Federal health contract funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump allies
Source: Politico
At least eight former White House, presidential transition and campaign officials for President Donald Trump were hired as outside contractors to the federal health department at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, according to documents newly obtained by POLITICO.
They were among at least 40 consultants who worked on a one-year, $2.25 million contract directed by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma. The contractors were hired to burnish Vermas personal brand and provide strategic communications support. They charged up to $380 per hour for work traditionally handled by dozens of career civil servants in CMS's communications department.
The arrangement allowed the Trump allies to cycle through the federal government's opaque contracting system, charging hefty fees with little public oversight or accountability.
Over a four-and-a-half month stretch from September 2018 to January, the contractors collectively billed at least $744,000. The Department of Health and Human Services halted the contract in April in the face of widespread criticism after POLITICO reported on Verma's extensive use of communications consultants.
But under the terms hammered out last year, revealed for the first time, CMS agreed to allow at least four consultants to bill up to $204,000 over the length of the contract. That included one longtime Verma ally Marcus Barlow, her spokesperson while she was an Indiana-based consultant to then-Gov. Mike Pence who was greenlighted to bill as much as $425,000 for about a years worth of work.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2019/11/12/federal-health-funneled-dollars-trump-allies-069638
Your government under siege....
I hate these people
RKP5637
(67,030 posts)Maxheader
(4,366 posts)and we could fund healthcare for everyone...
OhNo-Really
(3,985 posts)You can almost hear their giggling as they line up to steal our tax dollars
Grifters On Parade. GOP
tanyev
(42,358 posts)mopinko
(69,806 posts)so many toadies from the st ronnie years, and the depths of his stupidity lead me to believe that he is mostly puppet.
it's the only way someone that abjectly stupid rises to these heights.
and the only way an administration shows up at the wh ready to plunder and destroy the targets of their pet hates.
the only question now is who pulls the strings. or should i say- how many get a turn to pull the strings?
eppur_se_muova
(36,227 posts)beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)MFGsunny
(2,356 posts)THIS is the type of grifting we taxpayers are funding - and contributing to the federal debt as far as our eyes can see. Stealing us blind !!!
BRIBERY
EXTORTION
EMBEZZLEMENT
KPN
(15,586 posts)to drive up the deficit, to blame the Democrats for, to make it absolutely necessary to cut Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare and maybe even kill them.
Fuming here at regular and whole new levels.
Lucky not to pop a vein or aneurysm.
dalton99a
(81,065 posts)Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma
mountain grammy
(26,568 posts)ck4829
(34,974 posts)democrank
(11,052 posts)Mc Mike
(9,106 posts)They're very lazy, but they brought pry bars.
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)have been in the works BEFORE orange anus was installed in the WH. Devious people. Certainly NOT working for the good of citizens, just their own bank accounts. Pence is as vile as tRump, just puts a pious face on his corruption. It will be ironic if after all their dirty deeds to install tRump, he takes every last one of them down with him. We can hope, can't we?
gademocrat7
(10,623 posts)Never has there been so much looting and pillaging of our tax dollars.
FakeNoose
(32,340 posts)Remove all swamp critters, including all former Trump campaign workers and WH employees currently serving in US government and federal contract suppliers.
Wounded Bear
(58,437 posts)KPN
(15,586 posts)revenge big time against tRump and every one of these corrupt MFers!
eppur_se_muova
(36,227 posts)It would be a real shame if this story connected to MIKE PENCE got widely circulated, especially if people got the idea that this was really a story about MIKE PENCE rather than a story about massive corruption involving associates of MIKE PENCE. People might very well ask, "How much did MIKE PENCE know, and when did he know it?" which seems a little unfair to MIKE PENCE. Perhaps if you happen to pass this story on to others, as if you would, be sure to take the reasonable approach -- let your MAGAt correspondents know that instead of treating this as a story about MIKE PENCE, or a story about massive corruption, you take the reasonable, compromise position and say "well, as often happens, perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between".
I'd really like to know what MIKE PENCE has to say about this. Perhaps a reporter with a backbone could ask MIKE PENCE about this the next time he is sighted, if MIKE PENCE doesn't run fast enough.
aggiesal
(8,864 posts)they all belong to the US Department of Grifting?
Wake up and smell the coffee!
Oh, wait. We can't afford coffee!
Farmer-Rick
(10,072 posts)Thank capitalism. Corruption is a major feature of Capitalism. What do you expect when you promote greed as a bases for an economic system? It is a major feature of shorty Putin's Russua too. Capitalism promotes the worst of human traits. It was a stop gap system to free the serfs in feudalism but it turned into an economic system promoted by the rich. We need to evolve out of it.
Without the American filthy rich capitalist supporting Traitor Trump, and his Slovenian sex worker, they would not be in our white house.