Being a Washington insider has made Newt Gingrich a wealthy man

As a former history professor and prolific writer of books, Gingrich has had many opportunities to pen newspaper columns promoting his own ideas and political philosophy. But here, too, the work appears to have benefited him financially in more than one way.

“In a series of op-eds stretching over several years, Gingrich repeatedly advocated for various health-care related issues, including electronic health care records, ways to improve the health care sector, and medical malpractice reform without acknowledging the issues were directly connected to the members of the Center for Health Transformation, a for-profit think tank he founded in 2003,” reports USA Today.

Details of Gingrich’s dealings with the health-care industry continue to emerge.

Gingrich's health-care think tank has collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health-care companies and industry groups, offering special access to the former House speaker and other perks, according to records and interviews reported by the Washington Post.

“The Center for Health Transformation, which opened in 2003, brought in dues of as much as $200,000 per year from insurers and other health-care firms, offering some of them ‘access to Newt Gingrich’ and ‘direct Newt interaction,’ according to promotional materials,” reports the Post. “The biggest funders, including firms such as AstraZeneca, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Novo Nordisk, were also eligible to receive discounts on ‘products and workshops’ from other Gingrich groups.”

Gingrich continues to insist that his various sources of income have been strictly legitimate, and that his many years since leaving office – the various ways in which he has strongly advocated for certain policy issues – have followed the letter and the spirit of laws regarding the ways of Washington business. He has never been a registered lobbyist, he points out.

"I will cheerfully answer every single question they ask,” he told the gathering in Florida. “And at the end of it, you will be relatively convinced, I believe, that I did no lobby of any kind, I did no influence-peddling of any kind.”

Previous

1 | 2