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Bimonthly on election and health care reform. Unsubscribe instructions at the bottom.
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eNewsletter #66
March 16, 2008
The last thing in the world Obama should want is a revote in FL and MI. Clinton will get the votes of all of her supporters, PLUS all of the Republicans that would rather she be the opponent. She would then win the candidacy but lose the election to McCain (who I support, incidentally). Better that they allow only the known Democratic delegates in those states cast a vote for the Dem candidates.
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In this issue:
1) Health Care
2) Campaign Reform
3) Politicians
4) Lohman OpEds
5) Tidbits
6) Give me a Break!
7) Book Recommendations
8) Contact Information
9) Unsubscribe Instructions
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Health Care |
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This is a very compelling piece on healthcare that appeared on 60 Minutes. This is in the US, and it is criminal that our politicians don't fix the problem. (There's a 15 second commercial leading in.) See it HERE And this is a MUST READ article about physician conflicts of interest..... Many Doctors, Many Tests, No Rhyme or Reason
I recently took
care of a 50-year-old man who had been
admitted to the hospital short of breath.
During his monthlong stay he was seen by a
hematologist, an endocrinologist, a kidney
specialist, a podiatrist, two cardiologists,
a cardiac electrophysiologist, an
infectious-diseases specialist, a
pulmonologist, an ear-nose-throat
specialist, a urologist, a
gastroenterologist, a neurologist, a
nutritionist, a general surgeon, a thoracic
surgeon and a pain specialist.
He underwent 12 procedures, including cardiac catheterization, a pacemaker implant and a bone-marrow biopsy (to work-up chronic anemia). See the balance of this article HERE.
See the new version of Healthy Wisconsin (Senate Bill 562) I have updated the talking points and FAQ documents. Tomorrow, I will also be sending an advance copy of a new report we are releasing Monday, which documents the family health care savings that are achieved by Healthy Wisconsin.
Robert Kraig An interesting new blog http://insurancecompanieskillpeople.blogspot.com/ Health insurers' success depends upon charging for goods and services that are not delivered. The more they can charge and the less they can deliver, the better off they are. They are unbelievably well off precisely because they charge so much and deliver so little. Why is it so hard for Americans (uniquely in our civilized world) to understand that this is not (but in fact the opposite of) a model of success for consumers? Those are not only free market rules they're breaking, but also ones of common human decency.
R. Sawyer Spoon But also, you must take the Quiz on Ms. Spoon's web page at http://whatifpost.com/health-care-costs-quiz, and look at each of the answers on the right side of the page. They are filled with links with great information.
Will Boomers Bankrupt Our Health Care System? Myths
and Facts <snip>
See the rest of this excellent article HERE and add your comments |
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Campaign Reform |
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Moneybags and mouthpieces One thing is certain about this spring's state Supreme Court election: However much Justice Louis Butler and his challenger, Burnett County Circuit Court Judge Michael Gableman, spend to get elected will be easily surpassed by spending by outside groups on their behalf. Political campaigns, whether in partisan races like those for the Legislature, or nonpartisan ones for the judiciary, are increasingly bankrolled and in other ways influenced by outside groups. "Essentially, what we've seen is the emergence of shadow parties that are not formally affiliated with the major political parties," says Mike McCabe, executive director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a watchdog group that tracks campaign spending. "They're highly partisan, usually staffed and run by longtime political operatives connected to the parties." See the
complete article
HERE
What Happened to Free Market
Republicans? by Troy
Fullerton Am I missing
something, or am I the only one who has a problem with this? The
Wisconsin state Senate approved 30-1, and the Assembly concurred
84-13, a bill that "would create new restrictions on how
wineries sell their vintages. From the
Journal Sentinel: The bill, SB
485, requires larger wineries that produce more than 25,000
gallons annually to sell their wines to wholesale distributors,
which then sell the wines to restaurants, taverns, liquor stores
and other retailers. Yes, the
bill goes on to state approximately 75% of wineries in Wisconsin
produce less [than] 25,000 gallons, and would therefore be
exempt from the wholesaler mandate, instead being able to form
cooperatives to sell directly to retailers. <snip>
Seriously,
if I didn't know better I would suspect many politicians had
less than pure motivations: [Sen. Darling's name shows up on the list a half
dozen times or so, though she claims never to do things for
campaign contributions. She may not, but this doesn't look
good.]
This is our privatized political system where
the wholesalers paid good cash dollars to get a law passed that
forces them into the distribution loop, and cash from the
small wineries that are now at a competitive advantage. The bill
mandates that large wineries go through distributors rather than
selling directly, thereby putting cash into the distributor's
pocket (and taking cash from wine drinkers, of which I am not).
Telling is
Fullerton's link to the distributor's contributions to state
politicians, but it leaves out all other distributors (other
than WOW) and the small Wisconsin wineries that CAN sell direct,
in competition with the large wineries that must now go through
a middleman. Isn't politics great? Rep. Don Pridemore
(R-Hartford) says the bill was requested by the small wineries.
How about that?
Live with
it!
Or get the private
money out of the political system. That's called "campaign
contributions" in politics, or bribery in any other occupation. This would not
have happened in a system of publicly funded elections that
Republicans
oppose. See the
complete blog article
HERE
and Sen. Darling's piece of the take
HERE
They must have greased both sides of
the isle on this one! See the Senate
votes
HERE
and the
Assembly votes
HERE
AND INTERESTINGLY........... See who
sponsored the bill!!!
2007
SENATE BILL 485 |
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Politicians |
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See who's
running for office in November
HERE, but understand that this will periodically change as
new people add to the challenger list.
See how your representatives are
rated by Wisconsin Conservation Voters
HERE
Three
Wisconsin Senators voted NO yesterday against the
thirty Senators who voted YES for SB 397, a bill to keep
toxic electronic waste out
of landfills by requiring that producers of such waste collect
and properly recycle or dispose of junk video display devices.
Who were the "Toxic Three"? Grothman, Lazich, and Liebham
("representing" Manitowoc, Sheboygan, Ozaukee, Washington, and
Waukesha/New Berlin). Senator
Grothman was also in the "Tainted Ten" who voted against
the Impartial Justice Bill, the "Clueless Clique" of six
who voted against the Compassionate Care for Victims
of Rape Bill, the "Lakes Draining Six" who voted against
the Strong Great Lakes Compact, the nine who voted
against appointment of the DNR Secretary by the
Natural Resources Board, and the "Toxic Three" who voted
against reducing mercury emissions from obsolete
industrial processes. Grothman is quite comfortable being in
the tiny minority!
The ONLY bills
tracked and endorsed by the Wisconsin League of Conservation
Voters that Senator Glenn Grothman did NOT vote
against,
were a few bills that were approved unanimously by voice vote.
So far, it appears that Glenn
Grothman will not even have any opposition when he
"runs" for re-election this November. Clyde Winter
Thanks Clyde. On the
voice votes,
I'd
like to see them banned except when unanimous. If any one
politician voices an opposite position a roll call vote must
be taken. Otherwise they can hide their votes just as they
did in 1993 when they voted to ban "truth in advertising" by
dairies that did not want to put BGH in their milk, but
couldn't talk about it. See
HERE.
And this also from
Clyde
Out of
33 Wisconsin state Senators, during the 2007/2008
legislative session, Senator Glenn Grothman was one
of:
the
three who voted against a bill to keep toxic
electronic waste out of landfills by requiring that
manufacturers collect and properly recycle or dispose of
junk video display devices, SB 397,
the
three who voted against reducing
unnecessary mercury exposure to children and the
environment, SB346.
the
six who voted against the Strong Great
Lakes Compact, SB523,
the
six who voted against the Compassionate
Care for Victims of Rape Bill, SB377,
the
eight who voted against requiring
insurance policies to cover care for autism,
SB178
the
ten who voted against the Impartial
Justice Bill, SB171, and
the
twelve who voted against appointment of
the DNR Secretary by the Natural Resources Board
instead of being a political appointment of the
Governor, SB15,
(If you
want to read the text of these bills, go to <www.legis.state.wi.us>
and fill in the blanks on the left lower corner of the page.
Or google for the bill by name and number.)
Grothman
opposes Healthy Wisconsin and any real effort to fix
the health care crisis.
Grothman is sponsoring a proposed Constitutional
Amendment that would require an approved government
photo ID to be able to vote (AJR17).
Grothman has introduced a Constitutional
Amendment that would abolish affirmative action
(SJR96) meant to counter discrimination against women
and people of color.
These two proposed amendments are opposed by
the NAACP and the LWV.
The ONLY bills tracked and endorsed by
the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters that Senator
Glenn Grothman did NOT vote against, were a few bills
that were approved unanimously by voice vote.
Despite this
appalling record, so far, it appears that Glenn Grothman
will not even have any opposition when he "runs" for
re-election this November to the 20th Senate
District, where you and I are his constituents.
CONGRESS HAS WEALTH TO WEATHER ECONOMIC
DOWNTURN Economists say the United States may be in a
recession, but the personal finances of members of Congress
suggest they will be able to weather the storm far better than
most Americans, according to the Center's new analysis of three
years of lawmakers' personal financial reports. Senators had a
median net worth of approximately $1.7 million in 2006, the most
recent year for which their financial data is available, while
the median for the House was about $675,000. These figures come
from OpenSecrets.org's searchable database of the personal
finances of Congress, the president, vice president and selected
executive branch officials. The website now contains data for
2004 through 2006, allowing for easy comparisons of officials'
wealth over the three-year period. *Read
the news release:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pressreleases/2008/CongressFinances.3.13.asp *OpenSecrets.org's
Personal Financial Disclosures Database:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/overview.asp
Ashcroft Defends Contract
(from
TomPaine.org) The Washington Post —
Former attorney general John D. Ashcroft defended
a government-sanctioned contract that could earn his consulting
firm more than $50 million, saying that nothing is improper
about the selection made by one of his former U.S. attorneys.
"There is not a conflict," Ashcroft said. "There is not an
appearance of conflict."
See
the complete article
HERE
Maplight.org's ‘Spotlight’ alert last week,
"Big-Money Interest Contributed 60% More To Legislators Who
Voted No On The Mental Health Parity Bill (H.R.1424)”
generated blog coverage, calls from mental health advocates and
a feature article in The National Journal’s
Congress Daily. See how your congressman
voted on the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction
Equity Act (H.R. 1424)
HERE (Petri is the only WI congressman to vote against it.) |
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Lohman OpEds |
Only a complete turnover of politicians will do.
By Jack E.
Lohman
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently reported that health care costs will reach 20% of GDP by the year 2017, driven by increased prices and greater demand for care. It doesn't have to be that way, but that's the way health care and insurance interests want it, so that's the way it'll be. And they've got the cash to make it all happen, at least under our current moneyed political system.
Medical costs do not have to keep rising faster than the rate of inflation, and there is every reason why they should instead decrease as new technologies catch diseases in their earlier stages and new miracle drugs cut hospitalization and treatment costs. Those savings are already estimated to be 17%, and they should improve as new drugs and technologies are developed. But our mindset is locked into believing that a disproportionate increase in cost is inevitable, and it gives politicians cover for their malfeasance. They are giving away the country's assets for personal gain and to stay elected, and it's got to stop. Now! Energy and petroleum are taking a bigger share of our household pie because of (a) campaign cash and (b) politicians taking a hands-off position on the exorbitant profits reaped by the Big Oil companies. Over $36 billion per year for Exxon even after deducting for high research costs and outlandish CEO salaries. Like the postal service has tempered delivery costs, the U.S. should introduce competition into the energy arena and not leave it to the OPEC conspiracy and willing American co-conspirators to decide our fate. FedEx does quite well against taxpayer-funded competition and so would Exxon. Food is now demanding a bigger share of the household budget because of (a) campaign cash, again, and (b) bigger farm subsidies to the corporate farmers who drive the smaller farmers out of business and eliminate competition. And as well, the higher energy prices they pay to transport their goods to market, and the diversion of corn to ehthanol, which also results from campaign cash flowing from the petroleum industry. We are not talking about commodities that are elastic, such as TVs that you can avoid buying when priced out of your budget. Health care, energy, and food are all "inelastic." You pay the price or starve, and that means cutting back on other family needs. Cutting discretionary spending.
Surprisingly, the right-wingers see this as "competition" rather than gouging, and they seem not to know how to follow the dominoes as they fall. It may well have taken a George Bush to make the rest of the country understand our deadly direction, and pushed a right-leaning electorate back to the center. We're lucky in that vein. Politicians of all stripes should be absolutely ashamed of the corruption and greed in their profession, and frankly, the voters should force a complete turnover in 2008. Republicans should vote for Republican challengers in the primary, to get the incumbent Republicans out, and the Dems should do likewise. Or vote for independents, but vote for change. Importantly, we cannot have an efficient government if the political campaigns are funded by interests that want exactly the opposite, and taxpayer-funded elections can reverse the nose dive at a hundredth of the cost of the current system. Corruption comes at a price. Voters must demand a clean government or continue watching their assets being transferred to someone else.
Why zero corporate taxes make sense.... By Jack E. Lohman This may not be mainstream thinking, but it seems silly to me to tax corporations only to have them pass those taxes back to us in higher product prices. And worse, after they’ve added their exorbitant costs for tax avoidance lawyers and accountants, which also get passed on to consumers. Or worse yet, they move out of the state and take their jobs with them. Let’s make corporate taxes zero, at least for “good” corporations that are loyal to Wisconsin. And then let’s brag like hell about it to attract other corporations and jobs to the state, and keep those that are here. Base the zero-tax rate on whether corporate CEOs and executives remain in the state and pay taxes, and don’t outsource jobs to other states or countries. But in the process let's ensure that they can’t pay their CEOs through “management” companies in another state to avoid personal taxes here. Corporations currently pay only 3% of our state revenues, the third lowest collection in the country. Let’s be the lowest. Increase my taxes by 3% and make theirs zero. I’ll get it back in lower product prices, and we’ll have more tax-paying jobs in our state, which may even offset the need to increase mine. Two of the things that drive companies out of the state are taxes and higher-than-normal health care costs. A third is labor costs, but that's an issue for another day. But our business leaders seem to support the very pay-to-play political system that perpetuates these problems. Wisconsin Manufacturers Commerce loves it, even though it drives up taxes and protects the insurance bureaucracy that drives up health care. But WMC also sells insurance and has insurance members, a potential conflict that could be detrimental to its other members. Would companies like Miller Brewery be considering leaving the state if we had zero corporate taxes and a Healthy Wisconsin to reign in health care costs? I doubt it. Will politicians fix either system? Not without pressure. They like the current cash flow to their campaign coffers. Yes, we should blame the health care industry, but more so, we must blame the politicians that are taking cash dollars to write or block laws that benefit their campaign contributors. Blame the Democrats for not pushing zero taxation for corporations, and the Republicans for blocking health care reform. Blame them both for passing laws that send taxpayer assets to favored corporations, which in the process drives up all taxes for corporations and taxpayers. But also blame the corporate CEOs and WMC for perpetuating this corrupt political system. There is a high price to pay for political corruption, and we need only look at what it's done for Mexico. We’re heading there too. Get used to it. Few corporate leaders would tolerate an employee taking cash from a vendor on the side, and trading corporate assets in return. They'd fire him, maybe even have him jailed. Yet they don't think twice when sending cash to Wisconsin politicians that do exactly the same thing. They give away taxpayer assets to fill their campaign coffers, and that seems okay. As a disclosure, I'm retired and employed by no one and I like it that way. I've paid more than my share of taxes, and I would hope for decreases in my retirement years. Mainly I don't like the political corruption that will ultimately destroy America, and I don't like CEOs and politicians in my pocket. There is but one solution, and that's to throw them all out of office. All of the Republicans must go, and 80% of the Dems should follow. The public knows who they are, and voter-mandated term limits are in order. |
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Tidbits |
To Progressive Friends from
One
Wisconsin Now--
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Give me a Break! |
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ILLUSIONS. If you like illusions, there are several good ones at http://www.marcofolio.net/other/15_cool_word_illusions.html
If you
haven't seen Mrs. Hughes,
you must:
HERE And don't miss these PsycoCats |
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Book Recommendations |
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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)
http://MoneyedPoliticians.net
www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org
www.WiCleanElections.org
www.BusinessCoalition.net
www.MoneyedPoliticians.com (my book: Politicians - Owned and Operated by Corporate America)
www.SmokeFreeDining.net (A searchable restaurant database)
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Disclosure: I am a center-right Republican that (regrettably) voted for Bush twice. But the Republicans look worse here because they (are/were) 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.
