Texas Governor Rick Perry introduced crookedly smiling President Bush at a Republican campaign rally at Reunion Arena in Dallas. Watching from their skyboxes were executives from two Carlyle Group affiliates amply supported by state and federal funds or preferential government action. Next to the oversized replay screen stood the Vought Aircraft Industries luxury suite. Vought pulled down over $100 million in local, state and federal subsidies.
Across the way, another Carlyle affiliate toasted their good luck at receiving not a mention in the White House Lessons Learned report despite having the largest number of hospital patient deaths post Hurricane Katrina. LifeCare thanked their lucky stars to have been acquired by Carlyle just weeks before Katrina made landfall. While their corporate parent’s Pennsylvania Avenue address didn’t get patients saved any quicker, it did get them a free pass from mention in the President’s thorough investigation.
During the time the Carlyle Group soaked Dallas, Texas and the federal government for $100 million, the famously connected investment house returned $2.1 billion to its investors. While Bush has been in office Carlyle grew from a $13 billion firm to over $44 billion. Their corporate affiliates cheered extra loudly from their Reunion skyboxes, thankful for all the good work Rick and George have done on their company’s behalf. So what if the citizens of Texas and Louisiana don’t benefit a lick…
P.S. While Vought has a plant in Dallas and LifeCare Hospitals headquarters is in Big D, the author has no information that either company actually has skyboxes in Reunion Arena. Should that actually be true, it would simply be serendipity.
No comments:
Post a Comment