Yes, you read that correctly. Somewhere Judge Roy Bean is smiling at the continuing injustice of Texas justice. This is the kind of thing that happens when the state believes it's incapable of committing criminal acts and that a legal system equates to a justice system. Anything goes, regard for life crushed under the wheels of blind hypocrisy - hypocrisy that many feel must be protected at all costs.
Gee, wonder why anyone would feel that way?
The kid is from Round Rock which is a tony suburb north of Austin - which is good for his case. If he were black and from the ghetto sympathy would come only from hardcore liberals like the ACLU. But for this to happen to a life that "counts", oh how the outrage flows! Someone needs to send me the handbook listing lives who count and those who don't. I keep forgetting which ones we can waste - and kill at will.
Obviously, there had to be some sort of rigging in the system for this to occur.
Jacob Lavoro, a 19-year-old from Round Rock, Texas, was charged with a first degree felony because he used hash oil instead of marijuana, allowing the state to weigh the brownies as a whole — including the sugar, cocoa, butter and other ingredients — to calculate the weight of the drugs.
Police searched Lavoro's apartment, where they allegedly found 660 grams — or 1.45 pounds — of baked goods (six bags of cookies, nine bags of brownies) along with 16 ounces of marijuana and $1,675 in cash.
"I’ve been doing this 22 years as a lawyer and I’ve got 10 years as a police officer and I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Jack Holmes, Lavoro’s attorney, told KHON-TV. “They’ve weighed baked goods in this case. It ought to be a misdemeanor."
Conservative principles in action!
Felony charges - much less convictions - are fun! Between a $30,000 bail and retainer costs for a lawyer the kid is already out several thousand dollars. And of course a conviction means he's a marginal citizen for life. There's more money for everyone dealing with a felony, not to mention the resume padding, so why not screw the kid over?
Of course, we didn't reach this position by accident. Took a lot of bright thinkers to get us to this point. The boy's father's outrage is especially precious.
The teen's father, Joe Lavoro, called the possibility of his son spending life behind bars for a hash brownie recipe “outrageous."
"Five years to life? I'm sorry, I'm a law abiding citizen. I'm a conservative. I love my country. I'm a Vietnam veteran, but I'll be damned," Lavoro said. "This is illogical. I'm really upset, and I'm frightened, I'm frightened for my son."
Well, Mr. Goofball Conservative, guess who hell the made these laws? Guess who's enforcing them to these absurd lengths? Your fellow conservatives, that's who, you freaking moron! You should be applauding this tough on crime stance! "Zero tolerance! Zero thought!" Now he wants to be all touchy-feely liberal and considerate of life. Got to be hard or there will be anarchy!
Putting sociopaths in positions of power can only lead to tragedy. And I bet daddy here won't have one whit of a problem with this law if he can get the charge knocked down to a misdemeanor. He'll go back to rationalizing that people get what they deserve from our legal system and he'll be kissing conservative ass like the fine American whore he brags to be. Or to put it another way, don't complain when your buddies get blown away after you put Victor Charley in charge.
ALL conservatives suck
But this situation is not unique. Wonder how much conservative outrage there was over these cases:
Want to be a great American? Stop supporting predatory practices that tear society apart. "Don't let injustice happen to me and mine" is not the same as "Don't let injustice happen to anyone." Don't come crying to me when the chickens so very predictably come home to roost. If you want to be tough on crime and criminals first try facing the one in the mirror.
When I woke my heart was pounding and my blood racing..."I can't take it! I can't take it anymore!"...they're going to get me, just a matter of time...I had no money god...they hound you to hell if you have not their god...I grabbed a gun and put a bandana over my face....crazy out of my mind, I must rob the bank...what kind of person does that make me?...who will understand?..they'll say it's me, it's always me...but at the bank there's a line into the street...everyone has a gun and a bandana waiting to hold it up...but the money is already gone...too late i do what i want!...so I run into the dark woods...there I hope to find god...and shoot him...then I heard someone say from over the hill..."Boom, god is dead. Now you're free"...so I don't have to worry about being a robber...but my needs were still unmet..then I came to a lake...a girl with many colored hair bathed nude in the center...with no god to fear now I pointed my gun and told her to let me have her...but she just kept bathing, staring at me...then I talked to her and told her of my woes...she turned her back on me, breaking mine...as i crawled off I heard her say, "The more you speak the more I hate you."...then I realized I didn't do what I wanted again...the fear still chasing, winning...the dark woods swallowed me, my heart still racing pounding...god come back!...I found a field of light and lay there in love...
finally the words came to me for the girl on the lake...I sent them to her...and she replied!...but I mistook them as words of hate and kept running...titans of the forest darkened the sky in many colored awe...beneath them little people like me underfoot, pushing them up..."Higher! Higher!" demanded the titans...the higher they went the more it took to keep them there, many dying from the strain..."Why do you obey?" I asked..."To prove my worth! I must be a good person. I must! I must!"...but I told him god was dead and he was free...yet still he pushed on..."There can be no good news. No, never, never"...then I realized that was my same reaction to the response from the girl in the lake...oh tragedy! Tragedy!...but to go back was like the bank...too late...I can't keep running...the coward scrambles like a mad ant with no direction home...a pack of rabid hyenas found me...they laughed in self-deceit, not noticing their own horror of it..."We love you! We love you!"...for them love was a license to kill...where do I have left to go?...i start coughing on the run...the girl was my last chance...
what remnants of me are left?...once exposed to the hyenas, they never stop chasing for life..."To kill for love is the greatest pleasure!"...no way forwards, no way backwards...one stumble, i'm dead...is this fear, fate or fucking?...but still a scorned village of light ahead..."Come to us and be safe!"...i told them i want to but could not...dare i let them see me a robber and a rejecter of love, the lowest of all creatures?...in the dark woods a thousand predators' eyes...in the light forever infamy...only running keeps me from both...i close my eyes in diminishing death...rest, where are you??...then my drooping eyes burst open as i almost run into a tree...i can still hear the hyenas...with or without a god i've no place to go...into madness i wither...
There are two groups of people: those who question and those who do not.
But both groups believe its trait is what makes it the moral one.
"So what about the Truth and Justice crowd? How can we keep cramming war, wealth transfer and woe down everyone's throats in perpetuity without them calling us out?"
The room was not smoky nor stuck in the back nor hidden in any way. It was, in fact, overlooking the streets from a sky high perch, touched only by low hanging clouds. The men did not smoke cigars and use crude language while laughing evilly but rather were well manicured, sipping processed water with the utmost of decorum. Smooth, polished and political - the devil's effective new face.
"I wouldn't worry about them. We can marginalize them as hysterics without lives trying to ruin life for the rest of us."
"I agree. Besides, what kind of commitment do they really have? It's been my experience most want justice only when it's convenient or they can be bought off with phony political power. Give them their head and they'll pass away."
"I'm sorry, but I do not agree we can take that approach this time. We need to convert them to our cause. Blatant warmongering and social theft has given them a new credibility. If reforms were actually implemented and then found to make life better our way of life would be threatened in the extreme."
"What's to be done then? Things must continue as they are or we're all going to be working on the streets down below and I for one will never stand to be put in that position, not on your life. I don't care who has to die."
Each of the men looked at the others in knowing glances. They knew what it meant to live at the mercy of men like them. Let the self-deceived, the fools, and the willfully ignorant muddle along in hopelessness while others pulled the strings of their lives stripped of all meaning. They knew: once having tasted a life of true self-determination there's no going back. It's rule or die.
Finally, the chairman of the board spoke. "Basically, we know on the whole people are corrupt. That is our one saving grace. But they cannot stand to be perceived as unjust. What we need is a false face. With that we can divide the Truth and Justice crowd, pitting them against one another."
"Brilliant! God help me, I do love politics! It's the greatest vehicle for violence man has ever known. It's the only place where a lie has a home."
The chairman resumed. "People fear change more than injustice. A false face will arise from their crowd self-deceived into believing itself to be the face of justice and that, my friends, will be our savior. Who can touch us then? Love will have its day - but not in our lives."
Hell's new face gave fresh credence to the nightmares of the day. False reform gave comfort to the false moralists. The empowered continued to draw from the weak. Hope was but a myth and slogan to be sold. Those who questioned the myth were shouted down by those who accepted it. "Unbearable" wars became "just" wars. Refilling the coffers of the greedy deemed "pragmatic". Gullibility perverted from sin to virtue.
As the chairman had predicted, a divide formed on those claiming to be on the side of truth and justice.
"I do so love the new face and I for one am grateful for the hope and change he has brought us! He is a man full of grace and wisdom and charm. We are the better for him and we who are truly in touch with reality know this."
"But it's a charade! The greedy still make the rules, the war machine rolls on and the corporate chains are stronger than ever. Only difference now is you don't give the suffering a voice because your closed mind insists that everything is fine."
"You just don't want to admit the truth! Truth and justice must be compromised. If the new face puts chains on us then that must be what's best. The time for questioning is over. Our side must win. We are Jesus!"
"That's what the other side says too. But nobody wins unless justice wins. You're just being used, played as 'useful idiots'."
"Great! I always wanted to be useful!"
The accusations were ceaseless, the men on the thirtieth floor laughing in delight.
"Our false face has exceeded all expectations. A murderer with a peace prize! Who dare hope for this scale of glorious duplicity? Have you seen the fools fawning over window dressings of "change"? Why were we ever worried? No man sees himself as a villain. They can't see our true faces without first seeing their own. We are safe."
"War. It's the only thing that has meaning. Those who live under the illusion of peace live at the mercy of we who wage war. We are the gods of the world. Hell is the true reality we face. Love is just to help you fight harder.
"You are a machine, a forged tool to be used. Fat cats who live in castles in the sky will profit from your blood. Those who sent you will claim the glory even as they pin you with the medal. Civilians will call even your greatest acts of evil godly in order to keep the blood off their hands. That's how our lives have more purpose than any other.
"You are treated as you deserve. What do you do with a can after you've finished your drink? You throw it away. You're only useful as long as you can fight. To take part in the Great Struggle of mankind is the highest of honors. War is life, peace is just waiting. Cowardice is in the soul. Death to the soul."
There are dangers to being a smart ass. It really stings to find out you've pigeonholed someone wrongly. When Kolovsky, aka "The General", handed this to me my heart was pounding. To be called over to have a look at someone's written word was an unusual event. Plus, I could feel this was intended for me. I'd always called Kolovsky "The General" but I'd been gentle knowing his Vietnam wounds may be hidden and my anti-war agenda salt in those very same wounds.
Might first thought was to deflect. Technically that should be "us who wage war". But I swallowed that cop out and prayed to God I wasn't about to be laid into for my outspoken opinions.
"That's really good. Hard words. I like the honesty, it's very refreshing. I certainly won't say I represent the norm but I find this uplifting and even a bit horrifying."
"I was hoping you would say that." Shit! "I guess you could say I was channeling my inner Harry, making my own general speak." Oh, wait. I think he's complimenting me.
"Sounds very Patton-esque, only more bent. I like how it ends because I could see the rah-rah crowd buying into it until that point but then have to realize where their passions lead them."
"Exactly. All these years these clouds of fog been floating in my brain, never really forming. When I heard you talking about that "Dirty Wars" film it got me to thinking. It was easier for me to condemn a war I hadn't been in but after I wrote this I realized I was talking about all wars."
"So why now? Why all the sudden?"
"I'm a lot closer to the end than the beginning. I don't want to die with this buzzing in my head. I've seen you blogging and thought maybe it could work for me."
"That's awesome! You going to put this online?"
"No. I think that would only stir things up all over again. People get locked in and they don't care what you say right or wrong. I'm too old and too tired for that. But I did get excited after writing it. Is this how you feel after you blog?"
"Sometimes." I was cryptic on my own pain.
"Well, can't say I'll do any more. Been a very long time since I felt a sense of direction. I came back in '74. Hard to believe it's been forty years...took me this long to find my voice. That's a lot of wasted time."
"Sometimes," I replied off the cuff hoping I wasn't full of shit, "you have to breathe a deep breath before you can sing the high note."
"That's a good way of looking at it. I wonder if I'll have another note to sing!"
I handed the paper back to him. Kolovsky had more life in him than I'd seen in a long time. I'd always put him in the Don't-give-a-shit category. He wasn't going to "reform" or conform (thank God). But people in this category are, well, let's just say the jury is always out on them, you never know which way they will go. Life without purpose is a heavy burden that can break any soul.
I too have no place to go, nowhere to be. I tried to step into the spotlight but failed. There can be no true success anywhere else, though. I don't even have to hear the words. Just by tone of voice - the quiet, seething anger laced in bitterness - I can know of a meaningless man. Woe to he who's wasted his treasure - or dared not seek it in the first place.
Like my fellow lost brethren I must contend with our natural predator in the wild: the Work Pimps. Work Pimps feed off others' feeling of worthlessness, driving them into the blind labor of a communist. "You must contribute!" they wail with the maniacal intensity of a jihadist. Under the guise of social responsibility these soul stealers will use you up and leave you to die in the desert. Too many fall for this false clarion call of the devil's disciples, hoping against hope that to be used is to be useful.
It's sensational to report a man been's killed over twenty bucks or some other trivial item. But I know whether it's a mugging or an argument the real culprit is a meaningless life. That's when the smallest of things can seem life and death. Rage like lava builds up until finally the volcano explodes in tragedy. But it's not sexy to lead with a headline of "Meaningless Man Shoots in Frustration". That somehow implies society should be helping more - and responsibility never sells.
That night in my cot my own head buzzed:
Deep breath before a note...that's probably all bullshit...I'd have to have honest success to find out for sure...but I lie here instead with promises in the dark...the cell of uselessness forbids freedom's love...they can't give it and I can't make it...you win God, I've no way home...so many resentful eyes in this world, looking for their place...
Ten stories up the ropes to two grand pianos hanging off the edge of the building snapped simultaneously. Down below stood two men perfectly aligned under each falling instrument of death.
The man on the left spoke up to the man on the right. "You might want to move there, buddy. There's a piano falling down on you." As he spoke he stepped out from underneath the shadow of certain death.
"I'm not your buddy so shut your mouth."
"Just look up, you'll see what I'm saying."
"Not looking anywhere you say. You're not the boss of me."
"Not trying to be anyone's boss!"
"Then shut your damn mouth!"
"I can't just let you die. That piano's coming down fast!"
"Oh, the sky is falling?? I'm sick of you alarmists, nothing is ever good enough for you. But, hey, guess what? I'm still alive! So keep your doom and gloom to yourself."
"It's not doom and gloom if you move..."
"Oh, I get it, because you moved now everyone else has to too. I will not stand for that sort of fascism!"
"Nobody is forcing you to do anything. I'm simply relating a matter of fact: that if you stand there you will die."
"Fact? That's no fact. That's your opinion. All you people do is whine, bitch and moan about how everyone else acts. How about a nice big cup of shut-the-fuck-up?"
"You certainly do make it tempting, I must admit. Still I feel it's my duty to speak up."
"So you can stick your nose in everybody's business? Your type is always prancing so high and mighty like you're some sort of saint. No one else can ever be right, just you are!"
Another fascist forcing his opinions
"Not everything is opinion and there is such a thing as right and wrong. I implore you, sir, to change your position."
"Change my position?? You change your position. I'm not one of those malcontents saying everything has to be perfect. Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good, I say. I'm staying the course."
By this time a crowd had gathered. Most were standing on the side of the man on the right. They loved his fighting spirit in the face of what seemed to them as imperial demands. One thing each of them made sure to never do was look up. Soon, many voices started attacking the man on the left.
"You bastard! Leave this good man alone. What's he ever done to you?"
"Your kind is never satisfied. You can't understand a man of faith like this fellow on the right. He doesn't have to question every little thing!"
"That's right! Why don't you do something constructive instead of just tearing people down? Would do you some good to listen for once!"
The crowd on the right self-applauded and congratulated one another on what they saw as very clever arguments to muddy the waters. When the man on the left attempted to make one final plea as time was running out, the angry crowd shouted him down, cursing him and galled by his continued insistence to speak. "Don't you ever get enough?"
The man on the right was laughing in victorious debate. Many well-wishers shook his hand. "We showed him! God is on our side." In a show of support, four others crowded around the man on the right. "See that, mister? We have the courage of our convictions. We don't cut and run and change. You don't understand this now but we're here to tell ya, someday your time is gonna come."
Fairly giggling, the man on the right couldn't resist one last taunt. "Ain't so smart now, are ya? Haha! Know what I think? I think you can suck my - "
WHOMP!
All told, six people died as the piano landed according to the laws of physics. Many said that just proves how science can't be trusted by men of faith. A few busied creating a shrine to the "fallen martyrs." Finally, an old woman clutching her purse in anger walked over to the man who was left and addressed him through seething teeth.
"I hope you're happy. You just got six good people there killed! I hope you can live with yourself. Don't be blaming others for what you done! You've got to take responsibility! These folks were trying to help you and you spit in their eye! You've got no respect for the truth!"
The man who was left walked away having seen and heard enough. But his refusal to debate or buy into their anger infuriated the crowd even more as they hissed under their breath. "There's just no living with the likes of that. We're going to have to do something about that."
There was an air about him only I seemed to notice. Sure, there was other people in that miserable bar drinking alone, but his isolation was different - deeper and blacker. After word of the killings in Big Whiskey, Wyoming got out folks was plenty mad. But Munny was an old bushwhacker like the James boys and Quantrill. They got a knack for melting away to where nobody but nobody can latch onto them again. We all heard the stories of them Pinkerton detectives getting killed and same happened just about to anybody else foolhardy enough to follow!
Next year, after the massacre in Big Whiskey, Jesse got hisself killed and suddenly they didn't seem so untouchable anymore. Most of them got killed long before but Jesse had created this legend that sort of rubbed off on all them Civil War bushwhackers. As for me, I hated them sons-a-bitches, tricking farmers by wearing the wrong uniform then shooting them down before they knew what was what. I surely fail to see the courage in that.
There was other vile stories of that type, those boys hiding in the weeds for hours till they got an easy shot on somebody and waylay them right out of their saddle. I'd never come across their sort in person except for one: Will Munny. Now here I was staring at him all over again and my blood run cold. His type don't need much of a excuse to putting a bullet in ya!
"He's dead." That's what everyone was saying if you asked about him. Funny, but that was exactly what I thought seeing him sit there with that bottle and his hanging down head and eyes so empty I wondered if he was blind. When he moved it broke the spell and I went to the other end of the room to gather up my wits. What I hated most - what I really fought - was me having this feeling of feeling sorry for him. His kind just rips holes in the world, the kind that get us all killed.
After the war there'd been so much hate in the Missouri line folks just kept right on killing each other. North and South was mixed up in there and the hard feelings didn't go away easy. Men like Quantrill and the rest of them bushwhackers wouldn't fight in the war proper. They killed, raped and robbed any civilian they thought wasn't with their cause. You see, to them, in their minds, that was enough to commit any sort of violence they saw fit. And they saw fit to do things no human should ever do.
For a lot of them southerners they couldn't handle getting beat. They couldn't win the war so they wanted to fight the peace. They did that by stirring up all the old hate. Articles in foul newspapers (unlike this one!) spoke how these dogs was fighting for rights and justice by doing stuff like Munny did, blowing up a train they said was full of "Yankees coming to exploit us." You had enough folks swallowing that bile - or leastways saying they did - that they got made into heroes. That's some twisted thinking, that.
Munny disappeared. They had their hardcore supporters that hid them out. But Munny had started up his own farm. That's when I knew him. I figure every man has right to turn over a new leaf to the good Lord but if that'd been me doing all that raping and killing I'd be hard pressed to forgiving myself. Them's some mighty tough things to get passed but I have to think the good Lord can get passed anything and God bless the man that can do it. So I let sleeping dogs lie and treated him like any other. Hate wears on a ya like big boulder anyway.
Never crossed my mind I'd see him again, even here in Sherman, Texas. I knew they'd come down here in the old days to hide out, Jesse even taking his honeymoon here. Guess this must be the last place left to a man like Munny. I always said the world wouldn't be safe until men like him is wiped clean off the face of the earth. Ya can't build anything solid when ya got folks who just want to tear society up as it suits them. Wait and see, one day we going to rise up against them banks causing all these panics too!
But I must admit I was glad on seeing him with my own eyes. The Lord does take His vengeance after all. William Munny's going to live in eternity with the wails and cries of the people's lives he hurt. I had resented a God who didn't strike those kind of men down with all the suffering they caused. Maybe, I wondered, I should be out there trying to kill them myself. But I'd been too busy just living. I could see now, though, they'd been busy killing their own selves.
Wasn't till after his funeral I wanted to recount this. I know a few will still be riled for me not offering praise to a Missouri bushwhacker. But I think it's misguided to thinking they was fighting for any other cause but their own base lusts and vile desires. I'm glad I didn't give in to the hate those boys stirred up in me. It's been over twenty years since the war ended and it's right time for it to die. I don't believe any man who says he wants to end up like Will Munny of Missouri - leastways not if they'd looked into them vacant eyes of his I saw like cold, dark wells.
Written by Simon Lockwell as courtesy to the Sherman Herald Democrat, May, 4, 1886.
Like a moth to flame I couldn't resist - no matter how it burned me, no matter if it killed me. When I peered inside that Starbucks I saw a world where I wanted to belong. Those were people I wanted to spend time with, that was my language being spoken in there, of books and films and Nature's unrealized dreams. That language of the streets I speak, that's not really me. But it's a dialect I've been forced to use.
Yet I observed many of the aliens who frequented the establishment with a jaundiced eye. They thought their work important because of the lifestyle it gave them. That detached air of material success, of living in a castle in the sky - that was the world they inhabited. One night in the shelter with me and they'd be ruined for life, forever fallen to dirty wormy earth.
And that made them afraid. And if they could spot you as homeless, that made them doubly afraid. To them, you were a theory, a bogeymen in the night. But to see that bogeyman incarnate! The looks of hatred are unmistakable. That was OK, though. I surely hated them back with their phony chatter and self-important business talking points. I mean, really. Who gives a fuck about your lamers powerpoint presentation?
Of course, having never lived in that world and having no identity of my own, I cravenly wondered if I could survive on Planet Pretentious. Certainly not with these clothes I couldn't. And certainly not with keeping a desire to live intact. I was forced to flash back to my one brush with a being of their kind, when I had tripped up his attempt to mock me using my superior intelligence. I'll never forget his flashing hatred, a sweet invalidation of his life. It was a rare time when someone shows their true face - a face literally wanting to kill me.
That's what happens when you upsets someone's world view. Jeopardize their latte and you put your life on the line! Yes, indeed, I'll say it again: your unexamined life is not worth living with. But here I am yet again, looking inside this plate glass window knowing they'd despise me if I were dumber than them and hate me if I were smarter. And then I saw her sitting there.
Whatever her soils and stains of that world I did not care. Like Gandhi said, how can I protest sins we all share? What if I too had the the chance to live in that world? What kind of blind-eyed douchebag would I be? I shuddered to think. But she was different. It's one of those very rare moments in life: a recognition. I'd learned the (very) hard way not to ignore these moments. They are as real as the sun.
Oh, how dangerous to cross over to my life unlived. I was afraid to wholly believe my eyes. Was I wanting to see something so badly I was making it up? I wanted to invade hostile territory regardless of the flak, making a soiree directly beside her, to pick her brain, make her laugh and to soak in her irresistible presence. All these thoughts came to me before I had even met her. That book she was reading looked familiar too. If only I could make out the title...
"The Ink Dark Moon"! Ancient female Japanese poetry! Dear God in heaven, I wasn't making her up. Filled with short delightful poems, it's an escape book of mine, allowing me to live in my own castle in the sky. There I can connect to the universe - rent fucking free. Was she doing that too? Was there any way onto her cloud? Could even a God who'd abandoned this world have pity on me?
I started checking on her, obsessed with this feeling. I hadn't felt like this since I was child of innocence, before the world had beaten me. This wasn't romantic though I noticed her sexual energy and wondered of it. This was like finding a friend who you knew before you even met. One day I got another clue, she'd left a movie ticket on her table. I'm a stickler for fine movies so I grabbed it with hesitation.
Ha! It was one of those talking animal movies. One of the few I'd actually seen. In the street world, these kind of films are not understood. Not too many people want to discuss the joys of watching "Milo and Otis" while destitute. Maybe they don't think that's keeping it real. If so, they've got a another think coming. Real is when you live.
My instincts bursting, I was completely under her spell at this point. Problem was, how was I going to explain what I'd done with my life to her? I had deliberately shut out her and her ilk just so I'd never be exposed as one who'd wasted his supposed talents. Few have a problem believing you're a worthless bum and blindly accept the surface. But some people are able to see more, not blinded by anger. Was that in her heart?
My big break came when I found out she was in a writing class. I had written a novel once, maybe I could write again. I went back and forth for days debating the wisdom of joining that class. Was it really fair to join only because of her? What if she found out my true motives? I have no pretensions on being a writer. My descriptive powers are more visual, not literary. But I also knew my imagination was unique. Well, fuck...
"You fraud! Get the hell out of here!" No one said that when I signed up except for the ever so helpful voice in my head. I noticed exactly where she sat. Don't be too obvious! I anxiously looked forward to my time to share. Would she approve? I didn't care about the rest of class, just her. I told the story of a home living geek who painted his portrait as God. When asked why this hubris he replied, "I got laid didn't I?" She laughed reflexively. I trembled.
It was hell keeping up a pretense of normalcy. I had to keep my clothes absolutely clean and ironed. So many extra chores to maintaining an image! I didn't want to shame her or worse, be that friend she hid from her "real" friends. "Who's that?" "Oh, just some guy." I'd never return after hearing that. She wouldn't be able to find me if she wanted to. And yet, she was everything I'd hoped.
The writing was our common bond. Could I be in her life without it? The pressure was immense to keep up as I fell behind. Write or die! I knew she was having difficulty maintaining her writing drive. She wanted my approval one day on her proposed ideas. I said nothing. I was was paralyzed with fear she'd lose interest in writing - and I'd be thrown out with it. Dear God, please let my time in heaven go on just a little bit longer.
Then she invited me to her house. (I, of course, could never invite her to my cot.) It was just as I had imagined: pristine and orderly in a swank townhouse in a swank neighborhood. Walking in I felt as Moses before the burning bush, forced to face what I wanted most. The air of life, the great honor of her sharing her domain with me - I was truly walking in the clouds. But the fact remained: she was from my life unlived.
My little voice was screaming but I didn't want to hear. I had crossed the line; a bridge too far. How could I ever go back to my dog food diet after tasting the finest steak? Every bite for the rest of my life would drain my soul. They say ours is a merciful God but I have not witnessed this. Mine was the gravest of sins: having tasted life I now stood infected with a delirious desire for living. For that there is no hope.
Sabotage came in the worst way. She had no idea I knew her unspoken insecurities. She too had fears (the idea of her fearing me was hard to process at the time, though). It was easy to write with her support as my friend. I wanted to collaborate but to do so was to take our relationship to a deeper level and go through a door of which there is no return. The bonding would be just too dangerous.
The final straw was knowing of my phony image. If she ever saw the real me...
So I played on her secret fears and she barred me from her home. The "real me" was safe from discovery. But that is also a death sentence. I have since been disfigured by the pain in both physical and mental terms, I limp with boils on my skin and an ingrained scowl on my face. If she somehow overcame her fear and pride to came my way, I'd be more horror stricken than ever for her to see me.
The horror of love unspoken
So I'm left bleeding on the street, pining away as I sit on benches of chipped paint, staring at gutters of chipped concrete. People have asked me if I still write. "I don't know," I answer, my heart not in it anymore, wanting it to be over. If taken to Guantanamo and forced to confess, they'd find out I had secretly become dependent on her. "So how is it you can still write without her then, your terrorist prick bastard?" "Easy," I seethe in deep bitterness. "I just pretend she's still my friend...then die of heartbreak afterward."
I'll be frank and say up front I'm posting this only for future finger pointing purposes later. The die is cast and the future set for all practical purposes. To many, politics is a religion, based on willful ignorance. We dismiss the facts we dislike and embrace those we believe put us in the best light. But as Gandhi said, "There is no God higher than Truth." It's the only way out.
I've written on the Big Con before. Do you know the best way to find a dishonest person? Put an ad in the paper advertising for an honest person. The more earnest the better! 90% of the time what you will get are the biggest crooks and liars around. They think, "If I can make them believe I am honest, I can swindle them out of everything!" That's how all the great cons begin, by someone wanting to pose as moral.
The scramble to appear moral in politics is as bad any church abuses. The rationale goes something like this: "Yes, I am lying but it's for the greater good. Once I get in power I can then do the necessary good. And the fact I can lie to them and get away with it proves they're just as corrupt as I am anyway. The ends most certainly do justify the means!" Talk about an unholy alliance!
Many of the arguments over ACA are not about the facts but are either politically based or what's it's ostensibly about as opposed to what's truly happening. The latter is where the most confusion is on the left where those who've failed to do any sort of analysis argue with talking points supplied by the partisans. Never a shortage of useful idiots parroting words they don't understand and blindly attacking anything that doesn't make them feel good - especially when the truth hurts.
But I ask, do we want to survive or not? Lies won't get us to the finish line.
So here's the best analysis of Obamacare yet, detailing the entire big con. Feel free to disagree with your own factual analysis. I'll highlight what I think are the funniest parts of it. Not that the resulting cruelty is funny but funny because it's true. Again, not looking to change minds here but when it all goes wrong I'll be able to link back to this and be insufferable - the same way ACA supporters are insufferable now in their closed-minded religious fervor. ("But, but - it would've have gone right if only for [fill in the blank with plausible delusion].")
For readability I'll only link the headline and intersperse gratuitous hot babes to keep me interested.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also called "Obamacare," may be the biggest insurance scam in history. The industries that profit from our current health care system wrote the legislation, heavily influenced the regulations and have received waivers exempting them from provisions in the law. This has all been done to protect and enhance their profits.
In the meantime, the health care crisis continues. Fewer people, even those with health insurance, can afford the health care they need because of out-of-pocket costs. The ACA continues that trend by pushing skimpy health plans with low coverage and restricted networks.
This is what happens in a market-based system of health care. People get only the amount of health care they can afford, rather than what they need. The ACA takes our failed market-based system to a whole new level by forcing the uninsured to purchase private health plans and using the government to sell and subsidize them.
Sadly, most Americans are being manipulated into supporting the ACA and do not even know they are being bamboozled. That is how scams work. Even after the con is completed, victims do not know they have been manipulated and ripped off. They may even feel good about being scammed, thinking they made a deal when they really had their bank accounts picked. [This is true. Some even come back for a second and third swindling so convinced they are by the "bad luck" that screwed them out of their money.] But it is the insurance companies that are the realizing windfall profits from the Obamacare con even as it falters.
The mass media is focused on the technical problems with getting the insurance exchanges up and running. These problems result from the complexity of the law and outsourcing of services to corporations that are often more costly and less effective than government. In comparison, in 1965 when Medicare started, everyone 65 and over was enrolled within six months - using index cards.
If all US residents were in one plan, Medicare for all, rather than the ACA's tiered system that institutionalizes the class divides in the United States, not only would the health system be fairer and improve health outcomes, but it would be less bureaucratic, less costly and easier to implement. The Medicare-for-all approach considers health care to be a public good, something that all people need, like schools, roads and fire departments.
Rather than being distracted by the problems of the exchanges, the more pressing issue is whether we want to continue using a market-based approach to health care or whether we want to join the other industrialized nations in treating health care as a public good. This conversation is difficult to have in the current environment of falsehoods, exaggerations and misleading statements coming from both partisan directions, echoed by their media supporters and nonprofit organizations.
Of course, the Republicans attack Obamacare for partisan reasons. And they are often blatantly dishonest in their criticism. Their foundational claim, calling Obamacare socialized medicine, is the opposite of reality. And, the Obama administration and its allies in the nonprofit world also have their fair share of falsehoods about the ACA. We will describe these farther below.
[To anyone who has seen "The Sting" can note the similarity in the breakdown to the con.]
A Primed Public
In reality, the US health care system is the worst of the wealthy nations. We spend the most per person, have the lowest percentage of our population covered and have poor health outcomes. Forty-five thousand adults die each year merely because they do not have insurance, and 84,000 Americans die each year of preventable illnesses that would not die in the French, Japanese or Australian health systems.
Even those with insurance find it to be inadequate when they get seriously ill. Medical costs and illness are the greatest reasons for bankruptcy, and insurance does not prevent financial ruin. Every family is touched by the failures of US health care.
The Institute of Medicine issued a report in 2013, US Health in International Perspective, that documents the failure of the US health care system. In summary: "Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, 'peer' countries."
The health care crisis had grown to such proportions that by the 2008 election it could not be ignored. It was a major topic of the presidential campaigns. The health industries knew this and invested heavily in the candidates. Candidate Barack Obama overwhelmingly received more in donations from health care-related industries than any of the other candidates.
The public was ready for health care reform. Knowing that the majority of the public supports a Medicare-for-all system, it was going to take serious planning to silence that majority and enact a law that protected the interests of the health industries.
Obamacare: The Insurance Scam
A scam is a fraudulent operation designed to make money. A scam unfolds over time with a team of swindlers seeking to rob the victim without the victim ever knowing they have been scammed.
In Confessions of a Confidence Man, Edward H. Smith lists the "six definite steps or stages of growth in every finely balanced and well-conceived confidence game." Let's go through these six steps and see how the process of selling the ACA to the public fits.
1. Develop the Foundation
The foundation of a scam is the preparation done ahead of time to set up the scheme. In the case of the ACA, the foundation began with the health law passed by Massachusetts in 2006. The template was created by Stephen Butler of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The law was passed under a Republican governor, Mitt Romney.
The next task was to sell this idea to Democrats. The Robert Wood Johnson foundation gave a major assist when it made large grants to state health reform groups in 2008 to promote Massachusetts-style reform in their states, called the "public-private partnership" model.
To further sell the ACA, Roger Hickey, a longtime Medicare-for-all advocate of the Campaign for America's Future (closely allied with the Democratic Party), took an idea from Jacob Hacker to create a new public insurance modeled after Medicare to 'compete' with private insurance. Hickey sold the model to progressive groups, and Hacker's proposal was used by the Obama campaign.
In July, 2008, Hickey and others rallied progressive groups to create a new coalition, Health Care for America Now, which received tens of millions of dollars to build grass-roots support for the ACA. The name was similar enough to the longtime Medicare-for-all organization, Healthcare-Now, to cause confusion.
2. The Approach
The approach is the way that the con artist gets in touch with the victim. The vehicle for the ACA con was the tech-savvy political campaign of Barack Obama. The candidate promised hope and change. Obama, who had supported single payer before running for president, was able to point to all of the problems in the US health care system and excite people with the potential of a new leader who understood the crisis and would fix it.
After his election, the campaign organized Health Care House Parties in December 2008. People were encouraged to invite friends and neighbors to their homes, and the Obama transition team provided the materials. The booklet that was used was tightly scripted to build support for the ACA rather than actually elicit citizen input on what kind of health system was desired. [Suspension of critical thought it vital to all religions. Just blindly say yes!]
3. The Buildup
In this stage, the victim is excited about the prospect and is filled with anticipation so their judgment is warped and caution is thrown away, setting them up to fall for the scam.
Throughout the winter and spring of 2009, the Obama administration gave the appearance of bringing all of the "stakeholders" together to work for health reform. The president held a White House Health Summit in March 2009, which included representatives from health insurance corporations, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. The only groups that were not included, until there was a threat of protest, were those who advocate for Medicare for all. The single-payer advocates did not speak, but the insurance spokesperson opened and closed the White House summit.
Throughout the spring, the president and allies reassured the public that if they liked their health insurance, they could keep it; that insurance would be made more affordable (not that health care would be more affordable); and that reform would aim for universal coverage.
4. The Convincer
The convincer for many who supported real health reform was "the Public Option." The idea was that the law would force the uninsured to purchase insurance but would include the choice of a public health insurance plan. The public was told that this option would be more cost-effective than private insurance and, thus, less expensive, which would make it more attractive.
Many were convinced that a public option would become a Medicare-for-all system, that it was a "back door" to single payer. They were told that going straight to a single-payer health care system would be too difficult and that the public option was a first step. Health Care for America Now organized grass-roots groups to put their energy into fighting for a public option, and many responded.
There was real animosity directed toward those who pointed out that from a policy standpoint a public option made no sense. It was simply adding another insurance plan to an already-complex and expensive system of hundreds of insurances and that, as had occurred time and again at the state level, it would attract those with the greatest health needs and as a result would ultimately fail because of high costs.
What most people did not understand at that point was that the public option was not only a non-solution to the health care crisis but that it was not even destined to be in the final legislation. Senator Max Baucus reported in March 2009 that it was a "bargaining chip" to get health insurers to accept regulations. Glenn Greenwald exposed this more fully when the Democratic leadership in the Senate actively worked to keep the public option from being included in the Senate health bill. The public option was just part of the con.
5. The Hurrah
The Hurrah phase of a con involves some sort of crisis that must be overcome. This phase started in August 2009, when the Tea Party, backed by Americans for Prosperity (a Koch brothers front group), came out very aggressively against the ACA at local town halls. They called it "government-run" and opposed its fictional "Death Panels." This served to energize the progressive groups to rally around the president and come out strongly in favor of the law. Rallies in favor of health reform were organized across the country. [Democrats only unite when passing conservative laws!]
Health reform advocates were activated further to support the law as the House and Senate struggled to come to consensus. As more aspects of the law that were important to health reform supporters were jettisoned, such as coverage for immigrants and inclusion of reproductive services, and the public option was whittled down to nothing, support for the law became a partisan statement of support for President Obama.
Members of Congress who supported the Medicare-for-all approach told us that they were going to "hold their nose and vote for it." Progressive groups and media feared that if the health bill did not become law, it would ruin the Democrats' chance to hold a majority in Congress in the midterm elections and would destroy the president's chance to be re-elected.
6. The In-And-In
The purpose of the final phase of the con is to make sure the victims do not realize they've been conned.
Obama signed the ACA on March 23, 2010. Immediately the marketing began. The three words we heard the most to describe it were universal, affordable and guaranteed. Of course, the ACA is none of those. But members told us personally that if they told the truth, they wouldn't be re-elected.
Progressive groups started the work of explaining the advantages of the new health law to the public. The few positive aspects of the law were promoted without explaining the big picture. Overall, the ACA is similar to other neoliberal economic policies; it defunds and destroys our public health insurances and further privatizes health care.
The end goal of the ACA con, to make sure people do not realize they have been conned, is ongoing. As we will see below, salespeople, often the same nonprofits who pushed the ACA, are getting big money to sell insurance with Madison Avenue marketing manipulation tactics.
At the same time, leading single-payer advocacy groups fear further marginalization in their communities and so are afraid to tell the truth about Obamacare. The public has been so hoodwinked by the partisan debate between Republicans and Democrats, based on misinformation from both sides, that single-payer advocates are afraid if they tell the truth, their allies, many whom are Democrats, will push them away. So the truth has few emissaries, while the well-funded deceivers continue the ACA con.
The Con Continues: The Product
A fundamental problem with the ACA is that it is based on continuing our complicated private health insurance or market-based system. Despite their advertising slogans, private insurers primarily exist to create profit for their investors or, in the case of "nonprofit insurers," to pay exorbitant salaries to their executives. They care about health as much as Big Oil cares about the environment.
Health insurers make their profits from charging the highest premiums they can and by restricting and denying payment for care. They want to take in as much money as they can, while paying out as little on health care as possible. They have many tools with which to do this, and they've successfully skirted regulations for decades. When they can't make a profit, they simply pull that product from the shelf and create new products.
The public has been led to believe that the ACA has changed the behavior of health insurers. In this section we briefly explain some major areas of concern and why many of the promises of the ACA are false.
More-expensive insurance premiums: A major promise was that people could keep their insurance if they liked it, but many are finding that this isn't working out. Kaiser Health News reported last week: "Health plans are sending hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters to people who buy their own coverage, frustrating some consumers who want to keep what they have and forcing others to buy more costly policies." The Society of Actuaries released a report in March 2013 that showed insurance pools are set to see an average increase of 32 percent in underlying claims costs by 2017.
The Charlotte Observer reported: "Across North Carolina, thousands of people have been shocked in recent weeks to find out their health insurance plans will be canceled at the end of the year - and premiums for comparable coverage could increase sharply."
The increase in premiums will force more people to use the state health insurance exchanges, where prices are supposed to be more affordable, but even that is not a solution. Russell Mokhiber of Single Payer Action describes the dilemma he faces in West Virginia. Mokhiber received a notice that his current insurance expires January 1, 2014. If he wants to keep his plan, it will cost twice as much. In his state only one insurance company, Highmark, will be listed on the exchange. He called Highmark to find out what his choices were and got bad news: "The skimpiest plan is going to cost me more than I'm paying now and have a higher deductible and out-of-pocket costs."
There are reports of increased premiums from across the country. One reason for the increase in cost is, as USA Today reports: "About a third of insurance companies opted out of participating in the exchanges in states where they were already doing business, according to a recent report by McKinsey & Co. About half of states … will see a 'material decline' in competitors."
Decreased coverage: The ACA will increase the number of people who have inadequate insurance that requires high out-of-pocket costs and does not cover all necessary services. The ACA significantly lowers what is considered to be adequate insurance coverage through its system of tiers. The insurance exchanges offer four levels of coverage, with the least-expensive plans paying for 70 percent and 60 percent of covered services.
These plans include high co-pays and deductibles that are barriers to care - especially when 76 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. And insurers are restricting coverage further by limiting their networks so they do not include major medical centers or adequate numbers of health professionals.
It is important to highlight that insurers pay only for covered services because people don't usually understand that they will have to pay for uncovered and out-of-network services themselves. The use of out-of-network services is often involuntary and occurs without being known at the time of care, especially in emergency situations.
The New York Times reports: "Most of the 15 exchanges run by states and the District of Columbia do not have provider directories or search tools on their Web sites - at least not yet - so customers cannot easily check which doctors and hospitals are included in a particular plan's network."
People are likely to choose the least-expensive plans without fully understanding that a serious accident or illness could bankrupt them even though they have insurance. And the race to the bottom in coverage will affect everyone. It is already estimated that 44 percent of large employer-based plans will be high-deductible plans by 2014.
Tricks to mistreat those with pre-existing illness: One of the great selling points of the ACA con is that those with pre-existing illnesses will not be denied coverage. This is true, but insurers have many ways to avoid the ill. The ACA was written by an insurance company executive from Wellpoint, Liz Fowler, who went on to be hired by Obama's HHS to implement the law and now works for a pharmaceutical giant. So, all along the way, the insurance companies had someone protecting their interests.
One way to avoid the sick was mentioned above: excluding hospitals where people with serious health problems go, like major medical centers. Another way is by providing poor service to people who have a lot of claims so they change insurers. And a third has to do with the fact that insurance companies are allowed to charge more in geographical areas where health costs are higher. If a plan in a particular area is not making enough profit, the insurance company can simply stop selling in that area.
Insurance companies also can charge three times as much based on age. Because most pre-existing illness comes with age, this greatly undermines the protection of those with pre-existing illness. Insurance companies are excellent at gaming laws and regulations, so we can expect more creative avoidance of people who actually need health care.
Almost no reduction in youths without insurance: One of the highly touted claims of the ACA con was that youths would be covered on their parents' insurance until they are 26 years old. While this is true, the percentage of 19- to 26-year-olds without insurance has merely fallen from 48 to 41. Why? Most parents cannot afford the increased premiums that are required when more family members are covered. As a result this promise has been one of little value, except to the wealthy - and to those selling the Obamacare con.
No cap on out-of-pocket spending: One of the selling points of the ACA con was that it would limit how much people pay out of pocket for health care. Of the thousands of waivers granted by HHS, one was the limit on out-of-pocket spending. The insurance companies claimed that their computers were not set up to handle this change. HHS took this absurd rationale seriously and gave them a waiver on this important provision.
The Con Continues: The Dealers
The most egregious aspect of the ACA is the individual mandate that those without health insurance who do not qualify for public insurance such as Medicaid must purchase private insurance or pay a penalty for being uninsured. The public is being led to believe that the solution to the health care crisis is to increase the number of people who have insurance. This ignores the fact that having insurance does not mean that patients will have access to or will be able to afford the health care they need.
The ACA required states to create new marketplaces for insurance called exchanges or else the federal government would create the exchange. In essence, the federal government is using billions of public dollars to finance the exchanges, hire people to sell insurance and subsidize the purchases. Imagine what a benefit it would be if those billions of dollars were used instead to hire health providers and pay for actual care.
The federal government plays a big role in running 26 of the state health exchanges but is funding all of them. The annual cost of operating the exchanges will be $15 million to several hundred million per state. In the end, consumers will pay the cost through monthly surcharges tacked on to their premiums.
Part of the federal spending will be on "navigators" and "assisters," people whose job it is to help people buy insurance. The Obama administration announced in 2013 that it would be directing $200 million to states, private groups and local health centers so that they can hire workers, called navigators, to sell insurance to Americans.
How are navigators paid? A House Committee on Oversight and Reform issued a report on September 13, 2013, that examined how navigators will be paid. One problem is that many are paid based on the number of people they enroll. Obviously this could lead navigators and assisters to not merely "facilitate" enrollment but to persuade people to enroll. And navigators are not required to disclose this incentive.
This payment structure is just one problem, the House report summarizes, warning of scammers:
"… the training to be Navigators and Assisters will last only five to 20 hours and there is no requirement for a background check of Navigators and Assisters who will have access to highly sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and income for everyone in an applicant's household. Given the stories about how scammers are gearing up to take advantage of the tremendous confusion caused by ObamaCare, Americans are at an increased risk of being the victim of fraud and identify theft because of the Administration's poor development of its outreach programs."
The official navigators and assisters are only one part of the continued conning of America. The groups that advocated for Obamacare have evolved into Enroll America. The group (whose logo is incredibly similar to insurance giant Wellpoint) not only includes advocacy organizations but also interests that profit from the market-based US health care system, e.g. insurance companies, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. The president of Enroll America, Anne Filipic, served in the Obama White House, the HHS, the Democratic National Committee and in Obama's 2008 campaign.
Information on the budget of Enroll America has been vague. In June Reuters reported: "In a conference call with reporters, Filipic declined to answer repeated requests for details on the group's budget. In January Congressional Quarterly reported they were eyeing a $100 million budget and quoted founder Ron Pollack, who led an NGO that lobbied for Obamacare, saying: "We keep on saying it's got to be in the significant tens of millions of dollars, and hopefully we reach another digit." Reuters reported that the cost of the public outreach campaign would range into the tens of millions of dollars, with "at least seven figures" going to paid advertising. In a press release they described the advertising campaign:
"Enroll America plans to organize a massive public education/advertising campaign about coverage eligibility and the ways people can enroll in coverage. We expect to involve well-known athletes and celebrities in the campaign. The advertising campaign will be segmented so that it effectively reaches different demographic groups, such as young adults, people in communities of color, low- and moderate-income families, etc. Depending on the availability of resources, we may be able to tailor ads to specific states."
The campaign is expected to spend tens of millions of dollars on polling, focus groups, paid advertising and running its operations with a staff of a few hundred people. Americans will be subjected to all of the tools of Madison Avenue marketing through Enroll America along with sales by navigators, assisters and the insurance industry.
How is Enroll America raising money? Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has been one of the fundraisers for the organization. According to the New York Times, her fundraising has caused a political uproar, with some Republicans claiming it was illegal and two House committees investigating the activity. They report: "Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming and Representative Jack Kingston of Georgia, both Republicans, said Ms. Sebelius appeared to be 'shaking down' businesses and other potential donors." The Hill echoed this, reporting that insurance companies felt like they were being pressured by the administration to donate to Enroll America. One concern is that HHS has a lot of power over insurers as the agency can delay or deny approval of their health-insurance plans for federally approved exchanges.
Sebelius is seeking funds from groups like Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and H&R Block. And the Hill noted "Obama himself made a vague but personal appeal for a close partnership with insurers, which some in the industry saw as a precursor to direct fundraising pitches." In April 2013, "Obama reportedly sat in for an hour-long meeting he was initially not scheduled to attend and told insurance executives that the White House and the industry were now "joined at the hip" trying to make the healthcare law work."
Americans want health care, so why do they have to spend so much money to convince people to buy ACA insurance?The American people will be subjected to a sophisticated, echo chamber of marketing to sell them flawed insurance that provides insufficient coverage, huge out-of-pocket costs and limited networks of health professionals and hospitals.
Understand the Con, End It and Replace It
The ACA con is part of a broader con Americans and people around the world are having inflicted on them, the false idea that privatization is a better way to provide services than government. Even though there is virtually no evidence to support this claim and there has been a long history with many examples of privatization costing more and providing less, this is a centerpiece of neoliberal economics. Politicians like President Obama and the leadership of the corporate duopoly who believe in market solutions are pushing privatization at home and through big-business-rigged trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The fundamental flaw of the ACA is that it entrenches a market-based system that treats health care as a commodity and profit center for Wall Street. The big drivers of the rising cost of health care - insurance, pharmaceuticals and for-profit hospitals - continue. The wealth divide that is a major byproduct of neoliberal economics is institutionalized by law under the ACA. Some, like Senator Ted Cruz, will receive the best health care from their employer, in Cruz's case his wife's employer, Goldman Sachs. Others, forced into the individual insurance marketplace, will be divided in four classes based on wealth, and millions will be in Medicaid, the inadequate health plan for the poor. Thus, after a high-stakes partisan battle, we've made no progress in confronting the fundamental problems in US health care. Indeed we have made some of them worse.
There was an easier route and a more politically popular route. All that President Obama had to do was to push for what he used to believe in, Medicare for all. By just dropping two words, "over 65," the United States would not have needed the 2,200-page ACA. Then the country could have worked to gradually improve Medicare so that the United States moved toward the best health care in the world, rather than being mired at the bottom.
To replace Obamacare with the single-payer system, we need to be clear about the shortcomings of the law, especially its fundamental flaw of making a human right, one of many human rights Americans do not realize they have, into a commodity like a cellphone. We need to recognize that ending the corporate domination of health care is part of breaking the domination of big business over the US government and the economy. Health care is at the center of the conflict of our times, the battle between the people and corporate interests, the battle to put people and planet before profits.
