More Government Reaching
Turning up the heat via legal bullying, some might say extortion, House Democrats are demanding scapegoats
Some leading Democrats are questioning the way the health insurance industry compensates its highest-paid employees, as well as some recently announced rate increases.
Two Democrats responsible for shaping health care legislation sent a letter (PDF) Monday to various insurance companies, the Wall Street Journal reports, asking for detailed information about executive pay, company events, retreats and other business practices.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and committee member Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) say in the letter that the committee is “examining executive compensation and business practices in the health insurance industry.”
The letter asks each company to identify employees compensated more than $500,000 in any year from 2003 to 2008, as well as information on how those employees were compensated. It also asks for board member compensation, each companies’ total revenues, net income, dividend payments, premium revenue, claims payments and other information. The congressmen requested a response from the companies by mid-September.
My response would be unprintable on a family-friendly site such as this, but it’s clear what they are doing: dig, distort, divert and demonize. It’s how they do things, backed with the threatened cudgel of legislative retribution. Hell, they admit as much:
The letters represent the latest example of Democrats painting the insurance industry in a negative light in order to promote its health reform push.
“They are the villains in this,” Pelosi said of the insurance industry in a July press conference. “They have been part of the problem in a major way.”
President Obama has also assailed insurance companies for reaping “windfall profits from a broken system.”
The all-out assault on business continues. As John Marshall said
The power to tax is the power to destroy.
Little did he realize that it was our liberty and democracy that would be getting destroyed.
Update: Of course, since since our exalted Government Leaders are immune to the baser impulses that they decry in private industry, I’m sure this is purely coincidence
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s push for a national health care overhaul is providing a financial windfall in the election offseason to Democratic consulting firms that are closely connected to the president and two top advisers.
Coalitions of interest groups running at least $24 million in pro-overhaul ads hired GMMB, which worked for Obama’s 2008 campaign and whose partners include a top Obama campaign strategist. They also hired AKPD Message and Media, which was founded by David Axelrod, a top adviser to Obama’s campaign and now to the White House. AKPD did work for Obama’s campaign, and Axelrod’s son Michael and Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe work there.
Nothing to see here, folks. MoveOn along.
Nanny State, Politics | Mr. Bingley | 
August 20, 2009 7:15 am
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Fox News Special Report does an online half hour on Wednesday nights immediately following the on air hour show and last night the Waxman letter was discussed. One of the points made was that the government, which plans on being a competitor of the private companies, is asking for the kind of details any competitor would love to have. How better to figure out the best way to put them out of business?
The statists (if not outright Stalinists) are marching on.
This is truly frightening.
Stalin said he wanted control of four things: money, security, education and the law. Only security is missing to complete Big O’s job; that’s why Democrats and their brown shirts are trying to whip up anti-protest hysteria. Expect violence if he’s pushed hard enough.