The weapons industry is not competitive. With cost-plus contracts, the longer it takes and the more it costs, the bigger the profits. And once the stockpiles exist, the best way to justify building more is to use up the weapons you've got. Meanwhile, all other industry is allowed to whither away. Technological spinoffs from our huge public investment in the military generally have to be manufactured elsewhere. And even public investments in things like mass transit have to create jobs in other countries, because the only thing we know how make anymore is weapons. Shifting our public investment from weapons to green energy, infrastructure, and transportation would benefit our economy as well as our environment.
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world is, by no coincidence, also the wealthiest nation in the world that does not provide its people with health coverage. About one in six Americans has no health coverage at all, and another two or three out of those six lack adequate coverage even though they pay more than enough to receive it and to provide it to those who lack it as well.
Millions of Americans, consequently, lack preventive health care, are deeply in debt for the expenses of emergency treatment, are forced to work longer hours to provide health coverage to themselves and their families, and suffer unnecessary illnesses and deaths. One result of this is that Americans have less time and freedom and energy to invest in civic life, including in peace demonstrations and lobbying of elected officials. If we had universal health care, we would be in a much better position to demand universal heath care. Isn't that how it always seems to go?
Now, our government is funded and heavily lobbied by the oil barons and weapons makers and disaster capitalists - the corporations who destroy and then pretend to rebuild. We dump at least half of every tax dollar into these immoral expenses. In fact, we spend as much on our military as do the rest of the nations of the world combined, and we call those expenses "defense" although they are used entirely for offensive wars, bombing missions, and the maintenance of a thousand military bases in other people's countries.
To contrast this gluttonous expense with our health care disaster can be misleading if taken to imply that the money should be moved from killing to saving. The fact is that, as a society if not as a government, we already spend enough on health to provide universal coverage and have money left over. But we don't use our government to create efficiencies. Instead as much as a third of every dollar goes into waste and bureaucracy and advertising for the private insurance industry. Eliminating those middlemen and simply providing everyone with health care, to be paid for by the government, would eliminate 90 percent of the paperwork. The health coverage would be public - as it should be. The health care would still be private. You choose any private doctor you want, just leave with no paperwork, including no bill. If this sounds too good to be true, remember that every other wealthy nation on earth already does this and gets more health care for less money than we do.
So ask your representative in Congress to sign onto H R 676 and visit:
DAVID SWANSON is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.
I have been very active in the Impeachment movement and have worked with Impeach For Peace for years. I even have Keith Ellison, who you mention in your article as my Congressman. Ellison is on the Judiciary Committee and has done NOTHING to promote Impeachment after signing HR 676. However he and other "progressive" Democrats has and continues to sign legislation to fund this illegal and immoral war. Not to mention the Homeland Terrorism Act.
I have come to the conclusion, based on experience that the Democratic Party have FOUGHT against Impeachment because the investigation would expose their complicity in supporting this war.
I also realize that "progressive" Democrats, such as PDA refuse, flat out refuse to hold the Democrats accountable for their own refusal to hold the Bush Administration accountable.
Quite frankly, many "progressive" Democrats complain about the spinelessness of the Democrats, yet continue to support them. The Dems spinelessness is nothing more than a reflection of your own.
You are fooling yourselves with talk of changing them from within. Sadly, you are bringing others along for the ride. However, as the saying goes "You can fool all the people part of the time and part of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time."
Some of us are not being fooled anymore by psuedo-radical, wanna be progressives and know that to quote David Cobb (of Ohio Re-Count fame) "the Democratic Party is where progressive politics goes to die."
Thank God for Ralph Nader and my candidate, Cynthia McKinney.
by
Michael Cavlan (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 225 comments)
on Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 11:03:42 AM
The movements for Impeachment, peace, and health care have been growing. People work on the issues part time as they can. These global giants lobby our representatives 24/7/365. The Military Industrial Complex is in all 50 states. Health Insurers have been allowed to become giant monopolies - United Health Care and Wellpoint, Inc. to name a few.
Our Politicians, despite what they say, line their pockets from these blood suckers.
How - do we build a movement that cannot be ignored? Where we are present 24/7/365 - and the issues are not spun or bent so far that they become ineffective?
For example, National Health Insurance is much different from Single Payer Non-profit Health Care, that is not charity, but paid for by everyone including corporations and people according to their means and received by all according to their need.
Two very different things, yet none of the candidates are speaking about the latter.
Then there are things like the "economy". The number one issue. But the Global transnationals are still raking in profits. They have outsourced US jobs, gutted the middle class, robbed pension funds and closed good paying jobs in the US to outsourced poverty wages. No candidate is speaking to the "common mans" economic plight.
So I ask, what do we do when once every four years we vote, then for the next four years we get robbed? When we write our Congress Person and receive a form letter that says, I appreciate your position, but. And the CEO of Enron is having lunch with our Congress person?
We are struggling to fill up our gas tank, pay our power bill and they are receiving record profits, RECORD PROFITS?
Congress is so corrupt they are part of the problem.
I feel the energy of an incredible movement being created, but its slow. They're data mining, using plants to create conflict and dividing us and reshaping the issues.
If net neutrality is compromised - not sure what will happen.
by
August Adams (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 442 comments)
on Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 6:31:36 PM
Yes There Are Candidates Speaking About Single Payer
You are right about Universal (corporate HMO friendly) healthcare being different than Single payer healthcare.
You are wrong about there being no candidates speaking about it. There are indeed none of the corporate sponsored and vetted candidates such as John McCain, Barrack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader are. In fact, it is the fact that the corporate interests which own our democracy that are not sponsoring them that makes them "not viable." Or at least so we am told by those who support the corporate parties and their corporate candidates and by the corporate media.
There seems to be a pattern developing here. Corporate branding.
Don't believe the hype.
by
Michael Cavlan (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 225 comments)
on Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 8:33:21 PM
The vast majority in Washington are all bought and paid for agents of the Militery-Industrial Complex, they are worthless co-conspirators. I am sure now that the only hope of turning America around, is what is inevitable anyway; the collapse of our economy. After enough people feel the pain of this second Great Depression; which will include stagflation, massive unemployment, homelessness, rioting, starvation, the breakdown of our families and the infrastructure across the country. Bank failures and the collapse of the monetery system. Then and only then, when we can no longer afford to drive our cars, fly anywhere, the truckers will stop driving, so nothing will be moving. It'll be like the Mad - Max movie; outright civil unrest. Then we will turn off our tv's, stop believeing change will come from Washington and the two-party system. We will wake up to the reality that we are being shafted by the Federal Reserve, and their lacky's in Congress and the Corporate MSM. Then my fellow Americans change will come. Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose; and the day of reckoning is close at hand. Be brave. These greedy fascist don't have enough FEMA prisons, or Blackwater mercinaries to handle 300 million patriots. The second Revolution is at hand. God Bless.
by
ronheri (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 149 comments)
on Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 8:59:51 PM
It's time for a real revolution, can't fix it through the corrupt electorate, too many people still sleep walking. Hardworking common folk know it's coming. My immigrant parents and immigrant friends can feel it.
My Uncle went through the depression, he's stocked up and planting. So is my Mom, they keep saying, it'll be ok, just stay close, we've been through it before.
I think they know. My IBM Exec brother points to the stock market and says, "first quarter earnings" aren't half bad in most of the fortune 500. I suppose that's because they all are profiting on the backs of outsourced poverty level jobs.
Nice system we have, the corporate elite steal out tax dollars, force us into perpetual national debt and then flee the country.
There ought to be rules that they require US jobs.
Even "Bank of America" is outsourcing many of the behind the scenes jobs. Nice corporate ethics.
by
August Adams (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 442 comments)
on Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 10:21:36 PM
6 comments
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