Question for the teapartiers: is government the problem or the solution here?
The Atlantic Wire: Approximately 150 federal and state law enforcement agents launched a massive raid on one of the biggest perpetrators of government fraud in America: The Scooter Store. Yes, that’s right. The nation’s largest provider of single-person electric vehicles and power chairs is the target of a federal investigation, probably because many of the people who ride around their “personal mobility devices” don’t actually need them. [...]
Doctors and former employees told CBS that the company would harass physicians with non-stop phone calls and offices drop-ins in order to wear them down. The company even has a special department devoted to getting chairs for patients who had already been ruled ineligible by Medicare. No doubt the pressure comes because their ads guarantee that the chair will be free if they can’t get you qualified. The Scooter Store is so good at getting the chairs that a government audit found that they had overbilled Medicare by over $100 million between 2009-2012. It’s no wonder their ads brag that ”No other company will work harder to make you mobile.”
Heh. That reminds me of a day in 2008:
“Scanning the thousands of hopped-up faces in the crowd, I am immediately struck by two things. One is that there isn’t a single black person here. The other is the truly awesome quantity of medical hardware: Seemingly every third person in the place is sucking oxygen from a tank or propping their giant atrophied glutes on motorized wheelchair-scooters. As Palin launches into her Ronald Reagan impression — “Government’s not the solution! Government’s the problem!” — the person sitting next to me leans over and explains.
“The scooters are because of Medicare,” he whispers helpfully. “They have these commercials down here: ‘You won’t even have to pay for your scooter! Medicare will pay!’ Practically everyone in Kentucky has one.”
A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can’t imagine it.”
Reminder from Think Progress: At the same point in his administration, President George W. Bush’s record wasn’t as positive. Through 44 months, the private sector had lost more than 1 percent of its jobs (under Obama, it has gained 0.46 percent), and the only reason Bush could claim positive overall growth was because the public sector had grown by almost 4 percent. [...] Under Obama, the public sector has shrunk by more than 600,000 jobs, increasing only while the government conducted the 2010 Census. Without those losses, the unemployment rate would be near 7 percent. The unemployment rate would be lower still had Republicans not blocked the American Jobs Act, which economists estimated would have added more than one million jobs to the economy.
US STOCKS-Dow hits 5-year high on jobs report | Reuters– The Dow Jones industrials index climbed to its highest level in nearly 5 years on Friday, after a surprise drop in the unemployment rate pointed to continued improvement in the U.S. labor market. The S&P 500 rose for a fifth straight day and was also on course to close near a 5-year high.
Also this:
DailyKos: Here’s a big win for Eric Holder, Kathleen Sebelius and President Obama. It’s also evidence of how this administration really is protecting Medicare:
WASHINGTON — A federal strike force has charged 91 people, including a hospital president, doctors and nurses, with Medicare fraud schemes in seven cities involving $429 million in false billings. [...]
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that that in addition to the newly announced criminal charges, her agency used new authority under the Obama administration’s health care law to stop future payments to many of the health care providers suspected of fraud.
This comes from blue aardvark at Daily Kos, who summarizes:
“Bain invests in a company. Mitt gets personally involved with managing said company. Company profits are significantly based upon Medicare Fraud. Bain & Romney never uncover the fraud in 4 years, Corning uncovers it immediately upon buying Damon. Despite the fraud, Bain triples its investment, and Romney’s share of that profit is a cool half a million.
“Damon laid off workers despite Mitt Romney serving on the board and the strategic planning committee. Despite the failure of the business model to generate new jobs, Bain Capital tripled its investment, and Romney himself made nearly half a million dollars. Rampant fraud was supporting earnings, yet Romney was not able to notice.”
Where did the information come from?“From the delightful gift that is John McCain’s opposition research on Mitt (courtesy of namelessgenxer).”
1988: Damon begins a systemic practice of fraud. The government estimates later that the total cost to taxpayers of this fraud is around $40,000,000
1990: Bain Capital (CEO Mitt Romney) buys a minority stake in Damon. Mitt takes a seat on the board of directors
1990 to 1993: Mitt serves on the board of directors, earning ~$10,000 per year for doing so. He is on the company’s “Strategic Planning” committee
1992: Romney said that [Damon’s then-CEO Robert] Rosen told the board in about 1992 ‘that all current practices at the company were now in conformity with government regulations and that in the past there may have been practices which would not be deemed appropriate.
1993: Damon is taken over by Corning, with Mitt Romney voting in favor of the acquisition
1993: Corning immediately closes Damon’s Massachusetts plant and lays off 115 workers
1993: Corning uncovers the fraud and alerts authorities. The SEC filings made by Damon prior to the acquisition make no mention of any potential earnings write-downs or legal problems
1993: Mitt Romney’s share of Bain’s profit from the Damon investment: $473,000
1993: Bain’s profit from its investment in Damon: $7,400,000, which represented a tripling of the initial investment
And get this malarkey:
1994: Running for Senator, Mitt Romney says:
I’m proud of the small part I played in the growth of Damon,’ Romney said yesterday. ‘It’s something that Ted Kennedy doesn’t have a clue about – creating real jobs in the private sector.
2002: While running for governor, Romney claims that he helped uncover the fraud by starting an investigation. This version of events is disputed by Corning and by the Federal Prosecutors. Mitt also says he never alerted the authorities, which no one disputes.
Why is this important? For several reasons, primarily that which is the “business experience” Mitt Romney would like to say he has in “creating jobs” and successfully running businesses. Except that when we scratch the surface, his actual hands-on experience with businesses, via Bain Capital, usually results in stories of laid-off workers, companies shuttered, and Mitt and his buddies at Bain walking away from the flaming wreckage with millions of dollars for themselves.
ABLC reminds us that it’s also important for this very reason:
As I’ve explained over and over and over, the “cuts” to Medicare come from savings, reductions in waste and fraud, and ending taxpayer subsidies to insurance companies.
1) “In the debate the other day, Mitt Romney (made) the claim that he never did business with the government, which is absolutely false,” Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) said in a conference call with reporters Friday. “In fact, Mitt Romney served on the board and personally pocketed $500,000 from the Damon Corp., a company that was fraudulently bilking Medicare out of millions of dollars.” – Gingrich, Democrats criticize Romney links to Medicare fraud
2) “Can I give you the facts?” Maher asked Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). “So far every budget Obama has had has increased military spending,” he said. “This year they’re asking a reduction from $531 billion to $525 billion, 1.6 percent. You mean our freedom is in trouble because of that 1.6 percent?” Maher later added, “How paranoid do you have to be to say that this guy is gutting our military?” – Real Time Panel Embarrasses Dana Rohrabacher After He Claims Obama Wants ‘To Gut The Military’ Watch the clip:
3) A number of trends are coinciding to make U.S. manufacturing increasingly competitive globally. Wages and benefits are growing rapidly in China—as Obama noted in his speech—at the same time that U.S. manufacturing wages are falling. The risks of operating a supply chain that stretches halfway around the world are growing: rising transportation costs, the threat of import duties, less product flexibility, slower time to market, intellectual property theft, and product safety/reputation risks are growing concerns when moving manufacturing offshore. All of these factors are translating into making U.S. manufacturing more appealing. – Picking up the $500 Billion Bill on The Ground: Driving the Next Industrial Revolution Through Efficiency
4)“If they do this for real, if they do this like a real, Enron-style investigation, you know, you could have half the luminaries on Wall Street doing prison time. I believe that they have gotten the political message that is what people want. The question is, ‘Will they really follow through? ‘Will it be a cosmetic investigation or will it be a real cleaning of the markets?’ But I think that they might. There’s a slight possibility that they’ve really gotten the message.” — Matt Taibbi: Obama might have gotten the ’99 percent’ message
5) Numerous sources have reported on the rash of suicides and threatened suicides by workers protesting working conditions at the factories that supply Apple. The company contends it has to use Chinese labor because Americans don’t have the skills to get the job done. [...] Apple executives have also belittled the idea that they have any community responsibility, with an executive saying: “We [Apple] don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems.” The reality, of course, is that the reason Apple doesn’t care about American workers and exploits Chinese workers is profit, of which the company has excelled at making in recent years. Profits on the backs of exploited Chinese workers and disappearing American jobs. – Apple CEO Defends Against Reports of Poor Work Conditions in Company’s Factories
6) “I wikipedia’ed the guy. Instantly, I discovered the problem: he liked black people. Way back in the 30s, he started organizing the civil rights movement. And as a historian like Newt Gingrich would tell you, the civil rights movement turned out to be a huge burden on white people.” – Maher: ‘Who the f–k is Saul Alinsky?’
7) Add up the wealth of the last eight presidents, from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. Then double that number. Now you’re in Romney territory. – How rich is Mitt Romney?
9) Mitt Romney may be on his way to a decisive victory in the Florida GOP primary Tuesday, according to a new NBC/Marist poll. Romney leads Newt Gingrich by 15 points, 42 percent to 27 percent in the crucial state. Rick Santorum is third with 16 percent, followed by Ron Paul with 11 percent. Just 4 percent said they were undecided. – NBC/Marist poll: Romney up 15 over Gingrich in Florida
10)The Republican primary campaign has become so clownish that Newt Gingrich, the most inside-Washington candidate in the field, is the grassroots tea party favorite. And why? It’s my theory that it’s less about any sort of perceived conservatism and more about a process of elimination. They’re settling with that guy because no one else on their list worked out — oh, and he can throw red meat bombs. That’s important. The tea party is all about throwing crazy at the president with as much volume as possible. – Gingrich is the Tea Party Candidate?
10c — “Well, here’s a little newsflash to the establishment: without the Tea Party there would have been no historic 2010 victory at all.” – Sarah Palin Shouts Into The Great GOP Divide
