First on CNN: Trump's cabinet pick invested in company, then introduced a bill to help it

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN)Rep. Tom Price last year purchased shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited the company, raising new ethics concerns for President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary.

Price bought between $1,001 to $15,000 worth of shares last March in Zimmer Biomet, according to House records reviewed by CNN.

Less than a week after the transaction, the Georgia Republican congressman introduced the HIP Act, legislation that would have delayed until 2018 a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulation that industry analysts warned would significantly hurt Zimmer Biomet financially once fully implemented.

Zimmer Biomet, one of the world's leading manufacturers of knee and hip implants, was one of two companies that would been hit the hardest by the new CMS regulation that directly impacts the payments for such procedures, according to press reports and congressional sources.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/16/politics/tom-price-bill-aiding-company/index.html?adkey=bn

[dalton99a]

1. Trump: "That makes him smart!"

[ElementaryPenguin]

13. Exactly!!

[50 Shades Of Blue]

2. Keep it up, CNN!

[Blue Idaho]

17. M$NBC is too busy hiring ex FOX employees to break stories...

So we're going to have to hope CNN is up to the task. So far - so good!

[Docreed2003]

3. As a physician/surgeon I find this disgusting...

I know that Congress has essentially shielded itself from insider trading ethics violations, but this brazenness is a slap in the face to all Americans. In my field, I have a unique skill set in robotic surgical applications in general surgery. Because of that, I help proctor physicians new to robotic surgery through Intuative, the maker of the Davinci system, and help oversee their training. That work is totally secondary to my practice and I sign disclosures routinely to stay on the "up and up" so to speak. If I were to intentionally use my position to enrich myself at the expense of patients, I would not only lose my job but likely my medical license as well. Meanwhile, because this slimball is in the position he's in, he's protected from "insider trading". This shines a light on the content of his character and that doesn't begin to highlight his disgusting stance on ACA/Medicare/Medicaid. And the AMA is staunchly behind this guy...SMH

[Ruby the Liberal]

15. He may be in violation of the 2012 STOCK Act

which specifically prohibits this type of "insider trading".

[SunSeeker]

4. K & R for exposure.

[ffr]

5. Filling the SWAMP. LOCK THEM UP!

LOCK THEM ALL UP.

We'll figure out for how long later.

[hells]

6. Draining the swamp as promised

[Cryptoad]

7. We need a new law

"Any person who runs for a public office will forfeit their right of Privacy to his/her IRS tax returns the moment they qualify to run for said Office and said forfeiture will remain in affect for a period of ten years from the time they leave said public office"

[Hortensis]

8. New info on corruption of this crew every single day!

Of course Tom Price is corrupt as hell. Bet he regards himself as an honorable ethical man.

One can do that when a satisfyingly self-serving contempt for incredibly unworthy "others" has built up.

We see it at a lower level. NOT all conservatives. But we've known a number of people over the decades who've put claim in for public relief funds they don't need, and sometimes aren't even legally or theoretically entitled to, with the excuse that everyone else is cheating, they've paid in for years to funds everyone else steals from, and they're entitled to get some of their own back. These people who don't believe in the purpose of these funds were always conservatives/Republicans.

And right now I'm remembering one of them, a man, grabbing an unhappy teen friend of his son on a bus filled with the rest of us onto his lap and giving him a deep, long hug, then talking softly with him, with a real caring that the kid clearly felt and relaxed into. An adolescent male?! HOW on earth does someone make that connection? In public? And how can this same wonderful person be such a corrupt, dishonorable hypocrite that he would use public funds meant to help people in trouble to remodel his bathroom to a current luxury style he could have easily afforded to write a check for?

[maxrandb]

22. It's the Retrumplican dystopia

If a Democratic President and Congress is in power, the Retrumplicans create an imaginary place where everything is as bad as it can be.

They believe that they are so "righteous", and so "right" about everything...

- Tax Cuts increase Middle Class wealth
- "Boot-strappiness" is what's needed, not help for the poor and less fortunate
- Stealing an election, a Supreme Court seat and gerrymandering Democrats out of existence is justified
- If a Democrat is for it, I'm against it

You can go right down the list.

With that mindset...that they...and "they alone" are right and entitled to power, they justify any corrupt and deplorable thing they do.

See, it's OK if they do corrupt things as long as that corrupt thing leads to them solidifying their power.

In their minds, them stealing an election is fine, because we're too stupid to know how horrible Democrats are. It's like a father that beats his kids and then tells them; it's "for our own good"

It's why they can't understand why we are not grateful that they've foisted a racist man-child upon us as leader of the free world.

We should just "shut-up", because soon we'll see how terrific they are.

It's a sick fucking mindset, but it has led to them kicking our asses on the local and state level.

[Hortensis]

27. They've become so intensely corrupt and corrupted

that I do not believe a large number of conservatives now have a bottom to reach, only a crash landing.

It's the others -- the few who already were, or who now are, or who will be horrified at what we're come to -- whom we need to identify and work with to rebuild a center that can hold against extremism from both sides.

One thing's for sure: next election a far stronger attempt will be made to unite left-wing extremists with the right to take out the Democrats and anything left of moderate conservatism. The Koch alliance, the Bannon types, and Putin all put some attention to wooing the far left this time, particularly ardent Sanders and Stein supporters, but next time the strategy is likely to be unifying the kind of extremist force that has destroyed many republics.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

9. Shine a light and watch them run for cover.

[TheBlackAdder]

10. What's the worst part... How cheap he whores himself out. Doing this for less than a $15K investment

[ProfessorGAC]

25. That's What I Thought, Too

You nailed it BA. For 15k tops he risks a violation of ethics that could cost him censure (at least) and his seat in Congress at worst. What a buffoon.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

11. Of course he did. That's the only thing the Rs think government is good for.

Enriching themselves. No matter how sleazy they have to be to do so.

[NewJeffCT]

12. so, they're draining the swamp

and replacing it with toxic waste

[Ruby the Liberal]

14. Thats the second reported incident - see also Immunotherapeutics

http://khn.org/news/trumps-hhs-nominee-got-a-sweetheart-deal/

When tiny Australian biotech firm Innate Immunotherapeutics needed to raise money last summer, it didn’t issue stock on the open market. Instead, it offered a sweetheart deal to “sophisticated U.S. investors,” company documents show.

It sold nearly $1 million in discounted shares to two American congressmen sitting on House committees with the potential power to advance the company’s interests, according to company records and congressional filings. They paid 18 cents a share for a stake in a company that was rapidly escalating in value, rising to more than 90 cents as the company promoted an aggressive plan to sell to a major pharmaceutical company. Analysts said the stock price could go to $2.

One of the beneficiaries was Rep. Tom Price, a Georgia Republican poised to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which regulates pharmaceuticals. Price told HHS ethics officials Thursday that if appointed, he will divest himself of the Australian stock as well as stock in about 40 other companies that could pose conflicts. He said he would sell within 90 days of appointment and abstain from any decision-making about companies in which he or his family has had an interest.

[Chemisse]

16. Really? How is this not a crime?

That's like insider trading on steroids!

[Grins]

24. Because it's legal.

Not legal for you, me, or anyone else, just Congress. They exempted themselves from inside trading laws.

[Bengus81]

18. Kind of like Pete Rose betting on baseball

Not hard to do when you've already stacked the deck in YOUR favor.

LOCK HIM UP,LOCK HIM UP!!

[Bengus81]

19. A scandal a day with this bunch,sometimes TWO per day......n/t

[Bengus81]

20. This clown is toast with the SEC,here's the law.....

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act ("STOCK" Act, Pub.L. 112–105, S. 2038, 126 Stat. 291, enacted April 4, 2012), is an Act of Congress designed to combat insider trading. It was signed into law by President Barack Obama on April 4, 2012. The bill prohibits the use of non-public information for private profit, including insider trading by members of Congress and other government employees. It confirms changes to the Commodity Exchange Act, specifies reporting intervals for financial transactions.

The bill was introduced by United States Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on January 26, 2012, and passed in the Senate by a 96-3 vote.[2] Later the House of Representatives passed it by a 417-2 vote.[3] The bill was supported heavily by vulnerable incumbents and signed into law by President Obama.[4] According to the current United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics, "A member, officer, or employee of the Senate shall not receive any compensation, nor shall he permit any compensation to accrue to his beneficial interest from any source, the receipt or accrual of which would occur by virtue of influence improperly exerted from his position as a member, officer, or employee"

[Bengus81]

21. Bump this!! n/t

[librechik]

23. That's legal in the Republican States of America, for Republicans

don't try it if you aren't in the Club.

[liberal N proud]

26. He will be confirmed regardless

As will the other corrupt nominees.

Congress is so corrupt, this will be validated and dismissed.