Article: It All Adds Up to the Same Thing

I think I've got writer's block. I get so frustrated when I read something in the paper or watch something on TV, it makes me want to get to the keyboard and explain why I'm so angry. It usually has to do with something that should have been done ages ago, and people don't take it seriously, or they believe that it can't be done. I wrote a two page article about this very subject yesterday but I didn't submit it. I feel like I'm just repeating myself. I've expressed just about every thing that has me about ready for a straight jacket. I think maybe some people are right, maybe we can't change anything. Maybe people are happy in the dark and not getting involved, while they are being manipulated and lied to. I sure as hell don't want to walk around feeling as if I could be a poster boy for the "angry man".

I try to just stop thinking sometimes. I try as hard as I possibly can to just go with the flow and have faith that everything will just work itself out. I try to do as that serenity poem says, "accept the things I cannot change, change the things I can". The problem with accepting the things I cannot change is that the things that drive me crazy, are things that can be changed. I just can't get people to understand how easy it is to do it. Everyone I know thinks that things are written in stone, even liberal progressive types. I know that some of our greatest problems are really some of the easiest things to fix. The problem is getting people to sign on. It's not that this problem is so hard to fix, it's getting the people to look at the solution that's hard. It almost seems as if people really don't want these problems fixed, they just want things to complain about. Let me give some examples.

People complain that there are just too many people in the United States that don't have health care. They claim that the cost of getting good healthcare is out of the average person's reach if they don't get healthcare from their job, or they are self employed... whatever. It looks as if single-payer, universal heath care, Federal Health Care, whatever you want to call it, is impossible to get. Look what happened to Hillary Clinton when she tried, it was the end of an activist First Lady. There doesn't seem to be an answer.

What a sorry bunch we have posing as "citizen's" in America. The answer is right in front of all our faces. Let's start with who torpedoed the health care plan Hillary Clinton came up with. First of all, it wasn't a really good plan. It was complicated and really didn't excite the people. I believe that the reason the health plan she and her committee came up with was so bad, is because they were trying to compromise with just about every faction in Washington. It ended up being a hodgepodge of half serious attempts. It just wasn't acceptable. The question is why?

The answer is because corporate America, The American Medical Association, The American Society of Heart Surgeons, The Insurance Underwriters Association, The American Trial Lawyers Association and about another fifty or so of this countries largest collection of corporations and special interest groups just didn't want National heath Insurance. Do you know why? It's bad for business. Why didn't people that could have saved it get behind it? Because not only does Congress have just about the best healthcare plan in the nation, the people that were against it are also the people that finance these politicians's million dollar campaigns that keep them in office. It's that simple. No hard sleuthing required, the answer is right in front of everyone's face. So Mr. Smart Guy, how do we fix that?

Campaign Finance Reform, finance political campaigns from public funds. Get these Associations and Corporations out of Congress!

The price of gasoline and fuel to heat our homes is getting higher and higher each year. The government doesn't seem to be seriously looking into alternative fuels and new technology to help us use less oil and save money. It seems like the gas stations that I pass, all have just about the same price for gasoline. How come the government lets the oil companies get away with that? How come Congress can't help us out? Why don't small trucks get better gas milage? Some people are working two jobs just to pay for energy costs. Why don't we do what the Chinese suggested and stop buying oil from the middle east for a week? They said they would join us. They said that the backlog of oil would take oil down to less that $40.00 a barrel. What gives?

I don't know what gives with them, but I know who gives to finance those in Congress with their political campaigns. The Association of Petroleum Companies, Exxon-Mobil, Shell, Texaco, BP, Sunoco, GM, Ford, Daimler-Chrysler, and all of the other oil companies, auto makers, and petroleum associations. The auto companies are very happy that SUV's and pick-up trucks don't have to meet the same emissions standards and gas mileage requirements that automobiles do. That sure saves them money. They don't pass it on to you either. That wasn't very hard to figure out, in fact it was elementary. What can we do to solve that problem? Get these Associations and Corporations out of Congress!

Campaign Finance Reform, finance political campaigns from public funds.

Why do Americans pay more for Prescription Drugs and Pharmaceutical's than other countries? Why does Canada have the exact same drugs that we have in the United States but their drugs are so much cheaper than ours? Why is this Medicaid Prescription Drug Plan cover so little? What can't Congress allow government to negotiate with drug makers to lower the price that the government pays for drugs and therefore save the government itself money? Why is it illegal for the government to do that? Why are drugs so damn expansive, even drugs the companies don't develop? Why do Insurance companies pay less for drugs and medical treatment than individuals that pay out of their pocket. What gives?

You know who gives, I know who gives. These drug companies have some of the highest paid lobbyists in the world. These lobbyists promise funds for campaigns, jobs for when the politicians get booted out of Congress, or they retire. Help them send their kids to college, all sorts of things as long as they play ball and don't rock the boat. It's the citizens that get hurt. How can we get the cost of these drugs we need to survive... down? Get these drug companies and their Associations out of Congress!

Campaign Finance Reform, finance political campaigns from public funds.

These politicians come up with all sorts of reasons why we can't get American health insurance like all the other industrial nations have had for decades. They will tell you that it will make your taxes rise (higher than health cost's?). They will give reasons why your gas cost's are too high. Why is it bankrupting you to heat your home, while they do nothing? Hugo Chavez has to subsidize American's Heating bills. Congress will explain to you how you can't "trust" Canadian drugs and how it's a violation to negotiate with the drug companies for better prices (how lame is that?). They have a thousand arguments for you. Just remember this, it cost's millions for political campaigns. It cost Hillary Clinton 26 Million dollars for her Senate seat! Who can afford to pay that much? Would you want to be the first in Congress to tell everyone the truth and cut off your re-election campaign funding? Its like this, when everyone does the same thing and they have been doing it for years, it becomes acceptable. Campaigns are getting exponentially higher with each passing year, to the point now that these corporations and PAC's are what is keeping these people in office. Some don't even believe what they are doing is wrong! Some do, believe me. I know it's wrong.

The thing is, until we change who these "representatives" are representing, they will continue to NOT represent the people. If you could jail people for being morally wrong, then everyone in Congress should be in jail. I would go to the ACLU and ask them to help. In fact, I already did last year. I never heard a thing from them. Do you know why? Because they are against campaign finance reform! The reason? Because of an old 1896 case against a private individual and a railroad. The court, after reviewing the case, decided that the railroad had all of the rights and freedoms as an individual. Therefore, they believed that to exclude corporations from donating to political candidates would violate the corporations 1st Amendment rights! Let me ask you, have you EVER heard something so moronic?

So these are the things that I can't accept. Yes, I do believe that I can change these things. I believe in National Health Insurance, Cheaper Drugs, Cheaper fuel and heating costs and so many other things that can be done in this country to raise our living standard and make life better and healthier for all Americans. I believe that Congress needs to reform itself, this whole thing has gotten out of hand. You can write you people in Congress and ask them to represent YOU again. Tell them that YOU are the one that voted them in, not the corporations or the special interests.

Campaign Finance Reform, finance political campaigns from public funds.

Help me to stop banging my head against the wall...won't you please?