What we're talking about today is a quick look at one of the ads that Bill Sorrell has been running. It touts a number of Sorrell's accomplishments, and the latest ad leads with Sorrell's settlement with banks that were guilty of fraud in the mortgage foreclosure process, a settlement that brought millions of dollars into the state. This really was a big deal, with over two billion dollars being collected from the banks nationwide, and $6.8 million coming to Vermont.
We know that the banks are paying a lot of money to state governments all over the country, and we also know where that money came from: defrauded homeowners. Consequently, you might think that the money should be returned to its rightful owners, the people the banks stole the money from, right?
Well, if you thought that that was what would happen you'd be wrong. According to a report by Pro Publica, a huge majority of that money was collected by the states and just added to the states' general fund budgets.
What about Vermont?
It's pretty much the same thing. Here's what Pro Publica says:
It's not a bad thing to collect millions of dollars for Vermont's taxpayers, but you have to wonder if more of that money could have gone to help or defend people in foreclosures, don't you?
There are some debates coming up this week. I know that the Attorney General doesn't decide how the money is spent once he collects it, the same way the police don't decide what to do with your money when you get a speeding ticket. Still, it might be a good thing if someone asked Bill Sorrell why more of that money didn't go to the homeowners, and how hard he fought to make sure it did.
Thanks, Jack, for asking the question. Gave me a good laugh this morning.
Vermont’s incumbent
SurgeonAttorney General has ‘fought’ harder to tax our sodas than to actually help or ‘protect’ any average Vermonter.NanuqFC
Self-declared leaders must be rejected at once when they lack the integrity to stand publicly for the principles they claim to adhere to in private. ~ Woodrow Wilson
sure seems to get lucky more often than the rest of us.
If he ever got to be AG. But who needs a Republican AG when we’ve got Sorrell? I swear to Christ, his next excuse will be that he hasn’t done anything for average Vermonters because he’s been DEAD the last ten years. Isn’t voting for a corpse some form of necrophilia?
… “It’s not my job.”
That’s his standard answer for just about everything, isn’t it?