Posted on 11/18/2011 2:51:00 AM PST by Fred
A think tank founded by GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health-care companies and industry groups, offering special access to the former House speaker and other perks, according to records and interviews.
The Center for Health Transformation, which opened in 2003, brought in dues of as much as $200,000 per year from insurers and other health-care firms, offering some of them “access to Newt Gingrich” and “direct Newt interaction,” according to promotional materials. The biggest funders, including firms such as AstraZeneca, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Novo Nordisk, were also eligible to receive discounts on “products and workshops” from other Gingrich groups.
The health center advocated, among other things, requiring that “anyone who earns more than $50,000 a year must purchase health insurance or post a bond,” a type of insurance mandate that has since become anathema to conservatives.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I don't know if there is a difference, but I would THINK there is.
Anyway, not having made up my mind, I'm still looking at Newt for the betterment of our nation, and I'm not sure whom to settle on.
I'm starting to think there are too many good people in the race and NO ONE is the perfect conservative.
Response I posted at site:
A think tank is a private group which hires itself out to anyone who wants to pay for it’s advice. Think tanks recommend a course of action or postulate what the future may hold for any given concern and make recommendations on how the concern should navigate through the problematic future happenings on the horizon.
While the Lib media makes an issue about this because it concerns a Conservative running for office, they depend on the total ignorance of their readership to not see a think tank is no different then a financial adviser who tells people where to invest to maximize or protect assets in both troubled or prosperous times.
Newt is advocating a MANDATE!!! That is why he was hired.
Ya know like Obamacare Romneycare...NewtCare
Thanx .. that’s what I was thinking, but not smart enough (or it’s too early with not enough coffee) to say it that way.
“these are consulting fees and not lobbying fees”
Right. Just like Freddie Mac, I’m sure they were only paying Newt $37 million for his historical perspective. /s
And I’m sure it had nothing to do with imposing a healthcare mandate nationwide (obamacare) which obviously benefits the healthcare industry, by forcing everyone to buy their product.
What are we anti capitalism
It actually explains why Newt wandered off the conservative plantation, since he was being paid big bucks to do so. It also begs the question, did he do it for the money, or because he believed in it?
I’m going to make the wild guess that Newt has smashed all records for a pol trading on his influence to make a fortune for himself.
Yes, it was after he left office, which is when most pols and their aides cash in.
No, he was apparently not a lobbyist so registered with Congress.
But it sure sounds like Freddie and the others were paying him millions of dollars for at least his using his knowledge to help them to lobby more effectively and also to buy his public advocacy for positions and policies favorable to them, whether in the mortgage, health or energy fields, among those sectors we are aware of.
It may help to explain his soulless and often big-government oriented, non-conservative positions over the years. Certainly it is information that should come to light during these early stages of the vetting process.
“a think tank is no different then a financial adviser”
Newt is not a physician, nor a healthcare specialist.
He took money to get legislation passed by congress. As a former speaker he has influence and can get that done.
More spam from the 2 account troll.
TIMBLER RATTLER = VIRGINIA RIDGERUNNER
Just a humble opinion....but Newt winning...would be like having Obama version 2.0 in office. No worries about birth certificates, but all this money from the past and think-tank dealings....gives him a pretty slimy appearance.
Denial is a bad thing....
yawn, another noob and his spam posts...
So which of those stories are false? Specifics please.
No spamming, please.
Are you alleging that there was something illegal or unethical about providing these consulting services? How so?
Nice try. I’m still voting for him.
So what? Isn’t it strange how all the leading Republican candidates get attacked by White House surrogates?
Illegal, no. Unethical, maybe. Conservative, definitely not.
Al Gore beats him by about a billion, but I'd rather have Herman Cain. Newth has advocated both sides of issues and is not as conservative as he claims in the primaries.
And??
What’s not conservative about providing advice and being paid for it? You don’t even know what the advice was.
Oh, yeah, forgot about Al.
I think you’re right about Newt.
On the other hand, Cain’s abject ignorance is embarrassing and not appropriate to the office of the president IMO.
We’re really in a tight spot scouring our candidate list.
None of them are false, of course; they’re just all too happy to support Newt because he’s a good talker.
Never mind the fact that he supports the individual mandate like Romney.
Never mind the fact that he’s flip-flopped on global warming like Romney.
Never mind his ties to and support for ethanol, which is an abject failure that is destructive to engines.
There are plenty of other candidates with better credentials. I’d vote for Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, or even Rick Perry (gag) over Newt any day of the week.
After Newt left Congress - he created a consulting group that could use his expertise and navigation skills to stay ahead of the socialist trend in the Federal Government and its agencies.
He had no influence - only information.
Newt did not leave office a millionaire so he earned an income from he what he had observed and learned in office - fighting the Democrats and some in his own party.
...and we do soon forget, if not reminded.
That's about the size of it. And I was even told earlier this week that his record before 2009-2010 is irrelevant and does not matter.
Wow.
So much for our sacred vetting process.
This is getting laughably transparent on the part of the media.
Build one of our guys up... once he reaches the top, have fun destroying him.
Except Mitt Romney, who you can bet will be the last one standing.
Even THIS field of crap candidates, we’re not allowed to choose our own... and we’re not even making it hard for them.
“Never mind the fact that he’s flip-flopped on global warming”
I don’t think he has. He still thinks that urgent action is needed to stop global warming and he’s still in favor of cap and trade.
He also said recently that he’s still in favor of the national healthcare mandate.
He hasn’t backed down from any of his previous positions. He’s just avoiding them by talking about something else. Note that in the debates he always picks a fight with the moderators when they ask him a tough question. He dodges questions and criticizes others but is silent about his plan.
Gonna be hard to debate all of these issue’s.
Just a humble opinion....but Newt winning...would be like having Obama version 2.0 in office.
With the possibility of a third term.
It’s the lamebrain Cain supporters. They somehow think he can debate BHO on the issues. Cain would be our worst candidate...he couldn’t win a history debate with a 5th grader. Cain is ill prepared...he was out to sell books...that’s all. It would take a good year to get Cain caught up on the economy and foreign policy. He’s funny and a ladies man...but he’s no President I want.
Newt really does have the lefties rattled. obummer and the liberals are gonna lose all control in the next election and they are desperately trying to get something, some kind of mud to stick on all of our candidates. Ain’t gonna work. obummer’s marxism has failed and so has he and he’s taking the liberals down into failure with him. Sit back, watch, and enjoy the show cause the butt whoppin’s comng for the dems.
Is this ur best shot? Have us seen ur boy obummer’s rap sheet? huh? hmmmm............
The butt whoppin’s coming in 2012 have ur fun these last days.....
obummer, ur boy, will be GONE.
You’re right. Newt’s a Churchillian bulldog, for sure.
for a newbie you sure are vocal on destroying a candidate on our side hey.
Tell you what, let the left attack our own instead of our side attacking our own , that is if you are on our side and not on the left trying to destroy yet another candidate of ours.
Time will tell Timber Rattler
I think that’s great. The more money his think tank made the better. AT least he didn’t fleece the country while in office like the current bunch of thieves are doing, on both sides.
Please read:
http://townhall.com/columnists/peterferrara/2011/11/18/newt_checks_and_balances_liberal_judges
Prepare Yourself for Obama's Second Term
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/11/prepare_yourself_for_obamas_second_term.html
“Meet the new boss.... same as the old boss”.
LLS
Add crony in front of it and yes... we are against crony capitalism and manipulating markets and proaganda to increase the power of a central government plan. Capitalism cannot survive the cronies... it dies and becomes communism.
LLS
Newt is NOT on our side. He's a RINO and out only for himself, as his record plainly shows.
Do you support RINOs? I thought that Free Republic was a CONSERVATIVE forum and NOT necessarily a Republican forum. It seems that a lot of people have forgotten that too.
That is just not true, Newt never lobbied congress.
I'm a Herminator, but let's try and get some facts correct.
Do you have any idea why businesses pay Consulting Companies billions of dollars for their Ideas?
Ever hear of Deloitte & Touche and their counterparts?
IBM has a consulting group {mostly with technical solutions that promote IBM stuff, but not always} and businesses pay them billions for their advice, whether the end user ends up buying IBM solutions or not.
There is a large gap between consultants and lobbyists.
Man: I have reached a point where I want to throw all of the Candidates in the toilet and start fresh.
I guess the attacks are working.
They all look like sh*t.
Gingrich claims he never attempted to influence legislators. Have you evidence he spoke to any of them, offered them anything in order to get legislation past?
He claims as an adviser he gave the an opinion on how things they wanted could get done.
“No, he was apparently not a lobbyist so registered with Congress.”
Above renders the rest of what you say irrelevant. The explicit claim of the story is Gingrich acted as a lobbyist and there is not a shred of evidence to prove this. It’s a hit piece pure and simple and you fell for it because it’s what you want to believe.
WP's Horse finshes second, competitor's horse next-to-last.Deceptive semantics. Insert Lincoln's quote about fooling people here.
It would take a year to get a business executive who was a federal reserve governor a year to understand the economy. Not to mention his role representing an entire industry to to advocate policy. You folks are smoking crack. Cain has spent a lifetime understanding how government should create a food environment for job creation.
Hell, he was on tv beating up Clinton 12 years on health care before Romney or Gingrich were advocating government health care. Yep. He’s the one without understanding.
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