Posted on 11/18/2011 2:51:00 AM PST by Fred
A think tank founded by GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health-care companies and industry groups, offering special access to the former House speaker and other perks, according to records and interviews.
The Center for Health Transformation, which opened in 2003, brought in dues of as much as $200,000 per year from insurers and other health-care firms, offering some of them “access to Newt Gingrich” and “direct Newt interaction,” according to promotional materials. The biggest funders, including firms such as AstraZeneca, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Novo Nordisk, were also eligible to receive discounts on “products and workshops” from other Gingrich groups.
The health center advocated, among other things, requiring that “anyone who earns more than $50,000 a year must purchase health insurance or post a bond,” a type of insurance mandate that has since become anathema to conservatives.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Nobody’s perfect, knarf. Rush was talking about this yesterday but I’m afraid I nodded off as so many of us do when trying to understand complicated financial stuff.
I understand when Tom Thumb has avocados for one dollar but when one gets to 37 mil ... anyway, Rush was ‘splainin’ that it’s a consulting fee.
Whether Newt profited wrongly or not, I have no idea. It’s probably in the ‘everybody does it’ category.
Newt remains my second choice unless he screws up even more.
I can’t wait until Perry starts leading in some polls so they can beat him up.
This is the firsdt time I’ve heard what a prostitute does as “giving advice”
Now you’re scaring me.
I do not want a candidate believes even slightly in all this global warming, green crap. The EPA has cost us a fortune in mandating costly and ridiculous procedures for manufacturers which they, of course, pass on to us.
Did he really say he’s still in favor of national healthcare? That’s hard to believe cause that’s a killer right there.
My best Deniro voice -
“You twalkin’ to ME?”
But Gingrich wasn’t “lobbying for ideas” at all. He was the one who was advising others who themselves wanted ideas on how to get something they wanted accomplished.
Thanks for a dose of sanity. anyone but Obama.
Now, THAT was funny.
The man was paid to give his opinion and guidance. He was asked specific questions and gave specific answers to the outfit that hired him. That’s why he got paid.
Because his answer to the outfit that hired him for his guidance got an answer to their direct question doesn’t mean that Newt doesn’t have his own opinion of how the US Government should be presided over.
It starting to look like a lot of folks here want The Messiah for four more years.
Xaviera Hollander was another DC prostitute who was made famous via her “advice’.
http://www.xavierahollander.com/
Settle down, Johnnie. Relax. Stop hitting post over and over.
I've discovered with age comes odd wake-up times! I'm kind of tired of the *surprises* you get as you age! :)
Gingrich was writing books and putting out statements on positions that aligned with his clients interests all through this period. That is lobbying for ideas, not registered-with-Congress-and-knocking-on-Congressional-doors-to-pitch-his-legislation lobbying.
Likely, he was also using his “nonprofit” activities to satisfy the interest of his “for profit” clients as well. Another legal loophole commonly used in the Beltway.
And he was, according to plausible but not on-record confirmed reports, steering his clients to which Congressmen would be amenable to which arguments, etc..
If Newt was hired and asked to address the best place in the US to build concentration camps and his answer was Arkansas, it would mean he gave a response to someone who hired him to give his opinion.
It wouldn’t mean that he was for building concentration camps, that he didn’t like Arkansas, that he wanted to see more jobs created in Arkansas or that he owned stock in a chain link fence and barbed wire company.
It would mean that he makes a living studying things and has a very large amount of knowledge that is valuable to people.
Despite the fact that Cain, former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza, is known for his wit and ease onstage, it was Gingrich, the former history professor and House speaker, who was truly in his element. Denied the opportunity to hold forth at length in regular televised debates, which offer 30-second sound bites and instant rebuttals, Gingrich was expansive, funny and erudite, as he and Cain batted around ideas for reforming Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
They both embraced rooting out the Medicare fraud and waste that costs taxpayers billions of dollars a year; giving federal money to states in the form of block grants to administer Medicaid as they see fit; and offering citizens personal retirement accounts in order to have a say over how their retirement dollars are invested.
Dr Coburn, Newt and Cain all agree on the fraud and Newt believes instead of having the paper pushers on the fed level handle it (they have done shoddy work) to “privatize” it out...he said that Mastercard could weed out the waste better than the feds. Some medicaid patiets go into ER and get treated for a minor cold..run up er bills and cant be tracked...they turn around and a few months later go to some er room and repeat it all over again. So let there be a method of tracking patients. Privatize it out..the feds cant do a decent job
I said a few weeks ago the the Marxists will bring out the big guns for Cain, but if Newt takes traction in the polls they will bring out a fleet of battleships for him.
Newt governed as the most conservative Speaker of the House in my life time. The Marxists fear and hate Newt more then anyone alive except maybe Sarah Palin. Newt fought and defeated the Marxists once back in the mid 90's, they are determined not to let him defeat them again. And sadly it seems a great many Cain supporter are only to happy to ally with the Marxists and help them smear a fellow conservative with lies and half truths. Useful idiots?
Advising a third party is not advocating! Big difference.
If health care providers and insurance carriers were asking for his advice - it was very likely related to onerous Federal regulations and the potential for Obamacare.
You don’t hire an electrician to design slip covers or an interior designer to fix your plumbing. Newt’s clients got their money’s worth and Newt got an education in private enterprise.
You are so right. I heard what Newt said during the lincoln douglas debates and what is so funny is Cain agreed with him. Newt has done more for this country when he served as Speaker of the House than any candidate running. Fraud in medicare and medicaid needs to be stopped and tracked. Have heard many nightmare type stories of what goes on in the emergency rooms across this country...
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