Right & Left Agree: Mandates are the Road to Neofeudalism
By: Jane Hamsher Wednesday December 30, 2009 10:08 amThere is tremendous fear rising on both the right and the left that the announced intention of Congress — to force every American to pay tribute to private corporations, with no government alternative — sets a dangerous and frightening precedent with implications far outside the scope of health care.
If the health care bill written by the Senate is passed, middle class Americans will be mandated to pay almost as much to private insurance companies as they do to the federal government in taxes, with the IRS acting as a collection agency for penalties of 2% of your annual income for refusing to comply.
This is just one of many recent measures that has brought liberal progressives and conservative libertarians together to join forces in opposition:
- Democrat Alan Grayson worked successfully this year with Republican Ron Paul to pass legislation to audit the Federal Reserve, with 317 cosponsors as diverse as Dennis Kucinich and Michelle Bachmann.
- On December 3, the liberal Campaign for America’s Future wrote a letter to the Senate opposing the reconfirmation of Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke until such an audit has been conducted. The letter was signed by James Galbraith, Robert Weisman, Chris Bowers and myself on the left, and Grover Norquist, Phillis Schlafly, and Larry Greenley on the right. Financial blogger Tyler Durden and young organizer Tiffiniy Cheng joined them.
- Also on December 3, conservative Jim Bunning joined liberal Bernie Sanders in placing a hold on the Bernanke nomination until the Fed had been audited.
- On December 15, CAF again sent a letter to the Senate Banking Committee, asking them to delay the vote on the Bernanke confirmation until Audit the Fed received a stand alone vote in the Senate. It was signed by Matt KIbbe of Freedomworks, John Tate of the Campaign for Liberty, and Grover Norquist on the right, and David Swanson of AfterDowiningStreet, Dean Baker and Robert Borosage on the left.
- On December 21, a letter was written opposing the mandate in the health care bill. It was signed by Bob Fertik of Democrats.com, Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny, Brad Friedman of Velvet Revolution, Tim Carpenter of Progressive Democrats of America on the left and Grover Norquist, Jim Martin of 60 Plus Association, Duane Parde of the National Taxpayers Union on the right.
- On December 23, Grover Norquist and I sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder calling for an investigation into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s conflicts of interest before the White House could lift the cap on the commitment to them from $400 billion to $800 billion with no Inspector General in place.
The individuals on both sides of the political spectrum who signed these letters agree on very little, but they do share both a tremendous concern for the corporatist control of government that politicians in both parties seem hell-bent on achieving.
In 2003, the Democrats railed in opposition when the Republicans passed Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage that didn’t allow for negotiated drug prices. And in 2006 when Democrats took over Congress, one of the hallmarks of their first hundred days was passing legislation allowing Medicare to do so, supported by both Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama. Of course, it had no chance of passing with George Bush in the White House.
Candidate Barack Obama said the ability to negotiate for drug prices would save $30 billion a year in medical costs. Yet when President Obama got to the White House, one of the first things he did was negotiate a secret deal with PhRMA that prevented drug price negotiations in exchange for $150 million in political advertising to help vulnerable Democrats in the House and in support of the health care bill.
In the Senate, Tom Carper said that because PhRMA had paid for the deal with political advertising, they were obligated to abide by it.
Jeff Sessions railed against the corrupt PhRMA deal that didn’t allow for prescription drug price negotiation. He didn’t mention that he voted for the 2000 bill without it, and when he had the chance to vote for it in the Senate in 2006, he voted “no” himself. Both parties are equally blameworthy — the only difference is who is in power and taking PhRMA’s money.
The PhRMA deal is one of many negotiated by the White House this last summer which formed the underpinnings of the health care bill. From then on, it just became a matter of which member was going to extract what deals for their votes, and who was going to take the blame for cutting popular elements from the legislation that the corporate “stakeholders” didn’t want.
As FDL’s Jon Walker wrote recently, if the ability to cut health care costs hadn’t been auctioned off to private corporations in exchange for political patronage, there would have been no government subsidy necessary to make insurance coverage affordable.
We are ceding control of the government to private corporations, not figuratively but literally. When the Senate Finance Committee bill was released earlier this year, the “author” was a former VP of Wellpoint. Liberals, conservatives and independents alike are all justifiably alarmed at what this represents.
It is tragic that health care for the poor is being held hostage to the corporatist agenda, a fig leaf to buy public support and disguise this bill for what it is. As blogger Marcy Wheeler noted in a piece called Health Care and the Road to Neo-Feudalism:
I understand the temptation to offer 30 million people health care. What I don’t understand is the nonchalance with which we’re about to fundamentally shift the relationships of governance in doing so.
Just as those on the libertarian right were demonized by the Republican establishment for opposing the Iraq war during the Bush years, so progressives on the left are being pilloried for “damaging the cause” by joining with Republicans to oppose these extreme measures. It’s ironic that the most virulent supporters of a President who ran on “bipartisanship” should reject it so vehemently when it becomes critical of the policies pursued by his White House.
This “right-left wraparound” is happening because politicians in both parties have become so unresponsive to popular sentiment: public support for stifling investigation of the bank bailouts just to protect the President are infinitesimally small, and fortunately Dennis Kucinich announced today that he would commence an investigation into the Fannie/Freddie bailout. But it’s a testament to the extreme nature of what is happening to our government that such traditional political foes could find common cause in opposing it.
It’s foolish to say that only those who agree with you on every issue are allowed to share your opinion when it comes to opposing something like the mandated bailout of Aetna — it isn’t necessary to achieve health care reform. As Jon Walker notes, removing the mandate would reduce the CBO score and its inclusion in the health care bill with no government alternative is unacceptable for moral, political and policy reasons.
Candidate Obama himself opposed the mandate. Keith Olberman and Howard Dean concur.
As Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos said, “remove the mandate or kill this bill.” We’ve opened a “war room” at Firedoglake with information about calling your member of Congress to demand that this provision to bail out the insurance industry be removed from the health care bill before they agree to cast their vote in favor of it.
And nobody needs to pass an ideological purity test before they can use it.
Join us to oppose the mandate. Enter the war room.12 Comments
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12 Responses to “Right & Left Agree: Mandates are the Road to Neofeudalism”
Leen December 30th, 2009 at 10:34 amDuring campaign Obama said NO MANDATES, Hell that was the main difference between Obama and Hillary on health care
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OldFatGuy December 30th, 2009 at 10:48 amJust a question, cause this is the second time I’ve seen the year 2000 being described as the year Medicare Part D passed. I’m pretty sure the Medicare Part D passed when George W. Bush was President. And George W. Bush didn’t even become President until Jan. 2001. I thought Medicare Part D passed in like 2003 or 2004.
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bigbrother December 30th, 2009 at 10:58 am“Freedom is a word a rarely use when I’m thinking” Bob Dylan. Well under all the snow jobs K street is putting out to the moneyed players is an Oligarchy that has grow quietly to global proportions. Until that dragon is slain we are the new fuedal society.
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bigbrother December 30th, 2009 at 11:04 amIn response to Leen @ 1Leen making excellent support statements for Obama/Rhama criticisms Jane and many of us have made. We do want the president to suceed not sell us out to the Oligarchical interests. The corporate masses has gobbled up small businesses, the heart of American business, for 5 decades. That voice has been silenced and in place a powerful conglomerate that was the target of the old anti trust laws. We have like Jacob been sold.
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DanRockridge December 30th, 2009 at 11:14 amIs “No mandate” the flip-side of the public option fight, or should we infer that those 8-16 house progressives aren’t going to fight for the PO?
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mostrolenk December 30th, 2009 at 11:18 amanother great blog Jane… as your new right wing friend, I appreciate your continued support for various transpartisan activities.
I think a lot of people would be surprised to learn about the many left/right coalitions that have been working these many years, many of which were formed during the Bush years.
Although liberals, progressives, libertarians and conservatives might not always agree (or agree much), there are a lot of common ground issues that we can ALL come together on including against corporate/state collusion. And when we come together, we get the chance to humanize the political process which can lead to even more cooperation, better debates (real debates on real issues) and perhaps new ways of thinking about issues.
It is the latter which in the end interests me the most. Politically, I favor a libertarian perspective since I think by maximizing liberty, we create more room for innovation, experimentation and even more fun (and less violence as the foundation for human relationships which is the cornerstone of libertarian philosophy i.e. voluntary cooperation and not violence or threat of violence) . But I will admit, that the libertarian frame work as its now popularly conceived has its limits and can benefit from other perspectives. The progressive critique of corporate power is one such perspective that I think needs to be integrated into a larger understanding of power dynamics. Yes, the state is a problem (its basis is force) and yes, large corporate institutions are problematic and yes, there are other institutions which also need to be addressed in terms of their negative effect on individuals, families and community life. As folks on the right would benefit from the ideas and perspectives from those on the left, I think the opposite is true as well.
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bigbrother December 30th, 2009 at 11:25 amMarcy wheeler and BMAZ have to know that a huge body of law has been created supporting the Oligarchy enabling it to do business Enron style. What that means is off the books debt can be hidden along with other financial tools to give investor the impression equity that does not exist is in fact real and supporting the equities that are traded globally. It is part of the corporate culture.
There is a huge debt in the capital markets that is surpressing growth. The fear that is causing on the hill is that more commitments are not doable.
It is more about who is getting the biggest slice of the pie. We are not players and get a shrinking share of the production. Americans produce more per hour each decade the percentage of the population that is employed is shrinking. Haves are getting smaller have nots are growing Homelessness and poverty have risen.
Isn’t who gets medical attention affected by these concerns?Reply
marcos December 30th, 2009 at 12:02 pmWe need to take the credit function away from Wall Street and create public credit. That’ll put an end to their feudalist designs right quick.
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mostrolenk December 30th, 2009 at 12:06 pmMarcos, why limit your thinking to either public credit or Wall Street based credit? Are there not a dozen other possible options? If not, let’s create them.
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marcos December 30th, 2009 at 12:10 pmIn response to mostrolenk @ 10Whatever, so long as they can in effect print money and achieve 30-40% ROI on credit products, that will suck capital from the productive economy.
There needs to be a public option or nonprofit option for credit and a requirement that public debt at the state and local level be issued as public credit.
The details of that need not be ironed out here.
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Re, Neofeudalism: I admit that the term has caught on and makes the point, but I think “Neo-Serfdom” would be more accurate.
Jane, thank you for recognizing the need to capitalize on a “tactical convergence” between all populists, left and right, in opposition to mandates and a wide variety of other bad policies that are designed to work against the interests of the American people, as well as against their rights and their privacy.
Watching you on tv with a libertarian right now discussing marriage. RIGHT ON!
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Thursday, December 31, 2009
FDL Action » Right & Left Agree: Mandates are the Road to Neofeudalism
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