Portal:Fix the Debt/Leadership
Fix the Debt biographies consistently fail to expose the financial and lobbying ties of Fix the Debt leaders. You can see a chart of undisclosed financial interests by clicking here or visit our Fix the Debt Leaders page for more detail.
Fix the Debt Leader Maya MacGuiness Once Promoted the Privatization of Social Security
Maya MacGuineas spearheads the Fix the Debt campaign. She is the president of Fix the Debt's parent organization, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is a project of the Peterson-funded New America Foundation (NAF). MacGuineas was dubbed "queen of the deficit scolds" by economist Paul Krugman[1] Although it is not disclosed on her Fix the Debt bio, she has long advocated for the privatization of Social Security (see 2001 testimony.)[2]
UNDISCLOSED CONFLICT OF INTEREST: MacGuineas' husband Robin Brooks is a managing director and a currency trading analyst at Goldman Sachs.[3] Goldman Sachs lobbies around federal tax issues affecting banking and securities and is a member of the Managed Funds Association, which lobbies against efforts to make Wall Street pay its fair share such as the proposed "Robin Hood Tax," a a tiny tax on trades that some economists project could raise $1 trillion over 10 years.[4][5]
Oops, Phil Bredesen Reveals "Artificial Crisis" Strategy
Phil Bredesen is the former Democratic Governor of Tennessee and was a superdelegate in the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. He is a former healthcare industry executive (he founded HealthAmerica Corporation, an insurance company, which he sold in 1986 for about $385 million), and is currently on the board of directors of Vanguard Health Systems,[6] a $5 billion hospital chain, receiving an annual compensation of $240,005 in 2011.[7]
Bredesen is on the steering committee of the Campaign to Fix the Debt.[8] In January 2013, Bredesen admitted that Fix the Debt's strategy was to create an "artificial crisis" to achieve a "grand bargain" on Medicare and Social Security.[9]
UNDISCLOSED CONFLICT OF INTEREST:Bredesen is currently on the board of directors of Vanguard Health Systems,[10] a $5 billion hospital chain, receiving an annual compensation of $240,005 in 2011.[11] Vanguard lobbied on federal appropriations issues in the third quarter of 2012.[12] Vanguard's biggest owner is the private equity firm Blackstone Group[13] (Blackstone and its affiliates acquired Vanguard in 2004).[14] Blackstone was co-founded by Fix the Debt funder Pete Peterson.[15] Bredesen has been an investor in a number of healthcare companies in addition to HealthAmerica Corp., including Coventry Health Care (which was recently sold to Aetna for $5.6 billion)[16], First Commonwealth, and Qualifacts Systems Inc. For a time Bredesen was being considered for Health and Human Services secretary in the first Obama administration, but lost out to Kathleen Sebelius. Responding to opposition to his potential appointment from national and Tennessee healthcare advocates, Bredesen told the Wall Street Journal[17] "advocacy groups don't matter nearly as much as the pharmaceutical groups, the hospitals, the doctors' groups. There's a lot of very powerful interest groups that will play in this thing." Bredesen is on the Governor's Council of the Bipartisan Policy Center, which received $400,000 from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation in 2011 to fund its Debt Reduction Task Force.[18]
- ↑ Paul Krugman, Maya and the Vigilantes, New York Times, December 22, 2012.
- ↑ New America Foundation, Testimony of Maya MacGuineas, organizational document, testimony from the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security on October 18, 2001.
- ↑ Susanne Craig, Goldman Names Managing Directors, New York Times, November 18, 2011.
- ↑ American Bankers Association, Lobbying Report, trade association lobbying report with U.S. Congress, July 1 - September 30, 2012.
- ↑ Managed Funds Association, Lobbying Report, trade association lobbying report with U.S. Congress, July 1 - September 30, 2012.
- ↑ Vanguard Health Systems, "Bredesen Biography", organizational website, accessed January 1, 2013.
- ↑ Vanguard Health Systems, Inc., Schedule 14A Proxy Statement, corporate Securities and Exchange Commission filing, October 19, 2012, p. 55.
- ↑ Fix the Debt, CEO Fiscal Leadership Council, organizational document, accessed January 2013.
- ↑ Chas Sisk, Gov. Phil Bredesen Calls for 'Artificial Crisis' on the Debt, Tenneseean, January 29, 2013.
- ↑ Vanguard Health Systems, "Bredesen Biography", organizational website, accessed January 1, 2013.
- ↑ Vanguard Health Systems, Inc., Schedule 14A Proxy Statement, corporate Securities and Exchange Commission filing, October 19, 2012, p. 55.
- ↑ Capitol Health Group, LLC, Lobbying Report, lobbying firm lobbying report filed with U.S. Congress on client Vanguard Health Systems, July 1 - September 30, 2012.
- ↑ Vanguard Health Systems, Inc. Major Holders, Yahoo! Finance, accessed January 2013.
- ↑ #109 Vanguard Health Systems, "America's Largest Private Companies," Forbes, 2010.
- ↑ Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Peter G. Peterson, Founder and Chairman, organizational website, accessed January 2013.
- ↑ Kevin Rector, "Coventry Health Care To Pay $3 Million To Avoid Prosecution in Medicare Case", The Hartford Courant, November 21, 2012.
- ↑ Laura Meckler, HHS Candidate Draws Fire, Fights Back", The Wall Street Journal, February 10, 2009.
- ↑ Peter G. Peterson Foundation, "Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.", organizational website, accessed January 1, 2013.
