Unhealthy Imagination

In 2003, shortly after the invasion of Iraq, the federal government awarded Halliburton Corporation contracts worth $100 billion over ten years.

The awards -- for rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan -- were "no-bid" contracts, meaning Halliburton had no competition for the work.

The resulting media outcry culminated in a firestorm of criticism. Over a period of 24 months, special prosecutors, lawsuits, investigations and impeachments terminated the relationship between the federal government and Halliburton.

My mistake. It wasn't Halliburton and it wasn't 2003. It's right now.

GE Capital -- a unit of General Electric -- received approximately $140 billion in taxpayer funds last year as part of the initial financial bailout.

Yet six billion in GE funds (or are they taxpayer funds?) are headed to a new firm called Healthymagination.


Healthymagination's advisers include Tom Daschle, Barack Obama's initial nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services.


Daschle's plans for nationalizing health care are spelled out in his book Critical.


The book outlines Daschle's plans to establish a "Federal Health Board" that would control every aspect of medical care in America. Its stated goal: destroy the private health care system and replace it with a top-down, authoritarian Politburo with life and death decision-making power.

At a recent conference, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt claimed that America's economic crisis was not simply an economic crisis. It was instead a "reset", where companies that intersect with government will "prosper... and people who don't understand that will get left behind."

Immelt, a member of Mr. Obama's economic recovery advisory board, went on to say that, "The intersection of government and business will be changed, maybe for a generation." Put simply, Marxism is on the way and GE is positioning itself to profit.

The business case behind Healthymagination hinges on nationalization of the health care industry. Computerization of health care records is not only a vaunted component of the Obama stimulus package, it is also a $75 to $100 billion business over the next ten years.

Fortunately, Healthymagination just happens to be building a health care record management system.


And with Obama's buddy Tom Daschle in tow, Healthymagination is certain to get some nice fat contracts out of the deal.

Oh, and did I mention NBC? It's involved, too. Health Imaging reports that the GE-owned media conglomerate -- something out of the movie Rollerball -- will do its part.

• NBC Universal and NBC News will air more than 5,000 televised reports annually on health and wellness.

• MSNBC will launch a new, daily program dedicated solely to health information... in addition to medical issues it will also examine health policy.

Put simply, the media will broadcast the propaganda; government will enact policy "by popular demand"; and the chosen corporation will profit at taxpayer expense.

As Andrew Wilkow observes, "Healthymagination states its target dates for the completion of its various initiatives as 2015, well into a second Obama term. This means GE will have a deep financial interest in Mr. Obama's re-election; a fact that will no doubt be reflected in its media divisions. It will certainly be interesting to see if the left-wing watchdogs howl, or if they will conclude this is an acceptable level of collusion between the White House and a multinational conglomerate."

Not to mention the mainstream media. Prepare to be absorbed.



Linked by: Instapundit. Thanks!