A Plea To My Neighbors

I'm composing this as a Letter to the Editor in my local paper. It's long so it will probably be several.

I've been listening to this so-called "debate" about health care and I have been appalled at the misinformation, disinformation, distortion, outright lies and manipulation going around. To be frank, most of the junk is coming from the Republican Party and conservative talk, but really, they are just acting as conduits for the health care industrial complex. Lord knows how much Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly and their ilk are being paid to spread the corporate word.

What we do know is that over the past ten years the so-called health care industry has spent over five billion dollars lobbying congress. That's five hundred million a year or more than a million dollars per congress critter per year. That's also five billion dollars they did not spend on health care for patients. Over that same time the CEO's of these companies have also walked away with billions, most infamously William McGuire from United Healthcare Group, who personally collected a cool one billion seven hundred million dollars in compensation when he retired, so he bought a 136 foot yacht and called it "The Golden Parachute". Exactly what did he produce to deserve those riches?

You see, to channel these fortunes into their own pockets these executives were telling their employees to to deny payment, delay care, and outright canceling or rescinding policies that people had paid on for years, using the excuse of so-called "pre-existing conditions" - like the woman whose policy was rescinded when she needed treatment for breast cancer because she was treated for acne when she was sixteen. Many people have experienced "Treatment Denied" or "Claim Denied" from insurance companies, or other techniques to not pay out. Employees are rated on how much they deny care and huge bonuses are paid to more senior managers. It is in everyone's financial interest in the insurance company to deny care. The phrase, "death by spreadsheet," was coined for a reason. Even when the health crisis doesn't result in death, it can result in bankruptcy. Sixty percent of bankruptcies are now caused by medical debt. Seventy five percent of those thought they had insurance until they needed to seriously use it.

The insurance company public relations firms are complaining about how awful it will be to have government bureaucrats between us and our doctors. But I'll take the government bureaucrat any day whose mission is to get me health care over the corporate bureaucrat whose job depends on denying it. As much as any serial killer, mafia, or gang of terrorists, these companies, executives and stockholders are directly responsible for the death and misery of countless thousands.

Above the five hundred million being spent as usual on lobbyists, there's still plenty of cash to hire an additional three hundred fifty former congress ritters and their staffs to draw on the personal connections these people have with present members of Congress. They're paying out something like one and a half million dollars a day extra for these people, an average of four thousand dollars per person per day. Pretty good pay in this economy. This figure does not include the "campaign contribution" bribes being made. Could there be any greater evidence that our government has become the wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America, and that our representatives are simply corrupt. Do you think these people are ever going to act in our interest?

Which brings us to our esteemed congressman, Jack Kingston. I went to the congressman's website to see what his position was in all of this. Needless to say, he was against reform. Government take over of health care, he calls it. Yet he'll not tell you that the top three industries contributing to this cycle's campaign chest are Insurance, Lobbyists, and Health Professionals, or that his single largest campaign contributor is Aflac. You don't think this affects his stance in any way, do you?

Congressman Kingston, along with a number of other Republicans are touting a study by the "non-partisan" Lewin Group that says if a public option is included in the health care bill that one hundred fourteen million Americans are going to "lose their coverage." At least that's what the congressman claims in bold, red and underlined lettering. One wonders why he didn't go all the way to the hysteric ALL CAPITALS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!! So he want's you to think he's saying one hundred fourteen million will be without insurance – maybe you. When one actually reads the report one realizes that people are migrating from private plans to the public plan actually increasing the gross number insured. It's flat out deception on the part of the congressman.

Finally, who is the Lewin Group? About thirty seconds on the web and we find that the Lewin Group is a subsidiary of Ingenix, a company that produces software that's designed to limit insurance company payouts. It was so good that it was bought by United HealthCare Group. Early this year United Healthcare had to pay a four hundred million dollar settlement with the federal government for fraud related to that software. So this criminal company (that compensated a ceo one point seven billion dollars) has a subsidiary company putting out a report designed to make us fear a government run health insurance plan. What's amazing is that they're not even subtle about it.

Connecting Some Dots

About two or three weeks ago an article came out in the Rolling Stone that had those "far lefties" talking, and not much anyone else, especially the MSM and right wing blather machine - no, not a peep out of them about it. He pegs Goldman Sachs as primary contributor to all the latest bubbles and bursts, and on back to the Crash of '29. I think the piece talks about the extent of Goldman Sachs "alumni" that have gone on to various high level government or other bank positions, like former Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson, the man that worked out that seven hundred billion dollar bailout banks got from the government last fall. Quite a lot of that money found its way into GS coffers, not just directly, but also through the billions that went to AIG.

Now, check this out: The FBI arrested this russian guy that was a computer programmer at GS. It seems this russian guy downloaded some very proprietary software that GS was using. The money quote comes from Assistant US Attorney Joseph Fracciponti to a federal magistrate judge:

The bank has raised the possibility that there is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways.

I'm sorry. What did he just say?

The bank has raised the possibility that there is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways.

Let me see if I have this right: Goldman Sachs has the FBI arest this russian guy, Sergey, for downloading some software of theirs that can "manipulate markets in unfair ways". Yeah, really, you sure wouldn't want someone else out there that could "manipulate markets in unfair ways". Hell, they just might "manipulate markets in unfair ways". No siree. That ole software that can "manipulate markets in unfair ways" needs to stay right there at Goldman Sachs. Because Goldman Sachs people are honorable people that would never think to "manipulate markets in unfair ways", would they?

Hmmm, as Lewis Black might say, "ARE YOU F**KING KIDDING ME?"

In related news,

The Federal Reserve warned on Thursday that a growing congressional threat to curtail its independence would destabilise markets and raise the cost of servicing US debt for “current and future generations”.

This is about Ron Paul's legislation to audit the Fed, but, excuse me, did the Fed just threaten our grandchildren? ARE YOU F**KING KIDDING ME? Goddamned banksters threatening the government and the citizens of the United States? And nothing subtle about it, like frikkin' mafioso. I'll bet this doesn't percolate up into the MSM.

The SHTF* warning level has been raised to orange, contingeny planning is warranted.

Peace and good luck.

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*SHTF = Sh*t Hits The Fan

The U.S. Government: Wholly owned subsidiary of Corporate America.

As if we needed any more proof that our present government is truly wholly bought and sold by the corporations and the wealthy, even with the election of Barak Obama, 350 former congresscritters and staffers have been hired by the healthcare industry to lobby 535 present day congresscritters regarding the healthcare reform legislation. They say they are spending $1.4 million a day for these new hires - really temps, but not bad pay in this economy. It works out to four thousand dollars per lobbyist per day. Of course this does not count how much moolah is being promised to the various congresscritters for said congresscritters next campaigns. They used to call them bribes and the politicians who took them corrupt. Now they call them campaign contributions and the politicians representatives and senators.

The last time they got into this sort of thing we got Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit that was a big kiss to the pharmaceutical industry by mandating that the government had to pay retail (as opposed to Canada which buys wholesale from the same companies.) It's also designed to go broke. Unless the legislation has a good public option, not one that is designed to fail to show how "government care" doesn't work, it won't be worth spit to us. Of course you already know my view. Why we're talking about anything other than Single Payer is because of the health insurance companies dominance of the media and congress. Polling shows that anywhere from 72 to 80% of Americans want at least a public option, if not outright single payer. There should not even be a question.

But that's not the situation we find ourselves in, is it? This is how it boils down to me: I can't get healthcare without going broke because somebody else wants to get rich. Sorry but I don't see anything good or right about that.

As has been said for so long, our government operates as of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations. This is not metaphor or hyperbole, but cold reality. It is no longer of the people, by the people and for the people. What was set up to be a democratic republic is now a corporatocracy. A silent coup has been executed and the very foundations of government have been altered.

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