JimofPennsylvan
Platinum Member
- Jun 6, 2007
- 858
- 498
Senate Republicans will greatly disgrace themselves if they confirm the nomination of Tom Price. The long and short of it is that Tom Price does not have the requisite high quality character that the nominee for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human services should have at this critical time for America where it is clear that America's healthcare system is in a disastrous state and this Secretary will have to lead the fix of the system. The reasons for this conclusion involve Tom Price's own behavior as a Congressman over the last twelveyears which have shown that Congressman Price treated his job as not only one where he served the citizens of his district but he also served Tom Price increasing his financial wealth demonstrating clearly Mr. Price does not have first rate character as a public servant and the job he is seeking as a nominee requires such character.
The Innate Immunotherapeutics matter provides evidence in this regard. On August 31, 2016 Congressman Price purchased 50 to a 100 thousand dollars of Immunotherapeutics stock in a private placement where the stock was priced twelve percent below the market price. The key facts are that this stock is a penny stock where the companies only product line is an experimental drug for multiple sclerosis which is in the clinical trial stage. The largest stockholder in this company and a member of its Board of Directors is Congressman Price's good friend Congressman Chris Collins who told Congressman Price about the private placement. Another key fact is that this amount of investment is significantly higher than Congressman Price's typical investment level in a stock. The result was that the stock price (daily closing price) essentially steadily went higher it was over three times Congressman Price's purchase price in the interim recently there was a drop off in part because of the attention to the stock from this confirmation process today it is still over two times the original purchase price. It has never been proven that Congressman Price got inside information but the extremely suspicious facts have lead one reputable organization "Public Citizen" to write a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission asking for an investigation into insider trading for these two Congressman on this matter.
The investment in six drug companies shortly before becoming a key leader in a Congressional initiative to kill a Medicare initiative that would have hurt these drug companies provides evidence in this regard. The facts are these pursuant to Time magazine. Some background last year the public was really up-in-arms about the huge and "out of the ordinary" price increases that the pharmaceutical industry was pushing through on the American people. On March 8 2016 Medicare came out with a proposal to lower drug cost for seniors and these are the details. For certain doctor specialties like cancer and arthritis the doctors go out and buy drugs and administer these drugs to their patients the way Medicare pays these doctors is they get compensation of six percent of the price of the drug for doing this service for their patient; the proposal was to lower the compensation to two percent of the price of the drug plus a flat fee which would reduce the incentive for these doctors to use high price branded name drugs. On March 17 2016 Congressman Price's stockbroker purchased for the Congressman between one and fifteen thousand dollars of stock for each of six drug companies which stood to benefit if this Medicare proposal was derailed. On April 15th Congressman Price signs off on financial disclosure forms he must submit to the House indicating he had knowledge of these purchases; now Congressman Price never tells his broker to sell these stocks because he is going to embark on a Congressional effort to help these companies but just embarks on the effort. On April 29 2016 Congressman Price co-sponsors legislation that would have blocked this Medicare rule change if it ever went through and on May 2 2016 Congressman Price is a co-signatory on a bi-partisan letter sent that day to the acting administrator of Medicare calling on the agency not to go through with this proposal. As it turns out this congressional effort along with a huge lobbying effort killed this Medicare proposal. Bottom line is that from an ethics standpoint a Congressman should not see a problem in the country go out and buy stocks in companies affected by the problem that commence and be part of a huge campaign to solve the problem it runs too contrary to the critical work of a Congressperson for America!
The McKesson corporation matter provides evidence here. One of McKesson principle businesses is selling medical equipment. Last year Medicare proposed reducing the compensation for durable medical equipment suppliers for medicare patients. Media reports were that on March 17th 2016 Congressman Price's stockbroker purchased one to fifteen thousand dollars worth of McKesson corporation stock for the Congressman and on April 4 2016 Congressman Price was notified of this purchase. On May 12 2016 Congressman Price sponsors legislation to delay these cuts the bill passes the House but dies in the Senate but some elements of the bill are part of a later bill that becomes law and these Medicare cuts never go through. Again Congressman Price shouldn't be involved in going out and buying stock in a company that stands to be benefit significantly from Congressional efforts the Congressmen is about to embark on.
Congressman Price seems to not place the highest priority on being honest. For his December 2016 financial filing he significantly undervalued the price of his Immunotherapeutics stock and had to amend it. On the questionnaire related to this confirmation process from the Senate Finance committee Congressman Price wrongly checked the "No" box for a question on whether he was ever subject to an ethics complaint or investigation; this was wrong because in 2010 Congressman price was investigated for possibly improperly raising campaign funds from lobbyists although no action was brought against the Congressman for this matter. Cabinet nominees tack record as it relates to character matters in the confirmation process; it mattered for Democrat nominees Tom Daschle and Bill Richardson in the past and it should matter for Republican nominee Tom Price in the present!
The Innate Immunotherapeutics matter provides evidence in this regard. On August 31, 2016 Congressman Price purchased 50 to a 100 thousand dollars of Immunotherapeutics stock in a private placement where the stock was priced twelve percent below the market price. The key facts are that this stock is a penny stock where the companies only product line is an experimental drug for multiple sclerosis which is in the clinical trial stage. The largest stockholder in this company and a member of its Board of Directors is Congressman Price's good friend Congressman Chris Collins who told Congressman Price about the private placement. Another key fact is that this amount of investment is significantly higher than Congressman Price's typical investment level in a stock. The result was that the stock price (daily closing price) essentially steadily went higher it was over three times Congressman Price's purchase price in the interim recently there was a drop off in part because of the attention to the stock from this confirmation process today it is still over two times the original purchase price. It has never been proven that Congressman Price got inside information but the extremely suspicious facts have lead one reputable organization "Public Citizen" to write a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission asking for an investigation into insider trading for these two Congressman on this matter.
The investment in six drug companies shortly before becoming a key leader in a Congressional initiative to kill a Medicare initiative that would have hurt these drug companies provides evidence in this regard. The facts are these pursuant to Time magazine. Some background last year the public was really up-in-arms about the huge and "out of the ordinary" price increases that the pharmaceutical industry was pushing through on the American people. On March 8 2016 Medicare came out with a proposal to lower drug cost for seniors and these are the details. For certain doctor specialties like cancer and arthritis the doctors go out and buy drugs and administer these drugs to their patients the way Medicare pays these doctors is they get compensation of six percent of the price of the drug for doing this service for their patient; the proposal was to lower the compensation to two percent of the price of the drug plus a flat fee which would reduce the incentive for these doctors to use high price branded name drugs. On March 17 2016 Congressman Price's stockbroker purchased for the Congressman between one and fifteen thousand dollars of stock for each of six drug companies which stood to benefit if this Medicare proposal was derailed. On April 15th Congressman Price signs off on financial disclosure forms he must submit to the House indicating he had knowledge of these purchases; now Congressman Price never tells his broker to sell these stocks because he is going to embark on a Congressional effort to help these companies but just embarks on the effort. On April 29 2016 Congressman Price co-sponsors legislation that would have blocked this Medicare rule change if it ever went through and on May 2 2016 Congressman Price is a co-signatory on a bi-partisan letter sent that day to the acting administrator of Medicare calling on the agency not to go through with this proposal. As it turns out this congressional effort along with a huge lobbying effort killed this Medicare proposal. Bottom line is that from an ethics standpoint a Congressman should not see a problem in the country go out and buy stocks in companies affected by the problem that commence and be part of a huge campaign to solve the problem it runs too contrary to the critical work of a Congressperson for America!
The McKesson corporation matter provides evidence here. One of McKesson principle businesses is selling medical equipment. Last year Medicare proposed reducing the compensation for durable medical equipment suppliers for medicare patients. Media reports were that on March 17th 2016 Congressman Price's stockbroker purchased one to fifteen thousand dollars worth of McKesson corporation stock for the Congressman and on April 4 2016 Congressman Price was notified of this purchase. On May 12 2016 Congressman Price sponsors legislation to delay these cuts the bill passes the House but dies in the Senate but some elements of the bill are part of a later bill that becomes law and these Medicare cuts never go through. Again Congressman Price shouldn't be involved in going out and buying stock in a company that stands to be benefit significantly from Congressional efforts the Congressmen is about to embark on.
Congressman Price seems to not place the highest priority on being honest. For his December 2016 financial filing he significantly undervalued the price of his Immunotherapeutics stock and had to amend it. On the questionnaire related to this confirmation process from the Senate Finance committee Congressman Price wrongly checked the "No" box for a question on whether he was ever subject to an ethics complaint or investigation; this was wrong because in 2010 Congressman price was investigated for possibly improperly raising campaign funds from lobbyists although no action was brought against the Congressman for this matter. Cabinet nominees tack record as it relates to character matters in the confirmation process; it mattered for Democrat nominees Tom Daschle and Bill Richardson in the past and it should matter for Republican nominee Tom Price in the present!
