As noted by Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, when asked to explain former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson’s interest in running against Democratic U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, his advisors point to two votes by Sen. Feingold: his vote in support of the health care reform bill and his vote in support of the stimulus package. In fact, Bill McCoshen, Thompson confidant (and über-lobbyist) has noted Thompson is “disturbed” at the direction those two votes by Sen. Feingold are taking the country.
However, what most folks don’t know is that despite being “disturbed” by Sen. Feingold’s vote on the stimulus bill, Tommy Thompson is closely tied to several companies that have benefited directly (and handsomely, I might add) from the stimulus bill (emphasis mine):
For example, he is the president of Logistics Health Inc., a medical services firm based in La Crosse. Records show the company has won three stimulus contracts from Thompson’s former federal agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for $277,000.
While running unsuccessfully for president in 2007, Thompson disclosed that he received big consulting fees from pharmaceutical giant Novartis. The international company has been awarded three contracts under the stimulus plan for a whopping $46.9 million.
Thompson also was, until last year, the independent chairman of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, an arm of major accounting firm Deloitte & Touche.
The accounting giant and its consulting affiliate have received 10 contracts and two subcontracts under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the official name of the stimulus plan, according to federal records. The total amount of taxpayer dollars to be paid under these 12 deals is more than $24 million.
By my count, companies Tommy Thompson is closely tied to reaped $71 million in stimulus funds, leaving me to wonder if Thompson is really as “disturbed” by the direction the stimulus is taking the nation as he wants voters to think he is.
So you expect corporations to take a political stand when the government is handing out money? That is like asking a business owner to ask every customer “Gee are you sure you can afford this? Are sure this is really a good idea?” No, if the customer hands over the credit card and wants the item, who is the owner to argue? The same applies here, that is for the government to decide what the government can afford and its best interests are.
Your links to Tommy are a little shoddy too. In the case of Novartis he simply did consulting a few years ago. Is he supposed to step in now before an international company and say don’t take stimulus money? The same is true for Deloitte where you say he was the chairman until last year, before stimulus money was even around.
Yeah, it’s sorta like Rush Limbaugh wanting to throw crack users into the slammer for life while strung out on illegally obtained pharmaceuticals…