Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Bush Protects Uncle Bucky from Sick Kids


President George W. Bush vetoed the expansion of children's health insurance because be believes in "private insurance". I'd imagine the Bush family does, given William H.T. Bush's position on the WellPoint board of directors. George's Uncle Bucky made a hefty sum for those nine meetings in 2006 according to SEC documents. He also attended 16 committee meetings which may or may not have coincided with the full board meetings. For that Uncle Bucky received $426,716 in compensation, $104,369 in cash and the remainder in stock awards.

William H.T. beneficially owns 97,168 shares in WellPoint, 74,800 of which are exercisable stock options. Susan Bayh, wife of the esteemed Democratic Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, flipped most of her options the last few years for a roughly 50% gain, netting $1.2 million. Should Uncle Bucky do likewise, his stock profits would be approximately $4.4 million. His savings from his nephew's capital gains tax cut amount to $220,000. How many kids could be covered by having the super rich pay the old capital gains rate of 20%? Under this administration we'll never find out...