THE MERCURIAL RISE OF VICENTE DE LA GENTE
IN
THE U.S. CONGRESS
Though the tenure of Vicente Gonzalez in Congress has spanned only 5 years of his career, at last count he was 168th on the wealth list in the House of Representatives. With 435 House members, it may be said that this young man has quickly climbed the ladder of establishment enrichment.
It has been said that much can be learned from the company one keeps. By the same token, it may also be said that much may be inferred from a politician's major donors.
Claiming the 2nd spot on Vicente de la Gente's honor roll of donors is the LHC Group, which is headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana. Specializing in home health care, LHC has assets in the range of $250,000,000. Several coporations operating in this area of the economy have made the news by running afoul of fedederal regulations intended to protect the public from unscrupulous home health care operations. Little wonder, then, that a company like LHC with its assets is able to spread about sizable political contributions. After all, it is Congress which writes the laws regulating home health care.
Now, a bit about LHC and its unsavory reputation. LHC has been hit by formal complaints. from its nursing, nursing assistant and orderly staff members, concerning work loads, remuneration and shoddy procedures. Staff members have related instances in which they have been subjected to such hurried schedules that they have found themselves having to clean up incomplete work in home settings left during previous staff visits. Also, it is not surprising that patients and their families ended contracts when they had received only two hours of care a day, although their physicians had prescribed 4 or 5.
In one egregious case, a visiting nurse found an elderly patient in extremis, owing to a missed appointment by another LHC employee. As you might imagine, such incidents led to lawsuits and testimonies of LHC employees and their patients. From ongoing litigation, it quickly became clear that patient care was taking a back seat to hustling for ever increasing profit margins. Not only were clients suffering, but the company's employees were being taken advantage of as well.
With its predatory policies, LHC grew into a nation-wide corporation. The number of small, independently-owned home health care companies acquired by LHC has been exceedingly large, and principally regulated by Medicare and Medicaid. In addition, those providing direct patient care for LHC are some of the least paid in the industry, often occupying the lower rungs of the economic ladder.
In its acquisitions of small agencies, LHC does not go to the trouble of renaming its new properties. Thus, patients and their families assume they are dealing with their original provider. Little do they know that behind the scenes an incredible number of changes are being made through cost-cutting and service downgrading. Those who were with the original agency who protest are in short order handed their walking papers. And, as one would expect in such an environment, agency directors come and go in rapid succession.
LHC is just one of a host of suspect businesses looking for friendly faces in Congress. Unfortunately, there are too many willing to oblige for the almighty dollar, the mother's-milk of politics. And, from this sordid story it would seem that Vicente con la Gente was not at all with the pobrecitos y viejitas lanquishing in properties run by corporations like LHC.
Myra Flores is not at all a millionaire. She is a working mother, the wife of a Border Patrol agent. She is one of us, NOT AN INTERLOPERFROM ANOTHER CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. She is a fighter, with fire in the belly, willing to go the distance for ALL her constitutents. This includes forgotten elders caught up in the bureaucracy of government and the avarice of corporations. THE POLLS ARE OPEN. DO IT NOW! VOTE !THE CRONYISM OF D.C. MUST BE BROUGHT TO HEEL!
FLASH: JUST IN IS NEWS THAT VICENTE GONZALEZ HAS CASHED IN HIS HOLDINGS IN THE STATE BANK OF CHINA!!!! THAT VIRTUALLY SAYS IT ALL!
DEO VINDICE!
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