You wanna listen to these guys. Yeah.

This is a flagrant abuse of power by two Democrats leading health care reform legislation in the House.

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the panel's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, wrote letters Monday to more than 50 of the nation's largest insurers informing them that the committee "is examining executive compensation and other business practices in the health insurance industry."

They requested detailed information on the compensation packages of the companies' highest-paid employees, as well as information on the companies' boards, conferences and events they sponsored, the profitability of the individual health-care products they sell and revenues earned through government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

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What makes this ironic is that Waxman and Stupak come from the two states that are in worst shape of any of the 50 states.

CALIFORNIA
BIZ JOURNAL: (August 19, 2009) Study: California is 48th worst state in labor performance
And not, the study says, because of the national recession. It started before. A poor climate for business and outbound migration are only two of their problems.

Unemployment in Los Angeles is 20%.

REUTERS: California to see record unemployment rise further

California's economy, the world's eighth largest, could see a jobless rate near a stunning 13 percent next year -- a level associated more with Rust Belt states, not the home of Hollywood and Silicon Valley.

MICHIGAN
DETROIT FREE PRESS: (August 19, 2009)

Michigan’s hard-hit labor markets caught a small break during July as the state’s unemployment rate dropped two-tenths of a percentage point to 15%, marking the first monthly rate decline since June 2008.

Michigan's unemployment rate is the highest in the nation. Unemployment in Detroit is 28%. The mayor of Detroit declared that Detroit is broke.and could be forced into the municipal equivalent of bankruptcy in October. Their current deficit is $275 million to $300 million.

GLOBE & MAIL (Major Canadian newspaper) paints a bleak portrait of Detroit.

The financial woes of the city are reflected on its streets. Much of downtown Detroit is a wasteland of vacant buildings and empty sidewalks, surrounded by blocks of boarded-up homes. Many of the people you encounter are homeless, raggedly in search of a handout, or at least a cigarette.

The post office estimates 20% of the addresses in Detroit were vacant. Detroit has the worst crime rate in the nation.

We wanna listen to these guys. Yeah.