• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh piled up credit card debt by purchasing Nationals tickets, Whi

Hedgology said:
How do you know he didn't pay any portion it off? You have the ****ing receipts?

I run up debts on my credit card and I pay them off, like everyone else.
Click to expand...

Running up 200k of cc debt with an income of barely higher than that is not common. However, it seems there is an explanation. Unclench.
 
Nap said:
I'm a Ray's fan
Click to expand...

I'm a Jays fan. Rough year for us.

Nap said:
but am a pretty big fan of many of the players on the Nats roster. Seems crazy that they are under .500 with that talent. The Ray's have like 3 players that would start on that team and play in a significantly tougher division and are above .500
Click to expand...

The Rays are overachieving, especially after trading Longo.
 
Kobie said:
Running up 200k of cc debt with an income of barely higher than that is not common. However, it seems there is an explanation. Unclench.
Click to expand...

I don't think creditors worry about the likelihood of default when you have a job for life.

It's not common for losers; hence why "normal" people thing this is out of the ordinary. The rest of us successful people are able to take out whatever loans we want because we will always have the ability to pay them back.
 
Kobie said:
I'm a Jays fan. Rough year for us.



The Rays are overachieving, especially after trading Longo.
Click to expand...

Trading Longoria hurt me as a fan, but honestly it is turning out to have been the right move. Duffy is having a better year.
 
Hedgology said:
I don't think creditors worry about the likelihood of default when you have a job for life.

It's not common for losers; hence why "normal" people thing this is out of the ordinary. The rest of us successful people are able to take out whatever loans we want because we will always have the ability to pay them back.
Click to expand...

Yes, I’m sure you are very successful! This is the internet, after all.
 
Hedgology said:
How do you know he didn't pay any portion it off? You have the ****ing receipts?

I run up debts on my credit card and I pay them off, like everyone else. And if I need a loan, I ask my friends, like everyone else.

This forum is filled with the biggest losers I've ever seen in my entire life.
Click to expand...

White House spokesman said the meat of the money was paid by "friends". Are you calling the Trump administration liars? :mrgreen:
 
Slyfox696 said:
Circuit court judges make $220,000+ a year. Kavanaugh has been in his current position since 2006. It's not inconceivable he could have paid that back.
Click to expand...

Oh?

He has a wife, two children, presumably payments on two cars and presumably mortgage payments in pricey Chevy Chase MD. That ought to make it pretty close to inconceivable.

Now, I did do some checking, and his wife, a Chevy Chase Town Manager, might make almost what he does, and certainly well over $100,000 a year, so between them the cost of those baseball tickets might not have been a complete budget buster. Whether it's a responsible expense for a couple with two young children I am not at all sure about, though.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
If we think that we need to credit check our SCOTUS nominees then we might as well turn America over to the New Chinese Empire now.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about?

Nominees for imprtant government postions must be liable to have their finances closely examined, and that applies to modern democracies as well as to anceint empires.
 
danarhea said:
It's not about how much credit he ran up. It was who paid it off. It wasn't him. On his salary, he didn't have the money, and White House spokesman, Raj Shah, stated that "friends" paid off his debt. So no, this is not about checking his credit at all. It's about the appearance of possible corruption that needs to be answered. Like I already stated, if this can be explained, I will once again support Kavanaugh. If he doesn't answer or is evasive, then my support for him is toast.
Click to expand...

With regard to the purchase of tickets to sporting events, some people buy them as an investment. It's not unusual for people to purchase blocks of season tickets, go to a few games and then sell the rest on StubHub or some similar site. I don't know if that's what Kavanaugh did but I do that it's a fairly common practice.
 
Lutherf said:
With regard to the purchase of tickets to sporting events, some people buy them as an investment. It's not unusual for people to purchase blocks of season tickets, go to a few games and then sell the rest on StubHub or some similar site. I don't know if that's what Kavanaugh did but I do that it's a fairly common practice.
Click to expand...

It's a fairly common practice for someone with a family of four and a family income of about 400k to invest 200k in "blocks of season tickets" and then conduct arbitrage with those "blocks"???

If it is so common then you ought to be able to name a lot of people who do that whose last name is not "Kavanaugh".

Tell me more.
 
USViking said:
It's a fairly common practice for someone with a family of four and a family income of about 400k to invest 200k in "blocks of season tickets" and then conduct arbitrage with those "blocks"???

If it is so common then you ought to be able to name a lot of people who do that whose last name is not "Kavanaugh".

Tell me more.
Click to expand...

There is no confirmation that Kavanaugh spent $200k. That figure come from the top limit of a given threshold off a financial questionnaire. When you read something along the lines of "so and so had between $45,000 and $150,000 in credit card debt" that's an indication that someone checked off a box that says "Credit card debt - Less than $45k, between $45k-$150k, $150k-$300k, etc. Please check off which it is" kind of thing.

"Between $45k and $150k" does not mean "$150k...maybe more because he's obviously hiding stuff!!". It could mean $45,001.00. It could mean $63,264.28. All you know from "between $45k-150k" is that the number probably fits in that range somewhere. Anything else you think you "know" is speculation unless it's supported by other facts and other information.

Now, getting back to the hyperventilating, if I knew that I could spend $100k on Washington Nationals tickets, go to a dozen games or so and sell the remaining tickets for $120k I'd do that because it makes good financial sense. Likewise, if I had a group coming to town and they wanted game tickets I might well put those tickets on my credit card and then pay the balance off when the group reimbursed me.

Now then, as far as such arrangements being "fairly common" I would ask that you take this article from CNBC - https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/04/online-ticket-resellers-the-surreptitious-rise-of-the-online-scalper.html - as an indication of how common the arrangement is. The article (from 2015) cites a $5 Billion industry in this kind of thing. It is, by all reasonable measures, "fairly common".
 
Hawkeye10 said:
If we think that we need to credit check our SCOTUS nominees then we might as well turn America over to the New Chinese Empire now.
Click to expand...

He will be grilled about all his shortcomings. Time will tell how much it matters.
 
So, the "Borking" begins.....shameful.

Sent from my SM-T587P using Tapatalk
 
danarhea said:
I came out in support of Kavanaugh's nomination, but now I have to hold back that support until we learn how a man making a meager salary as a public servant paid as much as 200 thousand dollars to pay off credit cards with funds that he didn't have. It is important to know WHO the "friends" are that paid his debt for him, and if they have business that could end up in front of SCOTUS. If the answer turns out to be an innocent one, I will once again support his nomination. If not, or if he refuses to answer questions, or is otherwise evasive in answering them, then my support for him will vanish like a fart in the wind. It is imperative that anyone nominated for SCOTUS have character that is beyond reproach, and cannot be questioned. I await his answers during the confirmation process. This does not mean that I will not support his nomination. All it means is that, at this time, I am taking a wait and see approach until these questions have been answered satisfactorily.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/inve...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7ad580e9ce6c
Click to expand...

This is a reasonable answer

"Shah told The Post that Kavanaugh’s friends reimbursed him for their share of the baseball tickets"

It is common for a person to buy all the tickets at one time so they are together and the other people reimburse him for their part of it.
 
danarhea said:
It's not about how much credit he ran up. It was who paid it off. It wasn't him. On his salary, he didn't have the money, and White House spokesman, Raj Shah, stated that "friends" paid off his debt. So no, this is not about checking his credit at all. It's about the appearance of possible corruption that needs to be answered. Like I already stated, if this can be explained, I will once again support Kavanaugh. If he doesn't answer or is evasive, then my support for him is toast.
Click to expand...

The OP says the friends paid off their part of his debt that was run up on their behalf, not that his friends paid off his debt they had nothing to do with.
 
danarhea said:
I have the question because some types of money laundering have been done by way of tickets to events (lots of them). I have no problem supporting him if he has a decent explanation. Since this appointment is for life, and is a very important one, all I want is to have this question answered. I believe it will also come up in the Senate, and I will be watching as much of the hearings as I am able to.
Click to expand...

Now you are going to classify a common transaction as money laundering?
 
Kobie said:
Running up 200k of cc debt with an income of barely higher than that is not common. However, it seems there is an explanation. Unclench.
Click to expand...

The OP said that happened over a period of years.

The man made 200K per year.

It is not a stretch to say he was able to pay off his debts himself.
 
danarhea said:
I came out in support of Kavanaugh's nomination, but now I have to hold back that support until we learn how a man making a meager salary as a public servant paid as much as 200 thousand dollars to pay off credit cards with funds that he didn't have. It is important to know WHO the "friends" are that paid his debt for him, and if they have business that could end up in front of SCOTUS. If the answer turns out to be an innocent one, I will once again support his nomination. If not, or if he refuses to answer questions, or is otherwise evasive in answering them, then my support for him will vanish like a fart in the wind. It is imperative that anyone nominated for SCOTUS have character that is beyond reproach, and cannot be questioned. I await his answers during the confirmation process. This does not mean that I will not support his nomination. All it means is that, at this time, I am taking a wait and see approach until these questions have been answered satisfactorily.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/inve...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7ad580e9ce6c
Click to expand...

The credit card debts and loan were either paid off or fell below the reporting requirements in 2017, according to the filings, which do not require details on the nature or source of such payments. Shah told The Post that Kavanaugh’s friends reimbursed him for their share of the baseball tickets and that the judge has since stopped purchasing the season tickets
Click to expand...

Season tickets.

This looks like "hey, do we all want to go sit together during the games?"

"Yeah, that sounds like fun"

"Okay, I'll buy the tickets for us and y'all pay me back".

Had this been extravagant trips to Bermuda, or super-expensive jewelry, or something of the like, I'd be on board with really checking it out.

But a group of dudes wanting season tickets together for baseball games?

OMG, Ya'll, the guy is a fan of the American Pastime, and he trusts his friends!!!

I hammered the argument that Trump would pick good judges pretty hard during the campaign (repeatedly pointing out he had suggested his sister), and of the candidates reportedly under consideration, this isn't the one I would have chosen. But this is..... This isn't making a mountain out of a molehill, this seems like making a mountain out of no-hill.
 
Lutherf said:
There is no confirmation that Kavanaugh spent $200k. That figure come from the top limit of a given threshold off a financial questionnaire. When you read something along the lines of "so and so had between $45,000 and $150,000 in credit card debt" that's an indication that someone checked off a box that says "Credit card debt - Less than $45k, between $45k-$150k, $150k-$300k, etc. Please check off which it is" kind of thing.

"Between $45k and $150k" does not mean "$150k...maybe more because he's obviously hiding stuff!!". It could mean $45,001.00. It could mean $63,264.28. All you know from "between $45k-150k" is that the number probably fits in that range somewhere. Anything else you think you "know" is speculation unless it's supported by other facts and other information.

Now, getting back to the hyperventilating, if I knew that I could spend $100k on Washington Nationals tickets, go to a dozen games or so and sell the remaining tickets for $120k I'd do that because it makes good financial sense. Likewise, if I had a group coming to town and they wanted game tickets I might well put those tickets on my credit card and then pay the balance off when the group reimbursed me.

Now then, as far as such arrangements being "fairly common" I would ask that you take this article from CNBC - https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/04/online-ticket-resellers-the-surreptitious-rise-of-the-online-scalper.html - as an indication of how common the arrangement is. The article (from 2015) cites a $5 Billion industry in this kind of thing. It is, by all reasonable measures, "fairly common".
Click to expand...

I'll go along with much of the above, but I would like to see the exact figures checked off in the financial questionnaire. If the $200k is accurate then what I said earlier stands.

Although the link you provided is interesting and informative, it does not shed light on the frequency of one buyer purchases in the range under discussion here.
 
USViking said:
Oh?

He has a wife, two children, presumably payments on two cars and presumably mortgage payments in pricey Chevy Chase MD. That ought to make it pretty close to inconceivable.
Click to expand...
...why?

Now, I did do some checking, and his wife, a Chevy Chase Town Manager, might make almost what he does, and certainly well over $100,000 a year, so between them the cost of those baseball tickets might not have been a complete budget buster. Whether it's a responsible expense for a couple with two young children I am not at all sure about, though.
Click to expand...
No offense, but if you don't think a married couple making a minimum of $320,000 a year can afford two children, then I'm not exactly sure what to tell you. My parents had three children, two vehicles and a mortgage and did it working for what would be, in today's money, about $80,000.
 
Slyfox696 said:
...why?

No offense, but if you don't think a married couple making a minimum of $320,000 a year can afford two children, then I'm not exactly sure what to tell you. My parents had three children, two vehicles and a mortgage and did it working for what would be, in today's money, about $80,000.
Click to expand...

You misread me. Please concentrate a bit better.

Of course $320k is enough for a house, two cars and two children, and I never questioned that.

But the $200k ticket money would probably be only enough to put one child through college, just for starters, so it would behhove Judge K to keep a lid on entertainment expenses. And btw I read somewhere while researching this matter that Kavanaugh's net worth is now only about $68k.
 
Money has a smell to it, and it leaves a nasty smelly trail sometimes.

Because the Federalist Society is defined as a non-profit organization, their funding does not have to be revealed, and it allows the organization to create massive amounts of SLUSH FUND money, and without having to reveal where they spend their money.

It would not surprise me to learn that the Federalist Society used their SLUSH FUND to pay off the debts racked up by Kavanaugh as a pay for play.

"We get you nominated to the Supreme Court by easily influencing Donald Trump to nominate you, we pay off your debts, and we want your total commitment and promise to vote in favor of an overturn to Roe Vs. Wade, and we want you to Rubber Stamp every Trump wish that comes up before the Supreme Court".

Trust me on this- Donald Trump does not approve of anything- that is not a "Pay for Play" commitment on someone's part.
 
Last edited:
USViking said:
You misread me.
Click to expand...
I didn't think so, but perhaps I did. I apologize if I did.
Please concentrate a bit better.
Click to expand...
Uhh, the World Cup is on... ;)

Of course $320k is enough for a house, two cars and two children, and I never questioned that.

But the $200k ticket money would probably be only enough to put one child through college, just for starters, so it would behhove Judge K to keep a lid on entertainment expenses. And btw I read somewhere while researching this matter that Kavanaugh's net worth is now only about $68k.
Click to expand...
But if he was paid back for the tickets, as said, then $320,000 would be more than enough. And people take out student loans all the time, including parents.

Again, it's not at all inconceivable that making $320,000 a year for over a decade would allow him to pay back debts, especially if his buddies started paying their share as well, even with all the things you've mentioned. And the $68k seems a little suspect given we know how much his current position pays and real-estate is usually considered an asset. I'm a public school teacher and worth more than that (though I don't have loans or debts beside house).

Where did you read that?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom