Right-wing pundits and politicians, including Sarah Palin, are charging that the latest round of health care reform waivers from the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) are”corrupt,” since nearly one-fifth went to businesses in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco district.
The corruption claims, however, appear to be a stretch at best: More than 90 percent of all waiver requests have been approved by the HHS, and officials explain to Hotsheet that these particular businesses simply applied for a waiver.
Conservatives today have responded angrily to a report from the Daily Caller pointing out that of the 204 waivers the HHS granted in April, waiving certain companies from one specific part of the Affordable Care Act, 38 went to businesses in Pelosi’s district — nearly 20 percent of the total.
Palin told the Daily Caller that the waiver process was “corrupt,” while Ed Morrissey at the conservative blog Hot Air called the waivers “political payoffs.”
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