CGI, the company that created the dysfunctional Obamacare website began doing federal contract IT work in 2001. Republicans are claiming that CGI got its bid to work on the Obamacare website from a “sweetheart” deal because CGI executives donated to Obama’s presidential campaign. However, that argument overlooks that the contract under which CGI created the Obamacare website began as a 2007 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services under the Bush administration to handle Medicare and Medicaid IT. The Bush administration contracted millions upon millions of dollars of work out to CGI, through the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, and Health and Human Services.
The Conservative web site The Daily Caller ran a piece on October 17, 2013 titled Obama Campaign Donor heads Firm That Built Obamacare’s Website and the National Republican Campaign Committee has launched an investigation of alleged Obama-CGI ties asking how CGI got the contract to work on the Obamacare website. The contract again originated in 2007 under President Bush for IT work on Medicaid and Medicare and was extended to include Obamacare.
George Schindler, the President of CGI,?did contribute 1000 dollars to the Obama re-election campaign in 2012, but he also contributed an equal sum to Mitt Romney in 2011. Apparently, he was hedging his bets and trying to curry favor with whoever won the race for the White House. Schindler also maxed out with a 2300 dollar contribution to the McCain campaign when the Arizona Senator was running against Barack Obama for president in the 2008 election cycle.
While the NRCC is trying to portray CGI as an Obama-friendly company that won its contract for the website because of its close ties to the president, the truth is that CGI executives donate heavily to both parties, and that in the 2012 election cycle they contributed more to Republican House candidates than to Democratic House candidates by a 3 to 2 margin. In the Senate the ratio was nearly reversed with more contributions going to Democrats. Note, how the company is more generous to the party in power in each chamber. Not surprisingly, members of the powerful House Appropriations Committee received some of the largest sums. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Tom Cole (R-OK) received 6000 and 5000 dollar donations respectively. Both men sit on the Appropriations Committee. Committee Chair Hal Rogers (R-KY) received 2000 dollars in campaign contributions. Other Republicans in the House and Senate who have received substantial contributions from CGI include Senators James Inhofe (R-OK), Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and House scandal monger Darrell Issa (R-CA).
In the 2012 election cycle, the largest beneficiary of CGI PAC contributions was Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Also in the 2012 cycle, CGI Group contributed 147,700 dollars to the Republican Governor’s Association and a smaller sum of 35,000 dollars to the Democratic Governor’s Association. Republicans will do their best to try to spin the Obamacare website debacle as a case of a Barack Obama favored company getting a “sweetheart” deal, but the truth is CGI has been working on government contracts since the early days of the Bush administration and their executives are even cozier with Republicans than with Democrats, though they are more than willing to work both sides of the aisle to secure their bids. Now we can only hope they learn to put as much effort into fixing their dysfunctional website as they have exerted trying to curry favor with politicians.
Edited/Published by: SB
