By Eric Anschutz, August 27, 2009
The August 26, 2009 issue of the Contra Cost Times carried a full-page ad, sponsored by the “US Citizens Association.†Here is the ad’s seven-line banner headline: “Barack Obama and the Democrats did not inherit the bad economy; they caused it and made it worse. They now want to bankrupt the nation with socialized medicine and socialized energy taxes. This will greatly increase your income taxes, property taxes, utility bills and you will be denied medical care.â€
The ad is so scurrilously misleading that I am tempted to respond with some variant of the one used in a recent Town Hall by Barney Frank. Here is what Frank said to an unreasoning protester: “It is a tribute to the first amendment that this kind of vile nonsense can be so freely propagated…having a conversation with you is like trying to argue with a dining room table – I have no interest in doing it.â€
Frank is right. A dialogue with those who assert beliefs like those conveyed in the ad is not possible. By seeking to respond, we dignify that errant nonsense as a statement worthy of discussion. The very long text that follows the headline repeats some of the shibboleths that we hear shouted out at Town Hall meetings and repeated by right wing politicians and talk show hosts whose interest is in defeating Democrats in general and Obama in particular, and not in serious dialogue that might lead to meaningful resolution of important issues.
So, putting aside the ad’s headline, let me respond briefly to some of the assertions made in the ad’s text. The ad asserts that the health care public health option will lead to socialized medicine, to long lines, to rationing of health care, and to “people dying waiting for treatment.†Wrong on all counts. The public option will be wholly voluntary; those who like their current insurance can stay with it (though monthly premium costs will likely be reduced). Concerns about the “rationing†of health care ignore the fact that insurance companies ration care every day. As I written before, they are in business to make money, and they do so by charging the highest fees they can get away with, by excluding applicants with pre-existing conditions and by denying payout whenever possible to policy holders who get sick. Only 50% of their revenue goes to payout on claims; the remaining 50% is for “administration,†which includes very high executive compensation, very large advertising budgets, and a large cadre of clerks who review every claim with a fine-toothed comb in an effort to find a way, whenever possible, to deny payout. Obama’s proposed system seeks to improve on every aspect of the current shortfall. Private insurance companies will stay in business as long as they compete successfully with the public option; similarly, the public option will succeed only if it provides services that are competitive with private insurers.
The ad asserts that “Carbon Cap and Trade,†now called the “Climate Bill,†will “rob money from US companies and citizens and give it to the government…Man-made global warming is a scam.†Again, wrong on all counts. First, it is unquestionably in our national interest to wean ourselves from carbon-based fuels, and to convert to renewable sources such as solar and wind and geothermal and hydrogen. But because carbon fuels (oil, coal and gas) currently cost less than solar and wind, a shift to solar and wind can be brought about only by taxing carbon fuels so as to make alternative fuels more competitive. In time, as usage of solar and wind energy increases, their costs will decline. Indeed, when usage becomes general, economies of scale will cause alternative fuels to cost less than carbon fuels. The “Climate Bill†(or something like it) is the only way to force-shift our economy from oil and coal to solar and wind. Lastly, the ad’s assertion that “man-made global warming is a scam†is so patently absurd that it hardly needs a response; virtually every serious scientist agrees that the carbon dioxide released by burning oil and coal is a major cause of global warming. Scientists also agree that global warming leads to melting of the polar ice cap, and in turn to floods, hurricanes, and other weather anomalies.
The more general concern, on the right, is that the Obama administration is raising the national debt, is determined to “socialize†our country, and that taxes will rise, thereby choking off investment and economic prosperity. Where were these people when President Bush launched our nation into the Iraq War, an all-around moral and fiscal disaster? Where were they when the Bush administration, while we were fighting a three-trillion dollar war, granted tax relief to the wealthiest in our nation – thereby doubling our national debt? Where were they when that administration’s policies allowed our infrastructure and our education system and our health care system and our industrial competitiveness and our banking system to deteriorate? By the way, when Bush came into office, he inherited a Bill Clinton budget in substantial surplus; it took Bush less than a year to begin our plunge into massive indebtedness.
Sure, Obama is spending money like a drunken sailor, one might say. But, the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) and the Economic Recovery Act (stimulus) are essential if we are to begin rebuilding our country. Those trillions that are being spent now are INVESTMENTS. They are aimed at rebuilding infrastructure, energy independence, world-class education, reducing health care costs and improving wellness of our people, and stabilizing the nation’s banking system. If it all works as projected, we will in 5-10 years emerge as a renewed, reinvigorated and more competitive nation. I do not expect that these arguments will reach the die-hard right wing, but hopefully reasonable people will see that we have a serious president whose efforts are aimed at restoring this nation to greatness.