Said Senator Orrin G. Hatch. "I will be seeking more information from the Administration about these actions to help better understand whether there are conflicts of interest and if it violated federal law.”
Over the past three months, [HHS Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius has made multiple phone calls to health industry executives, community organizations and church groups and asked that they contribute whatever they can to nonprofit groups that are working to enroll uninsured Americans and increase awareness of the law, according to an HHS official and an industry person familiar with the secretary’s activities. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk openly about private discussions.
An HHS spokesperson said Sebelius was within the bounds of her authority
in asking for help. But Republicans charged that Sebelius’s outreach
was improper because it pressured private companies and other groups to
support the Affordable Care Act. ...
Federal regulations do not allow department officials to fundraise in their professional capacity. They do, however, allow Cabinet members to solicit donations as private citizens “if you do not solicit funds from a subordinate or from someone who has or seeks business with the Department, and you do not use your official title,” according to Justice Department regulations.
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50 comments:
Fascist is as fascist does.
Things certainly seem to be unraveling for this administration. Is it that their choices got worse, or have the press just started to practice journalism again?
Trey
Do you mean the $900B law?
We were PROMISED it would not cost $1T.
How can it be 2.5 times the PROMISED cost BEFORE it's implemented?
Capital letters. They make Tank look insane.
If explaining it is that complicated...
The law has to be more intricate than the human anatomy... otherwise is not "comprehensive".
You are hereby invited to forge the very chains that will bind you...
Give me money or the IRS will be in touch.
And the same thing could happen to your relatives...
Keeping in mind his dear, dear old friend Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator Hatch will do the right thing and write a moderately-worded letter and this will all be sorted out like gentlemen sort things out.
Heads will roll as the libs party in Hilton Head with ecstasy.
Well ACORN [or whatever it calls itself these days]has to get paid somehow.
Oh, and that guy we slammed into a fed pen because of a badly-made Islamic satire?
...mere proof that we'll do anything to get what we want...
This thuggish Administration just gets worse and worse...
Isn't this a matter of free speech?
The banana-republicization of America continues apace.
garage, is right. If I was Sebelius, I'd threaten to put the insurance executives in prison if they didn't turn over every penny that they have, and the money in the pension fund that they are keeping for their employees. She can say that because of free speech, evidently.
A mugging could be construed as free speech... but i dont know you can get with that.
Perhaps Sen. Hatch could, with Sens. Schumer and Reid, author a bill proclaiming those with good intentions (this will NOT be a partisan test you fucking wackonuts so quit your whining) innocent--and deserving of financial reward--for any negative or potentially negative media attention and/or previous legal actions taken against them?
This War on Women must end.
How far... im on the phone... commenting harder.
Taken independently, this story along with the IRS, Bengahzai, and gun control stories seem bad. Taken together, these stories portray a terrifying trend - that our gov't will abuse any rule in order to achieve an objective. I don't think this trend is isolated to Obama, though Obama appears to believe this is how gov't should work. The scariest thing he has said thus far is that we should ignore the voices to speak of gov't tyranny.
Federal regulations do not allow department officials to fundraise in their professional capacity
So what?
A federal appeals court ruled that President Obama violated the Constitution when he installed three officials on the National Labor Relations Board a year ago. And guess what the NLRB is doing?
Nobody in this Administration gives one shit about the law or "federal regulations"
Those silly little legalities get in the way of the agenda.
Couldn't she sens a bagman to do the job, like her private-sector counterparts do?
If Sebelius was a Repub and she was soliciting "donations" from the Koch brothers for some govt program hatched up by Bush, the Dems would go nuts.
Garage Mahal,
Did Sebelius use a personal cell phone rather than a government issued phone to make these calls?
Did she have a secret router network like Scott Walker?
I'm not sure who bolded the bolded words, but they must be somewhat surprised, by virtue of their bolding them, at self-refuting comments from powerful libs.
Did whoever bold the bolded words bold B.O.'s words about Alan Keyes and teaching 6 year olds sex ed "because it's the right thing to do?"
Within 30 seconds we can see what zero intellectual honesty combined with raw lust for power looks like: witty and charming to adoring fans.
Mocking your opponent for something he says about you you agree is true is laughable to those who voted for him.
These people are not very good at drafting legislation, are they.
Did she have a secret router network like Scott Walker?
If she did, we know ya'll would be totally cool with what she was doing.
.
Scratch that. If Sebelius was a Republican, and used a secret email network to evade FOIA requests, you would be totally cool with it.
Althouse never wrote about it, so it's hard to tell. Maybe she just missed it all somehow.
this bitch can't stop violating the Hatch Act. she's probably no different that a lot of government employees.
Maybe she just missed it all somehow.
Hysterical.
More likely: you're making stuff up.
Duh.
Garage, how do you know about the secret router network and yet the "John Doe" investigators couldn't unearth it? Did you forward your information to the investigators?
It's Da Chicago Way.
garage mahal said...
Isn't this a matter of free speech?
Of course, and the speech goes like dis, "Nice li'l comp'ny ya got here. Hate to see anyt'ing bad happen to it. Know what I mean?".
garage mahal said...
Isn't this a matter of free speech?
5/11/13, 8:45 AM
You can't be that stupid can you? Seriously?
If there is a joke here please spell it out I don't get it.
"Scratch that. If Sebelius was a Republican, and used a secret email network to evade FOIA requests, you would be totally cool with it."
That was the EPA political appointees of a democrat president that took part in that. I know you are but what am I only works in grade school.
This has been a rough week for you hasn't it?
Message: That's a nice little healthcare company you've got. It would be a shame if something happened to it.
Sebelius, Napolitano (who, even after the Boston Marathon bombing, continues to insist that the real danger to this country is from right-wing militia groups), EPS's Lisa Jackson, and Clinton.
Not to mention Susan Rice.
Can't Obama figure out how to hire a competent female for his cabinet?
EPA's Lisa Jackson.
I even used "Preview" and tried to proofread. [sigh]
Nice little insurance company you've got there. It would be a shame if you went broke.
The insurance companies are actually allies and have been since 1992. When Hillarycare failed, they went the HMO route but that didn't work after the first profits from asset stripping of providers was finished. They want to administer Obamacare. The present insurance model doesn't work. They prefer to be administrators, as they have been for self-funded employers for years. The only insurance around is small group and individual and that loses money,
I love the effort to turn the topic to Scott Walker.
Subtle!
Not a Good Day for the Obama's in the WaPo today. Front Page, above the fold:
Benghazi cover-up
IRS bias
HHS intimidation
Inside the lead editorial from the Editors asks
If it was not partisanship, was it incompetence? Stupidity, on a breathtaking scale? At this point, the IRS has lost any standing to determine and report on what exactly happened.
Just how the fuck can the Secretary of HHS solicit money from companies SHE Regulates in any kind of "private capacity?" That's bullshit from the word " go."
Proto-fascist fucks.
Do we really want to live in a country where sick people go broke and wealthy insurance executives become wealthier. The only way to restore balance and justice to our society is for insurance companies to go broke and for their parasitic executive class to become beggars. While technically speaking this will not restore the health or fortunes of sick people, it will nonetheless make them feel a tad better about their bad luck. Also some attention should be paid to physicians, many of whom drive late model luxury cars while their patients can barely afford shoes........I think in a truly equitable society the only rich people should be entertainment stars and those government people who redistribute wealth.
This outfit is lawless in the finest Chicago tradition. Poor America.
This outfit is lawless in the finest Chicago tradition. Poor America.
William in a truly just society parasites like you would eradicated.
Question for Ann: hypothetically if the next president were a real small government type could he/she upon being sworn in issue a presidential order forbidding the agencies from issuing any rules for an indefinite period of time and issue a presidential order revocking all regulations promulgated durring the previous eight years?
Soliciting funds from the corporations that she is policing sounds like a policeperson soliciting funds from the green grocers in the neighborhood that she is policing.
Blackmail? Extortion?
It's too late for all this now, innit?
This is why you don't vote for socialists in the first place. What they start often cannot be undone without great pain, which is intentional.
And they do this by any means necessary.
We told you and told you and told you.
I'm almost past caring.
We told you and told you and told you.
And, IIRC, what we got in reply was pretty much, "You just hate Obama. Admit it."
(The hyperbole level there is a mere 3/10.)
Not one dime!
Isn't this a matter of free speech?
Just as much as a mafioso's concern, said to store owners, of bad stuff happening to their business.
Scratch that. If Sebelius was a Republican, and used a secret email network to evade FOIA requests, you would be totally cool with it.
Funny, doesn't the current admin have a serious problem with this?
Well, no, to you it's not serious. But to a NON-HACK...
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