Mark Tapscott: Let's talk about your gold-plated, tax-paid compensation, Mr. Waxman
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
August 27, 2009
Ever notice how Henry Waxman's cherubic face pops up so often? Most recently, he's been in the news with his letter to 52 health insurance executives demanding that they cough up mountains of data about their compensation, expense accounts, retirement benefits, travel schedules, and shoe sizes.
Okay, not that last item, but you get the drift here. Recipients of the Waxman letter - which was co-signed by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-MI - have no choice but to comply. So if Waxman - who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee - finds even the faintest whiff of scandal in the furthest corner of the health insurance industry, expect to be treated to the hollow spectacle of yet another congressional show trial.
Soft tyranny is never so happy as when its beaming countenance is brightened by possession of a federal subpoena and the prospect of jail it poses for those who defy the order from on high to produce whatever is demanded.
And you can bet Waxman will find something, anything, to indict those evil, venal, corrupt, disreputable malefactors of great wealth in the health insurance industry who are thwarting the Democrats' biggest-ever gift to the American people, a health care system run entirely by federal bureaucrats.
There is just one flaw with this forthcoming drama about grossly over-paid insurance executives with lavish expense accounts attending outrageously expensive conferences held in posh far-away resorts, all made possible by the monthly premiums paid by the sick, the lame and the aged.
Health insurance executives are amateurs at living high on the hog at the expense of others. Government bureaucrats and Members of Congress are the unchallenged champions at this game. Hardly a day goes by without multitudes of commercial airliners bearing row upon row of federal bureaucrats jetting off to exclusive locales like the five-star Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, always on a pretext like "training" or "team-building."
According to Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, the U.S. Department of Justice alone "spent at least $312 million over seven years on conference attendance and sponsorship. In 2006, the agency sent 26,000 employees (one fourth of its total workforce) to conferences and spent $46 million in the process."
Just yesterday, my Examiner colleague David Freddoso reported that "a group of 18 major federal agencies that includes Justice spent a combined $2 billion on conferences" in a seven-year period ending in 2007.
David further found that "Department of Defense was the biggest spender at $515 million, but others in the group include the Agriculture Department ($91 million), the Environmental Protection Agency ($104 million), the State Department ($164 million), and the Department of Health and Human Services (at least $349 million)."
And, just as often, congressmen - usually accompanied by admiring retinues of family members and staffers - commandeer Pentagon aircraft to fly them to such exotic locale as Paris, Rome and Peking on "official business." These trips are, of course, better known as "junkets," and they invariably involve comprehensive fact-finding outings to golf courses, swimming pools, and fine dining.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that "spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years ...involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galpagos Islands."
The costs and frequency of congressional junkets has been increasing for more than a decade, so this is a bipartisan problem, but, according to the Journal, "hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That's a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago."
Last time I checked, there was a D beside "Waxman" on the House roll call. Something else goes with Waxman - the congressional version of the Federal Employees Health Insurance Benefits Program (FEHBP), the gold-plated, tax-paid health insurance coverage congressmen defiantly refuse to give up. They won't turn it loose because then they might have to use the same government-run program they are foisting on the rest of us.
So yeah, let's talk about outrageous compensation and conferences and benefits, Mr. Waxman. Starting with yours.
Mark Tapscott is editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner and proprietor of Tapscott's Copy Desk blog on Mark Tapscott is editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner and proprietor of Tapscott's Copy Desk blog on washingtonexaminer.com.
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