One day after House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi softened her stance on a public health option, a lobbyist for one of the country's most prominent private health insurers announced a fundraiser for the California Democrat, a news report says.
Writing at OpenLeft, reporter David Sirota says lobbyist Steve Elmendorf of Elmendorf Strategies announced a fundraiser at his own home, under the title "Event with House Speaker Pelosi at my home," to take place September 24. Admission is $2.400 for individuals, and $5,000 for representatives of political action committees.
Elmendorf's Web site lists UnitedHealth as one of his clients.
In a report late last week, Bloomberg news service said that UnitedHealth is one of the companies that stands to see its profit margin bloated if the current proposed health reform plans pass Congress:
New legislation may generate 10 million more customers for Amerigroup Corp., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and other companies that administer Medicaid, the government plan that covers the poorest Americans, according to James Carlson, Amerigroup’s chief executive officer.
While President Barack Obama has pitched his revamping of health care as a bid to “keep insurance companies honest,” expanding Medicaid is likely to offset any losses from new regulations and taxes, at least for insurers who specialize in the program, Carlson said.
That means more revenue for an industry House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called “immoral” and the chief obstacle to covering the uninsured, in an Aug. 1 interview with the California Democrat.
The Bloomberg article references statements Pelosi made in late July, when she told the press: "It's almost immoral what they [the health insurance companies] are doing. ... Of course they've been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure. They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening."
But last week, after President Barack Obama's address on health care to Congress, Pelosi -- who according to CNN "said as recently as Tuesday that a public option was essential" -- appeared to have weakened in her insistence on a public option as part of health care reform.
"This is about a goal. It's not about provisions," Pelosi said. Echoing the president's talking point from his speech last week, Pelosi said that as long as legislation meets goals of "affordability and accessibility and quality … then we will go forward with that bill."
In his blog posting, Sirota publishes the email in which UnitedHealth lobbyist Elmendorf announced the Pelosi fundraiser:
From: Steve Elmendorf [mailto:steve@elmendorfstrategies.com]
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 8:31 AM
Subject: event with Speaker Pelosi at my homeYou are cordially invited to a reception with
Speaker of the House
Nancy PelosiThursday, September 24, 2009
6:30pm ~ 8:00pmAt the home of
Steve Elmendorf
2301 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Apt. 7B
Washington, D.C.$5,000 PAC
$2,400 IndividualTo RSVP or for additional information please contact
Carmela Clendening at (202) 485-3508 or clendening@dccc.orgSteve Elmendorf
ELMENDORF STRATEGIES
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS SOLUTIONS
900 7th Street NW Suite 750 Washington DC 20001
(202) 737-1655
"The sequencing here is important," Sirota writes. "Pelosi makes her announcement and then just hours later, the fundraising invitation goes out. Coincidental? I'm guessing no -- these things rarely ever are."
-- Daniel Tencer
Do nothing Nancy, does nothing to end the war, investigate torture, health care or spying on US citizens. Why is she still in office? What a poor example of what female leadership could and should be. Nancy is a card carrying member of the 'good ole boys' club.
How can a public citizen compete with industry access to our "elected" officials? If money is free speech, can Joe Blow hold a $5000 a plate fundraiser for Nancy Pelosi as the guest of honor to reward her for say, mandating the public option? Or is this type of "free speech" only allowed for corporations which have a super citizen status and not us regular citizens?
I think the whole legislative process is a game to milk as much money from affected interests as possible before making a decision. And the decision made based on the quantity of "free speech" $$$ votes received. Gridlock is just game played to extend the $$$ voting season.
Your government: Bought and paid for.
Amd Chief Justice will soon up the flood gates for Corporate Donations.
What a fucking joke!!!!
Good news!
Now just throw some more of the loony left wackos some cash to get them off the crazy socialist bus and the country will owe the lobbyists a huge debt of gratitude.
The free market is the only way. Our capitalist way of life makes everything we love about this country and world possible.
This country is so corrupt, when the lobbyist delivers their services it becomes self evident the depth of the corruption in this single party political system. The fucking joke is on the idiots in this country that believe there are two political parties that the fucking joke.
The exact same lobbyist that pay nancy pelosi are the same that pay rush limbaugh and glen beck.
Now you know why there will NEVER be a 9/11 investigation. It’s the filthy Corruption dummy!!!!
These people are all scum. If only Bin Laden would do Americans a favor and wipe out all of Congress and K Street.
The citizens of America are nothing but peasants under the current political and election systems. Upward mobility is a myth and freedom is an illusion in modern America. If things don't change soon our children will spend their lives bowing down to the Corporate Overlords. 240 years of American democracy has led full circle back to monarch style oppression. Our forefathers are puking in their graves.
Morality never gets in the way of a good fundraiser, does it, Nancy?
Nancy is still keeping her powder dry, and now I see why.
It's great for raising money from the folks you don't blow up.
[...] one of the country’s most prominent private health insurers announced a fundraiser for the California Democrat this weekend. Let’s do some simple math shall [...]
If she was smart, which we ALL know she's not, she would decline the fundraiser as it makes her look like a sell-out. Which we ALL already know she IS a sell-out.
Deadend circle:
100% of Repubs and 80% of Demos require endless "fundraisers" to stay in office. This is RAW, legal, outright corruption and bribery, etc. In fact, being coy on an upcoming political vote is exactly the way to extract funds from lobbyists, et al. We all know it's screwd up and we're the screwees. The remedy? The same legislators can vote to change the fundraising laws. Will they do it? Does lipstick on a pig make it beautiful? Does it snow in the Atacama Desert? Do chickens have four legs?
Must be time to raise hell in the streets like we did in the 60s. The 24-hour cable stations must have action, so let's give it to them. Whether you're Left or Right, it's clear we're losing America to the money freaks that run it.
Farang deep in thought, searching for the proper adjective: "Hmmm, p p p punt? No, that's not it...rrrrrr runt! Nope nope, man, it's eluding me at the moment, BUT don't worry Nance, it'll come to me AND all of The City's voters.
We're no longer arguing about what you are, Nancy. We're just dickering over your price.
I am for whatever it takes to drive these 2 damned old political parties from office. They are killing us off anyway with their greed and lust. They do nothing but continually buy time with their dead, empty, meaningless promises.
She is one of them. Wealthy elite. A poor excuse for a representative and progressive. I can't believe San Fran Sisco did this to us in the last election. How can we defeat the wealthy if we keep them at the wheel? btw: I'm a progressive socialist:)
Every once in a while I happen by a TV running the Meechum County Auto Auction.
When I watched the fake health care debate, I knew it was the same. The synogress threatens public option (but it's really not - it would all be handled by contracts with insures), the phones start ringing - the bids (bribes) come in on the phone. The synogress threatens more, the phones ring off the wall.
Health care reform was never intended to happen. It was just ruse to make us think the government was doing something. It was just a threat to up health industry bribes to our synogress.
The health care debate was little more than a very expensive Chinese Fire Drill - and you paid for it "hoping for change" sucka! (want your change back?)
And judging by Pelosi's recent stretch and nose job, it's working.
The lame brains claim they don't want government intervening between them and their private option - it already has you zero brain twits. Whose blocking interstate competition by insurers - who's still allowing claims to be denied and policies denied because someone has a disease or was once ill with something on the "not allowed" list?
Heath Care Reform IS WORKING. Our Synogress is getting higher quality bribes and the Health Insurance industry is getting richer.
If you ever thought this pig in a poke called health care reform was really about enhancing the value of the lives of American citizens - I've got a passport I found in the rubble of the WTC that I'd like to sell you.
It was never meant to pass. Health Care Reform was only meant to enrich the bathroom butlers our voting machines select for synogress and their pimps filling the empty void of their lives with alter boys and seminars in the Bahamas, the Houses of the War Dope Energy and Health Care Exchange that owns our (choke) government.
Welcome to the world of Fascism sheeple face.
Cindy Sheehan would have held strong and made certain that corporate and Republican values were not paramount.
How do those voters feel now that they have been sold out?
If public option is totalled, the US will become even more of an insurance hell-hole and laughing stock than it was under Bush and health care won't be there to help.
It's not that I'm trying to put out the torches, but Sirota or this article do not say who the invitation went out to. Elmendorf is a lobbyist for a number of corporations/groups that have nothing to do with health care. It's a bit of a leap to say it's on United Health's behalf.
However, I don't think any lobbyist ought to be allowed to throw fundraisers for any congress person. Until we get true campaign finance reform, we'll never get a decent government. I'm not holding my breath.
Alternative headlines:
Republican operative Pelosi, who masquerades as a Democratic Leader, eagerly abandons her constituents just for some bribe money.
Pelosi never met a bribe she wouldn't take.
Pelosi accepts huge bribe just to kill Public Option favored by 70% of her constituents.
Pelosi takes bribe, but it's legal to bribe Congresspeople in Washington DC.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by B. Allan Ross and william fleurant. william fleurant said: Private health insurance lobbyist throws fundraiser for Nancy Pelosi: Report http://tinyurl.com/ms9c88 [...]
too many people watch the tainted and slanted "news" on TV. Corporations own the news, and they want to make money, so they bring in viewers with glitz and noise, but don't dare bore them with tedium.. and the only way to understand a thing is to go through the tedium.
Americans simply don't want to know anything about anything, they just want their stuff and they want it now. They are their own worst enemies, and they have been conditioned (by the corporations) to not think, not care, just acquire.
Americans, at their core, are vain, vile, petty, selfish and ignorant people. I don't know how you fix that.
Man, the US is just depressing. We have no hope to fix our problems. We have no voice.
Peloski has got to go! Do you hear this California?
Overt, in-your-face corruption. That's the way our Plutocracy works.
She'll say something liberal right before her election and that's all the monkeys will remember.
Pelosi is a fraud. In '06 the dems were elected to END THE WARS! Pelosi seemed to think it was to make her SotH. She then not only keeps funding the wars, but won't even try to investigate Cheney/Bush. She is a total fraud. And the DUMB A***'s in her district had the chance to elect Cindy Sheehan and didn't. Now, folks, that's what I'd call a "teachable moment". So much for the "San Francisco Liberals".
As per health care "reform"? A total fraud. We've been given a summer kabuki dance. Once single payer was "off the table" the game was over. This dance is being done for the stupid people, those that really think voting matters. Remember, if it did, they'd outlaw it. This will be a windfall for the private insurers and will cost the people directly, and the taxpayers indirectly.
Want real "Campaign finance reform"? Simple, abolish the 17th amendment and let the state legislators appoint the senators to REPRESENT THE INTERESTS OF THE STATES, as the Founders intended. Then only allow a contribution to come from a REGISTERED VOTER that can vote for the candidate. No corporations, or companies, or children, or people outside the district. Campaign finance reform --- done. But don't hold your breath.
Want some immediate relief? Support Ron Paul's HR 1207 to audit the Fed. The Fed and the Treasury have created $23.7 TRILLION in new money, credit, and guarantees. Don't you want to know where it went? I didn't get any, did you?
The USA is as corrupt as any other empire has ever been. It will soon be a certified third world country --- only with nukes. Won't that be great?
i was a democrat
what is it going to take for you diehard shit for brains democrats to say fuck the democratic party
because there is no diference between them, you all laugh a good laugh when ralph nader told you that now look
face the facts we have been had open you eyes
[...] From Raw Story: [...]
[...] Read more here: The Raw Story » Private health insurance lobbyist throws … [...]
[...] 6 Million Dollar Man For Only £150,000 RAW STORY: News Media Credibility On The Decline…duh! RAW STORY: Pelosi Is Also In The Pockets of the Healthcare Lobby RAW STORY: Jim Carroll has Died, Died! RAW STORY: Yay, More Kanye Bashing! SLATE: Stoned Parents, [...]
[...] The rest is here: The Raw Story » Private health insurance lobbyist throws … [...]
[...] Raw Story reports: [...]
[...] rest is here: The Raw Story » Private health insurance lobbyist throws … AKPC_IDS += "9946,";Popularity: unranked [?] Share and [...]
[...] members of Congress have repeatedly proven to be corrupted and owned by Israeli lobbies and large corporations. Our primarily two-party political system has proven to be broken and needs to be [...]
[...] from new regulations and taxes, at least for insurers who specialize … Read more here:Â The Raw Story » Private health insurance lobbyist throws …SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The Raw Story » Private health insurance lobbyist throws …", [...]
So, Bush's biggest protector in the House is also the biggest whore in the House. I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.
I am a dyed in the wool Democrat, and all I can say is...
1) Give me a fuckin' break, and...
2) If we don't at least get a public option I will never vote again.
I will simply give up and admit that in modern America my wife and I simply don't have enough money to deserve to live.
[...] The Raw Story » Private health insurance lobbyist throws … [...]
“President Obama’s speech last week really moved me. Despite what my colleagues think of me. If what he says is what will EXACTLY happen, how can I not hope and work towards that cause”? Mike Oliphant runs a small Utah health insurance website http://www.benefitsmanager.net/SelectHealth.html and http://www.dentalinsuranceutah.net whom deals with hundreds of people on a day to day struggle to be approved for health insurance. “I get hopeful that I can finally tell people they can qualify for coverage REGARDLESS of their pre-existing medical condition”. Mike’s concern is that Obama’s people won’t deliver what he urges on areas within his speech. “I really have been moved by this guy and wish we could just talk so he could understand the frustration of a health insurance agent. I have been involved on a political level within the state of Utah and their struggle for health care reform. I have seen and regrettably been part of politics at work. I have learned lessons through baptism of fire with politics. For instance, I struggled against House Speaker Clark and H.B. 188 because that was what I was urged to do from our industry (that was all I knew). But after awhile and countless meetings with state and private carriers in Utah, I began asking myself if I was doing the right thing. I realized over time that House Speaker Clark really means what he says and is hard nose about getting reform done in Utah. I got that there wasn’t any behind the scene conspiracy scheme or personal objective of Mr. Clark. His bill makes allot of positive changes in the “health insurance reform” world of Utah. He claims that reform just doesn’t stop there, it must continue through “health care reform”. You see, there is a major difference between the two reforms. Clark “gets it” but I really worry that Obama’s administration doesn’t because if you have noticed the subtle language change of dropping “health care reform” and going to “health insurance reform”. See more about what Utah has accomplished here which utilizes private carrier involvement with true reform. If you can believe it, they reached it with an objective of $500,000. Perhaps the feds should take a look at Utah and House Speakers Clark’s bill 188. http://www.prweb.com/releases/utah_health_insurance/health_care_reform/prweb2614544.htm. Now I find myself on the “other side” of the fence furthering Utah’s cause. Let’s hope we don’t all have a mental breakdown nationally and just take a honest look at the proposals.
[...] Insurance Lobbyist throw fundraiser for Pelosi! Typical Hypocrat. http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/09/lobbyist-fundraiser-pelosi/ In a report late last week, Bloomberg news service said that UnitedHealth is one of the [...]
From Dennis Kucinich:
The Private Mandate Sausage Machine
Dear Friends,
It is said one should not ask how sausage or laws are made. Are you concerned about a public option? Let me share with you some insight about health care legislation which may not be good for your health.
A lesson in politics. The Kucinich Prediction: Here's what's going to happen ...
1 House will make a big deal about keeping/putting a public option in HR3200 because it competes with insurance companies and will keep insurance rates low.
2 The White House will refer to the President's speech last week where he spoke favorably of the public option.
3 The Senate will kill the competitive public option in favor of non-competitive "co-ops". Senate leaders like Kent Conrad have said the votes to pass a public option were never there in the Senate.
4 The bill will come to a House-Senate Conference Committee without the public option.
5 House Democrats will be told to support the conference report on the legislation to support the President.
6 The bill will pass, not with a "public option" but with a private mandate requiring 30 million uninsured to buy private health insurance (if one doesn't already have it). If you are broke, you may get a subsidy. If you are not broke, you will get a fine if you do not purchase insurance.
This legislative sausage will be celebrated as a new breakthrough and will be packaged as health insurance reform. However, the bill may require a Surgeon General's warning label: Your Money or Your Life!
The bill that Congress passes may pale in comparison to the bill that millions of Americans will get every month/year for having or not having private health insurance.
It will take four years for the new legislation to go into effect. During that time we are going to build a constituency of millions in support of real health care, a constituency which will be recognized and a cause which is right and just: Health Care as a Civil Right.
[...] for UnitedHealth is throwing a fundraiser for Pelosi at his home. Read more about this at the Raw Story website. Share your thoughts by contacting Nancy Pelosi. Tell her Headzup sent [...]
It so disheartening that only Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich have the courage
to face these monsters of betrayal. The entire group of senators and
representatives should be hanged for TREASON.
washington state bids...
Your topic NotPaul Blog " Blog Archive " 3 weeks in was interesting when I found it on Friday searching for washington state bids as I also have articles and information posted on this subject. Thank You... Steve Noel Sr....