Does Billy Long Profit From Programs Like St. Louis Revitalization Funding Which He Attacks Nodler and Goodman For?

At the Missouri Republican Assembly debate earlier this month, Billy Long promised he would not go negative in this campaign and live by Ronald Reagan's Eleventh Commandment. It's interesting that Billy Long is the first and only candidate to approve and fund negative campaign materials against both Gary Nodler and Jack Goodman, proving once again that Billy Long is not a man Southwest Missouri can trust.

There is something more amazing hidden deeply in Billy Long's broken campaign promise. Billy Long's negative campaign material includes attacks that lie about a $100 million inner city revitalization project which Long's own campaign strategist James Harris lobbied for. As I got to thinking about the negative attack ads, I began to wonder how many times over the years Billy Long has benefited financially as a small businessman heavily involved in real estate, whether it be from Billy Long Auctions, Murney and Associates, or other real estate deals, putting hundreds of thousands of dollars in his pocket thanks to bad government policy.

Long attacks Goodman and Nodler for a program that would have helped revitalize the city of St. Louis, and the commercial he runs contains many half truths and lies about the actual legislation. Let's forget about all that and think about a federal revitalization project that gained recent attention. The project Billy Long speaks of is similar in some regards to the Community Reinvestment Act under Bill Clinton that promised loans to people who shouldn't have qualified in hopes of revitalizing inner cities and other communities that needed help. You may be familiar with this program since Fannie May and Freddie Mac oversaw much of the lending that led to many of the real estate foreclosures.

While Billy Long Auctions currently lists no foreclosure auctions, reliable sources have discovered Billy Long has auctioned many foreclosed homes in Southwest Missouri and taken advantage of the federal foreclosure real estate mess. You also need to ask how much real estate has Billy Long acquired at bottom of the barrel prices thanks to bad government policy? How much has Billy Long profited from similar programs that he attacks his opponents with? Since Long Auctions does do foreclosure auctions, it's reasonable to suspect some of these homes were purchased by people who would not have qualified for loans had the federal government created a program, and once again, we see Billy Long with his hands in the cookie jar talking from both sides of his mouth. More than likely, Long profits from programs he attacks in his political ads.