reminder that this senator is the Republican who likely committed all kinds of fraud and crimes in the private sector. He's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. No wonder he wants lower taxes on rich people. He stole his fortune from taxpayers, now he doesn't want to pay taxes on it.
During Scott's 2000 deposition, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment 75 times.[37] In settlements reached in 2000 and 2002, Columbia/HCA pleaded guilty to 14 felonies and agreed to a $600+ million fine in what was at the time the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history. Columbia/HCA admitted systematically overcharging the government by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable, by striking illegal deals with home care agencies, and by filing false data about use of hospital space. It also admitted to fraudulently billing Medicare and other health programs by inflating the seriousness of diagnoses and to giving doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. It filed false cost reports, fraudulently billing Medicare for home health care workers, and paid kickbacks in the sale of home health agencies and to doctors to refer patients. In addition, it gave doctors "loans" never intending to be repaid, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies.[38][7]
Any comment on Biden's new chief of staff's history of medicare fraud?
sounds like he was a private equity investor in some companies that committed some medicare fraud.
I'm assuming Zients didn't personally work for those companies or tell them how to operate, but I'm sure reporters will let us know if he did.
Being an investor in a company that commits fraud doesn't mean you have anything to do with the fraud.
The GOP is either stuffed full of morans or they think their voters are morans. THere is no alternative.
Here a sitting US senator is STILL pitching the absurd notion that the US would have higher tax receipts if it cut taxes.
Are R voters truly so stupid that they still think this and STILL want rich people to pay less in taxes? That lower taxes would balance the budget? Or do GOP politicians simply think their voters are that stupid?
Good gawd that party.
Rick Scott @SenRickScott Cut taxes. Grow revenue. Get big government out of the way. That's how we balance the budget.
You recently tried to argue that the $2T stimulus among other things paid for itself in higher tax receipts, which is even worse
I don't think I ever said that the stimulus paid for itself. I probably said something like 'the deficit would have been even larger had the stimulus not happened, because economic activity and tax revenue would have fallen off enormously.' Meaning tax revenue would have collapsed among -10% GDP growth and very high unemployment.
But that's not saying that the stimulus paid for itself - it obviously did not. Debt/gdp is higher now than it was before.
The morons at Brookings completely ignored the growth of the economy which was triggered by the tax cuts. They admit that revenues increased but argue that they would have been higher assuming the same growth with the old rates. This is an idiotic argument. Without the tax cuts the growth doesn't occur. The entire point of tax cuts is to inject capital into the market and grow the economy.
They say that revenues increased in raw number but fell when you account for inflation only. Not even projected growth. Just inflation
The morons at Brookings completely ignored the growth of the economy which was triggered by the tax cuts. They admit that revenues increased but argue that they would have been higher assuming the same growth with the old rates. This is an idiotic argument. Without the tax cuts the growth doesn't occur. The entire point of tax cuts is to inject capital into the market and grow the economy.
They say that revenues increased in raw number but fell when you account for inflation only. Not even projected growth. Just inflation
Now put your thinking cap on. If revenues went up despite the tax rates being lowered what happened to your taxable income.
Any comment on Biden's new chief of staff's history of medicare fraud?
sounds like he was a private equity investor in some companies that committed some medicare fraud.
I'm assuming Zients didn't personally work for those companies or tell them how to operate, but I'm sure reporters will let us know if he did.
Being an investor in a company that commits fraud doesn't mean you have anything to do with the fraud.
Nope.
The investment firm he founded owned a piece of the company
Jeffrey Zients, who is reportedly slated to become President Joe Biden’s next chief of staff, has a long history of allegedly accumulating wealth via questionable business practices and helping guide federal healthcare policy. Zients most recently served in the Biden White House from the president’s inauguration until April of 2022 as Coronavirus Response Coordinator. Prior to that, Zients was involved in the leadership of several healthcare companies that were forced to pay millions of dollars in fines for alleged Medicare and Medicaid fraud, as first reported by the American Prospect. Prior to serving in the Biden White House, Zients’ most notable governmental experience came when he was brought on by the Obama team to help fix the rollout of Healthcare.gov, the online Affordable Care Act exchange. At the time, some critics accused him of having a conflict of interest due to his stake in Pediatric Services of America Healthcare (PSA Healthcare), a company that provides pediatric home healthcare services, The New York Times reported. (RELATED: Ex-White House COVID Czar To Become Biden’s New Chief Of Staff: REPORT) In 2015, Portfolio Logic — an investment firm founded by Zients that had an ownership stake in PSA Healthcare — was forced to pay $6.88 million by the Justice Department (DOJ) for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid and violating state regulations for payment claims. PSA had overstated the length of certain services covered by Medicare and Medicaid and failed to return overpayments from the programs, according to the DOJ. Amedisys Home Health Companies, another huge healthcare provider that Portfolio Logic owned a stake in, settled with the DOJ for $150 million in 2014 for Medicare fraud, the American Prospect reported.
Most recently, before becoming White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, Zients helped start Wall Street investment firm Cranemere. Cranemere acquired several healthcare companies accused of engaging in surprise billing practices and medical malpractice, like NorthStar, which has a reputation for surprising patients with huge bills for “out of network” healthcare, according to the Prospect.
NEW: California state bar regulators announced they've filed a disciplinary case against Trump lawyer John Eastman re: 2020, and will seek to disbar him. More to come.
NEW: California state bar regulators announced they've filed a disciplinary case against Trump lawyer John Eastman re: 2020, and will seek to disbar him. More to come.
DEM crime blotter:
Joe Biden used his crackhead son to help him launder money and Biden's corrupt treasury department is refusing to cooperate with congressional inquiries.
sounds like he was a private equity investor in some companies that committed some medicare fraud.
I'm assuming Zients didn't personally work for those companies or tell them how to operate, but I'm sure reporters will let us know if he did.
Being an investor in a company that commits fraud doesn't mean you have anything to do with the fraud.
Nope.
The investment firm he founded owned a piece of the company
Jeffrey Zients, who is reportedly slated to become President Joe Biden’s next chief of staff, has a long history of allegedly accumulating wealth via questionable business practices and helping guide federal healthcare policy. Zients most recently served in the Biden White House from the president’s inauguration until April of 2022 as Coronavirus Response Coordinator. Prior to that, Zients was involved in the leadership of several healthcare companies that were forced to pay millions of dollars in fines for alleged Medicare and Medicaid fraud, as first reported by the American Prospect. Prior to serving in the Biden White House, Zients’ most notable governmental experience came when he was brought on by the Obama team to help fix the rollout of Healthcare.gov, the online Affordable Care Act exchange. At the time, some critics accused him of having a conflict of interest due to his stake in Pediatric Services of America Healthcare (PSA Healthcare), a company that provides pediatric home healthcare services, The New York Times reported. (RELATED: Ex-White House COVID Czar To Become Biden’s New Chief Of Staff: REPORT) In 2015, Portfolio Logic — an investment firm founded by Zients that had an ownership stake in PSA Healthcare — was forced to pay $6.88 million by the Justice Department (DOJ) for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid and violating state regulations for payment claims. PSA had overstated the length of certain services covered by Medicare and Medicaid and failed to return overpayments from the programs, according to the DOJ. Amedisys Home Health Companies, another huge healthcare provider that Portfolio Logic owned a stake in, settled with the DOJ for $150 million in 2014 for Medicare fraud, the American Prospect reported.
Most recently, before becoming White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, Zients helped start Wall Street investment firm Cranemere. Cranemere acquired several healthcare companies accused of engaging in surprise billing practices and medical malpractice, like NorthStar, which has a reputation for surprising patients with huge bills for “out of network” healthcare, according to the Prospect.
what exactly do you think 'investor' means? Yes. Zients' company owned a piece of the bad companies. They were investors. That's what I said. They did not operate the companies, as far as I know.
Whereas the 'law and order conservative' R senator scott was not only an investor his his company, he was CEO and chairman. Meaning he operated it. In fact he was in charge of it. And he plead the fifth amendment.
Durham report ends up finding nothing of course. Expect a ton of of similar nothing from the GOP. Hey maybe the GOP congress will look into the durham report as an obvious weaponization of the federal government.
NYT:
WASHINGTON — It became a regular litany of grievances from President Donald J. Trump and his supporters: The investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia was a witch hunt, they maintained, that had been opened without any solid basis, went on too long and found no proof of collusion. Egged on by Mr. Trump, Attorney General William P. Barr set out in 2019 to dig into their shared theory that the Russia investigation likely stemmed from a conspiracy by intelligence or law enforcement agencies. To lead the inquiry, Mr. Barr turned to a hard-nosed prosecutor named John H. Durham, and later granted him special counsel status to carry on after Mr. Trump left office. But after almost four years — far longer than the Russia investigation itself — Mr. Durham’s work is coming to an end without uncovering anything like the deep state plot alleged by Mr. Trump and suspected by Mr. Barr.
Barr and Durham never disclosed that their inquiry expanded in autumn 2019, based on a tip from Italian officials, to include a criminal investigation into suspicious financial dealings related to Trump. The specifics of the tip and how they handled the investigation remain unclear, but Durham brought no charges over it.
Durham used Russian intelligence memos — suspected by other U.S. officials of containing disinformation — to gain access to emails of an aide to George Soros, the financier and philanthropist who is a favorite target of the American right and Russian state media. Durham used grand-jury powers to keep pursuing the emails even after a judge twice rejected his request for access to them. The emails yielded no evidence that Durham has cited in any case he pursued.
Durham report ends up finding nothing of course. Expect a ton of of similar nothing from the GOP. Hey maybe the GOP congress will look into the durham report as an obvious weaponization of the federal government.
NYT:
WASHINGTON — It became a regular litany of grievances from President Donald J. Trump and his supporters: The investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia was a witch hunt, they maintained, that had been opened without any solid basis, went on too long and found no proof of collusion. Egged on by Mr. Trump, Attorney General William P. Barr set out in 2019 to dig into their shared theory that the Russia investigation likely stemmed from a conspiracy by intelligence or law enforcement agencies. To lead the inquiry, Mr. Barr turned to a hard-nosed prosecutor named John H. Durham, and later granted him special counsel status to carry on after Mr. Trump left office. But after almost four years — far longer than the Russia investigation itself — Mr. Durham’s work is coming to an end without uncovering anything like the deep state plot alleged by Mr. Trump and suspected by Mr. Barr.
Barr and Durham never disclosed that their inquiry expanded in autumn 2019, based on a tip from Italian officials, to include a criminal investigation into suspicious financial dealings related to Trump. The specifics of the tip and how they handled the investigation remain unclear, but Durham brought no charges over it.
Durham used Russian intelligence memos — suspected by other U.S. officials of containing disinformation — to gain access to emails of an aide to George Soros, the financier and philanthropist who is a favorite target of the American right and Russian state media. Durham used grand-jury powers to keep pursuing the emails even after a judge twice rejected his request for access to them. The emails yielded no evidence that Durham has cited in any case he pursued.
yeah and the FBI asked Durham to look into a possible DJT crime. That sounds like a bad decision. A special investigator is supposed to be focused.
And the twist is that the news media found out that the Durham investigation had turned into a criminal investigation and pushed the idea FBI agents would be indicted. Which was not true - the criminal investigation was into Trump.
Of course Barr did nothing to fight this lie.
We'll be suffering from trumpists for generations. Nightmare.
I haven't educated you Trumper morans in a while, so let me indulge:
You guys allowed bald-faced dishonesty and scuminess to be normalized in your tribe. To an extent WAY beyond on anything the Ds have recently done, OR the Rs (see Nixon being sent packing by a past version of the Rs).
Folks not in your tribe noticed this. Some D (Zients?) might ACTUALLY be the anti-christ, but clear-thinking Americans simply are NOT going to believe you, or R-supporting media like Fox. And they're right not to trust sources that could defend or excuse 6 years of Trumpism. All you did was push possible political/social allies TOWARDS the left-leaning MSM you so dislike.
Put another way: In the not-so-distant past, Clinton (lying about sex) and Obama (probably more-or-less lying about keeping your health insurance) actually paid prices for their dishonesty. Would they today? You surely would want them to. But you've (zealously) supported the erasure of standards and the lowering of bars. I guess that you forget that you DO pay a price for that, whether you want to admit it, or not.
You COULD decide the following: "Hey, there are folks out there who share my politics but aren't as*h****s and liars. I'll support them, not the Trumpers. And, of course, I'll hold D politicians to the same standards."
No reason in the world to believe that that CONSISTENCY would cause a net hurt to the R/conservative cause.
And yet you continue on that track. And you have the nerve to whine when folks not in your tribe don't take at face value every (or any) hyperbolic or flat-out dishonest claim you make about people in the other tribe. MO-RANS.
Biden continues to politicize and undermine the legitimacy of the court system. I thought he was supposed to be the responsible guy who didn't do sh!t like this.
Look, the opponents suing to stop my plan are the only thing standing between millions of Americans’ crushing student debt and relief. It’s frustrating, and I won’t stop fighting to get it done in the courts.
Biden continues to politicize and undermine the legitimacy of the court system. I thought he was supposed to be the responsible guy who didn't do sh!t like this.
I didn't watch the viddie but the text is that Biden was slamming the people who sued to stop the program, not the courts. No disrespect was aimed at the courts.
