From the moment it was acknowledged that the Children’s Hospital was in serious financial distress, I began to connect the dots for you, while Jaime Abeytia, Escobar’s puppet, started attempting to create the illusion that Veronica Escobar has no control over the children’s hospital. Escobar, for her part, has argued that the El Paso Children’s Hospital was a separate entity and all she could do was sit back and gasp “outrage” over the loss of the taxpayer monies.
Unfortunately for her, the truth has an inconvenient way of getting in her plan’s way and she had to muster her second useful idiot – Bob Moore to try to rescue her from the reality. On Sunday, July 5, 2015, Bob Moore, through his editorial page, tried to further the illusion that the children’s hospital debacle has nothing to do with Veronica Escobar.
In “Editorial: El Paso Children’s Hospital future in jeopardy” attributed to the “El Paso Times Editorial Board” but we all know that it is Bob Moore’s baby, the local paper argues that the future of the children’s hospital is in “jeopardy.”
Excuse me for cussing but “no shit Sherlock” is most appropriate here.
Read between the lines of the editorial. The children’s hospital has been in “jeopardy” from the moment the ill-conceived, third plan to raid the taxpayer trough was taken to the voters. Remember that it took not one, not two but three plans to create the illusion that the hospital was financially viable. Even then, the third “plan” was in serious jeopardy because it made many assumptions that would get anyone pushing this plan in the private sector fired for stupidity.
However let’s look at Bob Moore’s attempt to run cover for Veronica Escobar.
First, bob Moore must grudgingly admit that it is likely that the El Paso Children’s Hospital will be nothing like what was originally envisioned by the time the dust settles. This is because it has never being financially viable!
The possible dissolution of the hospital is important because if the El Paso Children’s Hospital is closed it will become the political rhetoric used against Veronica Escobar in any future election. The dissolution of the children’s hospital means the end of the Escobar’s political future.
This is why Veronica Escobar was pushing forth a taxpayer-funded bailout of the children’s hospital by “forgiving” a substantial amount of what the hospital owes in “soft monies.” Notice the key words? They were designed to save face for Veronica Escobar and paint her as the savior of the voters’ will when they voted to tax themselves in 2007 to fund children’s.
Now that the future of the El Paso Children’s Hospital is in bankruptcy court, not only is it more difficult to keep negotiations behind closed doors but it might even reveal some dirty laundry Veronica Escobar wishes to keep hidden.
Bob Moore tries to bolster the excuses that the failure is “poor management” conveniently forgetting that Sam Legate and Rosemary Castillo were not only two the drivers of the debacle from day one, they both were on the UMC board that voted to use taxpayer monies for the whole debacle.
It is easier to write “the Children’s board and management did not do enough to change the hospital’s expense structure to match the new revenue realities” then to write, Veronica Escobar’s two staunchest supporters who were in one the scam from day one could not hide the reality that the business model was a complete failure from the day the plan was conceived.
That just has too much truth in it for Escobar’s future.
Bob Moore grudgingly admits that the debt is to the “taxpayers of El Paso County” but immediately jumps into distancing Veronica Escobar from the debacle and revitalizing her as getting “increasingly active in the Children’s issue.”
Again, this statement conveniently ignores the fact that Veronica Escobar was extremely “active” in the bond election in 2007 for the children’s hospital on through the grand opening in 2012. As a matter of fact, Veronica Escobar has been “active” in children’s up until it was inconvenient for her to be, as it would ruin her excuse of having no control over it.
Remember that to lie does not require the truth to be acknowledged. When it first became known that the children’s hospital was on the verge of bankruptcy, Bob Moore through his newspaper, allowed the illusion to be perpetuated that Veronica Escobar and cohorts did not have any control or oversight over children’s.
Now, Bob Moore argues that the “county must be very aggressive in the bankruptcy process now that mediation has failed. They are the protectors of the taxpayers, who are the major creditor in this bankruptcy.”
I guess in Bob Moore’s worldview, at least when Escobar’s political future could be salvaged, there was nothing she, or the county commissioners could do to “protect” the taxpayers when everyone knew it was failure. Now all of a sudden, “The county must make every effort in Bankruptcy Court to keep one pledge to voters in 2007, that taxpayers would not be saddled with operational expenses of the Children’s Hospital.”
How is different from having the taxpayers “forgive” the “soft costs”?
The difference is that Veronica Escobar’s political future is now in serious jeopardy because she will forever be tied the failed El Paso Children’s Hospital.
The political sharks are smelling blood in the water and Veronica Escobar is being isolated as former colleagues see an opening to wrestle control from her. I’ll be sharing more if this with you in the coming weeks. As a matter of fact you can already begin to see the power realignment.
Now for a little fun: here is how the El Paso Slimes cover should look like:
Feel free to share it on social media by copying it from here. Or, you can print a copy and pass it around. You can download the PDF version of the El Paso Slimes cover by clicking here. Have fun with it!