Investigate pro-bill politicians and others to see who got what $$ from Big Health?

[brentspeak]

How much money did any politician/staff member pushing this bill receive from Big Health? How much money will Rahm Emmanuel's brother be getting from insurance companies? How much money, if any, did bloggers like Ezra Klein or their publishers receive or will receive or any promises of future employment to work with politicians/get other writing gigs?

No one should be afraid of the truth, right?

[ProSense]

1. Progressive McCarthyism?

Maybe while they're at it they can investigate you.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Bribery is against the law!

[ProSense]

6. Witch hunts are progressive! n/t

[IndianaGreen]

7. Having an investigation seeking the truth is what happens in a nation of laws

Why such sudden concern on your part?

[Donnachaidh]

50. only if done by faux progressives against real ones. n/t

[brentspeak]

4. Uh, oh. This particular poll hits a certain someone a little too close to home!

[IndianaGreen]

5. Obviously!

We might even find about some collusion between Joe Lieberman and the White House.

[amborin]

9. keeping a list sure is, and someone said that 's what O is doing n/t

[IndianaGreen]

15. How come the Democrats never investigated Mitch McConnell and his wife Elaine Chao?

Perhaps because politicians in both parties are corrupt!

[amborin]

20. +10

[jefferson_dem]

12. Just when you thought they had gone as far-out and wacky as they could...

Another day arrives...

I say, let them keep digging.

[IndianaGreen]

14. The Bayhs have reaped financial gains out of Evan Bayh's legislative activities

They are crooks, while the people suffer.

[ima_sinnic]

17. we're already aware that corruption doesn't bother you--no need to call attention to it

you also are not fazed by blatant lies (remember "transparency"?), nor do you care that the people we "voted for" to "represent" "us" seem to have another, "more important" constituency and couldn't give a rat's ass about We The People.

Since your taxes (you DO pay taxes, right? or are you part of the "base"?--which would explain your constant defense of the indefensible) pay the "salaries" of those "representatives," any sane person would think you'd have an interest in such things. Why should we be paying them if they're receiving even more from private interests?

Do you always hire people and then let them work against you under the table for someone else? I wonder why?

[IndianaGreen]

3. The money Susan and Evan Bayh made out of this HCR deal is well known

I would like for the White House to release all documents pertaining to the PhRMA deal.

In the past four years, Bayh collected more than $1.7 million in pre-tax income when she exercised stock options from two of the corporations. Her actual income from exercising stock options is higher, but the details of one transaction were not publicly reported.

During the same time, her husband, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., cast more than 3,000 votes, including some on issues of keen interest to the pharmaceutical, broadcast, insurance, food-distribution and finance industries.

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20071216/LOCAL1004/712160424

[IndianaGreen]

8. Stock options pile up, pay off for Susan Bayh

We need a special prosecutor to investigate the connections between politicians, and their spouses, to corporations benefiting from legislation being passed by Congress.

Stock options pile up, pay off for Susan Bayh

By Sylvia A Smith
Washington editor

WASHINGTON – Without billing any clients or cashing a paycheck, Susan Bayh collected $248,700 so far this year in income from one corporation.

By exercising stock options she received for sitting on the board of insurance giant WellPoint Inc. and selling the stock when it was near its highest price of the year, Bayh took advantage of one of the parts of compensation given to the directors of many publicly traded companies.

In the past four years, Bayh has exercised stock options eight times. Each time, she bought and sold stocks of three of the companies she helps direct: Indianapolis-based WellPoint; a Cambridge, Mass., pharmaceutical developer, Curis Inc.; and the privately held E-Trade Bank.

Through seven of those transactions, she has collected a pre-tax gain of more than $1.7 million. In addition, she exercised options of E-Trade Bank shares. But because E-Trade is not publicly traded, the details of the transaction are not publicly reported. In a financial disclosure report that her husband, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., is required to file each year, the value of the E-Trade transaction was listed as between $500,000 and $1 million. But that would not take into account the cost of exercising the options to buy the E-Trade shares.

http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071216/LOCAL1004/712160430

[IndianaGreen]

10. Susan and Evan Bayh have assets worth between $4.3 million and $15.1 million

Here is the tip of the iceberg of how business is really done in the Beltway, the Bayhs are the rule, not the exception:

Susan Bayh’s income and assets from the boards are a major portion of the Bayh family’s net worth, according to her husband’s report. He said he and his wife have assets worth between $4.3 million and $15.1 million, not counting the couple’s $1 million Washington home, which is in Susan Bayh’s name.

Senators are paid $165,200 a year.

Susan Bayh’s position as a director for eight businesses puts her in the league of “professional directors,” a term used to refer to people who sit on multiple corporate boards and are not otherwise employed.

Whether professional directors benefit shareholders is debated among academics and others who study corporate boards.

“My view,” said Nell Minnow, president of The Corporate Library, which rates board performance, “is you can have just as many conflicts of interest. If you’re a professional director, the last thing you want to do is rock the boat.”

That’s a dangerous quality for a director, she said, because good directors are not reluctant to challenge the company’s CEO.

Minnow said one of the best qualities a director can have is a sense of independence. The National Association of Directors, which runs training programs for directors, also puts independence at the top of the list of important qualities.

Susan Bayh’s advice on how to direct businesses has been sought especially by pharmaceutical companies. She was a lawyer for Eli Lilly & Co., the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company, for five years while her husband was Indiana’s governor. Since 2000, she has served on the boards of eight companies that develop drugs.

She was first appointed to a public board seat in June 1994 when she was named to the Emmis Broadcasting board. Since then, she has been named to the boards of 14 businesses, primarily in the insurance or pharmaceutical industries. As of last year, she sat on the governing bodies of eight companies: Indianapolis-based Emmis Broadcasting and WellPoint Inc., the second-largest U.S. health insurance company; four pharmaceutical companies: Curis Inc., Dyax Corp., Nastech Pharmaceuticals and Dendreon Corp.; and privately held Golden State Foods of California and E-Trade Bank of Virginia.

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20071216/LOCAL1004/712160424

This is why the people's needs always get trumped by the corporations.

[vaberella]

77. Weren't they steadfast anti-bill people?! n/t

[IndianaGreen]

78. Bayh voted against importation of cheap drugs from Canada

and he has been an opponent of Medicare for all.

[vaberella]

79. You didn't answer my question...He was also against this HCR bill too.

Which way he finally voted I don't care. The man wasn't for this bill or any HCR bill.

[IndianaGreen]

80. Bayh opposes House version, but supports LieberCare

which is the version passed by Senate.

[jefferson_dem]

11. Do you now or have you ever supported the health care reform bill?!

Mac would be proud.

[IndianaGreen]

13. The actual question is what financial gains have you and you spouse gotten

from your support of corporate friendly legislation?

It isn't McCarthyism to go after corrupt politicians.

[phleshdef]

19. They even want to target bloggers just because they wrote pieces that damaged their talking points.

Geez, talk about getting childishly butt hurt.

[ima_sinnic]

37. hmm--two parrots parroting the same talking point? or coincidence?

suddenly it's "McCarthyism" to investigate corruption. you're "funny."

[jefferson_dem]

47. Is that what you call it - "investigating corruption"?

Sounds like sour grapes to me. You lose a political battle and it must be because someone cheated. Not sure who...but let's launch a witch hunt to smoke 'em out.

Fuck that. And take your right-wingnut talking points and tactics with you.

[phleshdef]

56. LOL, anyone else reading this BS? Next thing ya know, they will call for US to be investigated.

[ima_sinnic]

59. those talking point memos flying fast & furious, eh?

what time did you punch in?

[IndianaGreen]

16. Two for the money: Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao

I never understood why Democrats never went after the corporate ties of GOP politicians such as Mitch McConnell and his wife Elaine Chao, unless they themselves wanted part of the gravy train.

We need a special prosecutor to investigate ALL members of Congress, and the relationship between the laws they pass, and the corporations that benefit from them.

Two for the money

WASHINGTON - Millionaire coal magnate Bob Murray knew the name to drop in September 2002, when Mine Safety Health Administration inspectors confronted him about safety problems at his mines: Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Murray, a large man with a fierce temper, is a huge donor to Republican senators. McConnell, R-Ky., rose through the ranks by raising money for those senators. And McConnell is married to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, whose agency oversees MSHA.

Shouting at a table full of MSHA officials at their district office in Morgantown, W.Va., Murray said: "Mitch McConnell calls me one of the five finest men in America, and the last I checked, he was sleeping with your boss," according to notes of the meeting. "They," Murray added, pointing at two MSHA men, "are gone."

Murray, in a recent interview, denied that he referred to McConnell "sleeping with" Chao.

But nobody disputes that district manager Tim Thompson, at one end of Murray's jabbing finger and the man whose notes recorded the meeting, was transferred to another region, away from Murray's mines. He appealed the transfer for three years until he grudgingly took retirement in January. Labor Department officials refuse to discuss his transfer.

"The ironic part is, I'm a Republican," said Thompson, now a private mine-safety consultant. "But I don't think you should bring up politics at a meeting like that, involving safety."

When it comes to workplace-related issues such as mine safety, the McConnell-Chao marriage presents an intriguing target for industry donors. At the Labor Department, Chao has taken what some reports say is a relaxed attitude toward the regulation of coal mines and an approach that labor unions perceive as hostile.

http://www.kentucky.com/233/story/11062.html

[phleshdef]

18. Geez, even wanting to target bloggers. At long last, have you no sense of decency?

[WeDidIt]

22. It's like McCarthyism swung so far to the right

it's coming up from the far left now.

[IndianaGreen]

25. McCarthyism was accusing people of disloyaty based on groundless accusations

Going after lawbreakers is a must, if we are to clean up our politics.

[WeDidIt]

28. And Hamsher is accusing Emmanuel of crimes based on groundless accusations

Firebagging, the new Teabagging.

:popcorn:

Watching them go over the cliff has become high entertainment, I'll give them that much.

[IndianaGreen]

30. I don't know about that, but I do know about Rahm's brother

and his corporate ties.

[WeDidIt]

32. More specious allegations with no facts to back it up.

Prove a quid pro quo.

Oh yeah, you can't.

What next? File a federal lawsuit to get discovery. That worked out so well with others who make specious allegations with no hard facts to back it up. Attorneys with names like Berg, Donofrio, Kreep, and Taitz.

[IndianaGreen]

34. It would be nice to have the White House release all documents related to PhRMA deal

Wasn't transparency part of the change we voted for?

[WeDidIt]

36. It would be nice

but there is no legal necessity to do so.

Most likely, PhRMA said that if there was any regulation allowing going out of country for drugs, they would pour a billion dollars into the campaign to defeat HCR through their PACs, and left it there.

[IndianaGreen]

40. The public interest was thwarted by the cozy relationship between corporations and our politicians

It is time for the people to take back the government that was supposed to be theirs!

[WeDidIt]

45. More meaningless rhetoric

There are cozy relationships n politics. That's how politics works. It's not illegal. It's enshrined in the first amendment.

[IndianaGreen]

62. I didn't know that graft and corruption was enshrined in the First Amendment!

:puke:

[WeDidIt]

66. More baseless charges with no facts to back them up

PROVE YOUR ALLEGATIONS, SIR!

[IndianaGreen]

70. I posted enough stories on this thread about the Bayhs and the McConnells's corruption

and you dismissed them as "business as usual." You are part of the problem!

[jefferson_dem]

48. Wonder when Orly...I mean Jane will go back on FauxNews to tell everyone

how corrupt the Dems are.

It's kind of funny how so many ... supposed "liberals" on this board buy into the bullshit.

[ima_sinnic]

39. another "McCarthyism" parrot. very interesting.

Investigations of corruption are soooo "totalitarian."

[WeDidIt]

52. What corruption?

All you have are specious allegations based upon faulty conclusions with no evidence to back them up.

[phleshdef]

54. Hey, when you start calling for the investigation of bloggers, you sound like a McCarthy-ist idiot.

Not my fault.

[WeDidIt]

21. Dude, there's no investigating to do

It's all public information. No investigation needed. They report this shit openly.

http://www.opensecrets.org

Sheesh! Wasting even more money on something that requires no investigation whatsoever.

[IndianaGreen]

23. The point of a special prosecutor is to see if any laws were broken

and to prosecute those that did.

[WeDidIt]

24. Talk about a wasted effort

Hello Mr. Starr.

Will you investigate any illicit sex involved, too?

[IndianaGreen]

26. Trading votes for corporate gravy is a crime

and your conflating McCarthyism and the Ken Starr fiasco with a legitimate investigation of corruption among our elected officials is rather peculiar.

[WeDidIt]

27. What you are suggesting is a withc hunt

based upon specious allegations with no facts to back them up.

But be on your merry way. The entertainment value of this hokum gets better as Hamsher and her Firebaggers continue over the cliff.

[IndianaGreen]

29. What I am calling for is to clean up Washington of all corrupt politicans

and I have posted several articles on this thread about corruption.

[WeDidIt]

31. And yet Emmanuel was investigated THREE TIMES

over these same bullshit allegations, yet Hamsher, out of nothing more than a bruised ego, is demanding a FOURTH investigation.

So fuck Hamshe, Norquist, and the Firebaggers. They're all pieces of shit.

[IndianaGreen]

33. Why are you bringing that Hamsher and Rahm bullshit on this thread, unless you are trying..

to purposely divert attention from the OP's point about politicians passing laws that benefit their corporate sponsors.

[WeDidIt]

35. You've got that backward

#1, Corporations are strictly limited in how they donate. They cannot donate to a federal political candidate, only people can. They can make a limited donation to a national political party and most donate precisely the same to both major parties.

#2, Corporations may donate to PACs.

So your argument is fallacious on its face. What is more likely to happen is a Senator is less likely to support regulation of the insurance industry because they fear the backlash an insurance industry PAC could cause them in a re-election campaign.

[IndianaGreen]

38. Corporate officials and investors' contributions are bundled

which is why Bush raked in so much money when he ran for President. There is a direct correlation of between corporate contributions either to campaigns, political parties, PACs, and the other perks such as putting the spouses of elected officials on corporate boards.

This year's circus on Capitol Hill demands a full investigation!

[WeDidIt]

43. Act Blue bundles donations of the left side of the blogosphere

So if anybody who received a donation from Act Blue did anything progressive, by your own standards, they must be investigated.

So when does the investigation of Bernie Sanders open up?

You're setting up two standards. You know that, right? People are free to bundle donations and people are free to donate to whom they choose. Just because executives of insurance comapnies donate the max to Max Baucus does not indicate Max Baucus committed a crime, no matter how much you want it to.

So yeah, you're going off half cocked on some stupid INVESTIGATE THEM screed for no damned reason at all.

People donate money to campaigns because they believe that the candidates they donate to will act in their best interest. And now, when the elected officials act in the best interest of their donors, you're all miffed and pissed off.

It's not illegal. In fact, it's protected by the first amendment and that precedent has been set by the SCOTUS.

[IndianaGreen]

44. The crux of the matter is if there was some financial gain by the elected official and the spouse

The Bayhs and the McConnells have clearly gained financially.

[WeDidIt]

46. No laws were broken

no matter how much you wish it were so.

I'd even say if you don't like it, change the law, but nearly any law you could come up with to alter how things work would be struck down by the SCOTUS as a violation of the first amendment.

Mrs. Bayh has a right to free association and donors have a right to free speech. Bayh did not take money out of his campaign coffers for personal use. Mrs. Bayh must be allowed to be employed.

So nothing illegal happened, no matter how much you want that to be so.

Your best bet is to get this hammered at by a primary opponent to Bayh, because he'll never be charged with a crime as no crime was committed.

[IndianaGreen]

60. Tell that to the voters as you send the IRS after them for not buying health insurance

You are defending a system of graft and corruption, no wonder nothing really changes!

[WeDidIt]

67. Again, you mkae baseless allegations with no evidence

Back up your accusations.

[IndianaGreen]

71. My accusations are based on news reports, your defence of these people is hysterical

We need a special prosecutor!

[JVS]

41. Both pro-bill and anti-bill sides should be scrutinized.

[IndianaGreen]

42. It will require a special prosecutor, for I lost confidence in Eric Holder

a while back.

And let's look at the entire Beltway gravy train system, not just HCR. I posted story about Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao on this thread.

[Donnachaidh]

49. all the squealing from the corporate chorale -- WOW!

Think you struck a nerve -- K&R.

[ima_sinnic]

51. yes, suddenly, in unison (imagine that!), it's "McCarthyism"!!12!1

for some reason it reminds me of cockroaches scattering when the lights are suddenly turned on.

[jefferson_dem]

53. Ok. Before I consider jumping on the "let's investigate 'em" bandwagon, answer this.

How much of the brewing corruption scandal can we pin on ACORN? :shrug:

[ima_sinnic]

58. what are you blathering about? what the HELL does that even mean?

go away little boy, this is grown-up stuff, something you wouldn't know anything about.

go run to your "fierce advocate" of war crimes and payola and corruption.

[jefferson_dem]

65. You're a bitter old sod, aren't you.

...Wailing hysterically about corruption, scandal, and witch hunts when you don't get your way ... just like the right wingnuts do about ACORN.

Good luck with your "grown-up stuff". Those delusions of grandeur are about all you'll have to cling to for the next few years. :hi:

[IndianaGreen]

74. Why are you guys with the whitehouse.gov avatar so afraid of investigations?

Do you fear the people's blowback when they know that the change they voted for only change the names of the people in the corruption gravy train?

[Donnachaidh]

55. dead on ! And we're supposed to be the party of transparency?

Uhh -- let's see who the real grownups are -- produce the figures, all of them. If everything was above board and honest, there shouldn't be a problem with producing them.

And all of it should be accounted for.

[jenmito]

57. No bias in the choices or anything...

:eyes: How 'bout, "No, it would be a waste of time"? How would you explain those liberals who voted for it and got nothing specific for their vote? There ARE politicians who just MAY have voted for it because they think it's a good first step, you know.

[IndianaGreen]

61. The issue, once again, is who derived a financial gain from the legislation they voted for?

Which family members profited from laws being passed?

The poster children for Beltway's corruption are Susan and Evan Bayh, on the Democratic side, and Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao, on the Republican side. And they are only the tip of the iceberg!

[jefferson_dem]

68. Now i'm confused.

McConnell was obviously one of the most vocal critics of reform and fought against the bill being passed. How does that fit into the great web of corruption? :shrug:

[IndianaGreen]

73. I suggest that a lot of that was for show.

[dhpgetsit]

63. We have OpenSecrets to help with that.

http://www.opensecrets.org/

But what it does not show is the money the Health Insurance Lobby did not spend.

They could launch an ad campaign, far outspending all the candidates that ran for President and Congress in 2008 combined. They could easily destroy any candidate. The amount they have been pouring into campaign funds of the various candidates and parties is the small story.

[IndianaGreen]

64. OpenSecrets also doesn't know the financial interest in privately held companies

as Susan Bayh does, nor does it know how many quality hours someone like Bayh spends on board business.

Susan Bayh’s advice on how to direct businesses has been sought especially by pharmaceutical companies. She was a lawyer for Eli Lilly & Co., the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company, for five years while her husband was Indiana’s governor. Since 2000, she has served on the boards of eight companies that develop drugs.

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20071216/LOCAL1004/712160424

[Blasphemer]

69. It won't do any good.. corruption in DC is too rampant but it'd certainly be nice... nt

[IndianaGreen]

72. Ideally, a revolution in which the peasants storm DC with their pitchforks would suffice

As it is, we will have to use the rules established by corrupt politicians to fight the corruption that they are responsible for. In Venezuela, the first step was to establish a new constitutional framework that stripped the powerful of the legal mechanisms that kept them in their lofty position.

We need an American version of the Bolivarian Revolution.

[brentspeak]

75. self-kick

[vaberella]

76. Sanders and Feingold must be swimming in it!! n/t

[VMI Dem]

81. I'd like to know what big pharma deals were cut by the White House

and certain members of Senate to kill the reimportation bill.

[inna]

82. Isn't this info already available to public? Open Secrets and all?...

What I don't understand is that the whole concept of instituonalized bribery, crony capitalism and obvious, in-your-face, corruption and blatant conflict of interests is considered completely acceptable and business as usual - they don't even attempt to hide it.

Look at Baucus, for example - he should have absolutely no business being anywhere near the HCR because of the blatant conflict of interest! Instead, he (or rather, his Wellpoint buddies) actually write the f*cking bill. :eyes:



I do think that politicians/lawmakers/etc. should be required by law to be completely transparent/comply with FOIA, etc.

However, I don't think that private figures such as bloggers should be subjected to the same stringent rules.