This just in: Two former Republican state commerce secretaries, one of whom (Dick Leinenkugel) wanted to run for the Senate himself and the other (Bill McCoshen) who wanted to run for governor, will join anti-government candidate Ron Johnson for a press conference to argue the following:
-- a government loan program that they ran isn't a government loan program
-- the government issued the loan but its not a government loan
-- government approves the loan but its not a government loan
-- government subsidized the loan at a below market interest rate but its not a government loan
-- Johnson also had to apply with government for the loan and pay the government back for the loan but again it's not a government loan
This Feingold ad says differently, and they don't like it.
Back in the Ronald Reagan days, when Johnson got the loan, his administration certainly thought they were government loans:
Washington Post, June 16, 1983: Limits on Tax-Exempt Bonds Urged
The Reagan administration yesterday urged Congress to curb the use of tax-exempt bonds for private purposes such as industrial development, which last year accounted for more than half of all tax-exempt bonds issued.
The bonds have become "a backdoor means of obtaining federal subsidies, usually without explicit congressional approval and sometimes in direct contravention of federal budget policies . . . " Assistant Treasury Secretary John E. Chapoton told the House Ways and Means Committee.