She Who Smelt It...Dealt It

There is a pretty strong stench coming from some of the republican candidates these days. If they have not been drawn into an argument yet about who among them is the most frugal with the tax payer's money, they soon will. Who is leading the charge? Representative Michele Bachmann, Congresswoman of Minnesota's 6th District and republican candidate for president in 2012. Bachmann has remade herself into a Tea Party darling by relentlessly criticizing the President's health care initiative and any government spending that she and the Tea Party see as wasteful spending. Some say that she has stolen Sarah Palin's schtick as the poster child for capitalism made in the USA. This shameless pandering to the Tea Party has made her the movement's unofficial leader.

But for someone who is such a visible and vocal opponent of wasteful government spending and the free market has Representative Bachmann towed that same line when she represents those in her own district? An even more serious question arises when we ask if she has ever received a handout from the government for herself or her family?

Now to make things perfectly clear, part of the job of a state level or federal level representative is to do just that; represent the constituents in their districts. Sometimes that includes something as easy and simple as a proclamation. At other times it includes money for projects. But in the case of Bachmann's district it would apply to subsidies for pork farmers. Some call the appropriation of funds for project which have no merit "pork." In the case of Bachmann's request it would appear that this is pork for pork.

But what is so astounding about this is that it would appear to be the height of hypocrisy for someone like Michele Bachmann. Not only does she vocally proclaim that the American free market is the greatest system on earth. She also rails against earmarks and giveaways.

The Conservative Mind

It not easy being from the middle.  You would like to think that one takes ideas from both sides of the isle and use what is best to form a more perfect union.  But just like that phrase itself, working toward a more perfect union is become more and more difficult.


It is no secret that we are a more polarized electorate than in any time in recent history.  With that polarization comes ideology that is to one extreme or another.  Don't get me wrong, the liberals have their own set of crazies out there.  I understand that we are not all going to live in a Utopian society where everyone gets along and shares everything.  There is no such thing as money and somehow magically everyone gets what they need.  I also don't think that we are going back to riding on horses as a primary mode of transportation any time soon and unicorn transportation is just not going to happen.


But the real craziness comes from the right.  If there ever was decorum in a debate the right has thrown that all out the window.  After reading several right wing articles recently they begin their discourse by saying that liberals refuse to use facts while debating; this before even making a point themselves.  It's difficult to begin a debate before one side even makes a statement.  To attack the credibility of any possible statement opposing point made by your opponent before it is stated violates all the rules of common decency and discourse.  That gets to the crux of why the right is dangerous.  The conservative mind doesn't want to take a stand and they don't want the other side to attempt to debate.


The second aspect of the conservative mind is treating the rest of us as if there is no context to their thesis.  They accuse the left of one or another obscure failure or another while not acknowledging that their side often created the mess.  For example, former Vice President Dick Cheney likes to point out every misstep by President Obama while he himself created the hole our current administration is digging out from.  One of our own generals finally called out Mr. Cheney by saying that he has no right to speak as the architect of one of the worst foreign policies in modern times.  Conservatives refuse to recognize that it takes a lot longer to pull out of a war than it takes to declare one.  They refuse to understand that it takes a lot longer to recover from an economy that has gone bad than to watch it, as the previous administration had done, sink into the worst recession since the great depression.


In a matter of fact, Barack Obama's entire administration has been largely defined by having to dig out of the crater that the last administration had created.  Yet conservative commentators like Bill O'Reilly asked within 90 days of the Obama administration taking office why he was unable to turn the economy around.  O'Reilly, no idiot just knows that his viewership is.


The conservative mind pretends to care about America and the economy but in reality has found the one weakness in our form of government.  It takes two, sometimes three branches of our government for something to happen.  If you are in charge of one of those branches of government and decide to do nothing, nothing happens.  We don't have opposition in this country by the conservatives, we have a party that simply refuses to participate.  So if you have been out of work or are just sympathetic to those who have been, our recovery, which almost no one thinks is happening too quickly is largely the byproduct of those who refuse to act.


The conservative mind can't share credit.  The Affordable Health Care Act was by and large the product of the conservative mind.  In a matter of fact is was  conceived by a conservative think thank and implemented by a conservative governor in a liberal state.  You would not know that by the way they have treated it when presented by a black liberal president.  If it is not their idea it is bad for America.  There lies the truth:  If the conservatives don't do it, than there is no merit to it.


The conservative mind claims to be all for personal freedoms and capitalism until it goes against what they believe.  They have been trying to tell women what to do with their bodies for generations.  Ignorant statements by one governor or senator or congressman too numerous to recount would propose the clock be set back on woman's health nearly a half century.  They believe in free market capitalism until it goes bad for them and then they are all for bailing themselves out.  They are firmly against welfare claiming that those who are down on their luck should simply pull themselves up by their bootstraps until it is their corporate buddies who need a handout.  It is then just good business and political preservation.  The latest fraud perpetrated by the right is that they are trying to sell us on accepting that conservative religious freedoms are being trampled and therefore others' personal freedoms can be placed in jeopardized.  There will be much more to come on that one. 


So if you can't get health care, thank a conservative.  If you are a woman and cannot get access to the services you require, thank a conservative.  If you are desperately trying to find a job and your unemployment benefits run out, thank a conservative.  If you are wondering why a stimulus package cannot be passed like it had been in all other previous modern day administrations, republican or democrat, thank a conservative.  If you want more of the same, vote republican this fall.

Not in a Vacuum

With the 2014 election cycle gearing up and the 2016 election on the horizon a lot will be made of the deepening divide between the rich and the poor and the haves and the have-nots. 

 

In just the latest high profile rant from billionaire Thomas Perkins co-founder of Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers a former venture capitalist claims that the poor are like the Nazis.  The Occupy Wall Street movement is akin to Kristallnacht the infamous assault by the Nazis on Jewish homes and businesses marking and aggressive turn in the persecution of the Jews.  Mr. Perkins’ misguided comparison blaming the poor for the plight of the rich is just the latest by the well to do complaining that they now are the persecuted class and what did they do to deserve all this bullying by those who are jealous of what they have?

 

Nothing happens in a vacuum, sir.  Although with the press always chasing the latest shiny object, one might question as to what has led us to this point so quickly?  In reality, these turns of events began gestating nearly a generation ago under President Ronald Reagan.  They largely lay dormant under the Bush 1 and then under Clinton era presidencies, who passed The North American Free Trade Act.  But the assault on the poor and middle class picked up full stream and in many ways took on a life of their own culminating in a perfect storm under the presidency of Bush 2/Cheney.  

Several factors have let to the divide between rich and poor as we sit in 2014:  Mergers, acquisitions and Wall Street and pay to play government  play an enormous role.  Deregulation of and the loosening of ownership rules for media and communications companies also fact in weakening what some used to call our fourth branch of government, the press. 

Cause:  Starting a generation ago President Ronald Reagan loosened rules governing FCC regulation on media ownership.  Provisions rules such as “equal time” and the “Fairness Doctrine” which had provided equal time for each side, right and left, to get their messages out equally were no longer enforced and deemphasised.  For those of you living in a time where you know nothing other than Fox News representing the right and MSNBC the left, understand that the major networks were required to give each side equal standing to present all sides.  if they presented one point of view, they were required to present the other.  The benefit was that people heard each argument rather than in the present day entrench themselves under the propaganda banner in which they agree.  We now have media giants like Viacom, Comcast/NBC/Universal Disney/ABC controlling content and delivery.  Effect:  Greater polarization of political ideologies.  Media companies consolidating and no longer having to compete in single markets being able to own multiple stations or newspapers in a single city effectively controlling the message.  Ratings rather than quality now the standard.

 

Cause:  We have seen tremendous merger and acquisition activity in the past 25 years.  Household name company logos such as Northwest Airlines, GTE, McDonnell Douglas and American Motors that were familiar to millions have disappeared.  Many brands that have remained such as Coors Beer and even Budweiser are now just hollow brand names part of even bigger conglomerates that produce adult beverages.  The consolidation of American business has been happening at an alarming rate over the last 25 years.  These large companies all extol the virtues of competition when they want to release themselves from government regulation, interference or taxation but when it comes time to eliminate their direct competitors they aggressively lobby our government officials cozying up to them for approval claiming that it will make their business more efficient.  Effect:  Fewer well paying jobs through consolidation combined with a growing population equal greater competition for what jobs are left.  Income stagnation.  Consolidation of power and proprietary relationships developed with government representatives in the legislative and executive branches.  

Cause:  Wall Street is the bastion of capitalism.  It is the free market at work.  Until of course it all falls in on itself.  Then we, the tax payer have to bail them out.  Why?  Because if we don’t, they take the rest of us with us.  Our stock market is fundamentally flawed because in American business today, our biggest businesses measure themselves three months at a time.  Decisions on growth, new business, hiring and firing and research and development all hinge on the previous quarter and year-end profit and loss.  Contrast this with developing countries such as China or India which takes a long term approach to business and societal success.  Result:  A disloyal workforce and even more disloyal employers willing to cast aside human resources without warning like aging, outdated equipment.  An outsourced labor force to circumvent US labor laws causes chronic historically high unemployment.  

Pay to Play Government:  A generation ago Watergate exposed corruption and lawlessness at the highest levels of government.  It was a shock to many that the President of the United States could be behind a criminal enterprise while in the White House.  Today just 40 years later we have a loosening of laws that actually allows lobbyists and interest groups to write actual legislation that OUR elected officials put their names to and have passed into law benefiting those interests.  Bills making it Ok to send jobs overseas have decimated our service and manufacturing economies systemically weakening our economy and displacing hundreds of thousand of workers.  Our lawmakers gerrymander districts whereas voters no longer pick their representatives but representatives pick their voters.  The rich and wealthy wine, dine, entertain and have access to those that are supposed to represent us yet we in our best efforts could not even dream of meeting our elected officials.  Representatives in the House and Senate have access to financial information provided by companies they are supposed to oversea allowing themselves to capitalize on their knowledge and create great wealth for themselves.  Is any of this against that law?  No.  Should it be?  Absolutely yes.  But who will represent us if our representative government is not?  Effect:  Tremendous mistrust of our government and a feeling that only the privileged few who can afford access and benefit from our government.  

You add into the mix Supreme Court rulings such as Citizens United where corporations are deemed to have the same rights as people under the Constitution.  You now have individuals and companies competing with one another over rights afforded us under the Constitution.  What happens when those interests collide?  Who prevails has yet to be determined.  However with the current conservative make up of the court court and recent rulings one can only wonder how long it will be before the pendulum swings even further to the side of big business.  Pile on the narrative that some who have unprecedented means claim that those that do not are “takers,” we are backing into the making of a class war.  What is even more unbelievable is that those that have think that they have accumulated wealth all on their own, without anyone else’s assistance. 

So the answer, Mr. Perkins is that all this has not happened in a vacuum.  When stock price is more important that long term corporate growth and societal well-being, the citizenry becomes fed up.  With unemployment high, with jobs evaporating and moving overseas the natives, for lack of a better term, are beginning to get restless.  People start to ask a fundamental question:  do the people of this country exist to prop up business and corporate interests or are these entities a byproduct of our way of life:  democracy, capitalism?  The United States is no longer a leader in education or health care or even quality of life.  Statistically the United States is not even near the best country to be able to start from nothing and get a head despite what our elected official proclaim in high profile rhetorical speeches.  Wages for the middle class have been stagnant since the 1980s while those in the 1% have gained disproportionately.   

So don’t worry about your money, your status and your way of life.  It is not in imminent danger.  You have enough of even middle class and working class people fooled.  But it won’t be long if there is not a change and you may say to yourself, “we have seen the enemy and he is us.”

Enough Already

Somehow the Affordable Healthcare Act is the worst thing to happen to the United States...ever?  Well if you listen to people like Senator Ted Cruz or Congressman Daryl Issa you would think so.  Most industrialized and many non-industrialized countries have a national healthcare policy and strategy.  Canada does.  Japan does.  The UK does and are just a few of the examples of countries that do not allow their citizens to wallow in the gutter when they are sick.  In a matter of fact, one progressive state in this country, Massachusetts, under a Republican governor passed what is a very popular public healthcare initiative.  The people of Massachusetts are very happy with their state’s healthcare system.  The program was such as success that the conservative Heritage Foundation made the Massachusetts program the model for what they felt healthcare should look like on a national level.

All that changed when a democratic president, Barak Obama decided to make Massachusetts the model for his national healthcare initiative in 2009.  Was this a surprise?  Hardly.  He campaigned on making healthcare affordable for all.  What was a surprise was that he would receive so much opposition from the Republicans who until that time held Massachusetts up as a model of modern healthcare reform and successes.  In what became a circus, the new President was so anxious to get bipartisan support for the Affordable Healthcare Act that he all but begged Republicans to sit down in a conference room in public to offer feedback on what they would want to see in the new legislation.  Representative after representative under the hot lights of the CSPAN cameras would only offer that they did not want to participate and wanted to start all over effectively stalling any healthcare reform.  In the end they refused any support whatsoever to offer the people of this country an opportunity to fix what had become a broken system. 

With a democratic majority and some arm twisting the Affordable Healthcare Act passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by the president.  The most substantive aspects of this monumental bill would not take place until the 4th quarter of 2013 but benefits were immediate to some, most notably that families could keep their adult children on their family plans until those children were 26 years of age.  The wrangling by the Republicans to undo what had been done and would be done would also just begin. 

Every effort by the Republicans would be made to repeal the legislation through the Supreme Court.  While conventional wisdom would be that the conservative Supreme Court would undo the Affordable Healthcare Act striking down a key provision having to do with Interstate Commerce.  In a surprise ruling Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the majority who said that the law was Constitutional as it was written.  While it might appear by now that that The Affordable Care Act had passed all three branches of government, that this would be the end of it and the law could be implemented without further turmoil.  But that would not be the case. 

In the 2012 Presidential election the Republicans would make the Affordable Care Act a centerpiece, some said a referendum on the presidency of Barak Obama.  Their objective to make this president a one term president.  There was just one major problem:  The person they selected to run against Barak Obama was the man directly responsible for the popular Massachusetts health care program, the former governor of Massachusetts.  How could he make the case that the Affordable Healthcare Act was wrong for the country while the program that it was modeled after and he developed, the Massachusetts Law, was a resounding success?  On the campaign trail he could not.  He tried, dodged and even worked to change the narrative but in the end there was no way to spin the negative aspects of a very popular law that helped many in his home state while trying to tell the rest of the country it was wrong for them.  It’s been said that you can fool all of the people some of time and some of the people all of the time but in the end he fooled no one.

But the Republicans, undeterred in early 2013 forged on.  Known as the least productive Congress in US History, the Republican House of Representatives has managed to vote to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act nearly 50 times knowing it would go nowhere while unable to pass any meaningful legislation until a lackluster compromise budget was passed just before the holiday recess.  They even successfully shut down the government for two weeks in attempt to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act which in addition to making them the least productive made them the least popular.  Congressman Issa has taken his show on the road holding mock hearings about the Affordable Healthcare Act with witnesses friendly to his cause.  Freshman Senator Cruz in what has become his stock and trade, self-serving hyperbole, called The Affordable Healthcare Act (ObamaCare) worse than any war. 

Now as the program has been rolled out it has not been without its problems.  A monumental failure on launch month showed that many who tried to enter the web portal to sign up for healthcare could not.  Sign ups slowed to a trickle  This now appears to be fixed.  In states that have set up health exchanges having their own websites have seen thousands if not hundreds of thousands successfully sign up for health benefits.  As the biggest social program to be rolled out since Medicare there are likely bound to be other problems along the way.  Normally, these would be smoothed out by bipartisan compromise from both sides.  But if recent history is any indication, don’t count on anything from the Republicans.  Because if it is one thing the Republicans have demonstrated, they have no problem being on the wrong side of history. 

What is in store for 2014?  Well, if an unsuccessful Supreme Court challenge, a failed national election based on the Affordable Healthcare Act and attempted repeals numbering near 50 did not deter obstruction of this legislation, then expect more of the same as election season kicks off.  Watch republican governors try and justify not rolling out healthcare reform in their states.  Watch Republican Senators and Congressman spew half truths and out and out lies about affordable healthcare in the United States.  Watch as these elected officials criticize every hiccup and bump in the road as they offer no solution to try and make it better.  Watch as this program becomes more and more popular among Americans who have long suffered as one of the few industrialized countries previously without a national healthcare strategy.  See what happens to the Republicans who in November of this year will become the party that missed a great opportunity to make this country a better place.