Blue Dawg Salve

 

 

We have heard the Blue Dawgs express their major concern that healthcare reform will break the budget. They also bemoan the “interference” by the government in the free market. With healthcare decisions being so personal no one wants multiple rules restricting treatment. The healthcare industry is one sixth of the nation’s economy. These facts only increase the importance of getting the right reform. So what to do to allay the Blue Dawgs’ fears? Here is my suggestion. The government should eliminate farm subsidies to pay any increase in healthcare costs. No busted budgets, no more “evil” government manipulation of the agriculture markets. To decrease any rise in healthcare costs using a single payer system will reduce any farm subsidy offsets. An added benefit to the single payer is that it allows the market function without the heavy waste of the insurance company overhead (exec pay, admin costs, and high profits) which adds NO value to the end service. Having a single payer system will simplify healthcare provider administrative procedures and reduce their costs. Lets focus on improving healthcare and drop the parasites. Win-win. So, come on Blue Dawgs we know you value your principles over the big donors from agribusiness and insurance companies.

Healthcare Costs- One Factor

I was sitting in a doctor’s waiting room yesterday for an hour or so. During that period SIX drug salesmen called.  What’s going on there?  Big Pharma has an army of hungry salesmen relentlessly pushing  doctors to prescribe more drugs including “off-label”.  What reasonable doctor could withstand this onslaught? This seige takes doctors away from their primary mission. Direct advertizing to consumers on television and publications  pours gasoline on this fire. It’s no wonder our national healthcare costs have spiralled out of control.  I overheard one peddler express worry with pending reform measures that layoffs maybe coming soon. Which piece of proposed legislation or insurance industry group has a solution for this threat?

Insurance

With the upcoming health-care legislation there’s a strange alignment of interests. With the Single Payer option killed the players now focus on providing insurance coverage for all Americans. But first let us explore the concept of insurance.  Insurance is at its root shared risk. Because the consequences of illness are so great and we all are at risk, insurance as a legitimate solution is agreed by many. However, on the extreme of libertarians forcing the individual to share risks with others that they have nor wish control over is an anathema. They view individual responsibility as the ultimate device to keep humanity alive. Consequences maybe a cruel instructor.  As one leg of the GOP stool the libertarian credo is often espoused by the GOP to abolish all social welfare programs. The corporate leg of the GOP stool sees the gigantic profits to be made in a national health insurance mandate, minus any public option, of course. On the Democrats side the historic view of insurance companies has been most negative. The 30 percent of premiums that go to administrative expenses and profits for the insurance companies are seen by many Dems  as corporate greed taking advantage of the sick and least able to protect themselves. So where are we now? The Dems seem willing to accept and even promote an individual mandate for health insurance, while the GOP  is split among those railing against socialized medicine and those looking to get a government windfall in hard times. Meanwhile,  the 50 million uninsured will continue to become sick and injured while those with insurance will pay not only for their own care but the belated expensive care for the uninsured and the multimillion dollar benefits of the insurance companies. Go figure.

Unrecoverable

 Below is link sent to me by an acquaintance of over 45 years. By way of background this person was a high-school friend. We drifted apart a few years after college but during the 2000 election we began exchanging emails. The tone became so unhealthy that I stopped responding. I still from time to time receive emails from him and the perspective remains pretty much the same.

  

I have recently come to believe that there is a difference between that small (but substantial) minority and the rest of humanity. This difference is not one that can be explained by differences in values or experiences and I now believe can never be resolved to any meaningful degree by logical discourse or coercion. There is little common ground in the concepts of basic human rights and responsibilities. Agreement on basic facts pretty much stops at arithmetic. This minority has always existed but in the larger context of civil societies they were muffled and considered “strange”.  Of course, over the last 30 years the well-financed media echo chamber on the extreme right has emboldened this minority. With recent discoveries in mapping brain function we may be near to identifying the organic source of this anomaly. Now I realize finding a physical structure to explain behavior has been proposed almost from the beginning of the study of anatomy. These current studies may come to no more than the witch hunt efforts in the past but there does seem to be a certain logic to resistance to known facts being more than some cognitive failure. Those who believe torture is effective and justified for “national security” reasons are among this minority.

 http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1579920046?bctid=20047560001 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hate Continues

I was in the grocery store yesterday and passed by the small display of books. There was an Obama section that had grown since the inauguration.  This section had his two books, half a dozen or so biographies and a copy of his inauguration speech.  I had seen this section before but this time there was something different.  Every stack in this section had the top one or two books turned upside-down. This was not the result of some casual browser mislaying a book.  This was deliberate. It was every stack but only in the Obama section.  The rest of the book  display was normal. Fueled by ignorance and fear the hate continues.

A word of advice to our new President, do not risk our hopes and your life by visiting Texas.  I still remember the last time a young inspiring President came to Texas.

Currently reading Kite Runner by Hosseini, Supreme Injustice by Dershowitz, and American Caesar by Manchester.

Cloture

There is an anachronism from the 1800’s that is choking American democracy. The U.S. Senate makes its own rules and has a rule to cut off a filibuster (read unlimited delay), known as cloture. Currently cloture requires a supermajority of 60 votes.  The senate’s original cloture rule was 66, but the senate changed its rules after Watergate scandals to 60. This rule purportedly protects the minority from a tyranny of the majority. The effect of this rule is that a bill in the senate must have 60 votes before it can even come to the floor for an up or down vote. Some would argue that this practice is a reasonable restraint on the excesses of populism, a control on rash actions. Even accepting this opinion ignores the structure of the senate specified in Article I. At the constitutional convention the Connecticut compromise ensured that the large states would not have simple majority control. By allocating two senators from each state a minority of the population can defeat the ambitions of the majority. These citizens of the small states are commonly portrayed as being wiser. In concert these two rules, one constitutional and one institutional, are an excessive block on legislative actions, often until the situation is in extremis. A minority of senators representing a minority of the national population are more subject to actions that are contrary to what is best for the entire country. Let us observe the other branch of government where individuals reach a decision, i.e., the Supreme Court. In that court a simple majority of the justices prevails. No supermajority is required to “protect the minority”. The common sense idea that the more people in favor of an action means better prospects for it being right is at the core of democracy. No reasonable person argues that the minority doesn’t need to be protected in this system. But when a minority of a minority can substitute their opinion for the majority democracy is suffocated. How can advocates of democracy tell a skeptical public that they should be involved in their government when their cause will be sidetracked by special interests? Let’s give democracy a chance to work.

 

Currently reading: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Now is the time for an increase in the gas tax.

Yes,  not long ago when gas was $4 per gallon people cried, “Why didn’t we do something beforehand.” So, now with gas under two dollars the government should act quickly. Oh, I know the economy is in the tank, people are out of work and gas is one of few affordable necessities. How on Earth can you raise taxes now? The answer is quite simple. When gas was twice the current price ridership on public transportation increased, driving decreased and sales of fuel efficient cars rose. Candidates proposed to eliminate the gas tax. Now the situation has reversed. It is estimated than a one dollar increase in the gas tax would bring in 100-200 billion dollars a year. This money could be quickly returned in funding green projects, infrastructure repair and lessening the massive federal deficits. By adjusting the gas tax to keep the price steady regardless of supply and demand conservation could become the salvation of the economy and the environment. With demand for oil down OPEC will soon begin to cut production to raise the price back to bad old days. Where would you rather your increased gasoline expenses go? For American research on carbon free transportation? For fixing American roads? Or to fund foreign religious extremists? We just had an election where the voters were asking for change. If we delay until the economy recovers, then demand will recover and the price of gas will be right back when it was and we will have lost an opportunity to make real change. Backsliding on conservation when conditions temporarily improve has been the practice of both the public and their leaders for over 30 years. Let’s just try not to go back this time before it’s too late. Tell the officials to stop pandering and do what’s right.

Current Landscape

I got taste of the misinformation that seems to be swallowing the electorate. A man retired from the Army after serving in Korea and Viet Nam let me know that Barack Obama has now said he is of the “Arab religion”.  The treaty that allows the US to maintain forces in Iraq for three years was not signed by George Bush, but rather by Barack Obama. The return of “the draft” is part of Obama’s plan to make America’s military a force to spread that “Arab religion”. For further evidence of the difficulty of democracy the gentle reader is referred to here to examine the ballots in the Minnesota Senatorial election. The past failure of the public education system to imbue the current generation with the principles upon which this nation was founded and how the mechanisms of an election work will continue to have lasting implications. See Codrescu . As rightwing radio begins its assault on the incoming administration with hoots of “Obama’s Recession” we can expect some turbulent times. Nobody said Change was going to be easy.

 

Now reading Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.

Reconnaissance Mission

Your precinct correspondent recently climbed the party hierarchy for a peek inside the SDEC at a TDP reception after the first day of committee meeting. While munching on oatmeal raisin cookies and swigging coke (designated driver status) he overheard the hot topic of the day, the “Texas Two-Step” primary process. Arguments listing the hardships on the elderly, the handicapped and night shift workers had been pushed since the March primary. But the critical role of party building through the conventions was not going away quietly. With early voting accounting for over half the vote and with “drive-by” primaries the Cardinals of the party wonder if the campaigns have turned the party into nothing but a letterhead with the real body written by the candidates. Would early voters and Election Day voters return as foot soldiers in the fall?  Without the convention sign-in sheets containing vital phone numbers and email addresses how can the party marshal forces to blockwalk, phonebank, turnout for rallies and voice a message of unity? The migration to cell phones from landlines has made phone directories an information pot of only senior citizens.  Sure, Obama has the community organizing skills on steroids, but what about the guy or gal running for Justice of the Peace, Constable, County Commissioner? Are they left to fend for themselves, hopefully have a large family, circle of Facebook friends, with ready cash? If people who vote have no more allegiance to a party and its platform than drop by an Early voting station on a rainy spring Sunday afternoon, will the best candidate really be chosen? Are we doomed to nothing but candidate personality, mass media buys funded by special interests and big donors? We have already seen campaigns where candidates would not endorse or be seen with other candidates for other offices in the same party because that connection might lose them a vote in their own race. What is the logical endpoint? No parties, just totally independent candidates?  How will George Washington’s vision work in the 21^st Century?

Now reading Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.

But Not This Time

Election Day, 2008. A typical Presidential election day has 10-20 voters waiting in line before the poll opens. Mostly people on their way to work or early-rising seniors. Today there were 50+ in the cool dark morning and they kept coming, lines to the front door until 8:30 a.m. Past the distance marker the House district Republican candidate has his cell phone glued to his ear and waves his sign at the honking cars as they pass. We are used to a mid-morning slow down, so when the rate slowed to a steady stream of two short lines, no surprise. The short bus from the upscale assisted living center drops off two ladies. One blind the other just came for company. The Automark gets its first use of the day, straight Republican. An elderly man votes and says he will bring his handicapped wife. So we get ready for a curbside vote process. But not this time. She is wheeled in and votes. We anticipated the lunchtime bump. But not this time. The Hispanic female in business suit needs help voting straight Democratic, except to vote for McCain/Palin, “it’s for religious reasons, you know.” The afternoon slowed while the wind whipped the candidates’ plastic signs posted out at the street. Homeschoolers trickle in with 2,3,4 children. The occasional voter whose name did not appear on the rolls. Claims of registration or address changes through the DPS fall on deaf ears at the voter registrar. You can vote a provisional ballot, but it probably won’t count. We said after 3:30 pm school would soon be out and the wave would swell and we might need to call for more ballots. But not this time.  The 18 year old first-time voter who needed assistance to vote straight Democratic and then split his ballot for Sarah Palin, “because I like her.” Visions of Mrs. Robinson glimmered in his eye. Voters at the wrong precinct. Find their correct polling place and give directions. Plenty of time to get there before the polls close.  Hospital doctors in their scrubs. The thirty something couple extract a frail grandpa from their luxury SUV and escort him to the booth and back out. Bring out your dead. When 5 p.m. came we just knew those lines would stretch back down the hall out to the parking lot. But not this time. At 6:30 p.m. we consolidated to one reception table. At 7 p.m. when the polls closed and the door was locked there was one voter at the reception table. By 7:10 p.m. he was gone.  Perhaps, a few late comers knocking on the door after 7. But not this time. The 1,600 ballots we stacked at the beginning of the day now had one full packet of 400 unopened and another not half used. Surplus poll workers sent home. Signs, distance markers and sample ballots taken down at 7, ballot scanner done printing totals tapes by 7:40 p.m. 961 votes plus one provisional ballot out of a 5,100 precinct of registered voters. Ballots inventoried,  multi-colored distribution envelopes stuffed with forms, transfer boxes loaded with marked ballots and sealed. Compensation form completed. Smooth as cool cream. Walked out the door at 8:15 p.m. Early voting and Republican depression took their toll. Change may have roared in at other polls. But not here. Not this time.