R.T. Rybak: How money warps politics, and campaigns.

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision freeing up corporations to spend freely on political advertising campaigns one can only imagine the slander, innuendo, and deliberate misinformation will be getting worse -- more diverse and numerous -- right through Election Day in November. In Minnesota, it's already begun as a shadowy smear campaign evidently intended to convince Minnesotans to stay home on caucus night, February 2, 2010 -- especially if they’re thinking of supporting Minneapolis Mayor Raymond "R.T." Rybak in his bid to secure the party endorsement to run for Governor of Minnesota in November.

The facts are chasing the lies in Minnesota, and nobody's quite certain who paid to send the misinformation - yet.

In brief: For years Minneapolis taxpayers had been overcharged by two pension funds that have been closed to new members for almost 30 years. No police officer or firefighter hired since 1980 draws any benefit from these funds — but all Minneapolis taxpayers contribute to it.

Follow the money

Mayor Rybak and other city leaders stepped up to put a stop to the overcharging by the pension funds after the State Auditor alerted them to the problem. They approached the fund managers and the MN Legislature, but ended up taking the pension funds to court — and they won.

One can only infer that high-priced lawyers and lobbyists who represent those who've been overcharging Minneapolis taxpayers are smear-mongering to get revenge for the money they lost.

To read more, and get links to Star-Tribune investigative reports, visit: Rybak Targeted for Recovering Taxpayer Money!

And remember, it's all about following the money.

Blue DOUBLE Cross - you call that a plan?

That didn’t take long. Less than two weeks have passed since much of the medical-industrial complex made a big show of working with President Obama on health care reform — and the double-crossing is already well under way. Krugman's May 21 OpEd points out just how two-faced big insurance is. They will fight reform. PERIOD.

The insurance company plan turns out to be "protect the status quo."

Their "plan" is to let costs go on rising! Their plan is corporate bureaucrats and HMOs getting between you and your doctor to protect their profits - accountants deciding your doctor doesn't know what should be prescribed. If we address two things, 1) people who lose or can't get insurance, and 2) the totally out-of-control cost spiral, while we sensibly challenge insurance companies by creating a new public health insurance option to let the free market work its magic, everybody will be able to afford good health care.

Their plan is to keep cherry-picking the healthy and the wealthy and dumping you if you commit the sin of getting sick or injured - that's the insurance companies self-interested idea of cost control. You can't blame them, really, they're just trying to keep the CEOs and lobbyists well-paid, and it's been working for 30 years or more, and they've got many of our elected officials bought and paid for already.

There's no incentive for big insurance companies to control health care costs - they haven't been competing. The first hint they might have to do so got them to the table. They're scared stiff at the prospect of a public option, because they surveyed people and the truth is folks love the idea. I'm not talking about single-payer, mind you - the President isn't trying to turn us into England despite what you hear about socialized medicine. This first step that insurance companies oppose is giving Americans a real choice.

But the big insurance CEOs only paid lip-service to the President for fear of bad PR. Now they're doing an about face. Krugman skewers them, including the fact that they've had TV ads in the works since well before their meeting in D.C.

Health care isn't the problem, the high cost of getting coverage is the problem. Insurance companies and their champions on Capitol Hill oppose real reform; reform threatens their profits.

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Why are special interests opposing health care reform?

Single payer is not socialized medicine, it's how Medicare works. Do you know the facts? Medicare runs with between 2-3% overhead - that compares very favorably to private insurance, where overhead by most estimates is over 30% of the cost.

Why don't the big insurance companies want to let everybody have a choice to get affordable coverage? Who has so much influence over Democratic Senators like Max Baucus of Montana that they oppose a choice, as suggested by President Obama? Follow the money.

73% of voters want a choice of a private or public health insurance plan. Have you told your U.S. Representative and/or Senator? It's not about party, folks; this idea has phenomenally broad support, and it's totally congruent with what President Obama and his administration are trying to achieve. It provides coverage to the tens of millions of uninsured Americans without forcing anybody who likes their current system to change.

Broken down by party affiliation, it's:

77% of Democrats
79% of Independents
63% of Republicans

Tell your U.S. Senators and the Congressional Representative from your district what the Chief Economist of the World Bank says:

"...private healthcare insurers do not know how to deliver an efficient way..."

World Bank Chief Economist, Joseph Stiglitz

People who work hard for their money deserve to have a voice in how it's spent. The insurance industry and their lobbyists have been writing rules that boost their profits not protect Americans, and tax-payers are tired of bailing them out while worrying if we'll even have jobs. We need our leaders to take control and look out for our interests, not special interests.

73% of voters want a choice of a private or public health insurance plan.

Have you told your U.S. Representative and/or Senator? It's not about which party somebody identifies with, folks; this idea has incredibly broad support among ALL voters, and it's totally congruent with what the President is trying to achieve.

Broken down by party affiliation, it's:

77% of Democrats
79% of Independents
63% of Republicans

Write 3 letters before the Senate committee meeting on Tuesday to make sure your voice is heard in D.C. before it's all over but the earmarks. Write one to the Representative of your congressional district, and one to each of your Senators (except in Minnesota, of course, where there's only one Senator.) Make sure your elected represenatives realize that this has overwhelming support among voters - all voters.

Special interests are being heard - are you?

"While recent polling has shown consistent broad support for comprehensive health care reform, this poll specifically addressed whether people want a choice of a public health insurance plan. 73% of voters want a choice of a private or public health insurance plan, including Democrats (77%), Independents (79%), and Republicans (63%)"

The firm also tested the insurance industry's message about public health care and paired it with a message supporting it, and found the public to be far more receptive to the pro-public health care message:

"62% of voters believe a public health insurance plan will spend less on
profits and administration and force private insurers to compete while only 28% of voters believe the attack that a public health insurance plan would be a "big, government bureaucracy." 60% believe that if private insurers are really more efficient than government, then they won't have any trouble competing with a public health insurance plan. Only 23% believe a public health insurance plan would have an unfair advantage over private plans."

This polling was conducted for the pro-reform group Health Care for America Now.

But it goes beyond polls. There are hugely authoritative, respected voices pointing out that the system as it's been allowed to evolve is inefficient. It doesn't serve us well even though it does pay CEOs hefty bonuses and keep lobbyists busy. Tell your Senators and Representative what the Chief Economist of the World Bank says:

"...private healthcare insurers do not know how to deliver an efficient way..."

World Bank Chief Economist, Joseph Stiglitz

People who work hard for their money deserve to have a voice in how it's spent. The insurance industry and their lobbyists have been writing rules that boost their profits not protect Americans, and tax-payers are tired of bailing them out while worrying if we'll even have jobs. We need our leaders to take control and look out for our interests, not special interests.

Put it in your words, and write those three emails in the next 24 hours, two or three paragraphs is all it takes, then get three more people to do the same.

Why are doctors for reform? Maybe it's because places such as Duke Medical center need more billing clerks than nurses.

Why are special interests fighting it, donating money to the campaigns of key U.S. Senators such as Baucus and Murray? Maybe it's because they know their extravagant bonuses will come to an end. They're in it for the money, after all.

You've got all the facts you need right here: Make sure D.C. knows that we know the facts, and we're tired of paying for them to ignore what's right for the rest of us.

Cap & trade or cap & tax? Lobbyists behind scare tactics?

While most Americans support a cap on carbon pollution there’s now a flood of “talking points” and sound-bites circulating about the supposed short-comings and dangers of any new plan. The real threat of cap-and-trade is that it doesn’t favor the ultra-rich energy barons and corporations such as ExxonMobil. Changing to new and cleaner energy sources changes where the money goes - more of it stays in the U.S., in smaller, newer companies; it creates jobs that we desperately need to recover from the fiasco of letting the financial giants “self-regulate.”

Meanwhile, without incentives to change, we'll continue our reckless dependence on energy coming from overseas, from countries that seem to want to dominate us. Even if you ignore environmental impacts, our national security and our leadership role in the world depend on changing to more reliable energy supplies - the system of campaign donations controlling congressional decisions has to change.

It looks like green jobs are real. Recently, two solar energy companies — Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. and Wacker Chemie AG — announced billion-dollar investment plans to build plants near Clarksville and Chattanooga.”

U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN)

Follow the money:
don't let D.C. insiders off the hook!

In fact, a cap and trade system simply uses pure capitalism to reward efficient, innovative businesses while it effectively penalizes out-moded industries. Used world-wide it plays to American strengths, conveying tremendous economic advantage to industries and countries ready to innovate, and results in domestic job growth. Only somebody making lots of money off the existing rules could possibly deny the benefits of a global cap and trade system.

Many members of Congress benefit from huge campaign donations from energy companies. They’d be happy if we’d all stop paying such close attention to how energy policy intertwines with national security. They smile and want you to “trust” them. No matter if the business is banking or big oil, well-funded special interests don’t want to give up the loopholes they’ve lobbied for over the years.

Sound-bites and talking points don't insure anything but the status quo.

Obama hasn't fixed the lobbying system yet. Urge the President to push for reform of lobbying tactics. Don't let the fact that he's got high personal standards and goals to reform ethics inside the beltway blind you to what still happens in and around the Capitol building (and at the golf course...) Trusting is fine, my friends, but don't forget to verify.

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