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Via the Washington Independent:
Betsy McCaughey — an outspoken proponent of the myth that Democrats’ health care reform proposals will lead to the creation of “death panels,” as well as a former lieutenant governor of New York and adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute — has stepped down from her position as a director of Cantel Medical Corp., which bills itself as a “leading provider of infection prevention and control products in the healthcare market.”
That would be six months after Think Progress called her out for a potential pay-for-play, her shilling for their stock options:
Ideology may not be the only factor driving Betsy McCaughey’s propaganda campaign against two health care provisions in the stimulus bill.
As Health Care Renewal points out, “not noted in Betsy McCaughey’s op-ed article was that she is currently on the board of directors of Cantel Medical, a device company, and formerly on the board of Genta, a biotechnology company.”
In fact, according to a Statement of Changes in Beneficial Ownership Securities from the Securities and Exchange Commission, McCaughey received 750 shares of stock options just days before writing the Bloomberg op-ed. Then, the total worth of the shares was approximately $11,250.
Since that op-ed, McCaughey has kept on shilling, and was rhetorically destroyed for her lies by Jon Stewart last night. Now, along with Dick Armey, she’s out of her cushy corporate gig, which up until now allowed them the luxury to lie about health care in their free time. Marcy Wheeler wonders if she’ll take COBRA for her health care now. I wonder if she’ll get on government-run Medicare when she turns 65 in four years.
Either way, good riddance. Now if we could only get the mainstream media to stop booking her…
28 Comments
COBRA? How fitting for that snake.
Betsy sure spent a great deal of time continuing to try to scare seniors during that interview with Stewart.
cobra only last for what – 18 months or so? i guess she is gonna have a gap those last couple years before she jumps on medicare – hope she has no pre-existing conditions in her 61 years that will preclude her getting coverage.
I wonder how she feels about getting that socialized health care that seniors get at age 65?
Hello all. Saw much gloom and doom on a previous thread re the PO. I will believe it is dead when Jane says so. Until then we fight on.
Watched Jon Stewart have his way with the lying betsy just a few minutes ago. Solid job by Jon. I suppose the difference between her (and people like her) and me is that I am not capable of selling my soul for a few bucks.
Thanks for the post Jason.
We’ve only begun to fight.
Yeah, like that will happen. Especially since we know how often folks like Tom Delay get booked.
Yay! And yes, it would be interesting to hear what she does when COBRA runs out on her!
She can apply for Obamacare
I can hear her now, “I just didn’t know how expensive Cobra was.” Then, when she can’t get insurance, because she is too old (a pre-existing condition).
She is such an annoying bitch. Did you notice that she wasn’t really talking to John, but kept looking out to the audience and pointing her finger at them like they were going to be just so impressed with her lying tongue that they would believe everything she said? Not once did the audience even acknowledge her spew.
As my grandma used to say “the chickens come home to roost.”
So Betsy’s mouth just got to be too much for her gig. Nice.
Speaking of Dick Armey–anybody seen THIS yet?
Abramoff-Connected Indictment Issued for Former Armey Aide
By Jennifer Yachnin
Roll Call Staff
Aug. 21, 2009, 5:52 p.m.
Abramoff-Connected Indictment Issued for Former Armey Aide
The Justice Department issued a five-count indictment Friday against a former aide to then-Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) in the ongoing influence-peddling investigation tied to disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Horace Cooper, who worked on the Hill from 1994 until late 2001, is charged with conspiracy, fraudulent concealment, false statements and obstruction of an official proceeding.
According to the indictment, Cooper accepted more than $5,000 worth of gifts from Abramoff and his colleagues between 1998 and 2000, during which time he served as director of coalitions in the Majority Leader’s office.
The gifts included tickets to professional sporting events, as well as concerts such as ’Nsync and the Dixie Chicks.
The indictment also charges Cooper with accepting an additional $9,000 in similar gifts during his subsequent tenure as an official at Voice of American and then the Labor Department. Those gifts also included meals at Abramoff’s now-defunct Signatures restaurant.
Cooper is scheduled to appear in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sept. 9.________________________________________The Hill
Oooh, he’s lucky that Dixie Chicks concert was before they went to England and bashed the CinC!
The statement was “stepped down” which speaks of a generous severance package.
standard CCOBRA is 18 months at the COBRA rate which is 100% premium and extension for 11 months. If a person was involuntary terminated they are elig for a 35% reduction premium.
Actually it’s a 65% subsidy paid by the USG to the insurer, so the premium that the subscriber pays is only 35% of the 100% premium formerly paid by the employer. Getting mine set up right now.
Hey, I think they(Dixie Chicks) have been vindicated,don’t you?
What was interesting to me is that the Abramoff investigations and prosecutions are STILL ongoing,as was dicussed here recently.
Also, that Army resigned from Freedom Works just days before this indictment of his (Armey’s) aide came down.
Pretty curious timing to me.
Reminiscent of Kit Bond deciding not to run again.
Trevor Blackann ,Bond’s aide,was indicted in the Abramoff investigation just last November-on much the same charges as Cooper.
I would like to know what other connections this woman had/has with the insurance companies. If I recall correctly, she was involved with them during and right after her stint as lt. governor in some capacity.
look at her, she’s a Tour Guide at Animal Farm – probably paid someone to do that to her face – ewwww they never really get that they’re expendable do they ?
She won’t be able to obtain COBRA coverage because of her pre-existing condition: Congenital Vapidity, more popularly known as Palin’s Syndrome.
Smile. FWIW (at least in California) you don’t have to re-qualify when you transition from regular coverage to COBRA, so there is no opportunity for a pre-existing condition exclusion.
Oh! The things one learns once one is laid off.
That made me laugh; it is a good connection.
Ha!
McCaughey is still a fellow at the Hudson Institute. It is a neo-conservative think tank with funding from such healthcare players as Eli Lily and Co., Sandoz, Ciba-Geigy, and Cargill. After her pathetic performance on the Daily Show, I’m not sure she will be trotted out by her corporate masters as much. Her appearance with Stewart was embarrassingly ham-fisted. If you are going to be an industry paid liar, you’d better be able to lie better than she did.
One really wonders what past experience she could possibly have been drawing upon to deliver that exceedingly bizarre performance. Never seen anything remotely like it.
Great point Gasman, these people have friends all over its like roaches.
They are never truly unemployed unless they are dead or in jail.
And yes MSNBC really needs to stop with this “Balanced” discussion. We don’t need to hear from Ridge, Delay or Tancredo constantly, we already know where they stand on issues.
We already know the Right Wing is foolish, liars and full of themselves we don’t need to be reminded.
Jon Stewart and Bill Maher do the job most of the media should be doing and calling them out when they lie and debunk whatever they are trying to do.
Betsy McDecoy is an embarrassment to watch.
I remember when she showed up on the scene in 1993-94, as like a savvy librarian who read the Clinton plan. And through misreadings and hyperbole (thank you Jon Stewart), helped to sink the bill instead of suggesting improvements to Congress.
If McDecoy were truly a disinterested individual, she might be worth more than her 15 seconds of fame. But McDecoy has been shilling this sort of non-Congressional interference into the health care racket, now, for two decades. And she really needs to come clean about her act.
And she’s kind-of weird when she isn’t lugging the thick file folder around like she is the only person who reads. Someone should find the video of New York Governor Pataki’s State of the State speech where she stood up behind him the entire time. (She was Lieutenant Governor of New York and so appeared on the dias behind Pataki.)
The fat lady sung sometime after that stunt, but apparently Ms. McDecoy couldn’t read that social cue, either. No doubt that’s why she’s back with the same chicanery as 1993.
Jon Stuart RULES!!!!!