If you ever wondered if members of the GOP weren’t living inside
the pockets of the rich, then please allow me to direct your attention to one
Congressman Joel Kleefisch, our ISBL Asshat of the Week.
Kleefisch, from the great state of Wisconsin and they should
be so proud, recently introduced a controversial
bill that would allow high-income parents to avoid paying tens of thousands of
dollars a year in child support.
Yes, because the rich shouldn’t have to pay for anything
apparently.
Now, that was, and is an asshatted move, to be sure, but
what secures Kleefisch in the ISBL Asshat category is that the bill he introduced
was written with the help of Michael Eisenga, a multimillionaire business owner
and wealthy donor to the election campaign of the bill’s author, and William Smiley, Eisenga’s attorney.
To top it off, the bill will help Michael Eisenga to force
the court to reopen his divorce settlement so maybe he can play less in child
support because, you know, he’s rich and why should he pay for anything.
Kleefisch, naturally, is walking back the idea that the bill will help
Eisenga lower his child support payments because he’s certain that the bill is
not retroactive. However, the bill, if passed, would require judges to lower
child-support payments if they are 10% or more above the amount that would have
been ordered using the new requirement meaning that certainly Eisenga’s payment
would come down so he could keep his money out of the grubby hands of his
children and exes.
Court documents show Eisenga, a Columbus developer, owner of
American Lending Solutions and the former mayor of Columbus, was ordered to pay $15,000 a month for his three children based on his 2010 income of
$1.2 million and assets of $30 million, but Kleefisch’s bill, if passed, and Eisenga's divorce case reopened, would prohibit judges from taking into
account Eisenga's $30 million in assets in determining the level of child support he's ordered to pay.
But, back to the bill, and Eisenga’s fingerprints on it.
The
drafting record of the proposed legislation includes emails, letters and
handwritten notes showing Eisenga and Smiley making
numerous suggestions for changes to the bill which would help Eisenga lower his
child-support payments. The documents also show Eisenga and Smiley working
closely with Kleefisch and his staff to craft the legislation, which will have
a hearing before the Assembly Family Law Committee in Wisconsin tomorrow; in
fact, there are emails between Eisenga, Smiley, Kleefisch and Kleefisch’s aides
proving that Eisenga sought specific language to help his case.
A letter, dated September 5, 2013, from Smiley to Eisenga requests
specific modifications to “the portion (of the bill) that would require the
court to modify [Eisenga’s] child support order based solely on the passage of
this bill.” Then Eisenga sends an email to Kleefisch, his aides Ashlee
Moore and Jeff Fitzgerald, which says, in part, “Please have the drafter make
these SPECIFIC changes to the bill when she combines them.”
The next day Ashley Moore requested the changes.
Kleefisch stands by the bill and denies that its primary
goal is to benefit Eisenga:
“I do a gamut of legislation with the help and assistance of many, many constituents, and whether they give a contribution or not has not made a difference.”
Richard Podell and Michael Collins, the attorneys who
represent Eisenga’s former wife in their ongoing child support battles, say
that Eisenga made extensive campaign contributions to Kleefisch and other
Republican politicians; in fact, Eisenga, along with his former wife, gave $41,750
to several GOP candidates since 2005, and Eisenga has personally donated the
maximum amount allowed under law six times to Kleefisch; he also gave $7,500 to
Kleefisch’s wife, Rebecca, who is the lieutenant governor.
And Joel Kleefisch signed off on this because … He’s the ISBL Asshat of the Week.