The Politico is reporting that Mike Ross sold his pharmacy business in 2007, while a member of Congress. USA Drug, a large pharmacy chain with an important stake in health care reform, overpaid for the property by roughly $160,000.
Ross sold Holly’s Health Mart in Prescott, Ark., to USA Drug for $420,000 — an eye-popping price for real estate in a tiny train and lumber town about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock.
“You can buy half the town for $420,000,” said Adam Guthrie, chairman of the county Board of Equalization and the only licensed real estate appraiser in Prescott.
Mike Ross is the Chairman of the Blue Dog Coalition’s task force on health care. He was the lead Blue Dog negotiator in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He held up the bill in committee for two weeks. As NPR reports:
So far this year, the Blue Dogs’ political action committee has received $301,500 from health care and health insurance PACs. Ross, the coalition’s lead negotiator, has received $100,600 for his campaign committee and a PAC that he operates.
Mike Ross now opposes the public option despite the fact that a plurality of his district favors the public option.
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Mornin’ Jon,
being Politico, I wouldn’t have clicked on it, except it was Marcus Stern – the guy who broke the Duke Cunningham story
so very glad this story is finally getting some TradMed sunlight – Institute for Southern Studies broke this a few months back and it was linked here
This is like Enron all over again.
“What, you guys are in the health insurance business? You wanna write our health care bill? Sure, go right ahead, you guys do know what you’re doing right?”
So Mike sold Holly’s, he and Holly signed a non-compete agreement, the buyer paid a huge premium and bought all the inventory and equipment as well — and Holly still works there as the head pharmacist?
Sounds like a racket to me. As Cooper said on MadMen about the British buyers of Sterling-Cooper last Sunday night, “They gave us their money, now we do what they say.”
That picture creeps me out every time I see it.
Put the John Deer on em!
Servitude to corporations enabled under the color of law? Now interests using a corporate shell can maximize profit while minimizing exposure and trample the “rights” of the governed in the process of writing policies which advances slavery to corporate all is fine? Sounds like the King of England and a racket rejected by colonists. Now a “Life Tax,” to protect tax exempt corporations and government!! WTF!
Corporate scum in corporate crime fuck America all the time!
If only the networks would report about the Blue Dogs insurance and drug graft…oops forgot, they only take the fascists side.
OT Mass senate sends bill to governors desk allowing him to appoint interim senator
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo…..?ref=fpblg
Seems like something the Feds should be checking into…
No kidding…I hope there is some legal action to come. This kind of corruption needs to be addressed.
The MikeRoss MathLogic:
One American, One Vote
One Contributor, Millions of Dollars
He did The MathLogic, and it came “Contributor”
Are we surprised?
I don’t know what’s funnier: that these idiots don’t expect to get caught lying in this information age, or that they ignore it and hope it will just go away when they do get caught.
The thing that surprises me about this the most is that it’s Politico reporting this. When did they start doing substantive reporting?
Leave Mike Ross ALOOOOONE!
Next thing we know, you people will be
going after Joe Lieberman for the $400,000 slush fund he had in 2006.
I’m going to take a wild guess and say they started when they could slime a Democrat with it. Not that the Democrat in question doesn’t deserve a good sliming.
“They gave us their money, now we have to do what they say”…..apparently President Obama and his “made men” are not fans of Mad Men.
Quite possible, although he’s a Democrat who seems to be doing the Republicans a good turn at the moment. Making health care reform efforts fail would be a big win for the GOP, as they’ve observed.
mike will be out of work soon. So will that Link-con person in the senate.they are own by big buss.How about a re-call?
Politico says today,that Joe may be considering running as a Repube in the future…I thought he WAS a Repube.*G*
Joe Lieberman’s existence is a disproof of the existence of God.
I think the overvalued price of the sale is a lot more suspicious than Holly’s continued employment there. Many buyouts include such provisions as the one that keeps Holly employed there.
anyone want to go over and add FDL Action donation link to this rec diary ?
the diarist included the ad in his diary, but not the donation button – I am still unable to comment over at Big Orange because of an ongoing tech glitch
lots of dfh’s loaded for bear over there – seems a good placement to me
1. it is about a corrupt Dem – they can’t help themselves
2. it is Marcus Stern – the guy who broke the Duke Cunningham story – the villagers have to pay attention
sorry EDP, just now saw your reply
Anyone knows,Is this the US attorney in Ark who should be looking into this transaction(or DOJ washington) or is it the FBI ?
oh and btw firedogs – click on the “spotlight” button at the bottom of the post – then click on “region” and type in AR in the box, then hit “update”
then you can send this to several staffers at the largest AR newspaper – by clicking on their names, then clicking on “Add” . . . along with your trenchant but polite comments of course :D
No foul.
Think we could put a hound dog’s head on a donkey body?
Honky donkeys?
That shouldn’t be nearly as funny as it is, but it’s hysterical. I love it!
Yea, me too. That creepy guy in the middle gives me the chills.
Down South,we have what’s called Blue Tick hounds.
Every time I see those blue donkey heads,I think of those blue tick hounds.
I figure it could be more efficient to just do a little “Bio” engineering. and combine the two..*G*
I hope there is some legal action to come. This kind of corruption needs to be addressed.
Nah. What’s past is past; this is an administration that wants to look to the future, not politicize policy differences. Let bygones be bygones…
Well, it wasn’t really Allbrittonco’s story. It looks as if ProPublica has some deal with ScrittiPolitico to get their material a wider audience. The Allbritton mouthpiece is just serving as a funnel for the information.
Plus, I saw some mention of this Ross deal some months back…can’t remember where though…
I posted this on another thread, but it seemed to fit about bygones…
From today’s Think Progress..(think regress):
Let’s make it a tie for best in show for the S.O.B.lue Dogs———-
Steve King: The ‘best vote’ I ever cast in Congress was opposing Katrina relief.By Amanda Terkel at 12:00 pm
Rep. Steve King: The ‘best vote’ I ever cast in Congress was opposing Katrina relief.
In a new interview with The Hill, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) reveals his proudest moment as a lawmaker:
THE HILL: What vote would you like to redo?KING: I don’t really go back and re-live that sort of thing. Some of the big votes that I’ve thought about, some of the jury’s still out. And at this point, maybe I’d answer that question another way, probably the singular vote that stands out that went against the grain, and it turns out to be the best vote that I cast, was my “no” vote to the $51.5 billion to [Hurricane] Katrina. That probably was my best vote. But as far as doing something different again, I don’t know.
BTW,King is not a Democrat.
He’s barely a primate.
I assume Mike must recuse himself from any votes on healthcare to avoid the appearance of impropriety?
If not this will look great if we can find a Primary challenger!
How is this not a bribe forget proving quid pro quo with this much cash involved Mike needs to prove he is not bribed!
Hehehehehehe!
Can you say “pay for play”. I knew you could.
Guess William Jefferson wasn’t nearly as smart (or didn’t get as good of advice from the lobbyists on how to cover up
bribescontributions*). He should have become “partners” with someone in a failing business, then had his lobbyist “contributors” buy the biz at double its value, and hire on the partner as “managing director” at wages higher than they were making alone.Then he wouldn’t have needed to put the cash in the fridge.
Or he could have said…”they bought this old shoe of mine for $50K”.
*Wait…this cash didn’t even have the restriction of going into a Campaign Treasury…it went right into Ross’s bank accounts.
Er…that was somehow supposed to go in the “Mike Ross says constituents don’t support PO, polls say otherwise” (paraphrased) thread.
The Congress is back in session and doing the dirty work for the Medical Industrial Complex.
mcconnell $3.3M, hatch $2.9M, baucus $2.8M, grassley $2.7M,
lieberman $2.6M, burr $2.4M, ensign $2.4M, cornyn $2.2M, kyl $2.1M,
conrad $2.1M, cantor $1.8M, boehner $1.7M, coburn $1.2M, j wilson 800K
were paid by the Medical Industrial Complex to kill Health Care Reform.
(Source: OpenSecrets.org)
Co-Author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of a Recent Harvard Study on Annual Deaths of America’s Uninsured, says the lack of coverage can be tied to about 45,000 deaths a year in the United States. The only way to affordably cover all Americans is through a Medicare-for-All, Single-Payer System. A Single-Payer System would generate $300-$400 billion in administrative savings annually, enough to cover all of the uninsured, and to plug the gaps in coverage for Americans with only partial coverage. Obviously, Medicare-for-all is anathema to the insurance industry. What politicians are doing is saving insurance industry profits, but sacrificing American lives.
12 Million Americans were denied health care coverage by the Medical Industrial Complex because they had a pre-existing medical condition. 12K Americans are denied insurance coverage everyday by a for-profit Insurance bureaucrat. (Source: WaPo Article 05′ by Harvard Prof. E. Warren)
Medical malpractice lawsuits are a hot topic but, are they? Tort Reform is such a “Red Herring” and is easily disproved. A 2004 report by the Congressional Budget Office said medical malpractice makes up only 2 percent of U.S. health spending. Even “significant reductions” would do little to curb health-care expenses, it concluded.
bush(43) economic speech writer david frum, at least, is willing to admit the idea about selling insurance across state lines is a crock:
New Jersey health policies cost more in large part because New Jersey hospitals and doctors charge more. If I buy a cheaper Kentucky policy that reimburses my providers at Kentucky rates, leaving me to pay the balance, how much good does that do me? And if the Kentucky policy is made to pay New Jersey rates, there vanishes my low Kentucky price.
These are some of the easily refuted arguments bought and paid for by the Medical Industrial Complex to derail any chance of their criminally massive profits being reduced.
Follow the Money: Link
Call Congress and demand, Single-Payer Health Care for All!
(Toll Free # House and Senate)
1-866-338-1015_______________1-866-220-0044
1-800-473-6711_______________1-866-311-3405
Sign Single-Payer Petition: Link
Don’t let the Medical Industrial Complex steal your Health Care from you and your family by donating huge sums of money to Crooked Politicians in order to maintain the Status Quo. Keep up the good fight.
SEMPER FI!