Follow the money! Why is it that the congressmen who received the biggest windfalls from the insurance industry are the biggest opponents of the ACA? Just sayin’…
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The GOP argues that the federal contractor got a sweetheart deal from its ties to the Obama administration, but the company donated just as much to Republicans last cycle. That is, bipartisan favour-currying. Republicans’ new Obamacare attack line hinges on allegations that the contractor in charge of building the disastrous healthcare.gov website landed the gig through sweetheart deals from the Obama administration. However, according to Federal Election Commission records, that company’s PAC gave more to House Republicans than House Democrats during the 2012 cycle… including a 2,000 USD (64,900 Roubles. 2,085 CAD. 2,120 AUD. 1,485 Euros. 1,255 UK Pounds) cheque for the GOP’s chief scandal investigator, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA). What’s more, executives of CGI Federal personally gave more than twice as much to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney than to President Obama. The contractor also feasted on more than 2.4 billion USD (77.9 billion Roubles. 2.5 billion CAD. 2.55 billion AUD. 1.78 billion Euros. 1.5 billion UK Pounds) worth of IT work dating back to the early Bush administration.
So far, none of that stopped the Republican National Congressional Committee from suggesting CGI netted hundreds of millions of dollars to create the dysfunctional website because of its ties to the White House. On Wednesday, the NRCC blanketed the Republican National Committee’s e-mail list, trumpeting a petition it’d started that’d urge Congress to investigate CGI-Obama ties. The e-mail noted the importance of finding out, among other pressing questions, “How did [CGI] get contracted to do it?” Twenty-eight hours later, the NRCC had its answer. The next missive declared, “NRCC Investigation of HealthCare.gov Finds Insider Deals Worth Over 400 Million USD (13 billion Roubles. 416.9 million CAD. 424.1 million AUD. 296.6 million Euros. 251.2 million UK Pounds)”. The e-mail itself doesn’t reference any evidence of “insider deals”, but the conservative Daily Caller had built the case for weeks by noting the company gave donations to Obama and other Democrats and that its executives visited the White House regularly.
Yet, FEC records indicate executives for CGI gave 5,550 USD (180,000 Roubles. 5,790 CAD. 5,890 AUD. 4,120 Euros. 3,490 UK Pounds) to GOP Romney and just 2,000 USD to Obama… not quite the behaviour of a company indebted to the president for its contacting jackpots. Also, the company’s PAC, CGI-AMS, gave 48,000 USD (1.56 million Roubles. 50,000 CAD. 51,000 AUD. 35,600 Euros. 30,200 UK Pounds) to 28 GOP members of the House, including 5,000 USD (162,300 Roubles. 5,200 CAD. 5,300 AUD. 3,700 Euros. 3,150 UK Pounds) to Tom Cole (R-OK), 6,000 USD (195,000 Roubles. 6,250 CAD. 6,360 AUD. 4,450 Euros. 3,770 UK Pounds) to Frank Wolf (R-VA), and 2,000 USD each to Issa, Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY), Kevin Yoder (R-KS), Tim Scott (R-SC), and Martha Roby (R-AL). Yoder, Wolf, and Cole also sit on the Appropriations Committee. Issa, Wolf, and Cole also received contributions from the PAC during the 2010 cycle. Attempts to reach Issa, Yoder, and Wolf were unsuccessful Thursday. The PAC gave 32,000 USD (1.04 million Roubles. 33,350 CAD. 33,950 AUD. 23,750 Euros. 20,100 UK Pounds) to 13 Democratic House members. They also gave 29,500 USD (957,400 Roubles. 30,750 CAD. 31,300 AUD. 21,900 Euros. 18,550 UK Pounds) to Democrats running for Senate and 19,000 USD (617,000 Roubles. 19,800 CAD. 20,150 AUD. 14,100 Euros. 11,950 UK Pounds) to Republican Senate candidates, reflecting a perceptive record of giving more to members of the parties in power in each chamber.
The bipartisan giving makes sense given that CGI’s first federal contract for IT work started in 2001 and, as a multibillion-dollar firm, has many lobbying interests in Congress. In fact, USASpending.gov, the federal site tracking government contracts, shows CGI was the contractor of choice for a wide range of computer systems work throughout the Bush administration, including hundreds of multimillion-dollar contracts for the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services. The contract under which CGI did the Obamacare website work, in fact, began in 2007 as a contract with HHS to handle Medicare and Medicaid IT. Contracting experts say that when the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 with all of its tentacles intersecting with those programmes, there was almost no way CGI wasn’t going to get to expand the scope of their existing contract. Federal contracting rules are strict… to avoid political meddling… they favour entrenched large companies with track records. Moreover, if the case of CGI’s shoddy work doesn’t appear to represent partisan favouritism, it does appear to underscore broader problems with the system.
George Washington Law School professor Joshua I Schwartz, co-director of the GWLS Government Procurement Law Program, said, “This wasn’t a patronage deal. The one thing members and the President don’t seem to have is influence over who gets a particular contract. They just don’t”. Clay Johnson, a former Presidential Innovation Fellow under Obama who excoriated the White House and HHS for its handling of the site, nonetheless also believes that the problem stems from the procurement process and the biases that keep small nimble tech start-ups from getting this kind of work, saying, “The buck definitely has to stop somewhere, but I think it’s the public’s fault for turning a blind eye on this contract situation for so long. You don’t see members of Congress winning elections by campaigning for comprehensive procurement reform”.
18 October 2013
Steve Friess
BuzzFeed Politics
http://www.buzzfeed.com/stevefriess/company-behind-troubled-obamacare-website-donated-heavily-to
Editor’s Note:
In short, the Republicans lie, yet again. In any case, CGI is a Canadian, not an American company, meaning that the Republican allegations are pure hogwash and moonshine. They’re not tied to EITHER American political faction (as their political donations prove to all competent observers). However, the GOP base believes in such arrant nonsense such as Young Earth Creationism, Giving Your Heart to Jayzuss, the wisdom of Rush Limbaugh, the Global War on Terror, and Benevolent Capitalism. The real question is, shall the rest of us be gulled, too? God willing, we won’t…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
Junta Slimers want to Shitcan Provisions Mandating Free Medical Care in Ukrainian Constitution
Tags: Constitution, Darrell Issa, Gus Bilirakis, Justin Amash, political commentary, politics, Rada, Russia, Russian, State Kremlin Palace, Ukraine, Verkhovnaya Rada, Weekly Standard
HH with kids at his New Year’s Yolka at the State Kremlin Palace… he cosponsors it with the Profsoyuz (Trades-Union Federation) NOT with greedster crapitalist oligarch filth. He SUPPORTS a full social safety net. That’s why the Timoshenko junta’s attempt to destroy state-mandated healthcare is evil and why all decent people must oppose them for it.
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Irina Spirina, Rada People’s Deputy of the KPU faction, and First Deputy Head of the Rada Health Committee, told GolosUA that the Health Committee of the Rump Rada proposed to destroy free healthcare in the Ukraine by amending the Constitution, saying, “In parallel with their grasp for political ‘reforms’, we see attempts by extremist neoliberal oligarchic factions to change the social foundation of the Ukraine by removing social guarantees from the Constitution”. At the same time, she explained that a bill came to her Rada committee amending Article 49 of the Constitution, which guarantees free medical care in the Ukraine, noting, “Today (12 March), we held a meeting of the Rada Health Committee. At the meeting, we discussed proposed changes to Article 49 of the Constitution. How could the Committee propose that? The law sets the norms for state guarantees of free medical care for citizens and their regulation. Today, the Constitution guarantees free basic medical care. The proposed amendment would allow the government to decide the volume and qualities of healthcare arbitrarily”. She added that each new government “rewrites” laws and regulations. Spirina thinks that we shouldn’t remove provision of free medical care from the Constitution. She told us that almost all the members of the Committee voted for the proposal, except for one abstention. Spirina said, “I voted against it”.
13 March 2014
KPU.ua
KPU official website
http://www.kpu.ua/irina-spirina-polozhenie-o-besplatnom-predostavlenii-medpomoshhi-v-ukraine-xotyat-ubrat-iz-konstitucii/
Editor’s Note:
Can you see why the Weekly Standard and all the neocons are creaming their jeans over the junta, even more so than Democratic “humanitarian interventionists” are? This should prove to all concerned that the Republican Party’s stance on social welfare is evil and that all decent people should oppose it. The GOP and the junta agree… “Money makes the world go around… it’s more important than people are”… if you can’t see that, you’re blind (especially, in light of Paul Ryan’s recent acrid remarks).
Orthodox people… the Church condemns the junta’s stance (and that of the GOP)… if you support Justin Amash, Gus Bilirakis, or Darrell Issa, you set yourself up against the best elements in Christ’s Church. HH is FOR single-payer healthcare and a well-financed FULL social safety net… so, get your minds right and oppose all pseudo-religious poseurs, both in the USA and in the Ukraine.
BMD