Boehner’s Insider Trading Off Obamacare Stocks, As Legalized By Congress and Obama

Social media has exploded in opposition to Rep. John Boehner, who faces re-election as House Speaker and has profited from owning millions in stocks benefiting from Obamacare.

On Twitter, the number of tweets tagged #FireBoehner surged from 2,200 to 7,600 in only two hours last night as voters demanded a new House Speaker to replace Boehner.

Last night’s surge in #FireBoehner tweets, as documented by Hashtags.org

“Why hasn’t Obama’s agenda been stopped the past four years? Two words: John Boehner,”@GovtsTheProblem tweeted.

He and thousands of others have completely flooded the social media accounts of Republican representatives, who find themselves wedged between the angry constituents who voted them into office and the Republican establishment who support Boehner.

For one thing, voters are angry at Boehner for his lack of opposition to Obamacare, which could be explained by his heavy investment in medical and insurance stocks, as Jerome Corsi of World Net Daily pointed out.

Remember that Congressional insider trading scandal? The one where Congress members were caught trading stocks and bonds on insider information, an apparent crime for everyone else but Congress? Well, after a lot of public posturing leading to the passage of a reform law (with resulting positive press coverage) – Congress is back to their old tricks.

Congress approved a bill Friday to eliminate expanded financial-disclosure reporting requirements for Senior Executive Service members, just days before the new requirements were to go into effect.

The bill indefinitely suspends the filing requirements for 28,000 Executive Branch employees, including SES members. The Senate approved the measure by unanimous consent Thursday evening. The House followed suit Friday.

So much for reform.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which Congress passed last spring, was designed to deter insider trading by members of Congress and some 28,000 senior federal employees. Under the bill, these feds were be required to file reports of new transactions in stocks, bonds, commodities or other securities that exceed $1,000 to the Office of Government Ethics — information that would eventually wind up on a publicly searchable database .

Along with SES members, the new measure also exempts congressional staff.

Why should future lobbyists have to disclose their financial statements? How can they double deal and sell the public out if they have to tell everyone about it? See, the original bill was not pragmatic enough.

These exemptions undermine the entire point of the bill. The STOCK act was, not surprisingly, opposed by the Senior Executives Association who did not want SES members to face public scrutiny. This concern was properly overruled during the bill’s passage due to the recognition that the public interest in knowing whether or not SES members were insider trading is more important than the fear of facing inspection. Not to mention, if you want to work for the government you should be expected to conform to these standards and embrace transparency. It is called the public sector for a reason, these are employees’ financial not health records. It is more than reasonable for the public to know if there are any conflicts of interests among the people they are paying to serve them.

Even more indefensible is the exemption for congressional staffers. This is precisely who requires oversight. These are exactly the people who often engage in the most inappropriate conduct regarding, shall we say, extracurricular compensation. The staffers and the industry lobbyists are the real gears that drive the machine in Washington. Letting congressional staffers escape transparency negates the entire purpose of the law.

Instead of of embracing the proverb of sunshine is the best disinfectant, Congress is trying to treat the public like mushrooms – feed them crap and keep in the dark. If President Obama is serious about changing Washington, he must veto this attempt at gutting the STOCK Act. Obama has now signed the law.

An analysis of Boehner’s current investment holdings includes a number of stocks benefiting from Obamacare in a total portfolio estimated at between $3.5 and $5 million in current market value.

Among Boehner’s current holdings are:

Boehner’s Obamacare-related investments trace back to 2009, when the Obama administration was pushing the Affordable Health Care Act through Congress.

Peter Schweizer, in his 2011 book on Washington corruption, “Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism that Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison,” noted on Page 20: “Congressman John Boehner, who was leading the opposition to Obamacare in the House of Representatives, may have been fighting John Kerry on policy matters, but he was entirely allied with him when it came to investment decisions.”

Schweizer continued:

On December 10, 2008, Boehner bought numerous health insurance company stocks, including tens of thousands of dollars in Cardinal Health, Cigna, and Wellpoint. On the same day, Boehner purchased shares in the Big Pharm companies Amgen, Johnson & Johnson, Forest Labs, Covidien, and Pfizer. He also bought shares in CareFusion, which provides systems for countering infections. Just days later, on December 15, the Washington Post declared that the ‘public option’ was officially dead.

Schweitzer drew a causal link, noting that Boehner’s heavy investment in Obamacare stocks meant his political opposition to the legislation was undermined by his personal interest.

Schweizer concluded:

Health insurers breathed a sigh of relief. So too did pharmaceutical companies, who feared that a government health insurance program would lead to price controls. When Boehner bought Wellpoint stock on December 10, the price was about $56 a share. Within a month it was trading at $66 a share. Cardinal Health was up approximately 10 percent by the time President Obama signed the health care bill. In early 2010, Boehner bought yet more shares in Cardinal Health and Pfizer, before President Obama signed the health care bill.

Boehner has continued to profit from health-industry investments tracing back to 2009: Wellpoint Inc, which he bought at $56 a share, is now trading at $124.37. Cardinal Health, which he bought when it was trading at approximately $30 a share in 2011, is now trading at $80.44; and Pfizer which was trading at under $20 a share in 2010, is now at $31.06.

In addition to the health-care stocks, Boehner’s investment portfolio includes several large insurance companies, including shares in John Hancock (bonds and notes), Travelers (stock), Prudential Financial (bonds and notes), Allstate (stock), AFLAC (bonds and notes) and MetLife (bonds and notes).