When he was governor, Bayh's wife, Susan, was a lawyer for Lilly. After it became clear he was going to be a senator, she started stacking up memberships on the boards of health-care corporations.Senator Bayh praised his wife's professionalism and intelligence and declared that her job has nothing to do with his. I mean, really. Who believes? The Bayh household is $2.1 million dollar richer. Do you believe that Senator Bayh's threat to derail health care, not allowing even a vote by siding with the Republicans to filibuster, has anything to do with his wife's job and his household's financial increase? Is this clearly a an ethics violation. After all, she did not gain access to this board until her husband got elected to the Senate. If so, how do we address this. Susan Bayh does not have a vote in the Senate. Any suggestions?
Susan Bayh got paid a little over $2 million for her service between 2006 and 2008. Her husband had a good 2008 also, collecting more than $500,000 in campaign donations from the health-care industry.
There are scores of relatives of well-placed national lawmakers who are well-placed in enterprises seeking favors. To a man and woman, they would scoff at the notion of being influenced by anything but the burning desire to serve the commonwealh. Let's go on.
Susan Bayh’s largest reward for her impartial board deliberations came from WellPoint, another Indianapolis-based company that happens to be the nation’s largest for profit insurance company.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Being for the Public Option IX
Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) hedged earlier in the week about whether he was going to align with a GOP filibuster to stop even a vote in Congress on health care reform if the public option isn't removed. His state Indianapolis is for a public option. Sixty two percent of Americans are too. It has since come out that Senator Bayh's wife, Susan, sits on four private health care boards, including WellPoint. All are vehemently opposed to health care reform, spending a record amount of $380 million in lobbying against the people's interest. Senator Bayh's household received $2.1 million from 2005-2008. The Indianapolis Star reports:
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6 comments:
Judith, I'm so confused about the entire public option thing (well, all of it really) I just want to throw my hands up. I read in our local Sunday paper that it would only cover 2% of the population. Huh? All this hoo-rah over only 2% of the people? I read the article and was even more confused. I think greed is running our country and all of us little people are suffering for it. I don't know...Call me: DISCOMBOBULATED!
Marion - I have not as of yet read the bill in detail, but I would say that it is way more people than that. The thing with papers is that many of them are either liberal or conservative and even their views, as are the pundits' and newscasters' views, are reported with spin. Sometimes there are outright untruths. My advice is to read the bill itself. But its length, I will admit, doesn't help. I agree with you to a large extent about greed running our country which is seen in the treatment of Wall Street over the need of the people. It's a focus on ideology perpetuated by big corporations in their support of various causes over the pragmatism and the people's interest. We have to be heard, Marion. The people need to arise. We are the government. But we fizzle out quickly and let others make the decisions for us and then complain about it. This is what many government officials and most lobbyists rely on, our non-participation over the long haul for the advocacy of our best interest. But we can do it, people!
So true, Judith. We need an uprising of the common folks. I doubt even some politicos have read the entire bill. I appreciate your steadfastness in keeping us informed. Thank you. Blessings!
Pleasure, Marion. I believe in activism, but I would not like to see the kind of uprisings that we saw this summer or worse. But I think this is what happens when people are on edge and when they are paid by big lobbying firms to perform. I'm sure not all the protesters this summer were wingnuts but these most certainly seemed to be in the majority.
I second Marion's thanks to you for keeping us informed. I feel like my head is going in circles sometimes with all the combative banter on the news channels. I'm glad for the opportunity to learn more about an issue here.
Kelly - I am most happy to post about these important issues. They're very important, indeed. I'm glad that you guys pass through.
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