http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/30/dave_zirin_on_bad_sports_how

FTA:

DM: What are some of these other owners that are in your greatest hits of rogues?

DAVE ZIRIN: … The owner of the Orlando Magic is a gentleman by the name of Dick DeVos. He’s worth $4 billion … The DeVos family, not unlike old feudal Europe, married into another billionaire family, the Prince family.

And Dick DeVos’s son married a gentleman by the name of Edgar Prince’s daughter Betsy. Betsy’s brother -— we see where this is going — Erik Prince, the owner and founder of Blackwater.

Dick DeVos is also one of the ultimate funders and underwriters of that right-wing edge of the evangelical movement and of the Republican Party. And he’s also getting a $480 million publicly funded stadium right now.

And through his donations to the Republican Party, of course, Erik Prince has gotten hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for Blackwater.

So you see how this works. I mean, I don’t think a majority of sports fans, when they go see an Orlando Magic game and cheer for players like Dwight Howard or Jameer Nelson, are saying, “I’m also buying a ticket to support Blackwater’s efforts in Iraq!” No, that — and effectively, though, that’s what they have us doing. It’s coercive, and I’m against it. 

According to Wikipedia, the ban on earmarks passed by the House Appropriations Committee in 2010 is on earmarks for for-profit corporations, so this would seem to be a bad example, since the Lions are a non-profit.

Then again, Wikipedia and the New York Times seem to disagree as to whether the ban applies to just for-profit corporations, or to everyone.

(I wasn’t aware that there was a ban on earmarks in place.)

Edited for clarity.

When Congress swore off earmarks, all they were doing is giving up the power to direct those monies and giving the power to the Transportation Department – which is the Executive branch – which is run by a scary Kenyan Muslim.

I guess a silver coin with John Birch on it might make up for it, but I can’t imagine it raises a ton of money.

There is no unreimbursed monetary value. All costs of the particular commemorative coin issue are deducted from the sales before any funds are dispersed to the organization benefiting from the coin issue. Furthermore the difference between the face value and the actual cost of producing the actual coin are credited to the U.S. Treasury (not packaging, shipping or marketing which are out of the previously mention reimbursement of costs). This is called seignorage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seigniorage So the government sometimes actually makes money, too. The Treasury has made a buttload of money of the State and National Park Quarter series, which are “circulating” commemoratives. But when someone saves a coin and removes it from circulation, it essential provides a profit of the full face value to the government. and billions of those two quarter series have been made and saved by collectors. In the case of gold or silver coins with a nominal value less than the intrinsic value of the precious metals, the Mint gets paid the spot cost of the materials plus all the production costs.

The U.S Mint has issued commemorative coins that benefit third party organizations since 1892. If Republicans like sponsoring bills to authorize the issuance of these coins, I would imagine it is because it actually cost the the government nothing to do this, rather than being paid for out of taxes. So to them it’s kinda painless. However, as someone who collects coins and who likes good design, most modern US commemorative (post 1982) are fugly, and I rarely buy them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_commemorative_coin

Commemorative coins are sneaky pork

I’ll come clean with you – I have a tendency to just skim the article titles.  When I’m told I need to get excited about something, generally I don’t.  In the end though it all comes out in the wash so it’s OK.

You know those cool commemorative coins that the US Mint keeps issuing?

While this doesn’t specifically suggest which nationalities should care, it (and the next sentence mentioning Congress) does suggest pretty strongly that we might be talking about the US.

One has to wonder if it’s Canada, the US or the UK we should get into a lather about today. Mind you I’m constantly in a lather about other countries so no point in talking about their ridiculous behaviors.

Overall though, Cory is very lather-friendly, so I feel very clean after any visit to BB.

Enough of this soap-box talk.

The feds manufacture the coins at their expense and then attempt to sell them. If the costs are covered, any further income goes to the private entity.

Essentially, that’s an unsecured loan, at 0% interest, of the production costs, with no fixed repayment date(in addition to any more nebulous; but probably not free, value derived from official association with the mint, use of their manufacturing expertise, etc.)

Just try asking your bank to loan you some money to produce widgets, with the promise to repay them with widget sales, and see what sorts of interest rates you are offered, if you can get any takers at all…

It hardly moves the needle in the history of sweetheart giveaways; but it is one, albeit creatively structured to avoid having a dollar value directly attached to it.