The Lever - LEVER WEEKLY: Heckuva Job, Pete

Friends:

This is Lever Weekly, a recap of our work from the past week. If you only read one email from us all week, this should be it.

Below you will find a breakdown of our reporting, podcasts, videos, and live events — a feature now open to all subscribers. Following that, we are providing paid subscribers with an original column, written by a member of The Lever, connecting the dots on our coverage to deliver important takeaways.

In this week’s column, exclusively for paid subscribers, Andrew Perez explores the selfish reasons why Washington news outlets and Democratic consultants can’t accept much-needed scrutiny of Pete Buttigieg’s performance as the nation’s top transportation regulator.

Stuff The Lever Reported This Week:

• As Nurses Strike, Hospital CEOs Pocket Millions — “As nurses from two New York hospitals fight for better treatment, the executives in charge have been boosting their own pay and slashing charity care.”

• Insurers Are Fighting To Protect Their Medicare Fraud — “Health insurers are ready to sue the government if Biden officials don’t let them keep years of overpayments from Medicare.”

Stuff To Watch & Listen To:

• LEVER TIME: The Corporate Merger No One’s Talking About — David explores the ramifications of the potential Kroger/Albertsons merger.

• LEVER TIME PREMIUM: Will UPS Workers Go On Strike? — The Lever team discusses the potential UPS strike, how to hold a ‘liberal intervention,’ and Larry Summers’ call for more unemployment while literally on vacation.

• New York Nurses Strike For More Staff & Better Pay As Hospital CEOs Make Millions, Cut Charity Care (Democracy Now) — Matthew Cunningham-Cook details his investigation into how hospital CEOs have received millions in raises and perks while medical staff have been pushed to their breaking point during COVID.

• Not All Crypto Bros (This Is Hell) — Lever contributor Esmé von Hoffman talks with Chuck Mertz about her recent article “I Heard it was Safe.”

Heckuva Job, Pete

By Andrew Perez

As the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg’s job is to oversee the U.S. transportation system, including as the nation’s top airline regulator. He was selected for the job not because of his experience, but because he ran for president and is seen as a future candidate for higher office.

As a result, all scrutiny of Buttigieg’s increasingly disastrous record as the nation’s transportation czar is now being treated in Washington as an attack on a political rival — and Democratic consultants who might want a role on a future Buttigieg campaign are stepping up to lavish praise on the guy.