of the ACA stuff needs tweeking — but at least it was a plan of some kind or moving in the right direction. When you talk of a full investigation from the federal government, you run the risk of cutting off funds for ALL programs in South Dakota. We need a shake-up in Pierre as it is Rep. run; however, we need support for the good programs in SD. That was my concern. Our population in SD is small compared to other states so we need support. There is that threat of closing down the DOE in Washington, D.C. I have read where congressional members have sought that effort nation-wide.
MK, I dig what you’re saying about the possible practical impact of the investigation for which Williams is calling. Dig into all the corruption in Pierre, and the feds might find our leaders as unworthy of receiving other federal dollars as they’ve determined Pierre is of handling EB-5. But if such a fiscal cataclysm took place, the blame wold fall fully on the corrupt pols in Pierre who would draw such a federal punishment, not on us Dems who have called for accountability.
Williams offers the plan to investigate. We Democrats running for Legislature this year offer the plan to fix what the investigation will reveal, to be the watchdogs against further corruption, and to restore the trust of the feds and the public.
Naturally, I’m with 96, Nick, and John KC. 2016 is not an election year in which to tread lightly. 2016 is the election year to campaign boldly… and crank out those campaign songs on YouTube!