This loony billionaire hates government spending unless it's for him

No Joe, greed isn't good.

Joe Ricketts is contributing a small fortune to attacks on President Obama, alleging his "overspending" of taxpayer money. Note:  deficit spending under President George W. Bush was three times as high as under Obama.

One guess as to where Ricketts does want the government to spend taxpayer money. Hint: he owns the Chicago Cubs.

Yup, Ricketts think taxpayers should pony up for a new ballpark for him rather than roads, schools or police protection.

ThinkProgress tells us more,

This week, the New York Times reported that Joe Ricketts, a right-wing billionaire and founder of TD Ameritrade, is soliciting multi-million dollar ad proposals to attack President Obama. One such proposal, leaked to the paper, was a $10 million, racially-charged campaign entitled “The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama: The Ricketts Plan to End his Spending for Good.” The proposal, which center on Rev. Jeremiah Wright, suggests hiring an “extremely literate conservative African-American” to break down Obama’s image as a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln.”

(The immortal words of Joseph Welch come to mind: "Have you no sense of decency?")

Anyhoo, Ricketts backed off the plan after it was exposed. But he hasn't backed off his plan to soak Chicago taxpayers for $150 million right off the bat. Crain's Chicago Business reports:

...$300 million is needed for the ballpark proper.

Half would come from the team, presumably in increased revenue from more signage inside Wrigley and retail and other entertainment...

And half would come from $150 million or so in bonds to be retired with increased revenue from the existing city and Cook County amusement taxes on ticket sales. Specifically, debt service would get the first 6 percent in growth above a base level of around $15 million a year now...

The team also wants a 50 percent cut of any increase in amusement tax revenue growth above 6 percent. And unlike the bonds, which would be retired in 30 or 35 years, that would be forever.

Now there's nothing wrong with a new ballpark. But there is something wrong with attacking government spending for others but not for you.

Maybe Joe Ricketts isn't loony. Maybe he's greedy, selfish and hypocritical.

Still more hypocrisy from rich people who oppose government spending

This is rich. The Huffington Post reports that the super-wealthy new owners of the Chicago Cubs are launching campaigns against government spending -- at the same time they're asking Illinois taxpayers to pay $300 million to renovate Wrigley Field!

Here's what happened: The Ricketts family recently bought the Chicago Cubs from The Tribune Co. (the travesty of Sam Zell's takeover of Tribune is a whole nother story). The family's daddy, Joe Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade, started an organization called Taxpayers Against Earmarks to fight wasteful government spending and earmarks. He also has a political group called the Ending Spending Fund.

Joe Ricketts has actually said

“I think it’s a crime for our elected officials to borrow money today, to spend money today and push the repayment of that loan out into the future on people who are not even born yet.”

Joe's son Tom is chairman of the Cubs. He wants Illinois taxpayers to assume the risk for hundreds of millions of dollars in construction costs for Wrigley Field, which his family owns along with the team.

Renovating Wrigley Field is a worthy goal, not least because it would create much-needed jobs. But in exchange for taxpayer support, the Ricketts family should agree to shut the F* up about wasteful government spending.