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eNewsletter #74

July 26, 2008

 www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org

Newsletter Archives

 

“The smallest or lowest level that can possibly undertake the task is the one that should do so. The smaller the governmental unit and the closer it is to the people, the easier it is to guide it, to correct it, to keep it solvent, and to keep our freedom.

Remember that the people of the states of this republic created the federal government. The federal government did not create the states.”

Ezra Taft Benson
October 1968 General Conference
.

In this issue:

1) Health Care

2) Campaign Reform

3) Politicians

4) On Oil

5) Tidbits

6) Give me a Break!

7) Book Recommendations

8) Contact Information

9) Unsubscribe Instructions

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1

Health Care

 

2

Campaign Reform

WMC Already Collecting Dividends from Buying the State Court

Ziegler, Van Hollen and WMC deliver huge tax bill

By Lisa Kaiser

The state Supreme Court, state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and the big business lobby Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) handed Wisconsin residents a $350 million tax hike—and gave corporations a new tax break.

Four justices on the state Supreme Court—Patrick Crooks, DavidProsser, Patience Roggensack and Annette Ziegler, who wrote the majority opinion—ruled last week in favor of Menasha Corp. in a sales tax case. The court ruled that Menasha did not have to pay $265,093 in sales or use taxes on computer software worth $5.2 million.

I actually support tax cuts for businesses, because they just get passed on to the consumer, but I abhor that they are bought-and-paid for through a corrupt political system. See Business Taxes

See this complete article HERE 

State has best high court that money can buy

The wealthiest corporations in Wisconsin now have the best state Supreme Court money can buy.

How are you enjoying it so far? How do you like the Wisconsin Supreme Court giving a humongous $265 million tax refund to the richest companies in the state that you, as an ordinary taxpayer, are going to have to make up out of your own pocket? And that’s just the beginning.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s largest business lobby, spent about $4 million to buy the last two Supreme Court elections. More than $2 million of that was spent to elect the ethically challenged Annette Ziegler last year. Brazenly, Ziegler wrote last week’s decision granting WMC members their $265 million tax windfall.

This is an excellent post HERE

Redistricting is already very much on the minds of the politicians. Which is why it needs to be on the minds of citizens. The Brennan Center for Justice just released an excellent primer on redistricting that can help voters navigate what has long been an arcane insiders' game. And not a moment too soon.

The Midwest Democracy Network, a five-state regional alliance of reform groups that includes the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, is in the market for an executive director. For more information on this job opening, go here.

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
210 North Bassett Street, Suite 215
Madison, WI 53703
 www.wisdc.org

 

 

3

Politicians

Sensenbrenner favors 19% of seniors, trashes other 81%!

By Jack E. Lohman

It was hard to believe my ears.

Either Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner was spinning his vote for the insurance industry, or he truly doesn’t get it.

At a recent town hall meeting Jim boasted that he voted against reducing the funds for Medicare’s Advantage program because some of his constituents like the program. And yep, 19% of seniors have fallen for the claims by Advantage salesmen, as did he.

But in the process, he tossed to the wolves the other 81% of seniors with traditional Medicare!

Medicare Advantage plans cost taxpayers up to 17% more than traditional Medicare, and generally provide less patient care. HR6331 would have lowered the private Medicare payments to equal those of public Medicare, but Jim wouldn’t stand for it.

Forget that ”private” should be less costly than “public,” it isn’t.

Medicare Advantage plans (a clever oxymoron) are more costly not because they offer more services to patients – because they take more than they give – but because they waste more money on salesman commissions, actuarial costs (cherry-picking), utilization review (gatekeepers and denial of care), higher CEO salaries and bonuses, and in some cases shareholder profits and even lobbying and campaign contributions that get added to patient costs.

Hereby lies the key: private Medicare Advantage companies can give campaign contributions and public Medicare cannot!!!

So what else would you expect from Jim Sensenbrenner? He also opposes campaign reform, which would greatly reduce the corruption in Washington and fix a lot of our nation’s problems.

The Advantage plans are usually fine, until you get really sick and need care. The Medicare Rights Center found serious problems when, too often, these plans did not provide the care they promise. This has prompted several state attorney generals to sue the companies on behalf of patients.

Among the faults found:

  1. Care can cost more than it would under Original Medicare;
  2. Private plans are not stable;
  3. Difficulty getting emergency or urgent care;
  4. Continuity of care is broken;
  5. Members have to follow plan rules to get covered care;
  6. Choice of doctor, hospital and other providers is restricted;
  7. Difficulty getting care away from home;
  8. Promised extra benefits can be very limited;
  9. People with both Medicare and Medicaid can encounter higher costs.

Worse, in order to pay for the 17% subsidy to the private Advantage companies, congress allowed a 10.6% cut in physician payments from “traditional Medicare” to take effect on July 1st. The obvious result is that physicians will significantly reduce (or sometimes eliminate) the number of new “traditional” Medicare patients they take, and/or start skimping on the number of needed diagnostic tests they perform.

So, many of the remaining 81% of seniors will now have to start looking for lesser-quality and more costly Advantage plans, which is exactly what the private insurance industry wanted!

Thank you, Congressman Sensenbrenner.

Another problem is that most of these plans are “capitated” and paid at a fixed rate by Medicare. So whenever the company can avoid providing tests or surgeries, that savings adds to their bottom line in profits. A major incentive for denial of care.

I asked Jim why, when the taxpayers give politicians health care, he calls it “employee benefits.” But when taxpayers give citizens health care he calls it “socialized medicine.”

Not surprisingly he launched into a tirade defending the federal health care system. He ignored that most seniors have paid into Medicare over the past 40 years, and are subject to the same 20% deductible federal employees are.

Funny how that works, but you have to know the mentality. Sensenbrenner’s gold-plated plan is neither a capitated plan nor a health savings account (HSA), both of which he supports for the masses but not for himself.

Reports on Medicare Advantage Plans:

States Look to Rein In Private Medicare Plans

Private Medicare Plans’ Cost Questioned

Medicare Audits Show Problems in Private Plans

Sensenbrenner’s Republican challenger, Jim Burkee, has promised to self-limit his stay in the House to 6 years, which would be quite a change from Jim’s 30 year stand. His website outlines his disagreements with Sensenbrenner, though he (inappropriately, I think) supports free-market health care.

This bill ultimately passed the senate with a 69-30 veto-proof majority on July 9th, no thanks to Sensenbrenner and Paul Ryan. After Ted Kennedy (D-MA) cast the deciding vote, nine Republicans changed theirs to vote their conscience. To understand why they didn’t vote their conscience in the first place, just follow the money!

That is our corrupt system. Get used to it… or change it!

See the comments HERE (especially the first one on HSAs.)
 

Health care: See Jim Burkee's view of Jim Sensenbrenner's view HERE

From Alberta Darling's web site, her answer on how to "Reform Health Care":

Instead of dismantling and replacing our current health care system with a massive government-run bureaucracy, people would rather see reform of the system we have.

The vast majority of Wisconsinites do not like our current system and do not want to reform it. They want to replace it, dismantle it, and most voters support Healthy Wisconsin.

Senate Democrats voted for, and passed, a new $15.2 billion payroll tax increase on Wisconsin workers to pay for their massive "Healthy Wisconsin" socialist health care plan.

Like all Healthy Wisconsin opponents, Darling talks about the $15 billion "tax" but conveniently omits that it would replace the $17 billion employers currently pay in health care premiums. You'll have to forgive Alberta, her math is not very good. That's a $2 billion savings to businesses!!!!  

Instead, we should empower consumers to take control of their health care decisions and the money they spend on services. "Smart Medicine," my evidence-based health care reform initiative, would:

So here's her pitch: Leave the insurance industry in the loop and let people try and find the lowest bidder, as if one exists, and as if people are going to go to the lowest bidder with their children. But this is as close as she can get to reform without upsetting the insurance industry.  

  • Reduce the cost of services
  • Improve quality for recipients
  • Make coverage affordable

All magic words that mean everything to voters but say nothing for patients.

Congressional Performance

Congressional Approval Falls to Single Digits for First Time Ever

The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.

Last month, 11% of voters gave the legislature good or excellent ratings. Congress has not received higher than a 15% approval rating since the beginning of 2008.

See the complete report HERE 

 

 

4

On Oil

Politicians should protect the public with new Oil-USA option (from my June 2007 blog)

I agree with Bush on opening up off-shore drilling. No, it won't have an immediate impact, but it will help my kids and grandkids. In 2020 we can't be looking back on 2008 and asking why we didn't act then.

That the oil industry already has 68 million acres under lease for $3-4 per acre is not the issue. They aren’t drilling on it, they are sitting on it because it makes their books look good. That they are misleading their stockholders is not the issue, they are tying up property that could be drilled on by another company. They should be made to drill or vacate the leases.

The environmentalists are short-sighted on this. When the first oil crisis hit in the 1970's, Brazil started drilling for oil and have since switched from an oil importer to an oil exporter. The longer we wait to drill, the more damage will be done to our children. The current economy should give us a clue as to what's ahead. Massive dollars and US assets going to oil producing and terrorist nations, all while China is drilling in our Gulf of Mexico.

So for us not to drill matters not. China is drilling and walking away with our assets! Even on the island of Cuba they can sideways drill and deplete our resources.

We should also look at France's safe use of nuclear power for decades. And, oh, also start learning Chinese.
 

Big Access, Little Energy — the Oil and Gas Industry's Hold on Western Lands

Who owns the west?

A first-ever investigation of federal land use and energy production records by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) shows that the oil and gas industry has been given access to an immense area of western land, and that this nearly unfettered opportunity to drill in 12 western states has done nothing to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil.

The report contradicts a widely-repeated myth ....... 

See the Environmental Working Group's report HERE

For more on Oil Leases see Google HERE

I support Feingold's "Use it or Lose It" bill

From my June 2007 blog, perhaps worth repeating…. Politicians should protect the public with new Oil-USA option

My Plan to Escape the Grip of Foreign Oil

By T. BOONE PICKENS

One of the benefits of being around a long time is that you get to know a lot about certain things. I'm 80 years old and I've been an oilman for almost 60 years. I've drilled more dry holes and also found more oil than just about anyone in the industry. With all my experience, I've never been as worried about our energy security as I am now. Like many of us, I ignored what was happening. Now our country faces what I believe is the most serious situation since World War II.

The problem, of course, is our growing dependence on foreign oil – it's extreme, it's dangerous, and it threatens the future of our nation.

See the complete article HERE

http://img.getactivehub.com/images/space.gif

 

5

Tidbits

Bitter as Hell

I want to see them [politicians] punished, financially speaking.

All those neocons and supply-siders, the speculators and bubble-meisters, who turned the economy into something so lurid, so deceptive, it would make Las Vegas blush.

I want to see them lose their second homes.

I want to see them lined up at the counter for a payday loan to get them by till Friday.

I want to see them shell out 231% annual interest for that payday loan, and feel glad to get it.

I want their kids to go deep into debt for a college education, the way my kids will.

I want their kids starting their adult lives dragging a ball and chain, like my kids will.

I want their kids to pay for an unnecessary war, like my kids will.

I want their kids to pay more.

Source: http://blog.sustainablemiddleclass.com/?p=277

I like it, and obviously agree.....

Fannie, Freddie and the Threat of Economic Meltdown

By Paul Krugman

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in the headlines, with dire warnings of imminent collapse. How worried should we be?

See the complete article HERE

House GOP Tax and Entitlement Plan Would Raise Taxes on Four-Fifths of Americans While Slashing Taxes on the Wealthy

Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, introduced legislation on May 21 that would cut Social Security benefits and create private accounts, end Medicare as it is currently structured, dramatically reduce the revenues available to fund federal public services, and radically reduce the fairness of the federal tax system.

A new report from CTJ shows that the tax provisions in this legislation would increase taxes on the poorest four-fifths of taxpayers while slashing taxes on those at the top of the income scale. The upper-income tax cuts would far outweigh the tax increases on everyone else, with a net annual reduction in federal revenues of $286 billion if the plan were in effect this year.

See the CTJ Report: 

The growing economic crisis

What happened
The failure of a major bank, the plunging stock market, and other alarming economic news had financial markets on the edge of a full-scale panic this week, prompting the Bush administration to take several dramatic steps to bolster confidence. The centerpiece of the administration’s efforts was Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s plan to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored mortgage companies that together hold or guarantee about $5 trillion of mortgage debt—about half of all mortgages in the U.S. Paulson proposed making government loans and even direct federal investment available to the troubled companies, which investors fear could collapse because of bad home loans and diving housing prices. 

Financial markets were shaken when depositors clamored to retrieve funds from IndyMac Bank, a large California mortgage lender that was seized by federal regulators. The dollar hit a record low against the euro while, on Wall Street, bank shares were driven down by fears that more bank failures are on the way. “Everyone is drawing up lists, trying to figure out who the next bank is,” said Richard X. Bove, a banking analyst with Ladenburg Thalmann.

What the editorials said
The alternative to the Paulson plan is “chaos,” said the St. Louis Post Dispatch. While it’s never good to tie taxpayers to the fate of private companies, in this case the “rescue appears to have been necessary.” If Fannie and Freddie were allowed to fail, “money for new mortgages would dry up” and the bottom would come out of the housing market. The government’s guarantee should be enough to save these companies, so that taxpayers don’t take another hit.

It’s a little late to worry about the taxpayers, said The Wall Street Journal. In creating Freddie and Fannie, Congress provided “an implicit taxpayer guarantee,” and everyone knows the government cannot allow these companies to fail. The question is how to use this moment to rein in “these monsters.” Paulson should put the companies into federal receivership and appoint a “czar” with power over management and a mandate to protect taxpayer interests. Otherwise, the companies will simply exploit federal protection to indulge in more foolish and risky behavior.

What the columnists said
Let’s face it, said David Ignatius in The Washington Post, the banking industry is going up in flames, and the Fed and the Treasury Department are now racing around like “a pell-mell fire brigade,” hosing down every new fire with the taxpayers’ money. But how many banks can the government bail out? The stocks of Wachovia, Citigroup, SunTrust, and Washington Mutual have all plunged from 70 percent to 92 percent in one year.
 
There’s already been a huge price to pay for the government’s bailouts, said Joshua Rosner in the Financial Times. The profligate use of tens of billions of federal dollars to rescue bad banks has created rising inflation and a “debased” U.S. dollar. “By the time we are finished with this tragic period in U.S. economic history,” capitalism will be on its knees, laid low by poor policy decisions and the “nationalization of bad assets.”

No wonder that some economists are saying the U.S. now faces “its most serious economic crisis since 1932,” said Andrew Leonard in Salon.com. But the cause of this crisis is not government bailouts of failing industries. Freed by the Bush administration to do what they pleased, the banking, mortgage, and financial industries gambled billions on amazingly stupid loans, creating a giant sinkhole that is now sucking in the entire economy. In the end, the principal casualty of this debacle will be the laughable idea that “unregulated markets are a sensible way to run an economy.”  

What next?
In testimony before Congress this week, a somber Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that there is no end in sight for the ongoing economic downturn. “This is clearly a rough time,” Bernanke said, warning of “downside risks” for the rest of the year. With the consumer price index jumping 1.1 percent in June, Bernanke said the Fed was facing “significant challenges,” since lowering interest rates to boost the economy would feed inflation. For most Americans, that means more pain ahead, said Richard Moody, an economist at Mission Residential. “There’s not enough lipstick to put on this pig,” Moody said. “U.S. workers are falling farther and farther behind.”

This is an excellent weekly, get 4 free issues on this trial subscription

Today's Pig is Tomorrow's Bacon

by Greg Palast

Some years from now, in an economic refugee relocation "Enterprise Zone," your kids will ask you, "What did you do in the Class War, Daddy?"

The trick of class war is not to let the victims know they're under attack. That's how, little by little, the owners of the planet take away what little we have.

See this excellent article HERE

From a blogger....

GOING UP !
Top 1% share of total income
Income gap between rich and poor
Foreign debt as a percent of GDP
Age at which one can receive Social Security
Hunger
Consumer credit debt
Housing foreclosures
Severe poverty rate

GOING DOWN !
Real income
Real manufacturing wages
Percent of single women and mothers in the workforce
The bottom 40%'s share of national wealth
Older families with pensions.
Workers covered by defined benefit pensions.
The savings rate
US manufacturing jobs

WEALTH

BY ANDREW CARNEGIE.

The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship. The conditions of human life have not only been changed, but revolutionized, within the past few hundred years. In former days there was little difference between the dwelling, dress, food, and environment of the chief and those of his retainers. The Indians are to-day where civilized man then was. When visiting the Sioux, I was led to the wigwam of the chief. It was just like the others in external appearance, and even within the difference was trifling between it and those of the poorest of his braves. The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer with us to-day measures the change which has come with civilization.

This change, however, is not to be deplored, but welcomed as highly beneficial. It is well, nay, essential for the progress of the race, that the houses of some should be homes for all that is highest and best in literature and the arts, and for all the refinements of civilization, rather than that none should be so. Much better this great irregularity than universal squalor. Without wealth there can be no Mæcenas. The "good old times " were not good old times. Neither master nor servant was as well situated then as to-day. A relapse to old conditions would be disastrous to both--not the least so to him who serves--and would Sweep away civilization with it. But whether the change be for good or ill, it is upon us, beyond our power to alter, and therefore to be accepted and made the best of. It is a waste of time to criticise the inevitable.

See this excellent article HERE

Interview with WILLIAM GREIDER: "To make the story overly crude, Congress repealed the law against usury. It was done in 1980 by a Democratic Congress, Democratic President. And, of course, the Republicans all piled on and voted for it. And that was the first stroke, only the first of many, in which they stripped away the regulatory laws from the financial system and from banking."

And that allowed the free market modernized gimmicks of one kind or another, all these things we're now reading about, to flourish. And that's where we are. I mean, the gatekeepers said to the banking industry and to the financial industry, "We don't think federal control or regulation is good for you, so we're, therefore, liberating you to do your own thing."

So the 1980 Dems are a major part of the problem... See the story HERE

It is mind-boggling to me that our automobile manufacturers have such short-term vision. They bought-and-paid for our corrupt congressmen to kill improved CAFE standards, which backfired because now they can't compete with Asian companies that moved forward with better gas mileage nonetheless. Then they killed the electric car. Now that GM is going belly up, they surely must want those electric cars back. Maybe they could convert a Janesville plant to make electrics. It'd be a double-whammy.

Idea courtesy Sean Cranley, Burlington Area Progressives

So here we have it: Privatizing WATER!

Only 1% of Taxpayers Would Be Affected by Obama's Proposal to Increase the Social Security Payroll Tax for the Rich

Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama has proposed increasing the Social Security payroll tax on wealthy Americans to enhance the program's solvency for years to come. While several commentators and politicians have suggested that this would burden the middle-class, a new report from CTJ finds that only around 1 percent of taxpayers would actually be affected by this proposal.

Social Security is funded by a payroll tax of 12.4 percent on the first $102,000 of each worker's earnings. Some experts and lawmakers have suggested raising the cap or eliminating it altogether. Senator Obama's idea differs in that he would only increase the Social Security tax for those whose earnings are above $250,000.

Some commentators have suggested that Senator Obama may actually change the way Social Security is financed more fundamentally by applying a tax increase to total household income rather than individual earnings. This would mean that the $250,000 threshold would apply to all household income rather than individual earnings.

We estimate that in 2008, only 2.1 percent of taxpayers will have adjusted gross income (which includes forms of income that are potentially taxable) above $250,000. This means that even under this more expansive interpretation of Senator Obama's Social Security plan, about 98 percent of taxpayers would not be affected.

CTJ Report:

Power Struggle: Industry Standards

Published by Lindsay Renick Mayer on July 10, 2008

Industries across the board have a stake in the outcome of energy legislation, either because they are looking for handouts or trying to minimize harm. Some are united in their efforts, while other industries have splintered over their views on energy measures. But they're all using money to sway the outcome of the debates in their favor. These are some of the major players, their concerns and the money they're spending to be heard on Capitol Hill.

Oil & Gas Industry
 Total contributions, 2008 cycle: $18.4 million (74 percent to Republicans)
 Lobbying expenditures, 2008: $26.6 million

When gas prices go up, the public usually wants to see oil and gas companies come before the guillotine. But heads rarely seem to roll, as the industry has traditionally had a cozy financial relationship with lawmakers in Washington, particularly of the Republican variety. Now that there are more Democrats acting as the high executioners, however, the industry is fighting against punitive measures, not just for handouts. Exxon Mobil best exemplifies the defensive position the industry is in--in the first few months of this year, the company has already spent $3 million on lobbying efforts and hired 11 outside lobbying firms (in addition to its in-house lobbyists). Between 2004 and 2007, the industry's lobbying spending jumped 64 percent, from $51.2 million to $83.9 million.
 
Most recently oil and gas companies have fought off a windfall profits tax of 25 percent and preserved the $17 billion in tax breaks that Democrats wanted to re-direct to renewable energy sources. Republicans say the high gas prices can be remedied not by taxing the industry but by lifting offshore drilling bans and approving oil shale exploration in western states.

See all energy industries HERE

 

 

6

Give me a Break!

The Sixties

Hopefully the knife was dull

A Canadian street performer

Another street performer

The Lion Tamers

The dance

 

 
 

 

7

Book Recommendations

See other reviews on Amazon.com

The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington (Hardcover)

by David Sirota (Author)

 

The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, July 3, 2008
By  Kenneth Brosky (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Well-written, better than "Hostile Takeover." You can tell now by reading this book that Sirota has more confidence in his writing style and isn't afraid to pepper his stories with a very human narrator, something that's important in titles like this where readers are given a very close-up look at a particular institution. The book is extremely informative (I had never even heard of "Third-Party Fusion" before reading this book, and now I want to know how I can bring it to Wisconsin!), and the intimate glimpses inside Washington and everywhere else shows readers various sides of issues that we don't normally see in the corporate press. I'm actually quite surprised to see another reviewer attack Sirota because of his chapter on the Minutemen on the border. I thought the chapter was actually quite fair, maybe TOO fair given how many of the people he meets seem to be struggling to hide their racism, but that's just one opinion. Either way, it's an intimate glimpse into a movement, just like every other chapter, and every chapter offers something we can learn from.

 

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)

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)

Wisconsin State Assembly pages: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/leginfo/contact/legislatorslist.aspx?house=assembly

Wisconsin State Senator pages: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/leginfo/contact/legislatorslist.aspx?house=senate

 

9
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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.