Newt Gingrich earned millions from the health care industry

while lobbying Congress to change health care policy.





while

Newt Gingrich earned millions from the health care industrywhile lobbying Congress to change health care policy.

A think tank founded by GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health-care companies and industry groups, offering special access to the former House speaker and other perks, according to records and interviews. The Center for Health Transformation, which opened in 2003, brought in dues of as much as $200,000 per year from insurers and other health-care firms, offering some of them “access to Newt Gingrich” and “direct Newt interaction,” according to promotional materials. The biggest funders, including firms such as AstraZeneca, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Novo Nordisk, were also eligible to receive discounts on “products and workshops” from other Gingrich groups.

Holy smoke, being a housing historian sure does pay well

The key thing to realize about The Center for Health Transformation is that it's not a think-tank in the traditional sense—it's a for-profit project of The Gingrich Group. In fact, gingrichgroup.com takes you to CHT's website. And his "work" there paid for many trips to Tiffany: according to his financial disclosure forms, his stake in the firm contributes boosts his net worth by up to $25 million.

Given all that, here's the story's real punchline:

The health center advocated, among other things, requiring that “anyone who earns more than $50,000 a year must purchase health insurance or post a bond,” a type of insurance mandate that has since become anathema to conservatives. The group also pushed proposals to build centralized electronic medical records and use such data to research treatment effectiveness, both central features of President Obama’s health-care reforms.

So Newt Gingrich traded in his influence for cold hard cash and he supported policies that smell a lot like key provisions of President Obama's health care plan. In other words, he's everything tea partiers claim to hate ... and yet he's their favorite candidate. Which means that if Newt Gingrich is a joke ... then the joke's on them.