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The word hostage may be a little dramatic but, there is real drama in shutting down most of the transportation construction in the United States. Confused, well I am too. I can not understand why absolutist wingnut lawmakers would want to eliminate six million jobs when unemployment hovers around ten percent. Don’t get me wrong. As you are probably aware, I feel healthcare reform is and should be one of our highest priorities. It is also of paramount importance to get healthcare reform which actually reforms healthcare. Lawmakers however, have been at this for nine months. It is time to quit deliberating and start legislating.
A few legislators will tell you they have passed a continuing resolution (CR) to fund transportation projects until the complete transportation reauthorization can be passed. What they don’t tell you is the current CR funds transportation for one month at a time. So, in my state, the resulting funding is one-twelfth our normal funding. Our budget which normally approaches one billion dollars is reduced to around 83 million. This is in a world where most construction projects end up around 30 million a piece. Our state department of transportation is faced with funding three projects statewide or a handful of really small projects. No state DOT will take the risk of having to use local monies to fund large projects until Congress fully funds transportation programs.
The effect of a one month CR on states and cities is to stop bidding and constructing projects until they are assured funding in a multi-year transportation bill.
As the left wing insists on a public option and the right wing tries to eliminate it, construction companies everywhere are handing out pink slips. As the right holds out for liability caps for doctors, engineering firms who design transportation projects are going under. As the left tries to eliminate the Medicare Advantage Program and the right continues to tell seniors they are losing their Medicare coverage, materials producers are idling their facilities. Steel, concrete, asphalt and stone producers are sending employees home. Finally, because little federal gas taxes are making their way back to the states, states are considering furloughs and other methods to reduce state staff.
That’s right, we have already paid for road maintenance and improvement projects at the pump. Our money is being held hostage in Washington. We are paying to watch our transportation industries and our bridges crumble.
So as the politicians revel in political one-upmanship, you should be worried about the bridge you travel over every day. Sadly however, that’s not the only thing you could be worried about. Investment banks on Wall Street are busily over extending themselves again. The financial industry and transportation are just the tip of the iceberg. The business of the people grinds to a halt while the wingnuts stymie the debate. It’s become a funny joke to use the Otto von Bismarck quote, “laws are like sausages, it is better not the see them being made.” It is not so funny when people are starving to death waiting on that sausage.
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Who does it hurt when a right wing politician bashes the government? After all, politics and rhetoric are only a fun parlor game, Right? Government is inept, incompetent and evil so it should be ok to say as much, shouldn’t it? Why should the right wing be deprived of this cheap and easy way to avoid the complex problems of the day. The problem with an absolute stand that government can never be a part of any solution is how it affects those who serve in government. The implication of anti-government rhetoric is those who work in government are also always absolutely inept, incompetent and evil.
This rhetoric coming from the right has become so common place many politicians in power are beginning to abuse public servants as evidenced by an executive order issued by the Governor of Alabama this week.
This week, the governor of Alabama, Bob Riley (R-AL), scored some cheap points with government haters everywhere when he greatly expanded his State of Alabama - Open.alabama.gov website to include the exact salaries of all state employees. This action was supposed to be an improvement on a normal Freedom of Information request. Typically, after a citizen made the request, the State Finance Department would provide a job description and salary range for any employee. What would have been wrong with a website which supplied the same information? Couldn’t citizens ferret out overpaid employees just as well with a job description and pay range? Maybe, however, I am missing the point.
As we ponder the point of this action it is worth noting Riley didn’t even arrive at this idea himself. He follows other red-state wingnuts like Mark Sanford (R-SC) who post this information. Riley however, improved on the idea stolen from Sanford and others by including all employees down to the guy who empties the garbage. Usually corruption starts at the top but, Riley and his wingnut friends seem to be worried about something else. By the way, after 20 years of service the man who empties the garbage and mows the grass makes about $22,000.00. I am sure those jobs near the poverty line are rife with corruption. I guess that’s why is it ok to take away his dignity by posting his salary on the internet?
The dignity of those who have committed to public service is apparently easily sacrificed by absolutists who hate all government. Like other wingnut philosophies however, this one has self-fulfilling implications. By making public service unattractive, wingnuts insure government institutions have to recruit from the bottom of the barrel. They deny themselves the better, cheaper and faster government they say they want.
Wanting government to do everything or nothing is a question we as a society must answer. There is no doubt we must have a discussion about the role of government in the United States. We shouldn’t however, use public servants as pawns in this discussion just because we can. Wingnut politicians who claim to have the moral high ground shouldn’t have to use public servants to prove their point. Any valid arguments in a national discussion about more or less government should stand on their own without terrorizing the people who work in that government.
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There was a captain with whom I served in the Army who might be the dumbest human being I have ever met. Moreover, he was positively the most egotistical man I have ever met. The combination would have surely gotten people killed had the Russians and East Germans ever crossed the border. He lacked respect for non-commissioned officers. He could not read a map. He regularly sucked all the motivation from my soldiers. It was a constant battle to respect the two bars on his collar. It was a constant battle to maintain my soldier’s respect our commander. It was made worse by his lack of respect for his chain of command.
At the end of the day however, I always waded through his crap with the respect his office deserved. I ALWAYS addressed him as sir.
Tonight on live national television in the hallowed halls of Congress someone called the President of the United States a LIER. Those halls have seen wars from without and wars from within. In those halls, good men and women who we elected have discussed the bill of rights, war, civil war, slavery, women’s suffrage, terrorism and impeachment. Those men and women were just as diametrically opposed as they were tonight yet, people didn’t call each other liars. They especially did not call the President of the United States a liar to his face.
I have disagreed with Presidents. I have been violently opposed to the policies of many Presidents. A certain recent President who defamed the house we let him borrow made me both livid and sad at the same time. After all, the White House was never designed to be the President’s sex palace. I never called him a liar.
Maybe I am being over sensitive but, I believe a Congressman who believes it is ok to call the President of the United States a liar under these circumstances has no capacity for compromise or moderation. I believe his constituents should be embarrassed. I think all Republicans should demand an apology in writing tomorrow.
Shy of that demand for an apology and a rethink by conservatives of how the public trust should affect their behavior, I am sad for our country tonight. I wonder if the Congressman and those who support him are capable of the civility required to run this country. I wonder what other things the same rationalization which allowed the Congressman to call the President a liar, will allow he and his supporters to do.
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Labor Day has become the last chance to go to the beach before the kids go back to school instead of a celebration of our blue collar work force. With the decline of labor unions, we seem to have forgotten the power of motivated, intelligent and well paid workers. In the global economy, it has become increasingly clear our kids will be forced to get some education past high school. With good reason, parents are urging their kids to go to college and steering them away from a life of blue collar labor. This is understandable because blue collar workers are under siege from all sides today. Since, all but the most innovative and complex items will be manufactured in China for the foreseeable future, why would a parent wish for a life of layoffs and shrinking wages for their child. Why is the blue collar class even necessary in the new global economy?
Why should we care about our blue collar work force? Wouldn’t it be better for the United States if all blue collar workers were sent back to school to be doctors, lawyers, engineers and scientists?
Doctors, scientists and engineers are critical for US success in the global market place (a column for another day) but, we dismiss the blue collar worker at our peril. During World War II, we overpowered our enemies not only with our military but, with pure unadulterated industrial might. A pilot who survived a shoot down in that war would have a brand new plane the next day. This allowed total air supremacy in Europe and near air supremacy in the Pacific. The blue collar work force was so important in this effort we put our wives, daughters and mothers to work outside the home for the first time. The same is true to a certain extent today.
We need to maintain our ability to build military equipment in our country. Some would say our strategic partners like the European Union will be happy to build our tanks and planes for us. Let’s say, for example, we need to bomb Dilbert’s favorite place, Elbonia, into submission for harboring terrorist. For this example however, the EU has economic ties to Elbonia. Without a blue collar work force trained to build planes required for the war on Elbonia, the EU could simply cut us off.
The strongest argument, beyond defense, for the maintenance of a healthy economic middle class may be the situation we find ourselves in today. In previous recessions, the American blue collar worker was there to buy our way out. Cars, washers and big-screen TV’s were the economic engine which made life better for all. Today, with blue collar workers the victim of falling wages, increasing healthcare costs and credit extended to them by unscrupulous financial markets, they are simply not able to help. They work harder, smarter and productivity has never been higher. Blue collar workers, however have taken a beating and are sadly not up to the task. Many economist will tell us the 2009 recession will be long and deep because the blue collar worker is not there to bail us out.
So as you soak up the last rays of summer or fire up the grill, I am sure one of your free market worshiping absolutist friends will be there. They will tell you Darwin was right and economies work best on the principle of “survival of the fittest.” They will tell you it is natural, no, required, for blue collar workers to lose their jobs to cheaper Chinese workers. They will tell you business should be free to systematically exterminate blue collar workers who want to organize or demand a part of the stockholder’s dividend. After all, they will say, companies owe them nothing.
I might tell them to give the blue collar worker a break at least on Labor Day.
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Talking heads all over the news shows today eulogized healthcare reform. Many were right-wing Republicans with crappy grins on their faces. A few were liberal Democrats who think the President should ram legislation through which includes a public option. They feel this should be done with the reconciliation process designed for votes on budgets. The reconciliation process would allow no debate or amendments and pass with fifty-one votes. Shy of the reconciliation option, liberal Democrats would rather have no legislation at all.
During the President’s vacation I think he should consider a process he talked about in his campaign.
September 8th, President Obama should publicly invite the Speaker of the House, House Minority Leader, House Majority Leader, House Minority Whip, a spokesman for the Blue Dog Coalition, Senate Majority Leader, Senate Minority Leader, Senate Majority Whip, Senate Minority Whip, Chairmen of the five committees who have heard testimony on healthcare legislation and the ranking members of those committees to the White House. He should call C-SPAN and tell them the entirety of the proceedings will be on air. He should instruct both parties to have, in hand, a real plan for fixing healthcare. The plan should include numbered priorities. The meetings should begin on the 10th.
Neither party should have trouble meeting the deadline of the 10th because, according to their interviews, they have all the answers. The President should play the honest broker and alternate from one party priority to the other. No stakeholders like the insurance companies, doctors or pharmaceuticals should be there. They have already spread enough money around to the attendees. The stakeholder voices have been heard loud and clear.
Clearly, this meeting will be manageable because only twenty people will be in attendance. If the President has other pressing business, he should be excused and Vice-President Biden may stand in his place. Otherwise, attendees will be excused only to eat and sleep. No staff will be allowed. Questions for staff and their responses will be read allowed and posted on the internet. No communication with lobbyist should be conducted in the halls during bathroom or lunch breaks and phone call logs should be published while the members are at their residence.
The Blue Dog Coalition will be there in a non-voting advisory capacity only. Each priority will be voted on. All ties will result in both parties returning with alternatives to the proposed legislation which created the tie.
C-SPAN should split screen the person speaking with their top twenty campaign donors. They should also give the topic of discussion along with the speaker’s name and state. Side negotiations should also be televised on one of the other C-SPAN networks. C-SPAN should also rerun the program in its entirety overnight.
No one should be dismissed until a concurrent bill is agreed on.
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Today, my six year-old daughter told a lie. It’s pretty easy to catch her in a lie at her age. The funny thing is how her mom and I give her an opportunity to tell the truth and faced with no TV, desert or not having friends over, she unexplainably sticks to her guns. She continues to tell the lie at her peril. It’s almost as if she believes her telling the same lie over and over will make it the truth. There are politicians in the health reform debate who also seem to have my daughter’s mentality. The problem with their lies is that so far these politicians have not gotten as much as a “time out.”
The problem with giving the former Lieutenant Governor of New York, Betsy McCaughey, the time out she deserves is there will be too many others in the time out chairs. It will be more like party.
A time out is supposed to be a time of quiet reflection on breaking the rules. A child’s life is so full of other things; a parent must slow the child down and make him or her think about the rules and why they are important. McCaughey needs a time out because she told a whopper on Senator Fred Thompson’s radio show on July, 16th. According to factcheck.org she said:
“the Congress would make it mandatory … that every five years, people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner, how to decline nutrition, how to decline being hydrated, how to go into hospice care … all to do what’s in society’s best interest … and cut your life short.”
The bill said none of that hogwash. The bill was designed to only pay for end of life counseling if someone wanted it. The bill went on to explain what end of life counseling was. AARP was kind enough to call what McCaughey said a “misinterpretation.” At my house, we call it a lie. Moderates everywhere applaud discussion and debate but, this lady apparently subscribes to the “let them eat cake” brand of healthcare we have today. Moreover, she will obviously tell any lie to keep the status quo. It is hard to have a discussion with someone who we can not trust to tell the truth.
My theory of telling a lie enough times to make it truth is also in play in this discussion. Representative John Boehner (R-OH) and Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) have also parroted many of the same lies McCaughey began in July. They tell us the legislation “encourages” doctors to force seniors to literally sign their lives away. Why didn’t they just tell the truth and say McCaughey’s assertions were inaccurate? Why perpetuate complete lie?
I have not yet figured out why my daughter tells a lie but, I think I know the motivation of the three public liars I have pointed out in this article. The intent is to create mayhem, cut off legitimate debate and finally, to kill reform. If you have watched TV news lately you might agree they have done a pretty good job.
Even though my daughter feeding the cat is not that big a deal, around here, a lie is a lie. In a family, we rely on telling the truth. In Washington, they call it something else like spin or misinterpretation. Around here, you get the TV taken away, no dessert or a time out. Maybe McCaughey and the others should have an old elementary school time out. Maybe some time to think about integrity and why we as a society reward truth tellers while dismissing liars will do her some good. Apparently, she knows we give all politicians a pass on lies so there wouldn’t be much to think about.
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Republicans in Congress had a 28 percent approval rating last week according to a CBS News/New York Times poll. Pundits and the media have had a pretty good time at the party’s expense lately and for good reason. Beltway insiders of all stripes have given the party advice on how they might return from the wilderness.
Regardless of the advice, Republicans seem bent on giving their party to the right wing.
Any possibility of moderating the party seems to have been dismissed out of hand. This was reinforced by three actions this week. First, 37 Republican Senators voted against the 2 Billion dollar Cash for Clunkers extension. This insanely popular program gave Americans up to $4,500 toward new cars and was so popular the first billion was gone in a week. The program seemed to be the exact kind of stimulus Republicans could support. Instead, partisans like Richard Shelby (R-AL) joked about the program asking if there would be a “cash for shoes” program next.
Secondly, Republicans chose the radical right instead of taking the opportunity to mend fences with Hispanics. They tell us they applaud bootstraps and instead of rewarding an accomplished jurist who pulled herself up by her own, they tried to beat her with them. Judge Sonya Sotomayor, by all accounts, was the kind of law and order judge and former prosecutor a good Republican could love. They however, chose to only placate the radical right. I can only guess they did this mostly to make abundantly clear they would never support a Democrat in the White House. They chose appearance over pragmatism.
Finally, they ran Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) out on a rail 18 months before the end of his term. He and three other retiring Republican Senators (Kit Bond, Judd Gregg and George Voinovich) all voted for Sotomayor. Is this the changing of the moderate guard in the party? It could be most telling in Martinez’s case. Florida is almost 21 percent Hispanic. Florida is also a perennial swing state which has predicted the winner in 9 of the last 10 Presidential elections. Republicans still seem to feel the radical right trumps a 21 percent Hispanic vote every time.
I wonder if the Republicans are right. Can a few motivated right wingers who represent 20 or 30 percent of the population keep the Republicans in power? If this week’s “demonstrations” at town hall meetings on healthcare reform are any indication, they might be right. Again, I think the moderate middle has been silent on the subject. We are in the process of allowing a shouting match. In this shouting match we have lost our voice. Reason and pragmatism are losing to absolutism and greed. The same is happening to the Republican Party. “You’re either with us or agin us,” is a great sound bite but, will do little to help govern our nation. It could also marginalize a party with a few pretty good ideas.
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I have thought a good bit about President Obama’s comments on the situation with Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge Police. Being white, I must preface my remarks by saying I am woefully unqualified to address the plight of black America and justice. I have never been the victim of unfair treatment by someone with a gun and a badge because of the color of my skin. Since President Obama has indeed been a victim of unfair racial stereotyping, I guess he deserves the opportunity to speak against such injustice when it occurs. Some in the black community might even say he is obligated to address injustices. During the press conference on Healthcare this week the first black President indulged himself by commenting on the Cambridge situation.
The case can be made President Obama’s indulgence did a disservice to the black community.
While the President answered questions on the Cambridge situation for the next week, I wonder how many in the black community lost their healthcare coverage. I wonder how many were deciding whether to buy insulin or groceries. I wonder how many had to pay their periodic extortion payment to petro-dictators. I wonder how many lost their jobs. I wonder how many young black men were shot in the streets. I wonder how many young black people dropped out of school. I wonder if the President’s time would have been better spent addressing the desperate needs of the black community. Finally, I wonder if the President regretted his indulgence when so many other things need to be done for the black community and the other people he serves too.
I’m not naïve. I live in a state rife with racism. We have a huge Confederate Battle Flag which flies between Montgomery and Birmingham on Interstate-65. You can see it for miles along the interstate. They tell us it flies for the sake of heritage and not hate. I wonder if the irony of the flag’s placement between the two epicenters of the struggle for racial equality even dawns on the caretakers of the flag. A few weeks ago, I overheard someone who said he had elected Senator Jeff Sessions to keep the “N” word and liberals off the Supreme Court. If Sessions didn’t, he said, he would vote for someone who would. The person didn’t even get his bigotry right if he was referring to Judge Sotomayor. He was obviously too ignorant to tell the difference between a Hispanic and an African American.
However improved, racism still exists. President Obama’s election tells us we have gone a long way but, we still struggle. President Obama, however, can serve his community better by not providing the collateral motivation for right wingers to kill legislation which the black community and all Americans so desperately need. He is the President now. The President of the United States is the most influential person in the world. Every word he utters will be dissected and rehashed ad-nauseam. He makes a decision every time he speaks about the whole world’s conversation. Regretfully, we have a finite amount of energy for discussion. Maybe next time, the President will be a little more hesitant to change the subject.
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When the Senator from South Carolina, Jim DeMint, told the group Conservatives for Patients Rights,
“If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him,”
most pundits and others passed the comment off as pure politics. I wish it were just politics. When I look at DeMint’s top twenty donors I begin to believe DeMint is using politics to take care of his campaign donors. If you look at his top twenty according to www.opensecrets.org you might begin to get another picture also.
The donor picture begins with the Club for Growth at 70 thousand. This is a right-wing bunch who believes in “freedom” among other things. DeMint and the Club for Growth using the word “freedom” is a little like yelling ice cream at a day care. I guess the implication is to disembowel the rest of us of our fondness for tyranny. The Scana Corporation, a utility, comes in second with 53 thousand. I don’t think we need to guess where he stands on climate change. Third on the list at 32 thousand is Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP. On their website they say:
Our attorneys guide healthcare providers, healthcare service companies, and investors through the sensitive hurdles and strict scrutiny of governmental and societal factors faced by the industry
I guess one way for healthcare profiteers to negotiate government’s strict scrutiny is to donate to a senator. Fourth on the list at 27 thousand is AT&T. I wonder how he voted on the keeping the phone companies from getting sued for wiretapping. Fifth on the list is Edens & Avant at 19 thousand. They own 130 shopping centers on the east coast. At sixth, eighth, ninth and twelfth were Cancer Centers of the Carolinas, US Oncology, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and United Health Group, respectively, for around 63 thousand dollars. Since they are second only to the right-wingers, I think I would be safe to say the healthcare industry helped DeMint get elected. I guess he feels like he owes them something. Maybe if he uses words like “freedom” to tell conservatives they can politically finish the President, he can motivate conservatives to kill health reform. Maybe if he delivers, he will have settled his debt.
To be sure, I may have been a little hard on Senator DeMint. Campaign finance is just too tempting. As a disclaimer, I must refer you to a previous article and tell you there are left wing DeMints too. All of them are in the pockets of those who would prefer to continue to profit from our literal misery. The forces aligned against healthcare reform are very good at the money game. They have one win under their belt and are pretty cocky. Since they only have to create enough doubt about a plan to maintain the status quo, I guess I would be pretty cocky too.
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Today a very good friend of mine invited me to Washington for a protest against healthcare reform among other things organized by Tea Party people. I told my friend I did not like runaway spending but, I felt something had to be done about healthcare. My friend is a very intelligent person who is always open to intelligent debate. Last week I would have told him the cost cutting in healthcare reform would decidedly reduce government expenditures in the long run.
I no longer have the luxury of the cost cutting debating point in light of last week’s Congressional Budget Office Report.
Today President Obama blamed the lack of Senate healthcare reform legislation on politics by people like Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC). I doubt DeMint’s motivation is primarily politics and there will be more on that in another article. I however, believe President Obama needs a little soul searching and possibly a new game plan on healthcare reform. So far, the President has put House Committee Chairmen in charge of writing healthcare legislation. The Chairmen include Henry Waxman (D-CA), Charles Rangel (D-NY) and George Miller (D-CA). Waxman has received more than 66 thousand and his committee has received more than 1.3 million dollars in campaign contributions from insurance and health interest groups. Rangel comes in at 70 thousand and his committee at 1.8 millon. The list is similar for both the Senate and House Committees who are drafting the legislation. Republicans seem to have the edge but, democrats too have received boatloads of cash from groups who would really like healthcare reform to go away.
That’s why the President needs to go away and rethink his approach to this issue he says he cares so much about. Instead of allowing legislators who have monetary motives to craft healthcare reform legislation which does not reform, he should do it himself. He should publicly propose amendments which may actually shift some of the obscene profits of the healthcare industry to covering all Americans. He should use his bully pulpit and notorious arm twister, Rahm Emanuel, to shame the legislative industry stooges into actually reducing potentially catastrophic spiraling healthcare costs.
Reducing the cost of healthcare, believe me, is the key to winning the argument with well-informed and well-meaning moderates and independents. These citizens legitimately want to know why adding another trillion dollars to our deficit is a good idea. The only answer to the question is saving money later.