Consumer Watchdog

$2.655 Million To Date To Sacramento Political Committee That Doesn’t Disclose Industry Funding In Ads Supporting Villines, Attacking Jones.

Death and taxes may be inevitable in life, but in politics what’s inevitable is that you will have to face public opinion and the Constitution. President Obama is rightfully having to confront both over the worst flip-flop of his presidency: his endorsement of mandatory health insurance purchases.

If you walk through the heart of Times Square today and look up at the 520 sq. ft. CBS superscreen on 42nd St., you’re going to be introduced to the largest oil company you’ve never heard of: Koch Industries.

When the eighth largest economy in the world establishes a landmark greenhouse gas emissions cap, you can bet oil companies are going to try to find a way to knock it down for one reason: money.

Support for Do Not Track Me legislation is growing in Washington with the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission telling ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday that “one of the things we are thinking about is a Do Not Track List.”

70 million Americans who get health insurance through their employer
cannot take their insurance company to court when the insurer doesn’t
provide the benefits it promised, even if the insurer’s decision to
delay or deny life-saving treatment results in an employee’s death.

Obama’s mad about insurers blaming his health care plan for big rate hikes, but he doesn’t have to take it anymore. He can and should issue an executive order to stop the rate hikes immediately.

If you think the Tea Party represents real people who are mad as hell about real issues, you might want to know that it just had its first rally under the Beverly Hills sign over the weekend.

I found out about the rally when I showed up for a 10 o’clock news debate and singer Pat Boone was on the other side dressed in his “Beverly Hills Tea Party” sweater. If you want to know what the Tea Party’s really about, listen to Boone croon about the “free market” and “deregulation” like it’s a new idea.

The insurance industry is going directly to the White House in its latest attempt to evade a key portion of the health reform law that would force them to operate more efficiently. But instead of making the argument directly, the industry is speaking through state insurance commissioners that are either friendly to insurance companies or cowed by insurers’ threats to leave a state market.

There’s a name that’s becoming as ubiquitous in dirty oil politics as Coke cans are in greasy spoons. And it’s pronounced like the soft drink, but spelled Koch. Koch-heads now on the radar include Carly Fiorina, the Tea Party and Proposition 23.