Although many Republicans still frown on outright theft-- obviously not all, or Darrell Issa wouldn't still be winning elections-- profiting from the commons is considered a plus in their world of driven greed and selfishness. I'm sure no batted an eye when it came out that Rick Perry's demented health care agenda for the state of Texas financially benefits his immediate family.
The glaring media scrutiny that helped derail Rick Perry’s presidential campaign never revealed that the governor’s older sister is a lobbyist embroiled in a national health-care debate. Milla Perry Jones is vice president of government relations at United Surgical Partners International, an Addison, Texas company that runs hospitals and surgery centers co-owned by doctors. Sister Jones works with trade groups to rebut claims that doctor-owned medical facilities inflate American medical bills. Both Governor Perry and his sister have championed doctor-owned facilities in Texas and Washington....President Obama and other critics argue that doctors who own stakes in medical facilities drive up health costs because they have a financial interest in ordering excessive procedures. In one of many such studies, a 2006 federal report found that Medicare costs are 20 percent higher at doctor-owned orthopedic surgical hospitals than at competing community hospitals. These studies typically do not determine if the extra procedures are beneficial. The doctor-owned industry says it delivers superior care and points to contradictory research that does not associate doctor ownership with higher costs.No state has more doctor-owned hospitals than Texas, which claims more than 90 of about 300 such hospitals nationwide. Only California has more doctor-owned ambulatory outpatient facilities, most of which are part owned by physicians. Milla Perry Jones’ company owns interests in 13 U.S. surgical hospitals and 171 surgical centers. United Surgical co-owns its typical facility with both doctors and local non-profit hospitals. The company’s 2010 annual report says that the hospitals provide access to health insurers and doctors. “Our sales and marketing efforts are directed primarily at physicians, who are principally responsible for referring our patients to our facilities,” the report says. Before joining United Surgical in 2004, Milla Perry Jones worked for a foundation supporting Dallas-based Baylor Health Care System, which invests in more United Surgical facilities than any other hospital... A provision in Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act generally bans construction of new doctor-owned hospitals, while barring existing ones from expanding. (President Bush similarly imposed an 18-month moratorium on new specialty hospitals as part of the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug law)....Unlike Obama, Governor Perry avidly promotes the doctor-owned industry. In 2009 Congress considered restricting doctor-owned hospitals to pay for children’s health insurance. This prompted the governor of the state that leads the nation in doctor-owned hospitals and uninsured people to write Texas’ congressional delegation. Doctor-owned facilities “play a vital role in health care delivery in the state,” Perry wrote, “a role that is rightfully determined by the needs of Texas communities.” Perry spokesman Josh Havens wrote in response to Observer inquiries that the governor “believes that a patient should have options when addressing their health care needs and, respecting free-enterprise, he supports physician-owned hospitals as one of those options.” ... Surpassing the powerful Texas Medical Association, the Doctors Hospital’s Border Health PAC spent close to $4 million on Texas state elections from 2005 through 2010, becoming Texas’ 13th largest PAC. Houston’s doctor-owned North Cypress Medical Center pumped another $500,000 into Texas state races, ranking as Governor Perry’s No. 5 donor in 2010.
Am I claiming that Republicans will craft public policy in pursuit of financial gain? Is this your first-ever visit to DWT? The whole party is little more than a grifter scheme from top to bottom. The day Corker and Hoeven announced their intention to vote for the immigration bill if their eye-poppingly expensive border amendment were part of it, my first reaction is that someone was making a lot of money at the taxpayers' expense-- and that Corker and Hoeven would be getting their cuts. Over the weekend, Joshua Holland was more polite in the accusation.
Last week, John McCain gleefully announced that the Senate immigration bill would result in the “most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall.” Indeed, an amendment authored by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., authorizes a massive increase in border security dollars-- including $30 billion for hiring and training 19,000 new border patrol officers over the next 10 years, and over $13 billion for a “comprehensive Southern border strategy” (including 700 miles of high-tech fencing).What the senators didn’t tout was that the wall is both functionally useless-- and will enrich some of the largest military contractors in the world....Perhaps by design, the defense industry is pushing friendly lawmakers to advance the pork-laden bill. Eric Lipton of the New York Times reported that, “the nation’s largest military contractors, facing federal budget cuts and the withdrawals from two wars, are turning their sights to the Mexican border in the hopes of collecting some of the billions of dollars expected to be spent on tighter security if immigration legislation becomes law.”
Even when it comes to saving the world from environmental catastrophe-- the end of human life on earth itself-- Republicans can only be lured into saving themselves if they think there's a buck in it for themselves. Take a look at this brief interview with Reihan Salam of R Street with the Business Insider.