How Tea Party Favorite Rick Scott Helped Cook Up a Sweetheart Deal for His Florida Friends

By Kurt Eichenwald

I’m not going to say anything about this deal cooking among Tea Party politicos in Florida other than, hmm . . . this seems smarmy.

The blend of politics and commerce has always been an ugly one, and it boggles my mind that some who rage about the poor using food stamps for potato chips stand by in silence when the government hands out the financial equivalent of snack companies to corporations.

The Florida example is a transaction that I find to be the most discomforting I’ve come across in a long career writing about business. (Full disclosure: Much of this involves Governor Rick Scott. Years ago when I worked at The New York Times, I investigated Columbia/HCA, where he worked as C.E.O. The reporting turned up an array of illegal activities and financial shenanigans. Scott was tossed out as C.E.O. by the board and the company went on to pay a $1.7 billion fine for cheating Medicare through the filing of false records. Scott was not charged with wrongdoing.)