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Wisconsin Clean Elections Coalition

Promoting fair elections for all parties and candidates

eNewsletter #32

December 9, 2006

 www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org

Newsletter Archives

 

I'm sending this early and hopefully it will be the last newsletter this year. Christmas is big around our house, so I expect to be busy elsewhere. Merry Christmas if I don't see you before then. Jack

 

This is a periodic newsletter on election and health care reform. If you wish not to receive it please unsubscribe at the bottom and accept my apologies for the intrusion.
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In this issue:

1) Health Care 

2) Is the New Congress to Be Believed?

3) Soldiers die, CEOs prosper

4) Legislative Perks

5) Tidbits 

6) Give me a Break!

7) Book recommendations

8)  Contact Information

9)  Removal instructions
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1

Health Care

Report: The Cost of Privatization: Extra Payments to Medicare Advantage Plans — Updated and Revised by the Commonwealth Fund

Medicare Advantage is a system of private HMOs that provide health care to Medicare patients under contract to the government, but now it has been found that its costs are 12.5% higher than Medicare would have spent itself. Who said the privatized free market would save money?

CT census: number of CT studies growing - HERE is the business to be in!

Health fraud suit is tossed - Couple wasn't duped by insurer, judge says. Go HERE for story.

They thought they had adequate insurance but didn't. That's how the free market works.

Let’s stop this Health Care nonsense

By Jack E. Lohman

It’s just a matter of time before health care is taken over by the business sector; and not just by providing expensive insurance to pay outlandish medical costs that have been increasing at 15% per year. That’s what we have today, and businesses are mad as hell and are not going to take it any more. 

Wisconsin’s business leaders are well positioned to pool their resources and create their own managed care facilities for employees, even buy their own hospitals if they want. They’ll control the costs because they control the money.

This would be, of course, all aimed at sidelining the for-profit health care interests that are currently bleeding the system, and the insurance companies that represent the 30% of administrative costs. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is enough bad management and profit-taking to spread around to all providers of health care, including poorly run hospitals, physicians who order too many high-profit tests, and bankers and insurers pushing health savings accounts to get their piece of the national health care pie at the expense of the patient.

That pie now represents 15% of our gross domestic product and promises to reach 30% within the next decade. It is absolutely unsustainable, and it does not have to be that way.

Business leaders should not look to reduce health care costs, they should instead look at getting out of the health care business altogether. Whatever their costs, high or low, they are simply added to their product price and consumers reimburse them at the cash register. So let’s eliminate the middlemen and have the taxpayers pay directly. Let’s allow businesses to better compete with foreign products that do not have health costs built into them. Let’s keep the profits and jobs in the US, and keep and attract more businesses to Wisconsin in the process.

Notably, for the same 15% of GDP we are spending today to cover 85% of our population, we could serve 100% of the people through a universal health care system. Think “Canadian-style without the wait times!”

Canada provides 100% of its population with a Medicare-for-all system, and Canadians enjoy a 35% lower infant mortality rate, two years longer life expectancy, longer hospital stays, and more per-capita doctor visits, all at 50% lower costs (10% of GDP compared to our 15%). While their wait times for urgent care are the same as ours, zero, if they’d increase their spending by just 10%, to 11% of GDP, they could also match our wait times for elective procedures. Still, well over 80% of Canadians prefer their system over ours. What’s not to like about that?

Importantly, any universal health care system we create must be kept simple. Simple is less costly, simple works, and simple doesn’t break. It makes zero sense to make complex and costly compromises to satisfy the special interests, which is what we have done to date. It should instead be designed to maximize results, and the best approach is the Miller-Benedict universal health care bill.

But fixing the system requires political will, and that’s difficult to muster when the health care interests are giving $1.4 million annually to state politicians to keep the system as it is; expensive, inefficient, complex and dysfunctional.

Hopefully our new state legislature has politicians with enough wisdom to recognize that the fuse has been lit and they had best fix the system under their watch. If they don’t, 2008 is just around the corner, and we may have to throw a few more of the rascals out.

Jack Lohman is a retired business owner who lives in Colgate, and is the founder of ThrowTheRascalsOut.org and the author of the book “Politicians – Owned and Operated by Corporate America.”

 

 

2

Is the New Congress to Be Believed?
The New York Times Editorial
Is the New Congress to Be Believed?
December 3, 2006

Well before Election Day, the smart-money lobbyists of K Street were already shifting campaign donations to safe Democratic incumbents, greasing access to the next Congressional majority. That should be warning enough to the incoming speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, to deliver quickly and credibly on their campaign vows to attack the corrupt, quid-pro-quo culture that besotted the Republican-controlled Capitol.

Yet even before the new Congress arrives, there is disquieting talk of advance compromises on what will be done -- or not done. It's fortunate the incoming members will be in the Capitol this week, preparing for January and, not incidentally, observing the lame-duck finale of the Congress that failed on this vital issue.

There will be only one good chance to get this right. Once the new year begins, any feeling of urgency will fade, replaced by a determination to acquire, and protect, whatever power and turf are available. At a minimum, the reforms must include:

Creation of a public integrity office to do more than merely audit lobbyists' filings. If Congress is to regain the public's respect, both houses must create an independent office to investigate the behavioral lapses of lawmakers themselves, not just their sycophants. Anything less, and the ethics issue falls back into the lap of the moribund internal policing machinery that has long protected wayward members.

An enforceable ban, with penalties, on all meals, gifts and travel -- not just from lobbyists, but also from the organizations that hire them. The ban should cover staff members as well. Privately financed ''fact-finding'' junkets should at long last be banned, along with lawmakers' riding as fat cats' chattel on corporate jets for token fares.

Restraints on the revolving-door horde of Congressional alumni turned backslapping lobbyists. Former lawmakers should be required to wait two years, not one, before cashing in on their nice-to-see-you cachet. No lobbyists, even former members, should have access to the floor, gym or cloakroom of either house. If a sitting member of Congress or a staff member starts negotiating for a job in the private sector, he or she should be required to disclose it. The public cannot be expected to tolerate replays of the low moment when architects of the new Medicare drug subsidy plan were secretly working to land lucrative jobs in the pharmaceutical industry while they devised the legislation.

Detailed disclosure of costly and undebated ''earmarks'' -- amendments passed as pork-barrel favors to backdoor pleaders. The secretive spending and midnight conference games should be brought into the sunlight via Internet technology. Transparency will not stop lawmakers from trying to get funding for pet projects back home. But it might at least discourage them from doing the same thing on behalf of special interest lobbyists.

The new Congress must realize the ethics issue will test its mettle in the opening hours, and signal if real change is possible. A field general of the incoming majority, Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, is already warning that failure to deliver on ethics reform will be ''devastating to our standing'' in the very first moment of Democratic power.

He is absolutely right. 

 

 

3

Soldiers die, CEOs prosper
DERRICK Z. JACKSON See source HERE

Soldiers die, CEOs prosper

By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist  |  August 30, 2006

MORE THAN 2,600 US soldiers have died in Iraq. July's toll for Iraqi civilians was 3,500, the deadliest month of the US occupation. Iraq's civil war is on pace to kill 25,000 to 30,000 civilians by year's end. If you add in the tens of thousands of deaths from the 2003 invasion (we do not know the exact number because the Pentagon won't comment), researchers will inevitably say that the body count has crossed 100,000.

All of this madness to stop a madman, Saddam Hussein.

The litany of US mistakes and excessive force has the Pentagon commissioning at least two secret strategy studies in Afghanistan and Iraq. ``This is a struggle for the soul of the Army," said Colonel Peter Mansoor, the head of the Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center.

Just as odorous, a mountain of corporate cash grows next to the piles of bodies. In this bizarre war where Iraqi civilians fear both suicide bombers and the United States, the biggest sacrifice that President Bush asked of American civilians was to get on a plane and show those terrorists a thing or two by going to Disney World.

Defense contractors took that request to a logical extreme. They built their own fantasy land.

There is no evidence of a contractor having a soul in the 13th annual Executive Excess CEO survey by the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank, and the Boston-based United for a Fair Economy. The report found that 34 defense CEOs have been paid nearly $1 billion since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

As soldiers have died in displaying personal patriotism, the pay gap between soldiers and defense CEOs has exploded. Before 9/11, the gap between CEOs of publicly traded companies and army privates was already a galling 190 to 1. Today, it is 308 to 1. The average army private makes $25,000 a year. The average defense CEO makes $7.7 million.

``Did this surprise us? No, because we've been watching since Sept. 11," said Betsy Leondar-Wright, communications director for United for a Fair Economy. ``While the rest of us were worrying about terrorism and mourning the people who died, the CEOs were maneuvering their companies to take advantage of fear and changing oil supply, not just for competition but for personal enrichment."

The top profiteers after 9/11 were the CEOs of United Technologies ($200 million), General Dynamics ($65 million), Lockheed Martin ($50 million), and Halliburton ($49 million). Other firms where CEO pay the last four years added up to $25 million to $45 million were Textron, Engineered Support Systems, Computer Sciences, Alliant Techsystems, Armor Holding, Boeing, Health Net, ITT Industries, Northrop Grumman, Oshkosh Truck, URS, and Raytheon.

While Army privates died overseas earning $25,000 a year, David Brooks, the disgraced former CEO of body-armor maker DHB, made $192 million in stock sales in 2004. He staged a reported $10 million bat mitzvah for his daughter. The 2005 pay package for Halliburton CEO David Lesar, head of the firm that most symbolizes the occupation's waste, overcharges, and ghost charges on no-bid contracts, was $26 million, according to the report's analysis of federal Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

``Those examples take the cake, especially because it's all related to their government contracts, which is money straight out of the taxpayer's pocket," Leondar-Wright said.

The Executive Excess report, with the help of the Wall Street Journal's 2006 survey of executive compensation, made similar observations of oil executives as their firms enjoy record profits during war. The pay gap between the average oil and gas CEO and the average oil worker is 518 to 1. The general national CEO to worker gap is 411 to 1. The report said that the typical oil construction laborer would have to work 4,279 years to match the $95 million pay last year for Valero Energy CEO William Greehey.

This is so out of line that the authors of the Executive Excess report recommend wartime pay restraints for defense CEOs and a permanent congressional watchdog panel for contract fraud and waste. Companies that cannot adhere to restraints should be ineligible for contracts, they said.

The report said ``democracies decay when one segment of society flourishes at another's expense." Leondar-Wright said, ``It is now at the point where we have lost any sense of proportion. There is no sense of shared sacrifice, no sense that we're all in this together." Spreading democracy to Iraq is far-fetched when defense and oil CEOs speed its decay at home. They are all in it for themselves, at our expense.

Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.

Salaries on the rise for oil, defense company execs
BY JAMES BERNSTEIN, Newsday Staff Writer
August 30, 2006, 9:10 PM EDT

The fattest wallets in the business world these days belong to the chief executives of oil and defense companies, whose profits and stock prices are soaring while their employees' pay remains static or has declined, according to a report by two think tanks Wednesday.

http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzpay0831,0,1663405.story

Defense Contractor CEOs See Pay Double Since 9/11 Attacks
By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press Writer
Aug 30, 1:18 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chief executives of corporations making big profits from the war on terror are enjoying far bigger pay increases than CEOs of non-defense companies, according to a study by two liberal groups.

To take a look at the full report, “Executive Excess 2006: Defense and Oil Executives Cash in on Conflict,” please visit http://www.faireconomy.org/press/2006/ee06_ceos_pocket_the_spoils_preview.html

 

 

4

Legislative Perks?

Perks? We have bigger fish to fry

By Jack E. Lohman

Sen. Alberta Darling’s concern about legislators’ inappropriate sick leave costing taxpayers $3.2 million per year is understandable, but frankly, the state has incredibly bigger fiscal problems to worry about.

I’m less concerned about the $1 per taxpayer we pay for legislator perks than I am the $1300 per taxpayer our politicians give away every year to special interests that fund their political campaigns. That $4 billion steals funds from other critically needed services like universal health care and education. They should be ashamed.

I believe that legislators should be paid very well, much like I did my own employees when I owned a company. I’d double legislator’s salaries and give them a slate of benefits comparable to the outside world.

But I’d eliminate their current “tips.” I’d require that working for the taxpayers be a full time job, that it be their only job with no conflicts of interest, and I’d eliminate moonlighting, free trips, free meals, free gifts, and the taking of money from private campaign contributors. And I’d make it worth their while in the process.  

In addition to the doubled salary I’d provide full public funding of campaigns so they would not have to spend their nights and weekends away from their families raising campaign funds.

That $5 per taxpayer per year investment for campaign funding would be a bargain. In fact, compared to the $1300 it’s costing us today, it’d be a bargain at 200 times the price. My business sense tells me this would be a good deal.

To pass Constitutional muster we’d have to make it voluntary, as they did in Arizona and Maine, and I’d fund it with a surcharge on traffic fines so that those who don’t speed don’t contribute. That way, even out-of-towners who violated our traffic laws would help fund our elections. What’s not to like about that?

If politicians are going to be beholden to their funders, I’d rather those funders be the taxpayers. Or in this case the speeders; and that would include me from time to time. I want our legislators working for us, not the lobbyists.

So if Sen. Darling really wants to make a positive mark, she can sign on to the Risser-Pocan clean elections bill.  And if the Democrats want to hold the senate and the Republicans don’t want to lose the assembly, they’ll put their heads together and pass ethics and campaign reform before the next election. As they say, we taxpayers are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it any more.

Jack Lohman is a retired business owner who lives in Colgate, and is the founder of ThrowTheRascalsOut.org and the author of the book “Politicians – Owned and Operated by Corporate America.”

Source: http://www.wisopinion.com/index.iml?mdl=article.mdl&article=5998

 

 

 

5

Tidbits
Wal-Mart got it right, but our politicians still don't get it! -- Wal-Mart fired an employee for taking gifts and dinners on the side. A major conflict of interest, the company claimed, and it was. This employee's job was buying product from vendors that did business with the state (sorry, company), and this vendor received buyer favors on the side. Will our politicians ever get the connection?

Not all of you support my belief in zero corporate taxes, but I believe they are regressive. By the time corporations add their high legal and accounting costs to avoid taxes -- and add the taxes they do pay -- to the price of their product, and the consumers repay them at the cash register, it is costing the little guy double what it would be if we just paid them up front. And they only represent 8% of revenues anyway. Better is a progressive personal tax at the high end, a flat tax in the middle, and zero below $25K. See more details at www.throwtherascalsout.org/taxes.htm

As well, zero taxes would make our companies more competitive and more jobs would remain in the US. I cannot imagine a better system. (And a disclosure: I no longer own a corporation.)

(Also note the following from www.ctj.org, where 66% of Wisconsin's corporations paid no state taxes.)

Is Wisconsin Corporate America's Utopia? -- Maybe. This week, the Institute for Wisconsin's Future released a report showing that over 60% of Wisconsin's largest corporations paid no corporate income tax in 2003. Jack Norman, research director for the Institute said, "I think we're getting double talk from the big corporate lobby. They're not paying their fair share." State law prohibits the release of specific corporate tax information other than in a newspaper or public forum. Luckily many in the Badger State press have released some of the findings. This study highlights the real need for comprehensive corporate tax disclosure in all states. For more on the importance of corporate tax disclosure read ITEP's Policy Brief. Go HERE and HERE for an excellent PowerPoint presentation

Recall papers for recently re-elected Milwaukee Alderman Michael McGee have been filed by ViAnna Jordan, who intends to run against him. His record is very hard to support as can be seen HERE and HERE and HERE.

So now we have it. We've been warned by an oil company executive that if we cut back on oil company subsidies, dire things will happen. Like, they'll have to use profits to find new oil and this executive will likely lose some of his $25 million per year salary!

When will we ever learn?

Well, not soon. There is not a TV set made in the US any more, and as the Japanese leap-frog Detroit in the development of the plug-in Hybrid, that may happen with cars too. Lesson? Auto workers, retrain. Bigger lesson? All of the lobbying money that the auto industry sent to Washington to forestall auto efficiency regulations, is now going to bite them badly as their Asian competitors take over the industry. And these $10 million per year executives have foresight?

Can you imagine Silly String saving lives in Iraq? A mother sent a can to her GI son in Iraq and our troops now spray it into an area they are entering to detect trip wires for bombs. Amazing ingenuity!

David Sirota - The People Party vs. The Money Party: Here are the players -- The fact that our nation's politics is divided not between Democrats and Republicans but between the People Party and the Money Party is obvious to anyone who looks at the political system honestly (which is to say, not most journalists or Washington political hacks). Who's on the list? See David's complete report HERE.

Pell Grants down under Bush - Government grants and loans cover less of college costs - Go HERE for chart

How did your representative vote on the 2005 bankruptcy bill? Look here and then follow the money to the financial industry, credit card companies and banks. But yet, these same jokers allow corporations to go bankrupt and in the process nullify employee pension plans that employees have rightfully been tallying up as part of their compensation over the years. If corporate bankruptcies are to occur, pensions should have the same standing as salaries and take precedence over all else (including executive bonuses) and only default to the Pension Board or taxpayers when all else fails.

But that's not how congress wrote the corporate rules. (A yes favors the financial industry, whose campaign contributions follow.)

We know about the Republicans, but where was Ron Kind's head? Deep in his $80,835 gift.

 
On Passage - 04/14/2005
House Roll Call No. 108
109th Congress, 1st Session

 Passed: 302-126 (see complete tally)
 
How the U.S. House from Wisconsin voted: voted
   • Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-2) N    $12,750
   • Rep. Mark Green (R-8) Y     -$2000
   • Rep. Ron Kind (D-3) Y    $80,835
   • Rep. Gwen Moore (D-4) N    $60,900
   • Rep. David Obey (D-7) N    $26,700
   • Rep. Thomas Petri (R-6) Y    $11,500
   • Rep. Paul Ryan (R-1) Y  $192,918
   • Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-5) Y   $89,500
Votes Legend

Politicians & Lobbyists Gone Wild - By David Sirota - D.C.'s new reality TV -- We all know that in our current system of legalized bribery, political candidates are forced to spend most of their time shaking down Big Money interests for cash. But there's something particularly nauseating when it all just floods out into the open and no one even tries to pretend our political system is anything but one giant auction. That's exactly what's happening now: everyone in Washington - Republicans, Democrats, government commissions - everyone is throwing a giant party to celebrate just how totally awesome selling out really is (come on, Sirota, being against corruption was so six months ago). -- See complete article HERE.

 

 

6

Give me a Break!

Amazing Four-Year-Old Djembe Player  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiddRw0Lpwc&feature=TopRated&page=2&t=t&f=b

Cat Video

Fantastic Photography

 

Divorcing After 45 Years
An elderly man in Phoenix calls his son in New York and says, "I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; 45 years of misery is enough."
"Pop, what are you talking about?" the son screams. "We can't stand the sight of each other any longer," the old man says. "We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her."

Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. "Like heck they're getting divorced," she shouts, "I'll take care of this."

She calls Phoenix immediately, and screams at the old man, "You are NOT getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back, and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?" and hangs up.

 The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. "Okay, they’re coming for Christmas and paying their own fares."

The Children were lined up in the Cafeteria of a Catholic Elementary School for Lunch.  

At the head of the table was a large pile of Apples. The Nun made a note, and posted on the Apple tray:

"Take only ONE. God is watching."

Moving further along the Lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of Chocolate Chip Cookies.

A Child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the Apples.

 

 

7

Book Recommendations

See other reviews on Amazon.com

The Plan: Big Ideas for America (Hardcover)
by Rahm Emanuel, Bruce Reed (ISBN: 1586484125)

Amazon Reviewer: This may sound strange, but I think what I found so unique about Emanuel and Reed's "Plan" is that it contained a laundry list of concrete suggestions. The national political landscape has seemed especially reactionary for the past five or six years (understandably so) but the authors have set forth pragmatic initiatives that just may make America a better place. Like the other reviewers, I agree that Emanuel and Reed strike a decidedly NON-partisan tone. The "Plan" reminded me that, despite what the media and many elected officials want us to believe, Democrats and Republicans disagree on very little. Finally, a reason to be optimistic.

Lohman Review: I highly recommend the book with two disclaimers: (1) the first chapter is a waste, with too much partisan gibberish. But once past that, The Plans laid out for health care, educational and other reforms were absolutely on target, as were the criticisms of Bush's tax policies. (2) The second disappointment was zero mention about the need for campaign finance reform and the role lobbyist money plays in controlling all of the issues the authors complained about. I suppose if you cover your eyes then it must not be there.

Even still, you will enjoy this very easy read.

 

8
Contact information

Lohman is a retired business owner that volunteers’ time on the issues of Election reform and Universal health care -

Contact: Jack E. Lohman
jelohman@gmail.com or jelohman@charter.net
Phone 414-477-8686 (cell)
 www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org
 www.WiCleanElections.org

www.MoneyedPoliticians.com (my book: Politicians - Owned and Operated by Corporate America)


 www.SmokeFreeDining.net (A searchable restaurant database)

 

9
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Disclosure: I am a center-right Republican that voted for Bush twice (though at this point I wish I could have a do-over). But the Republicans look worse here because they are in power and the party blocking reform. Next year it may be the Democrats taking center stage. Were I to have a political choice it would be for a strong third-party reform candidate in all seats. I do not like our very costly and ineffective duopoly. Jack Lohman

See Lohman's complete disclosure HERE.