The connection between Tony Rezko and the Obamas that led to their coordinated action in 2005 in purchasing a mansion and adjoining yard in Chicago may be starting to come into better focus.
That's because Rezko's trial in Chicago is concentrating heavily on Rezko's alleged corruption of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board in 2003-2004 (see Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times), which apparently decides who gets to build hospitals. All sorts of different politicians in Illinois were aligned with one fixer or another over who would get to build them.
It's "the Chicago Way." Guys do favors for other guys, and everybody keeps a running tally in their heads of who owes what to whom.
And, according to Wikipedia, Obama was an important player in the Illinois health care regulation field at that time:
"In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority in the Illinois Senate."
An email that surfaced earlier in the trial seemed to indicate, according to the NYT, that Obama "had been involved in recommending candidates for the board." That doesn't mean much, but maybe it means something.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Obama was being paid six figures by a major Chicago hospital to coordinate community outreach, or something.
We aren't used to thinking of health care as being corrupt, but at 15% of the GDP these days, that's where the money is (as bankrobber Willie Sutton explained in response to a question about why he robbed banks). So, it's only natural that crooks will gravitate toward that industry.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
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7 comments:
Now I'm wondering if A. J. Wright is in any way involved in this. That would be the perfect nexus of idiocy and corruption.
I hope someone's looking into it.
I think your conclusion is slightly off mark. Its not because health care is where the money is, but rather its where the GOVERNMENT money is (even the half of that 15% of GDP that isn't government expenditures is tightly regulated by The Man). Shockingly, the economic players try to tip the scales. And you don't need a government check to cash in.
If friendly government officials let you rezone residential land to commercial (or permit you to build a new hospital), economically, its the same as if they wrote you a check for thousands or even millions of dollars.
James Carville made a great comparison of how the government works versus Walmart.
"If you are a buyer for Wal-Mart, you can’t take a nickel from anybody for anything... And I think that the government should adopt the Wal-Mart standard, if you will... Everything they do is a price point. It used be you go, and you come in to a buyer. And you go, and you take him out to lunch. You play 18 holes of golf. You give him some tickets to the game. And he gives you a price. And at Wal-Mart, you sit in a cubicle. And you can’t go to lunch. You can’t do anything. You just sit there and negotiate the price. Well, what happens in government is they’ll take you on the plane. You have the pro-am golf tournament. And this is Louisiana. And anytime there is a poker game, you know what that’s about. I mean, there are camps at Grand Isle, and the public works director would go down there and play poker with the contractors. Guess who won?"
http://www.buyingofthepresident.org/index.php/interviews/james_carville/
Sure healthcare consumes lot of GDP, but since it dribbles out in hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands it's hard to defraud on a massive scale unless your an insider doing a lot of volume.
Rezko and the Obamas went to the reliable old well of real estate and local level zoning rules for their graft. Bending arbitrary rules to their benefit, corrupt politicians and businessmen have been printing money from nothing since urban zoning came into effect.
There are have been two recent political corruption scandals in NJ involving hospitals. A state senator from Camden was indicted for getting a no show job at the University of Medicine and Dentistry (UMDNJ) in exchange for legislative favors. Another senator is under investigation for getting a hefty consultancy from UMDNJ for plumbing work- yes, plumbing.
Steve,
This is actually a good post. But I guess it does not get that much traction is because everybody kinda expected this type of behaviour. You once said something about non-predictable things being interesting and predictable things being boring. This falls in line with that. But I think it’s excellent that you are connecting the dots which the NYT either refuses to do, knowing full well where they lead, or is too dumb to do.
Lets hit the corruption trifecta and bring in Rhode Island.
In the last few years multiple members of the state legislature have been indicted or convicted for improperly using their offices to enhance deals for particular drug store chains, particular health insurers, and particular hospitals.
One of these creeps had the gall to claim he couldn't be punished for his bribe-induced votes as the constitution/state law protects legislators from being held liable for their votes.
There also was (is) a big scandal in Alabama involving the ex-governor (Siegelman) and influence pedaling in the health-care business.
The scarce number of postings on this subject goes to proove something I have long believed: Health care is boring.
People may love to watch TV doctors curing obscure diseases, treating gun-shot wounds, and falling in and out of love - or medical examiners scrutinizing the corpses of people murdered in novel and entertaining ways. But health care - the provision and financing of same - is boring.
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