From: bks@alfa.berkeley.edu (Bradley K. Sherman)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.elections,alt.politics.bush
Subject: Neil Bush explains it all to you
Date: 15 Sep 1992 23:26:09 GMT
Organization: Greedbusters
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: alfa.berkeley.edu

[Copyright 1992 The American Political Network, Inc.  All rights reserved.]
[Reproduced with permission of above. --bks]

Tonight (9/15), "Dateline NBC" will report on a "confidential audit
report" showing how first-son Neil Bush "paid himself a $160,000
annual salary at a time when his energy company, financed with
government-guaranteed funds, was on the verge of failure."  The
intro includes a quote from Neil Bush on Silverado:  "I don't
mean to be whiney, but I was kind of a scapegoat, I was an easy
target for a situation that's too complicated to explain to
people."  NBC's Brian Ross:  "But it's really not that
complicated.  Quite simply, while his father has been in the
White House, American taxpayers have been stuck with millions of
dollars in bills from failed business ventures involving Neil
Bush, including one deal that's only now fully coming to light. 
And all the while the president's son has been living a life that
some people say is like that of an American prince."  Ross
outlines Neil Bush's '89 venture with Apex Oil, "a high risk
gamble to find natural gas" outside Big Piney, WY.  Bush's
company, Apex Energy, was able to get $2.3 million in financing
from two investment firms, with Bush putting up only $3,000.

NBC's Ross in Big Piney:  "Neil Bush hit a dry hole here.  He was
unsuccessful drilling for gas in Wyoming as he's been in every
business venture. For most people in the oil and gas business a
dry hole can mean bust, financial ruin.  But not for Neil Bush.  
 ... [he] was able to simply walk away from more than two million
dollars in losses."  The Small Business Admin. "guaranteed" the
$2.3M, and "on top of that ... a huge chunk of money went for
salaries, including $160,000 a year for Bush."  Univ./CO business
ethics prof. Edward Conry:  "The [SBA] needs to be deeply
embarrassed by what's gone on here.  That is not the way taxpayer
dollars ought to be spent. ... It's not a small business when in
the first year you get $160,000 no matter how well your company
does."  Denver oilman Harold Patton, GOPer and Pres. Bush backer:
"The only thing that was the matter with drilling that dry hole
was that the taxpayers were the investors, and they were
unwitting. ... Whatever vagaries may beset a man's life they
should be his own, and they should not be open to examination
unless they involve the public policy and public finance.  And if
they do that, and you involve other people, then you must be
prepared for the kind of scrutiny that lets other people level
their steady gaze and say 'you shouldn't have done that.'" 

     RESPONSES:  SBA head Pat Saiki, asked if Neil Bush was a
good investment:  "That's not my determination to make. ... I
don't determine every case."  Neil Bush was asked about the
charges at the GOP convention:  "What Apex deal?  Tell me about
it."  Ross:  "Your company put up $3,000 and got $2.3 million." 
Bush:  "Where did the taxpayers come into that all?"  Ross:  "The
government guaranteed financing."  Bush:  "Wrong, wrong."  Ross: 
"The guaranteed financing by the SBA."  Bush:  "Wrong, get your
facts straight."  Later, Ross:  "What about the high salary." 
Bush:  "What about the high salary?  I'm talking to you about the
allegation that taxpayers are footing the bill for something that
I was involved in.  I'm saying that you don't have your facts
straight."  Ross notes Apex stock has been signed over to the
SBA:  "All the government has to show for its backing of Neil
Bush's venture are these worthless stock certificates".
----------

    --Brad Sherman (bks@alfa.berkeley.edu)
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