Yes, Virginia, sometimes major donors are sleazy

       Today's story:  WellCare Health Plans became an extraordinarily profitable managed care company, in part — it now admits — by shortchanging children on Medicaid out of critical mental health services. Rather than spend most of the money it got from the state to provide such services, WellCare officials skimped on care, inflated expenses and kept the difference.

We're not as cynical as some about big-time campaign donors and bundlers -- First Amendment and all -- but this week's WellCare news should remind us why we should be seriously wary of many of the major campaign bankrollers in Florida. WellCare and its subsidiaries pumped $2.4-million into the Florida political system in the '04 and '06 cycles, more than 90 percent of it to Republicans (top recipients were the RPOF, Ken Pruitt, Tom Lee and Frank Farkas, according to an AP analysis). A day after lawmakers convened to consider sweeping changes to Florida's Medicaid system, WellCare wrote a $100,000 check to the state GOP, which received $1.2 million from the company all told.

WellCare stopped making political donations after major problems and an investigation subsequently erupted, but thankfully the state GOP found other major donors to help pick up the slack. Like Jay Odom.

*

Comments

[Nuff Said]

90% to Republicans.

- 'Nuff Said

[Typo Finder]

Please edit to remove all the typos.

[Ray Odom]

Hey that isn't my name.

[Question]

Whatever happened to Todd Farha, he was not mentioned in the story.

[Stop the corruption Vote out the GOP]

Why provide care when all you have to do is provide money to the Republican Party.

Now we see why the Republican members of the Pinellas delegation are happy to vote for the $6 hangar project - they needed more tainted contributions.

[ANGRY TAXPAYER!!!]

Willey Meggs - Re-convene the GRAND JURY!!!!

GOVERNOR - VETO THE BUDGET!!!!!

[Questioner]

IF THIS IS SUCH A REPUBLICAN PROBLEM, THEN WHY DOES FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR AND FORMER US SENATOR BOB GRAHAM SIT ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THIS COMPANY?? WHAT IS FORMER SEN. BOB GRAHAM PAID TO SIT ON THIS BOARD? WHY DID THE FORMER GOV. BOB GRAHAM AGREE TO BE A BOARD MEMBER OF A COMPANY CHEATING CHILDREN OUT OF MEDICADE HEALTH SERVICES??????

[Are all Republicans Criminals???]

The Republican party has been taken over by criminals in the past 2 decades.

Thank God that the masses are finally waking up and smelling the corruption in the GOP.

The party affiliation is now hovering around 21% nationally (down from 29% in Dec. 08)

I can only assume that by Nov. 2010 that it will be near 10% of registered voters that are Republicans.

[...]

12:56 - of course that is different than say a former republican governor sitting on a board...

Maybe Sydney Freethebird will jump on this one... NOT!

[how 'bout them repiggies]

And this is supposed to be the solution to the cost of health care in this nation...

Is this all the repiggies can come up with these days?
Our health insurance system is a catastrophe, based on the notion that the "market" will solve everything.

Break a leg, lose a house.
That's some policy there...

[...]

Are all democrats criminals... Bernie Madoff was a regular and large donor to democrats for quite some time.

[Give Back the Money]

The Republicans need to give back the money that they received from WellCare and Jay Odom.

Ask Sen Fasano why he voted for the $6 million dollar hangar project. Tell him to give back the money!

[Maybe we should avoid buying bonds in Unionized companies.]

Think carefully about what’s happening here. The White House, presumably car czar Steven Rattner and deputy Ron Bloom, is seeking to transfer the property of one group of people to another group that is politically favored. In the process, it is setting aside basic property rights in favor of rewarding the United Auto Workers for the support the union has given the Democratic Party. The only possible limit on the White House’s power is the bankruptcy judge, who might not go along.

Michigan politicians of both parties joined Obama in denouncing the holdout bondholders. They point to the sad plight of UAW retirees not getting full payment of the health care benefits the union negotiated with Chrysler. But the plight of the beneficiaries of the pension funds represented by the bondholders is sad too. Ordinarily you would expect these claims to be weighed and determined by the rule of law. But not apparently in this administration.

Obama’s attitude toward the rule of law is apparent in the words he used to describe what he is looking for in a nominee to replace Justice David Souter. He wants “someone who understands justice is not just about some abstract legal theory,” he said, but someone who has “empathy.” In other words, judges should decide cases so that the right people win, not according to the rule of law.

The Chrysler negotiations will not be the last occasion for this administration to engage in bailout favoritism and crony capitalism. There’s a May 31 deadline to come up with a settlement for General Motors. And there will be others. In the meantime, who is going to buy bonds from unionized companies if the government is going to take their money away and give it to the union? We have just seen an episode of Gangster Government. It is likely to be part of a continuing series.

[goober]

and isn't AMAZING that the Senate wanted to expand the failure that is medicaid "reform"?