Strassel: Axelrod's ObamaCare Dollars

WSJ ^ | June 21, 2012 | Kimberley A. Strassel

[sunmars]

The fight over ObamaCare is raging, and a few news outlets report that something looks ethically rotten in the White House. An outside group funded by industry is paying the former firm of senior presidential adviser David Axelrod to run ads in favor of the bill. That firm, AKPD Message and Media, still owes Mr. Axelrod money and employs his son.

The story quickly died, but emails recently released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee ought to resurrect it. The emails suggest the White House was intimately involved both in creating this lobby and hiring Mr. Axelrod's firm—which is as big an ethical no-no as it gets.

Mr. Axelrod—who left the White House last year—started AKPD in 1985. The firm earned millions helping run Barack Obama's 2008 campaign. Mr. Axelrod moved to the White House in 2009 and agreed to have AKPD buy him out for $2 million. But AKPD chose to pay Mr. Axelrod in annual installments—even as he worked in the West Wing. This agreement somehow passed muster with the Office of Government Ethics, though the situation at the very least should have walled off AKPD from working on White-House priorities.

It didn't. The White House and industry were working hand-in-glove to pass ObamaCare in 2009, and among the vehicles supplying ad support was an outfit named Healthy Economy Now (HEN). News stories at the time described this as a "coalition" that included the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the American Medical Association, and labor groups—suggesting these entities had started and controlled it.

[sunmars]

Well lookey here, Obama pushed a truck of money to Axelrod and his son out out of Obamacare, the SEIU also involved.

Dig deeper, you'll find more i'm sure, this is corruption to the bone.

[Graewoulf]

Obama”care” is the Death Knell for the United States of America.

The USA Federal Government is broke, and is forced to borrow 3 1/2 BILLION dollars from our grandchildren EVERY DAY!

This then is the Federal Grandchildren Tax, or FGT, separate from the FIT or Federal Income Tax that only 51 % of us pay.

2012 is the third year of the American Taxpayer Revolt, in spite of what our sorry politicians and apathetic Liberal Agenda Media try to tell us.

The Silent Majority is silent no more.

If Romney is elected he has promised to “keep the best parts” of Obama”care” and send it back to each of the 50 States, resulting in the Death Knell of each of the 50 States that choose to keep the Obama”care” Death Knell.

Right now there is a 50-50 chance that Obama will get re-elected.

No matter that Obama was the worst Federal Financial Steward EVER!

If Obama gets re-elected he will just declare, by Executive Order, that Obama”care” is legal, and thus the demise of America will be accomplished during his Reign of Obamanation.

If THE NINE SUPREMES knock down ANY part of Obama”care,” then Senate Minority Leader Son-of-a-Mitch McConnell and Esteemed Sobber-of-the-House Boehner will rush to replace the Court-damaged parts of America’s Death Knell.

The only possible positive outcome will be to ABOLISH FOREVER Obama”care.”

America cannot afford to continue Federal programs to buy votes with debt that we charge to our Grandchildren.

BTW, it is all very simple as illustrated by the words of Paul Harvey: “ WHEN YOUR OUTGO EXCEEDS YOUR INCOME, YOUR UPKEEP WILL BE YOUR DOWNFALL.”

[sam_paine]

GIMME SOME DAT OBAMA STASH!!!

[tcrlaf]

It’s OK...

These are Democrats, so it cannot POSSIBLY be corrupt cronyism, or illegal.

Just ask ANYONE at CBS/ABC/MSNBC/CNN/NPR/NBC/Pacifica/WashPost/NYTIMES!

[Twotone]

The most transparently unethical administration in history...

[b4its2late]

Yeah, a real open and corruption free admin we have here....

[DrDude]

PING

[Nachum]

The list, Ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/

[DrC]

“Dig deeper, you’ll find more i’m sure, this is corruption to the bone.”

Yep, the Axelrod pay-off was peanuts compared to the billions shoveled to unions:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/11/for_unions_billions_of_hidden_pork_in_obamacare.html

[nutmeg]

Check this out, FRiends...

Kimberley Strassel of the WSJ has been doing some great stuff lately... she's worth following.

[haircutter]

EVIL.....EVIL...EVIL

WE MUST VOTE THIS TRIBE OUT IN NOVEMBER...

[LucyT]

Article, then check out comments # 1 through # 9.

Thanks, DrDude.

[hoosiermama]

Honey, that stash is NOT for you. If goes to 0’s friends who then place a percentage of it in an account far far away, that only H can reach in the future.

[bgill]

If Romney is elected he has promised to “keep the best parts” of Obama”care”

How's Mitt's RomneyCare working out? The best part is "The End" on the last page.

[azishot]

To read later AFTER I buy a case of these.

[FreedomNotSafety]

“The USA Federal Government is broke, and is forced to borrow 3 1/2 BILLION dollars from our grandchildren EVERY DAY!

This then is the Federal Grandchildren Tax, or FGT, separate from the FIT or Federal Income Tax that only 51 % of us pay.”

I think I understand what you mean by saying we are borrowing from our grandchildren but we are not. Our children and grandchildren are under no obligations to repay the debt we incur (ask Jefferson). Not only are they not obligated to pay it we have not in any normal sense of the word “borrowed” it from them. Some of them are not yet born and most of them do not have the money to “lend”.

What we have actually done is borrowed money from real live people living today and told them that some unborn, unknown, and probably unable or unwilling person will repay them in the future. The only reason anyone lends us money is that the are counting on the US government, by force of arms, to collect their debt.

I would encourage you to make sure your seed knows that they do not have to pay this debt and that they should not pay it. The sooner the world realizes that they will not be repaid the quicker we will be forced to stop borrowing money.

And yeah that idea really stinks for everyone who believes that they have earned and are owed a Social Security check because it is invested in nice safe US Treasuries.

[Cheerio]

And yeah that idea really stinks for everyone who believes that they have earned and are owed a Social Security check because it is invested in nice safe US Treasuries.

As a recipient of Socialism Security for a number of years now, I encourage everyone of you to take your SS earnings report and generate a simple spreadsheet using the annual US Bond interest rate for every year you have paid into SS - you must make the calculation every year and then carry that balance into the next year to see the compounding effect. You can do it two ways, one with only your own input and a second time using your employers part also (2x your input)

When you see how much your SS next egg should be worth, you will fall off your chair and you will immediately call for a march on the District of Corruption. AND don't forget you would have this nest egg to leave your children and spouse - not have the payments just stop when you die. I have been trying to get folk to understand how crooked this "insurance" and/or "retirement" scam is but many times when I bring it up people's eye just glaze over. Ignorance in this nation is appalling. WE ALLOWED THIS TO HAPPEN, and we are just about to go over Niagara Falls without a barrel.

[GreyFriar]

Ho, Hum, another NON-scandal. Now if this were a Republican administration, then it would be worth erupting a fury.

Or is the proper response: Another racist attack by racist Republicans and a greedy capitalist newspaper.

I’m not sure which is the the approved DNC reaction.

[FreedomNotSafety]

Thanks for that reply. I thought you were headed off into “I should get it because IF it was invested and not spent we would all be o’k.” territory but you weren’t.

I am closing in on you but I tell my kids if they ever get a chance to kill the SS monster, do it. I will survive somehow even if it’s by living in their garage.

Open question for all, if I cannot personally encumber my children with debt why should my government able to? I cannot borrow from Peter, give it to Paul, and then tell Jr. to pay it off when I am gone, and I am the paterfamilias. why does anyone believe my kid or his kid is supposed to pay the debt incurred to give someone a Social Welfare Security check?

[zot]

This is part of a blitz of corruption — so much, so fast, that no one can really react to it.