From Bush Watch:
Bush, who derides Vice President Gore as the candidate of big government, made his own killing from one of government's most abusive powers, the ability to seize private land from its owners at below market rates. When actually in private business for himself, Bush was a perennial loser. His profits came chiefly from investors who gave him money because of government tax breaks for the oil industry. His real fortune was made when he became a 2% owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team. The city of Arlington, Tex., was persuaded to build a new stadium for the team. When one family refused to sell a 13-acre plot at half its appraised value, Arlington condemned the land for the stadium project. As Joe Conason wrote in Harper's Magazine in February, "Never before had a municipal authority in Texas been given license to seize the property of a private citizen for the benefit of other private citizens." Bonds to build the stadium were financed by another abusive government practice, a sales tax. Then the Rangers got the stadium for a song, in a rent-to-buy agreement. They paid $60 million — the equivalent of 12 years' rent — for a facility that had cost an estimated $190 million. With this state-of-the-art ballpark, the value of the Rangers tripled. When the team was sold in 1998, Bush's initial $600,000 investment (all borrowed) had turned into $15 million. Yes, Bush performed work for the Rangers as the public face of the team's owners and chief cheerleader. But his spectacular fortune was the direct result of government intervention on his behalf. |
