Published: November 02, 2009 07:02 pm      

Rippy: Let’s stop being lemmings and sheep

Every day we are bombarded with articles in the news and magazines written by those who are for or against health care reform. The talking heads on television start every segment with the latest update on congressional action on the latest bill or negotiation on the subject. This has been going on for months. One of the latest updates tells us that now a bill of over 1,500 pages is being discussed by members of one of the committees working on this legislation.

It should not be any mystery why we are in such trouble as a country and suffering the deepest recession in modern times. All we have to do is to observe how our legislators lead us into these problems and the way they try to correct the mistakes that were caused by their greed and ineptitude. We will never see the change needed in this country until we purge both bodies and start electing people who are beholden only to the people.

Just think about it. We are on the verge of 10 percent unemployment in this country as they report it. The true number, taking into account short work weeks and folks who have stopped looking, is probably a much higher and even more shocking number, maybe 12 to15 percent. Everyone seems to agree that the housing problem was at the forefront of the financial crisis where it started.

There are a lot of folks who believe that Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Christopher Dodd are leaders in creating the problem. Their insistence in pressuring Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to make loans to folks for homes who had no way of repaying them was the start. It is hard to put all the blame on the lending institutions when they were encouraged by our legislators to make these types of loans.

Just think about the job losses in this country as our legislators sit in their cushy Washington offices and watched the mass exodus of good paying jobs leave our shores. I get a little sick every time I hear one of them say that we will let others make it and we will buy it. Buy “it” with what? We hear stories about replacing the jobs lost with green jobs — wind turbines and solar panels that will provide good jobs and reduce our dependence of foreign oil from countries that really enjoy seeing us fail.

We created a Department of Energy many years ago to address the issue of energy independence. This department now has thousands of government employees and a budget over $15 billion dollars annually and we import double the amount of oil we did when the department was founded. Great government management or what?

They sit on their rumps without a care or concern and watch health care cost increase to 16 percent of our total economy while other developed nations that we are told are our global competitors average 8 to 11 percent. They obviously were blinded by the millions of dollars flowing into their campaign coffers through the lobbyist from the insurance companies and health care industry. Surely they could see premiums increasing 120 percent and wage increases and inflation at less than 30 percent and 40 percent during the same time frame. Why should they get excited? They have excellent benefits. Their only concern is to satisfy their contributors and continue to get re-elected, or go to work as a lobbyist at a much higher salary as a reward.

Now, here we are with a crisis, and guess what is going to happen? They will pass a bill after a lot of fanfare and showboating that does not do a lot to make us a more competitive nation. They have already cut deals with drug companies, hospitals, etc. They will make sure that nothing of significance takes place or implemented until after the 2010 and 2012 elections so they can remain in office when the folks wake up to their results. They had the opportunity to search the world and cherry pick the very best elements of any and all systems that supply health care to all their citizens. Why did they choose not to do this? The lobbying of the insurance and health care industry would never have accepted this approach because it might have affected their profits and bonuses.

I am going to close with the same example I used last week describing what happened when the drug industry helped write the legislation for Medicare D, the prescription drug bill for seniors. The bill did not allow price negotiation between the drug companies and the government. This caused drugs to be much cheaper in Canada and Mexico and our own Veterans Administration health care. Why? I am copying the answer from a report at the time.

“On Jan. 3, 2005, the same day Billy Tauzin left Congress, he began work as the head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, a powerful trade group for pharmaceutical companies. It was reported that they had offered more than $2.5 million per year for his services, outbidding the Motion Picture Association of America, which had offered Tauzin $1 million to lobby for it.

“Two months earlier, Tauzin had played a key role in shepherding the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill through Congress, which had been criticized by opponents for being too generous to the pharmaceutical industry.”

Kick them all out and keep doing it, Republican, Democrat or Independent, until we get legislators who represent the people and not special interest groups.



James Rippy is a former manager of what is now Continental Tire North America in Mt. Vernon and has authored a book titled “Executivitis.” E-mail him at rippyj@charter.net.