Maybe I'm giving Democrats and their media allies too much credit by ascribing ignorance to them on the matter of Tom Price and the so-called "allegations" against him. I realize Democrats don't know much about business, but I assume most of them know the law. And if that's the case, then they know the suggestion our soon-to-be Secretary of Health and Human Services engaged in anything like "insider trading" is so much nonsense.
But I didn't want to say this based on my own observations, although I could have. I've known Tom Price for many years. He's a congressman from my state of Georgia, and an excellent one, and he is about the last person who would ever do anything unethical. Even so, I wanted to get the information straight from the man himself. So I spent some time on Tuesday talking to him and getting the real details of the real story. And I'm going to share them with you now, so you can see just how absurd all this innuendo is.
Let's start with this: Democrats are trying to suggest that Price engaged in some sort of inappropriate trade of health care stocks, given his role in making laws and regulations pertaining to the health care industry.
He didn't. Not even close. Nothing happened at all that was out of the ordinary for any normal person who works with an investment broker. In fact, if you're like most people, you might have been party to the same exact type of trade, and you would never even know it, nor would you think anything of it if you did. Nor should you.
But here are the details:
Like most people who have investment accounts, Price works with a broker. His broker is with Morgan Stanley. Like most people, Price meets with the broker every so often to review his account and discuss strategies and priorities, then the broker executes trades with those strategies and priorities in mind. The broker also periodically rebalances his portfolio to keep it diversified. On March 17, 2016, Morgan Stanley undertook a comprehensive rebalancing of Price's portfolio. In the course of that rebalancing, the advisor purchased 26 shares of Zimmer Biomet - a medical device manufacturer - worth $2,697.74, on Price's behalf.
Price learned of the purchase of Zimmer Biomet on April 4, 2016, when his financial advisor sent him a list of trades to be disclosed on his House Periodic Transaction Report (PTR).
Price submitted the PTR reflecting the March trades on April 15, 2016.
The previous year, Price had begun work on his legislative effort to delay the comprehensive joint replacement demonstration project in 2015 in order to preserve treatment options for patients. He sent a Dear Colleague letter regarding this effort on September 21, 2015.
That's the whole matter right there, and it's nothing. Let me explain a few reasons it's nothing.
First of all, this doesn't even come close to what insider trading really is. Insider trading is when a person who has inside information uses that information to pursue a trade that's to his or her benefit, before the information is generally known. Nothing even close to that happened here. The left is trying to cast aspersions the deal because the legislative effort referenced above, which culminated in a bill Price introduced less than a week after the stock purchase, would have theoretically benefited Zimmer Biomet. So the implication is that Price bought the stock and then introduced a bill to help the company in which he had invested.
The massive problem with that charge is that, on the day Price introduced the bill, he didn't even know he owned any stock in Zimmer Biomet. He didn't find that out until seeveral weeks later when he received a list of his recent trades from Morgan Stanley. And he reported the trade 11 days later, exactly as he was supposed to do.
There is also a matter of common sense here. Twenty-six stocks? Worth just under $2,700? Do you seriously mean to tell me that Tom Price jeopardized his career and his repuation over a matter of a few thousand dollars? That's simply absurd. I have never engaged in insider trading, so I can't speak from experience, but it would seem to me that if you're going to risk that kind of trouble, you would want to do it for serious money.
If anyone reading this knows Hillary Clinton, why don't you ask her? She probably knows.
But Tom Price? You've got to be kidding me. I've known Tom Price for many years. This is a guy who wouldn't so much as glance at anything even remotely improper. He's that much of a straight-arrow.
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There's no doubt in my mind that most Democrats know these insinuations are total garbage. They know the law, and it doesn't have to do with anything like this. But they also know that most journalists are either a) ignorant about such matters; or b) very willing to carry Democrats' water. So Democrats can "raise allegations," even if they're totally absurd, and they'll be covered as if they deserve to be taken seriously.
They don't. This is all nonsense. Democrats know that Price has credibility on health care, and that he's the perfect point man for the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare - and for the implementation of whatever comes next. That's why they've drummed up this ridiculous business. They don't think Price would be bad at HHS. They know he would be great, and that's the last thing they want. If the Trump Administration is successful with health care policy, that will be a disaster for Democrats. So they're trying to take down the guy who is likely to make that happen.
They'll have to do better than this weak sauce if they hope to do it.
