I can accept that people in positions of power have a lot of opportunities presented to them by those who require the powerful to act on their behalf. Hard as it is to write these words, I do believe that some of our leaders do resist such temptations.
The latest one who seems to have succumbed to temptation is Congressman Michael Ross. I had never heard of him although he was first elected to Congress in 2000. He has become m
The question that ProPublica raises is whether special interests have gotten to Mr. Ross. Two years ago Mr. Ross and his wife, a pharmacist, sold a building to the fifteenth largest drug chain in the country. The building housed the couple's pharmacy. The sale price of $420,000 seems out of line, as the building has been valued between $198,000 and $269,000. The Rosses also sold the pharmacy business for at least $500,000 and maybe as much as $1,000,000. And Ms Ross signed a non-compete agreement in exchange for somewhere between $100,000 and $250,000.
In addition, in the past two years Mr. Ross has collected almost $350,000 from health-related industries. His connections with these industries goes further. The National Community Pharmacists Association publicly thanked Ross for an amendment to the health care reform bill that would create greater transparency in the operations of pharmacy benefit managers, who act as clearinghouses for insurance company reimbursements for pharmaceuticals. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores thanked him for introducing legislation authorizing payments to pharmacists to train patients in how to manage their medications.
Has Mr. Ross fallen to temptation?
1 comment:
He's joined the rest of our politicians in their corrupt practices. Practices that are now so commonplace, the perpetrators don't even recognize it as corruption anymore.
You have more faith than I. If you attempted a list of those known never to have 'fallen into temptation', I be surprised if you made double figures.
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