THINK CONGRESS CARES A FIG ABOUT YOU, ME OR ANY AVERAGE CITIZEN? WAKE UP, READ ON AND LEARN THE TRUTH.
Holy Crap! Where have I been? All these years I thought that gleaming white building on the hill in Washington, D.C.-- you know, the one with the elegant giant dome? I thought it was the Capitol Building. It was only recently that I discovered it's a pig farm! Imagine that. Who would have guessed?
I stumbled on to this while researching what I've come to call "The Mud Bowl", that showdown between the Democrats and Republicans over the Health Care Bill. For almost a year they've been playing something that resembles football without rules. Senators and House Representatives (women included) have old-style leather helmets strapped on their heads and they're all wearing vintage football uniforms.The Dem's have cream-colored jerseys with dark blue shoulders and sleeves. The numerals are dark blue as are the names on the back. The pants are camel with a dark blue stripe down each leg. The Repub's are dressed identically, except their highlight color is deep red.
This knockdown dragout is being fought on a slick muddy field that has replaced the floor of the Capitol, and all members of Congress, men and women, young and old, are duking it out. All the members of each team are in the game as there is no player limit. Each side claims they are doing it for the good of the country. There are no first downs, no time outs and no four-down rule. When a side has the ball (which is as big as a prize watermelon and weighs as much) they can keep running all over the place, throwing it back and forth between themselves or kicking it and trying to recover it. There is no scoring apparently, no such thing as a touchdown or a field goal. Nor does it seem that there is a ever an end to this sort of wild and crazy scrum.
There are no unsportsmanlike penalties. No penalties, period. Both sides are throwing elbows, kicking shins, sticking out arms to make clothesline tackles, tripping opposing players and blocking from behind. The air is full of cussing like in real football games. It's crazy, I tell you.
HOW INSURANCE AND DRUG COMPANIES FEED THE PIGS
Truthfully, this Pig Farm idea came to me while I was researching the neverending brawl on healthcare reform. I was on an intense Google search when the following headline posted on the Consumer Watchdog web site (March 9, 2009) snagged my attention:
"HEALTH INSURERS & DRUG COMPANIES CONTRIBUTED $5.5 MILLION
to TOP 10 SENATE AND HOUSE RECIPIENTS SINCE 2005"
According to the Watchdog, health insurance companies and big pharma doled out those millions over two election cycles, at a time not unlike today when health care reform was the dominant subject of political debate. The insurers gave $2.2 million to the top ten members of the Senate and House while the pharmaceutical giants kicked in $3.3 million to them.
Altogether, health insurers and drug makers contributed $24,220,976 during the same period to all members of Congress. Here are the top ten, courtesy of Consumer Watchdog:
Drift back to March of 2009 and slowly meander forward through those hot, muggy days of boisterous Town Hall Meetings where T-baggers congealed, ugly racist posters portrayed the president in whiteface and surrounded by swastikas, the hammer & sickle of Stalinist Russia and scrawled handwriting dragged ugly words across posters made by bigots and people so ignorant and locked into their cockeyed beliefs they are beyond reasoning. Some carried slogans like "Leave My Medicare Alone" (Medicare is not an issue in reform), "No Socialism in America" (By
people who appear qualified to be receiving Medicare or Medicaid.), "No Government Takeover of Health Care" (Yeah. We're doing just fine with the insurance and drug companies running it.),"We Demand Our Rights!" (By people who couldn't tell you what the Bill of Rights is), "Leave the Constitution Alone" (No one's trying to change it.), and "No Redistribution of Wealth" (We're talking about spending our tax dollars wisely versus handing them to insurers and drug manufacturers.)
Yokels showed up at crowded presidential appearances and Town Hall Meetings wearing guns, no less, and hoisting signs crowing the time has come when "The Tree of Liberty Needs to Be Watered With Blood." Various Republican Senators and Representatives strolled in to troll for votes, shaking hands, passing out pats on the backs of strangers as though they were old buddies and delivering phony speeches about how health care reform will wreck the nation and drive us into bankruptcy faster than the Wall Street bankers did.
Lies abounded, unspeakable lies about "Death Panels" and "Pulling the plug on Grandma." We're talking here about flat out, baldface lies ardently spoken by elected officials before dozens of TV cameras and into banks of microphones. They're fat juicy lies fed to sweaty people sharing a lynch mob mentality. The summer's events had the feel of a grainy black and white documentary on Southern fried hate and the Ku Klux Klan. I couldn't belive it was happening right here and now, and after all the tears, bloodshed and political misery we've been through in the last sixty years. It was a sickening picture, proof of the despicable possibilities that still exist in America.
Now, take another look at that list above that shows how much those members of Congress have received from the bloated insurance companies and the gluttonous pharmaceutical makers whom we must pay whatever they demand or settle for excruciating pain or death. Ask yourself, can a Congressman who accepts this kind of money from any company be expected to vote his conscience?
HOW TAXPAYERS SLOP THE PIGS
While all Republicans and a few Democrats are manning the barricades against healthcare reform, they hide the fact they are all awash in health insurance benefits that are paid for mainly by taxpayers. They have ten insurance plans to choose from, access to a nationwide network of doctors and HMOs that operate in their home states.
Our lawmakers get the red carpet treatment at Wasington's government run (but not socialist?) medical facilities. They don't even have to leave the Capitol to get medical care because they have a phalanx of doctors, nurses and medical technicians and a pharmacy conveniently on site. It's not entirely free, but for about $50 a month, it's one terrific deal.
Taxpayers picked up the tab of $15 billion in 2008 to insure 8.5 million federal workers and their dependents. The federal plans easily outstrip the coverages of normal policies while millions of Americans go underinsured and between 35 and 40 million more have no health insurance. At the rate the insurers are hiking up their prices in retaliation for the threat of refiorm, millions more will shortly be uninsured.
Federal employees love Blue Cross Blue Shield's generous plan which covers a family for about $1,120 a month. Our taxes pay $700 of that monthlypremium. The annual deductible is $300 per person and $600 per family. There is no waiting period, no pre-existing conditions and no coverage limit.
Doctor co-pays are $20, generic prescriptions $10, a routine physical is $20 for the doctor while all screening tests are paid by insurance if a preferred provider is used.
How are Congressmen and federal employees able to get this great insurance for such surprisingly low premiums? The same way the Health Care Reform Bill (that so-called "government takeover" of healthcare that is similar to Medicare but Republicans are carping about anyway) will make it available to all Americans.
Why is the government going to be able to get such great rates for non-federal employees? For the same reason they get for its 8.5 million employees. Because of the immense size and market power of 80 million or more potential customers and the billions of dollars in premiums to be had, insurers will be fighting like hell among themselves to get a slice of the big, new pie and to scarf up those people who prefer to buy private insurers. Premiums for the latter group will drop like rocks.
WHY NO SENATOR OR REPRESENTATIVE SHOULD
VOTE AGAINST HEALTH CARE REFORM
Our Senators and Representatives enjoy the benefits of health insurance that not only far surpasses what millions of Americans can afford, but they get it at going-out-of-business prices. The base salaries for Senators and Representatives is $174,000 a year. The Speaker of the House gets $223,500 and the majority and minority leaders in both legislative chambers receive $193,400 as does the Senate president pro tem.
A member is eligible for retirement benefits from Congress at age 62 with a mere five years of service. With ten years in they can retire at 60. Twenty years in service allows retirement at 50. All members are given an Expense Allowance to cover domestic travel, stationery, newsletters, overseas postage, telephone and telegraph service and other expenses incurred whether in Washington or back home in their districts. Foreign travel is paid from public and private sources so long as it's to conduct government business.
Included in a Representatives office expensess is a minimum amount of $9,700 (2003), with additional funding based on a formula that uses the mileage between Washington and the farthest point in the member's district. A Senator's Expense Allowance is based upon a combination of his state's population, the distance from the capitol city and includes travel money.
TURNING A SILK PURSE INTO A SOW'S EAR
Our country has millions of uninsured and underinsured people and families. Their ranks are getting fuller each day as thousands more are laid off, run out of savings or retirement funds or their unemployment compensation peters out. Millions of the employed are soldiering on, paying too much for insurance they can't afford to lose, doing without needed prescriptions or, fearing a health crisis and death, hand over money they could use for rent, food, utilities and other basic needs: dental treatment, gas, clothing, shoes, and the list goes on and on.
Herman Melville observed that the well-housed, well-warmed and well-fed often judge those of us who happen to be less well-situated harshly and inhumanely. Congress is facing a choice. In view of all the benevolence life and lucky breaks have handed them, will they vote for Healthcare Reform, or against it? Those who say "Nay" are no better than swine.
