All this Covid-19 pandemic money seems to be unleashing the worst of the Republicans in Congress and even this President.
'Never Heard of Anything Like This': Watchdogs Sound Alarm as Trump Puts For-Profit Insurer in Charge of Covid-19 Hospital Fund
"It's simply bizarre and unconscionable that the Trump administration would have United manage billions in relief to hospitals."
Some of the article:
Watchdog groups and healthcare advocates are raising serious concerns about conflicts of interest and corporate profiteering after the Trump White House tapped UnitedHealth Group—the largest private health insurer in the U.S.—to help distribute billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to hospitals struggling to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Trump administration earlier this month awarded UnitedHealth with a contract to "expedite" hospital relief money authorized under the CARES Act, a massive stimulus package President Donald Trump signed into law last month.
Politico reported over the weekend that the White House's choice to empower UnitedHealth to oversee the large sum of taxpayer funds "surprised many in healthcare, including employees at the Department of Health and Human Services who had assumed that HHS would administer the program itself."
Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group, said Tuesday that the Trump administration's deal with UnitedHealth "raises serious red flags."
"In a rush to respond to the pandemic, we can't let ethics issues go unaddressed while taxpayer dollars go out the door."
But wait. It gets worse...
...Stephen Parente, a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, is one of the officials tasked with managing the hospital relief funds. As Politico noted, Parente has financial ties to UnitedHealth.
"As a Minnesota-based health economist before joining the Trump administration, Parente served as a consultant to companies including UnitedHealth, which has also backed some of his non-profit activities," Politico reported. "Five months after President Donald Trump nominated Parente to an HHS post overseeing health insurers in 2017, UnitedHealth donated a $1.2 million multi-year grant to a small research center that Parente directed and helped found at the University of Minnesota."
Wendell Potter, a former insurance executive turned Medicare for All advocate, tweeted late Tuesday that "nothing my old industry does shocks me—but this is close." Potter said he has "never heard of anything like this" and warned that the involvement of UnitedHealth raises serious alarm bells, despite the company's vow not to profit from the arrangement.
"UHC execs are canceling contracts with doctors and raking in millions, during a pandemic," Potter wrote. "And now, the Trump admin is having them manage a multi-billion dollar pot of relief aid?!"
For more on this Covid-19 pandemic money and the corruption that this Congress and President are allowing, see here:
The COVID-19 Fraud – It's Massive
Coronavirus: The perfect incubator for corruption
There is no Covid-19 defense to corruption
Trump pushes back against congressional oversight for $500 billion bailout fund
Will America’s Corruption End on a Ventilator or in a Mushroom Cloud?
Then check out this little beauty.
Company With Ties To Trump Receives Millions From Small Business Loan Program
Meanwhile, the big banks certainly appreciate the coronavirus bailout.
Small Business Rescue Earned Banks $10 Billion In Fees
This one is probably supposed to make us all feel better.
As scores of public companies get small-business aid, Trump vows to take back money if help was ‘inappropriate’
Yet here's one more Trumpian promise that won't be delivered.
Harvard says to keep stimulus grant after Trump vows it will be returned
Here's a good question at least Forbes Magazine is asking though I doubt anyone else will.
Why Is Harvard Getting $9 Million In Stimulus Money When It Has A $40 Billion Endowment?
For yet more unbelievability, there is this.
Trump (the Company) Asks Trump (the Administration) for Hotel Relief
Can you imagine what the Republicans would have said or done if the previous President even came close to something like this, above?
But then, this is the President who politically survived this.
Court Fines Trump $2 Million for Diverting Money From Veterans Fundraiser to His Campaign
This Republican Party President of the United States was caught actually taking money from a charity, for Veterans, no less, and putting it in his own campaign cash and he's still President. God help us all.
Link:
Here are the largest public companies taking payroll loans meant for small businesses
TRUMP IS 'RUNNING A CRIME SYNDICATE OUT OF THE WEST WING' WITH BARR AS HIS 'CONSIGLIERE,' FORMER PROSECUTOR SAYS
