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Post a Comment On: Steve Sailer: iSteve

"Rezko trial focusing on ... hospitals"

7 Comments -

1 – 7 of 7
Anonymous Ralph Phelan said...

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.

3/14/08, 5:39 AM

Anonymous beowulf said...

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/

3/14/08, 8:01 AM

Anonymous ks said...

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.

3/14/08, 8:31 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

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.

3/14/08, 8:26 PM

Anonymous headache said...

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.

3/16/08, 5:44 AM

Anonymous Mike McKeown said...

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.

3/16/08, 10:07 AM

Anonymous Martin said...

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.

3/16/08, 10:50 PM

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