Bad all around, and just plain stupid. As many problems as Detroit has had politically and economically, it deserves much better politicians across the board. The Kwame Kilpatricks and Monica Conyers of the world just aren't cutting it, which goes to show you yes indeed you can have corrupt African-American Democrats in addition to crooked white Republicans...political greed and power lust knows no race, gender, or political affiliation.Monica Conyers, the president pro tem of the Detroit city council -- and the wife of Rep. John Conyers, the powerful chair of the US House Judiciary committee -- has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.
The Detroit Free Press reports:
The federal plea document released today cites two instances in late 2007, in the days surrounding the approval of the now-infamous Synagro Technologies sludge-hauling contract, when Conyers accepted cash bribes from a Synagro consultant.Other court documents have said Conyers took at least two bribes of $3000 each, among other bribes.
The paper adds:
In both cases cited in the court documents today, Conyers was handed the cash in an envelope by a individual representing Rayford Jackson, a Detroit businessman doing work for Synagro who pleaded guilty to bribery earlier this month.Conyers had raised suspicions by strongly opposing the 2007 sludge-hauling contract for Synagro before abruptly switching her position and voting in favor of the deal.
And stupid is still stupid.
The issue isn't that insurance companies are evil. It's that they need to be profitable. They have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit for shareholders. And as Potter explains, he's watched an insurer's stock price fall by more than 20 percent in a single day because the first-quarter medical-loss ratio had increased from 77.9 percent to 79.4 percent.We already have one. As a matter of fact, that's how the insurance companies make money and always have. If they don't pay up, they win and we lose.The reason we generally like markets is that the profit incentive spurs useful innovations. But in some markets, that's not the case. We don't allow a bustling market in heroin, for instance, because we don't want a lot of innovation in heroin creation, packaging and advertising. Are we really sure we want a bustling market in how to cleverly revoke the insurance of people who prove to be sickly?
Once again, I fail to see how driving private health insurance companies out of business would in the long run be a bad thing.