Pajamas Media reports:
If you wanted to build or expand a medical facility in Illinois, you had to cut a deal with Tony. He was the guy with contacts on the state board whose approval you needed. To put it bluntly, he was the guy you paid off to pay off the other guys so you could get the required permits.
Originally, the board was made up of fifteen members. Now, in Chicago, where bribery has become a cultural art form, bribing half of fifteen means you need eight guys in your pocket. That’s a heavy overhead cost. What if you could reduce your overhead by about forty percent? Just think how much more money you could make.
How do you cut the board down to size?
Enter Barack Obama, state senator and chairman of the senate’s Health and Human Services Committee. Obama successfully introduced legislation to cut the size of the board down to nine members. Now you only have to bribe five members. But Obama’s legislation didn’t just cut the size of the board; it put appointment power directly in the hands of Governor Rod Blagojevich. And Governor “Blago” (as we Chicagoans love to call him) quickly appointed a number of Rezko’s cronies to the board.
Evelyn Pringle
explains:
Obama was chairman of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee in January 2003. A few articles in the media have mentioned that Obama sat on a committee that reviewed matters related to the Planning Board in conjunction with the Governor’s staff but none have discussed his integral part in getting the bill passed
A review of senate records from January 2003 to August 2003, shows Obama played a major role as chairman of that committee, in pushing through Senate Bill 1332, that led to the “Illinois Health Facilities Planning Act,” which reduced the number of members on the Board from 15 to 9, making the votes much easier to rig.
Democratic Senator Susan Garrett sponsored the bill in the senate, and the chief co-sponsor was Republican Senator Dale Righter. These two senators were also on the Human Services Committee with Obama.
The bill was filed with the senate secretary on February 20, 2003, and assigned to Human Services Committee for review on February 27. Less than a month later, as chairman, Obama sent word that the bill should be passed on March 13, 2003.
On May 31, 2003, the House and Senate passed the bill and the only senator listed in the “yes” votes mentioned in the Board Games indictments is Obama.
Blagojevich made the effective date June 27, 2003, and the co-schemers already had the people lined up to stack the Board and rig the votes with full approval from Obama.
That's the Chicago Way.
