Bad Deeds for 10-1-2009

 

What is the American Way: Hoarding by a Few or Providing for the Common Good? – It’s great to know that during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans, according to Forbes, actually increased by $30 billion. Collectively, those 400 have $1.57 trillion in wealth. It’s hard to get your mind around a number like that. The way I do it is to imagine that we were still living during the great radical Eisenhower era of the 1950s when marginal income tax rates hit 91 percent. Taxes were high back in the 1950s because people understood that constraining wild extremes of wealth would make our country stronger and prevent another depression.

Had we kept those high progressive taxes in place, instead of removing them, especially during the Reagan era, the Forbes 400 might each be worth “only” $100 million instead of $3.9 billion each. So let’s imagine that the rest of their wealth, about $1.53 trillion, were available for the public good.

What does $1.53 trillion buy?

· It’s more than enough to insure the uninsured for the next twenty years or more.
· It’s more than enough to create a Manhattan Project to solve global warming by developing renewable energy and a green, sustainable manufacturing sector.
· And here’s my favorite: It’s more than enough to endow every public college and university in the country so that all of our children could gain access to higher education for free, forever!
Instead, we embarked on a grand experiment to see what would happen if we deregulated finance and changed the tax code so that millionaires could turn into billionaires. And even after that experiment failed in the most spectacular way, our system seems trapped into staying on the same deregulated path.

Instead of free higher education, health care and a sustainable economy, we got a fantasy finance boom and bust on Wall Street which crashed the real economy. We have our 400 billionaires, and we have 29 million unemployed and underemployed Americans. We have an infrastructure in shambles. We have an environment in crisis. We have a health care system that would make Rube Goldberg proud. And we have the worst income distribution since 1929.

 

Texas Governor Dismisses Members of Panel Probing 2004 Execution – Texas Gov. Rick Perry has shaken up a state commission that is probing whether a man executed in 2004 belonged on death row. Perry’s move forces the commission to delay a scheduled hearing on the case. The governor acted two days before the commission was to hear from an expert who has cast doubt about the quality of the arson investigation that helped convict Cameron Todd Willingham of murder in the deaths of his three daughters in a fire at their home.

Death-penalty opponents say a thorough review of the Willingham case may force Texas to admit that it executed an innocent man. The Texas governor and others, however, say they remain convinced of Willingham’s guilt.

Perry replaced the chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission and declined to reappoint two commission members. The commission was to hear testimony Friday from Craig Beyler, an arson investigation expert. He wrote the latest of three reports critical of the testimony that helped prosecutors convict Willingham of murder in 1992.

Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project — which assists prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing — called the governor’s decision “troubling.” He compared it to a series of resignations and firings that happened one night in October 1973 as President Richard Nixon sought to thwart an investigation into the Watergate scandal. “This is like the Saturday night massacre,” Scheck said in a statement. “Rather than let this important hearing go forward … the Governor fires the independent chairman and two other members of this Commission. It’s like Nixon firing [special Watergate prosecutor] Archibald Cox to avoid turning over the Watergate tapes.”

 

Republican National Committee Sponsors Group That Talked of Military Coup Against the President – Last month, the Republican National Committee used Newsmax’s email list — probably for a fee — to solicit donations and support.

Newsmax — which published (and later unpublished) a column saying it’s not “unrealistic” that there may be a “military intervention” against President Obama — names the RNC as “our sponsor” in the email, which is signed by RNC chair Michael Steele.

 

Michele Bachmann Says Health Care Reform Will Result in “Sex Clinics” In Schools – Last night on the House floor, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) spoke to Congress about “school based health clinics” (SBHC), labeling the clinics discussed in current House health care legislation as “sex clinics.” The conservative congresswoman suggested that if health care reform passes, the nation’s schools might begin offering abortions to students.

Section 2511 of the health care bill referred to by Bachmann, makes no mention of abortion. The concept of “school based health care clinics” was introduced under the notion that students achieve higher academic performance when they are healthy and receive adequate medical attention.

 

Fox News Trying to Turn a Point of Pride into a Moment of Shame – Fox News continued its disregard for the facts in an attempt to smear the Administration’s efforts to win the Olympics for the United States. In the past, hosting the Olympics has been a source of pride and unity for the country, but once again Fox News’ Glenn Beck program has shown that nothing is worthy of respect if it can be used as part of a partisan attack to boost ratings. (Here are some examples of the Fox lies:)

FOX RHETORIC: BECK SAID VANCOUVER LOST $1 BILLION WHEN IT “HAD THE OLYMPICS.” Glenn Beck said, “Vancouver lost, how much was it? they lost a billion dollars when they had the Olympics.” [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]
REALITY: VANCOUVER’S OLYMPICS WILL NOT TAKE PLACE UNTIL 2010. Vancouver will host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games from February 12 – 28, 2010 and March 12-21, 2010, respectively. [Vancouver2010.com, accessed 9/29/09]

FOX RHETORIC: VALERIE JARRETT “WAS LAST SEEN WITH THE NEA.” Beck’s guest, FOX News contributor Pat Caddell, said, “[Obama] is going to go [to Copenhagen] with Valerie Jarrett who was last seen with the NEA pumping up their use of, you know, money.” [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]
REALITY: VALERIE JARRETT WAS NOT ON THE NEA CONFERENCE CALL. Valerie Jarrett was not a participant in the August 10, 2009 United We Serve/NEA conference call.

FOX RHETORIC: CHICAGO IS CLOSING THE GOVERNMENT SEVERAL DAYS A WEEK BECAUSE THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO BE OPEN. Beck’s guest Caddell said, “Chicago is closing the government several days a week because they cannot afford to be open. They are going to go and reward — this is the biggest scandal.” [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]
REALITY: CHICAGO HAS HAD ONE REDUCED-SERVICE DAY IN 2009, AND WILL HAVE TWO MORE ON THE FRIDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING AND ON CHRISTMAS EVE.

FOX RHETORIC: VALERIE JARRETT WILL BENEFIT FINANCIALLY. Beck asked, “Is it possible that she is going to benefit if the Olympics come to Chicago?” Caddell responded, “Well, that’s the word. She has certainly had a lot of dealings going on in real estate.” [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]
REALITY: UPON ENTERING GOVERNMENT, VALERIE JARRETT DIVESTED ALL HER REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT HOLDINGS EXCEPT FOR A SINGLE INVESTMENT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE OLYMPIC BID. Valerie Jarrett divested all her investment real estate holdings upon entering government except for a single real estate holding that she was unable to sell. This single real estate investment has been determined by White House Counsel and the independent Office of Government Ethics to present no conflict of interest in performing her duties as a White House advisor. It has nothing to do with the Olympic bid.

 

We Are Not Having a Rational Debate About Health Care Reform – Is there anyone left willing to talk about health care reform calmly? At this point, the dialogue has become so partisan and stained that it seems that the only decision anyone needs to make is which team they’re on; then it becomes just a matter of saying anything you have to in order to win.

Here are some facts. There are three factors that are critical to every health care system: Quality, Cost, and Access. On all of them, the United States performs poorly.

· It is a fact is that The United States spends about two to three times per person what most other countries spend. In 2007, we spent more than $7000 per person on health care. The UK spent less than $3000 per person. And we can quibble about the other differences between those two systems, but they’ve made a conscious decision to have an extra $4000 per person to spend on other things. Imagine if we had another $1.2 trillion dollars to play with.
· It is a fact that our quality is middling at best and sometimes shockingly bad. And we can argue which is the best metric to pick to judge a health care system’s quality, but the truth is that it doesn’t matter. Life expectancy, infant mortality, maternal mortality, immunizations for children, immunizations for the elderly, the number of CAT scanners, the number of practicing physicians, continuity of care, and – most importantly – the number of preventable years of life lost – on all of them, every single one, the United States is sometimes in the middle and often at the bottom when compared to similar countries.
· And, as one of the few countries that does not have universal coverage of its citizens, it is a fact that our access isn’t good. The latest census data showed that there are 46 million Americans who were without health insurance for all of last year. Almost half of those people have full-time jobs and are working. Many more have part-time jobs, or are retired, disabled, or stay-at-home parents. More than 15% of them are children. The uninsured aren’t shiftless, they aren’t lazy, and they didn’t choose this.

 

Regards,

Jim