Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R)’s family and business partner have been receiving payments from a secret Political Action Committee called Real PAC. Half a million dollars of the money donated to the PAC has come from corporate health care interests which — like the governor and Georgia state Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens — oppose the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “Obamacare.”
According to investigative reporter Jim Walls of Atlanta Unfiltered, the PAC hasn’t filed taxes or the required financial disclosures in two years, and the information it did file for 2011 was incorrect.
Contributors to Real PAC include Aetna, Humana, Blue Cross, United Health care and other interests that want to keep health insurance premiums and other costs as high as possible. Bryan Long of activist group Better Georgia told Raw Story that the list of donors shows who Gov. Deal really works for.
“He goes out and he does their bidding,” Long said, “He’s working for them instead of working for the 650,000 Georgians who don’t have insurance at all or access to the Medicaid expansion.”
“What’s remarkable about this isn’t that there’s money in politics,” he continued. “We all know there’s money in politics. He knew that this was so wrong that he didn’t want to tell anyone. He tried to keep it a secret for two years.”
Okay folks if this is happening in Georgia you know, you just KNOW, it is happening in every other state with a Republican governor as well.
I would bet dollars to donuts that my Governor is on the take. These insurance companies see the writing on the wall and they are going to do everything in their power to try and stop the administration from implementing the Affordable Care Act.
Hopefully the few good journalists still left in these states will see this and launch investigation of their own.
I live in MS and I can't say with any certainty that our governor is on the take. But with all the "tea baggers" and right wingers he may not be offered any money since he has the backing of all these uninformed Mississippians. However, when he does a 180 like Jan Brewer, we'll see...
ReplyDeleteThere are so few good investigative reporters left. I wish someone would tweet this story to Rachel Maddow or Ed Shultz...I don't tweet. It needs media coverage and should be exposed.
ReplyDeleteSecret PAC pays Georgia governor to block Obamacare. I'm saddened that this does not surprise me.
ReplyDeleteThat's what PACs are for. It serves the person who has an agenda but doesn't want to use their own money. Also it is an excellent way to get get rich without having to work.
That can't possibly be true. The Palins are hard workers, all of them.
DeleteAnon 5:37 yeah, they work hard at lying and grifting....sure the Palins' work ethic is real strong. (snark)
DeleteIn Alaska is it acceptable to enter "Pimp" or "Sex Trafficker" in your tax forms?
DeleteProper names are Bidnessman or Entre-manure.
DeleteWait until SarahPac is investigated and watch you know who blame it on the fundraiser fall guy.
ReplyDeleteBest Government money can buy. And suckers vote against their own best interests for them.
ReplyDeleteWell, I live in AK and I can't even afford the minimum of coverage from the two companies that are offering it via Federal Exchange. I'm simply not going to participate and see in 2015 what my tax hit will be for not buying into a plan. The Federal Exchange under ACA for Alaska through the two companies participating is $100 more per month than the Blue Cross that I cancelled three years ago; also it's a $10000 deductible. What's the point? Those of us whose governors have not created an exchange simply should wait it out and see in 5 or 10 years what will happen once enough people don't participate. We'll still keep going to emergency rooms for health care and if there is a major medical involvement we'll have bills we simply cannot pay. There will be an adjustment once people on the fringe are taken into account, or not, then we'll just keep doing what we do.
ReplyDeleteWe'll still keep going to emergency rooms for health care …
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
I see your point with the wiki Ted, but if you can't afford $400/month for a $10000 deductible then what choice do we have? If I had that money in the first place I'd have kept my BlueCross plan for $400/month, but I can't afford it so if things get tragic then someone else will have to pay the bill.
DeleteI do hold out hope that in time even the Alaskan government will see the benefit of participating in ACA, until then I'll just not be able to participate.
… if you can't afford $400/month for a $10000 deductible then what choice do we have?
DeleteI don't know what impact the intransigence of the Alaska government has, but there are supposed to be subsidies available, starting in 2014. If you haven't already, you should find someone who (a) is knowledgeable, and (b) doesn't feel that because it was the President's idea it must be made to fail.
Yea, Gov Sean Parnell (Palin Toadie) decided that the people of Alaska were not worth establishing a state Healthcare Insurance Exchange, as well as a $1M planning grant for said exchange.
DeleteMy guess is if you are not able to afford the premiums expected from the plans available you are probably eligible for a subsidy.
Hopefully, the country will wind up with single payer healthcare for all. The ACA is a start, but not ideal. If your income is low, there is a subsidy from the government to help defray costs. You may not be paying the entire $400 monthly payment.
DeleteUnder the Affordable Care Act (ACA), individuals who purchase insurance after January 1, 2014 through an Exchange will be eligible for subsidies for health insurance premiums and cost-sharing if their income is less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) -- $89,00 for a family of four in 2011. FPL amounts are updated annually to reflect inflation. Individuals who get insurance through their employer can get subsidized coverage in an Exchange if their premiums are unaffordable (more than 9.5 percent of their household income) or the plan is inadequate (pays less than 60 percent of the cost of covered benefits).
http://101.communitycatalyst.org/aca_provisions/subsidies
Makes me immediately think of gov Parnell (limp dick) that is also a Republican, but in Alaska. He is a close friend and associate of the idiot Sarah Palin!! Go figure!!!!!
ReplyDeleteCheck what he is doing w/Obamacare in the Anchorage Daily News. He's a total asshole and could care less about Alaskans - especially those that are needy!
Hope your Governor Parnell brings more than a tray of stale cookies for his photo op with the Native Alaskans. Your last quitter governor was a piece of work.
DeleteIf you like free vacations and traveling, start a PAC
ReplyDeleteIf you go here and punch in Real PAC it turns up no listings. Neither does Real Political Action Committee. If you leave the setting at "any" and change the Status to "all completed forms" you still get nothing. I tried it for Income and the other options listed.
ReplyDeleteMaybe someone would like to double-check my findings. Maybe they didn't figure Alaska was worth the effort?
Other states have Public Offices Commissions and you should be able to find them online.
https://aws.state.ak.us/ApocReports/CampaignDisclosure/CDIncome.aspx
OT but I was browsing through the blog roll on the left. <<<<< That'a way.<<<<<<
ReplyDeleteSerpent's Heart's latest post has a comment with a link to Joey Junker's Insta-gram account. The photo was posted the other day. The next poster says photo is of Bristol doing some gang symbol things with her hands at a spot where kids under 14 hang out (near the bar where Bristol is said to hangout).
Now my question is...and I guess the answer is obvious...doesn't she know better than to do gang symbols for a camera? That could come back to haunt her (and Sarah since it's Me and Mini-Me)as it won't sit well with their Christian supporters.
Some people too easily show their real character: hanging out with 14 year olds, AND acting like a gang member. (If it had been a 21 or 22 year old MAN hanging around a kids' place, someone would have called the police--and rightly so!).
Why do the Palins get cut so much slack? And get away with so much?
I live in Texas and I would be shocked if Governor Rick(All Hair,No Integrity) Perry was not taking boat load of money from the Insurance companies. The man has never had job outside of Government and is a millionaire.
ReplyDeleteOhio here..and I feel completely sure thaf Kasich is taking tjis money too. Once a crook, always a crook!
DeleteJuly 19, 2013 — A political committee run by close associates of Gov. Nathan Deal has pocketed at least $327,500 since 2012 without reporting it, apparently skirting disclosure rules and the federal tax code.
ReplyDeleteMajor benefactors of the committee, Real PAC, include health-care interests seeking tens of millions — even billions — of dollars in business with state government. One donor, WellCare of Georgia, gave Real PAC $50,000 on the same day that state Medicaid officials said they planned to extend WellCare’s $1 billion-a-year contract for two years.
Real PAC’s other big undisclosed donors, identified by searching other PAC’s expenditures, include:
United Health Group Inc. ($50,000), one of two insurers covering employees and retirees in the State Health Benefit Plan;
BlueCross BlueShield of Georgia ($50,000), considered by some to be the front-runner to become the sole insurer for that benefit plan, replacing United Health and Cigna; and
Georgia’s nursing home lobby ($70,000), which this year won a $10 million hike in a so-called “bed tax” that will bring an additional $20 million in federal funds to Georgia nursing homes. Lawmakers at the time had the jitters over possible political backlash if they renewed a much larger bed tax for hospitals. The Georgia Health Care Association, the nursing homes’ trade group, wrote a $50,000 check to Real PAC in December; its president spent $73 on dinner that same day for Deal, whose staff was preparing budget recommendations that would include the bed tax.
Real PAC has not disclosed those gifts or any others since December 2011, when it last filed a campaign finance report with the state ethics commission. The PAC registered with the IRS in 2011 but since then has filed no reports of donations and spending with that agency.
Rick Thompson, the PAC’s treasurer and a former executive secretary of the ethics commission, said it never had to file in Georgia because it made no contributions to political candidates.
Nationally recognized experts on federal campaign finance law, though, say groups organized like Real PAC cannot avoid disclosures altogether.
“You’ve got to disclose to somebody,” said Professor Ellen P. Aprill of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Deal’s business partner, Ken Cronan, and Gainesville businessman Jim Walters, a lifelong friend of the governor’s, are the PAC’s secretary and chairman. Its name is a reference to Deal’s 2010 campaign slogan: “Deal. Real.” And its registered agent, Russell P. Love, is an attorney at McKenna Long & Aldridge, as is Deal’s high-profile attorney, Randy Evans.
But Real PAC, despite its name and its officers’ close ties to Deal, has operated independently of the Governor’s Office, Thompson said.
“This is an issue-advocacy organization,” he said. “It doesn’t coordinate with candidates or anything like that.”
Real PAC also does not appear to have filed annual tax returns with the IRS, as required by the federal tax code. None are listed on the IRS’ website, and PAC officials have not provided copies of such filings since Atlanta Unfiltered began asking for them in mid-June.
http://atlantaunfiltered.com/2013/07/19/deals-pals-pac-collected-302k-with-no-disclosure/
‘Real PAC’ Not Dealing With The Rules?
ReplyDeleteFile this under “This smells funny”. Atlanta Unfiltered is reporting that Deal’s close friends at ‘Real PAC’ collected an excess of $302,500 since 2012 and have skimmed over that whole federal tax code thing. The PAC, which filed with the IRS in 2011, has not filed expenditure reports or federal taxes since 2011. There also appears to be some interesting coincidences surrounding finances.
Donors and timing- it is indeed intriguing. Apparently WellCare of Georgia donated $50,000 to Real PAC on the same day that state Medicaid officials said they planned to extend the contract for WellCare, a two year contract totaling $2 billion. Other donors include United Health Group, Inc. (provider of State Health Benefits), BlueCross BlueShield of Georgia (an insurer seeking to replace United Health as a state provider), the Georgia Health Care Association, a key power player in the hospital “bed tax” issue during the 2013 legislative session and AT&T Georgia.
A ping pong match over whether disclosures are actually necessary seems to still be in play. Real PAC’s official status is “qualified state political organization”, or 527 filing, which is not required to file disclosures with the IRS but is required to report financial activity to the state.
Meanwhile, the Real PAC Chairman says he knows nothing of the finances for Real PAC. On the other hand, Real PAC’s treasurer, Rick Thompson, says Real PAC is not subject to Georgia disclosure laws because it made no contributions to political candidates. Thompson claims, “This is an issue-advocacy organization. It doesn’t coordinate with candidates or anything like that.” He also mentioned that Real PAC plans to dissolve in coming weeks.
All of this despite the “Real. Deal” campaign slogan. All of this despite the controversy over campaign contributions. I sense some very serious skirting, but in the mean time, the war chest continues to build- whether it’s direct or not.
http://www.peachpundit.com/2013/07/19/real-pac-not-dealing-with-the-rules/
As easy as this story is to believe, considering the behavior of the republican'ts, I still call bullshit. I think this "journalist" is just taking shots in the dark to see who scurries out into the light.
ReplyDeleteWhich isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I still call bullshit.
Just to be clear, I *absolutely* believe that large sums of money are going into republican coffers to combat Obamacare. The part I don't believe is the "intrepid investigative journalist uncovers PAC so secret it can't even be proven to exist and also too manages to obtain a complete donor list from said super-secret non-existent PAC".
DeleteBecause, you know, it totally makes perfect sense that anyone would bother creating a PAC, but without doing any of the actual legal paperwork (i.e. actually CREATING it), because there's no possible WAY they'd EVER get found out and arrested.
-Oh, and also all those major corporations funneling money into it wouldn't require proof of such legalistic details because you know how corporate stockholders are so historically lax about completely trusting CEOs and their middle-management minions to do whatever they want with their money... and it's not like the IRS would notice when they file tax returns showing large sums of money vanishing into non-existent PACs. Right?
Bullshit, I say.
Embrace ignorance, hug an idiot!
ReplyDeleteHuh? Rich white men in the south are getting financial support from insurance companies to undermine federal health care mandates? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.
ReplyDeleteWe are so deeply fucked.
I keep posting on Facebook, to the numbnuts who complain about Obamacare (using the verbatim bullshit they hear on Fox) that one MUST look into where the MONEY is coming from, to push all the propaganda about healthcare reform.
ReplyDeleteIt sure isn't a private citizen...at least not a NORMAL one (Kochs are the obvious exception to that rule).
And could anyone be naive enough to think hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to get people to hate Obamacare, by those who are simply concerned about their fellow man?
Its scary how dumb people can be.
What passes for "Issue Advocacy" in the Red States today used to be called exactly what it is: Bribery. And it was considered to be a criminal offense.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so naive that I think politics has ever existed without crooks and their corrupt cronies paying them under the table. But in the past, at least they went to prison whenever they were caught.
Nowadays, they're re-elected and if they bump up against term limits, they're put directly on the payroll as lobbyists or rainmakers by the firms that paid them while they were in office. We deserve better, but only if we demand better accountability of our public officials.
How am I not surprised? President Obama’s mistake was inviting the insurance industry to the table. But if he hadn’t he would have faced the same marginalization Hillary CLinton encountered when she attempted health care reform. There is nothing more evil than the insurance industry and it will do everything in its power to derail Obamacare.
ReplyDeleteAs a lifelong insurance agent, I was so disappointed when I first read the ACA...seeing it as a slight slap on the wrist to an industry that was severely screwing the American public for over a century.
ReplyDeleteBut the enforcement of the aspect that they have to either pay the occasional freaking CLAIM now and again, or have to refund their policyholders, is such a great START to healthcare reform.
Sad to report that the company that bought my company is in that list. Happy to report that I will continue to vociferously defend the ACA no matter who pays me.
ReplyDeletePut these evil people in jail, it's bribery pure and simple. They have so money to bribe, but can't pay a cent in taxes for education, roads or anything but war, and lining elected officials and rich people. They get richer we get poorer.
ReplyDeleteBackground on Nathan Deal:
ReplyDeleteHe was a Congressman who was under ethics investigation, and RESIGNED from Congress on the day the ethics investigation findings were coming out. By resigning, the findings were never made public.
Then he ran for Governor of Georgia and won. He beat a very good Dem candidate. The election was fishy...Georgia got a grade of F from the Federal Elections Commission for integrity of elections because of electronic voting machines without paper trails.
There is more stuff...his son-in-law filed bankruptcy and failing banks were linked to the Deal family, who got tons of $$ in loans from the failing banks.
I am convinced that Republicans in Georgia are cheating. There is a HUGE African American population in Atlanta, yet Obama did not carry Georgia. They have completely rigged the system there, a full investigation should be completed.
I can't stand Georgia, don't ever move there, it is soooo corrupt.