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Drip, Drip, Drip for Gingrich
Just a couple of days after Bloomberg broke the story that Newt Gingrich had actually received between $1.6-1.8 million dollars for ‘advising’ mortgage giant Freddie Mac, The Washington Post reports today that Gingrich’s think tank has earned millions from the health-care industry, in part by supporting policies they like (such as the individual mandate) and offering face time with Gingrich:
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.
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.
And that Bloomberg story isn’t going away. Politico reports that Gingrich remained on Freddie Mac’s payroll until the company was taken over by the government in 2008.
Gingrich, who has come under fire this week for work he did during the subprime mortgage crisis, served as a consultant to Freddie Mac until September 2008 when the U.S. Treasury took control of the government-sponsored en y, his spokesman R.C. Hammond confirmed to POLITICO Thursday.
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Gingrich’s second contract, which lasted from 2006 until September 2008, put him in the position to offer top officials strategic advice. It was an unusual arrangement because it was handled directly by Senior Vice President of External Relations Hollis McLoughlin’s office. McLoughlin, who is still at Freddie Mac, is a member of Freddie Mac’s management committee and reports directly to Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Office Jerry Weiss.
Gingrich did not register as a federal lobbyist under either of these agreements. The Gingrich Group was paid $30,000 a month for a total of $600,000 for Gingrich’s work during the second contract.
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