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It's not "political ideology," it's campaign CASH!
By Jack E. Lohman
Our health care crisis is a scary thing, and indeed it should
be. It is a major fiscal threat among many major fiscal threats,
all due to our corrupt political system. We cannot be proud of
our government leaders for this.
At the state level the Republicans had every chance to save
businesses upwards of $2 billion and implement Healthy Wisconsin
for its citizens, yet they blocked it instead. With $600,000 in
campaign contributions from the insurance industry, it's easy to
see why they preferred industry solutions.
But we'll remember them in the 2008 elections, especially
Assembly Leader Mike Huebsch and health vice-chairman Leah
Vukmir, both of whom couldn't or wouldn't get their facts
straight.
Congressional Republicans -- including U.S. Reps Jim
Sensenbrenner and Paul Ryan -- didn't do much better as they
"compassionately" voted against expansion of the SCHIP
children's health care program. Too much money, they claimed,
but that didn't stop them from voting for a $780 billion
giveaway to the drug industry's Medicare D program -- which,
incidentally, prohibits Medicare from negotiating with the drug
manufacturers to save Medicare money. The VA system cut its
costs by 50%, but that's not what the Republicans want of
Medicare.
With a straight face they are attacking Medicare, Medicaid
and Social Security as the “entitlements that will bankrupt
America," and given the payola going into their pockets that may
indeed become the case. Their motives are to kill the efficiency
of government programs so they can justify privatizing it all,
of course giving it to their corporate buddies to profit from.
They've already started that process with the privatized side
of Medicare -- Medicare Advantage, sometimes called Medicare
HMOs -- of which 19% of Medicare patients have been sold but
which costs taxpayers about 20% more than traditional Medicare.
It is not a pretty picture.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. We’d have the money to
support all of these programs if politicians would simply start
spending it wisely and quit giving it to their campaign
contributors in tax breaks for the wealthy, corporate subsidies,
pork and bridges to nowhere. When politicians look at their
priorities, getting re-elected tops their list, and campaign
money gets them there faster than anything else. They can
hoodwink voters, but not contributors.
The solution is campaign finance reform. Full public
financing of campaigns. Get private money out of the political
system and the rest will take care of itself. We'll see health
care fixed overnight, budgets balanced, pork and needless
subsidies abolished, and taxes reduced for all but the very
rich.
If politicians are to vote in the best interest of their
funders, those funders should be the taxpayers. And it'd be a
bargain. For just $5 per taxpayer per year, and $10 per taxpayer
at the federal level, we'd eliminate the $1300 and $3000 per
taxpayer per year in giveaways the politicians send to their
campaign contributors. And because the system is optional for
the candidate, it is constitutional. They can choose to take
either public or private money.
It's not new, and has been in operation in Arizona and Maine
for over 5 years, and more recently Connecticut and North
Carolina have joined the fold. Arizona and Maine have roughly
70% of their politicians elected under the Clean Money system.
It's not just clean, it's refreshing.
If I had an employee taking money on the side from a vendor
he was giving corporate assets to, I'd fire him. Perhaps even
have him jailed. Why do we tolerate politicians who do the same
thing?
Posted at
http://moneyedpoliticians.net |
