But as I read it, if a public plan wanted to increase capitation rates and decrease rates for procedures, or increase rates for consultations and research, this provision would stop them from doing that.

Using official position, check
To make a profit or avoid a loss, check.

Add this to the list of thing we know that we know...

One of Mitchell's aides should politely tell Barak to come back when he has something real on the table.

I'll believe he's sorry for more than getting caught when he matches his GOP contributions with contrributions to the NAACP.

Remember, all the treasury does is sell pieces of paper/collections of electrons that say "We will pay the bearer $100 in X days". If I have other investments I'm selling, and can't get hold of (or don't want to keep) the proceeds in dollar bills -- and I don't trust any bank to still be there in X days -- then it's not impossible that I would be willing to bid more than $100 for a promise from the government to pay me $100 in X days. Unlikely, but not impossible.

When people come to a new country who fear imprisonment, torture or death as a result of their political views, the process of resettling them is called "asylum". But that might be embarrassing ti a country that holds a trillion dollars, give or take, of US debt.

I'm just thinking about how many nominally-reputable companies over the decades have done business with organized crime, and how many less-reputable ones have served as fronts. And how yet others have been credibly accused and even convicted of bribery or fraud. But no one says things like "Until US corporations can wash themselves of the stigma of corruption, they will always be regarded as business fronts run by the Mob."

So yeah, allegations of treason as constitutionally defined are incorrect, but we need to make it clear at every turn that only the vilest group of scum would openly announce that they intend to harm their own country for political and personal gain.