This sort of stuff is why Raul Martinez and Joe Garcia are running strongly against, respectively, Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart.
Joe Garcia’s campaign issued a statement saying:
“These are the politics of corruption that have plagued South Florida for far too long. People with disabilities shouldn’t have to wait for the Diaz-Balarts to receive $10,000 in campaign contributions in order to receive the medical care they deserve. Unfortunately, our veterans and troops didn’t enjoy the luxury of big corporate PAC’s and lobbyists pushing for them when Mario Diaz-Balart voted twice against the new GI Bill.”
Raul Martinez reacted powerfully Monday night in a speech to the Miami-Dade Democratic Party monthly meeting. He said that Lincoln Diaz-Balart had acted oddly a few days earlier when asked about corruption in Washington. “He knew there was a reporter looking into a bill he put up three days after he got a donation,” Martinez said.
This affair made me think of the Diaz-Balarts’ explanation for voting against the SCHIP bill expanding children’s health insurance coverage. They weren’t against children’s health, they said, they were just opposed to the way the bill was to be financed through increased taxes on tobacco products, which would hurt little cigar rollers in Florida. They failed to mention their fat campaign donations from Big Tobacco.
In that case campaign donations led to the Diaz-Balarts’ voting against a bill, while in this case of the Maryland prosthetics company, campaign donations led to proposing a bill.
A strong argument for getting money out of politics.
Don’t neglect to read the Herald’s sidebar story about the company in this case: under investigation for Medicare fraud in Brooklyn, NY, plus a “parallel inquiry” by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
