Bush's Plan to Give You the Flu

President Bush today announced a $7.1 Billion plan to prepare for a flu pandemic. At first glance you might think that it's great, that he's acutally looking ahead to a potentially serious problem. But as it turns out, this is not completely true. This time it is Donald Rumsfeld who will profit from this decision. Gilead Sciences is the company that owns the Tamiflu drug. Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)'s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld. According to the company, they expect 2005 sales for Tamiflu to be about $1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004. The stock has already gone from $35 a share to $47 in the past 6 months. As with many other decisions Bush has made, this is in effect like giving Halliburton no-bid contracts in Iraq, New Orleans, and elsewhere to line Cheney's pockets yet even more, but this time it's Rummy.