I have been doing my best so far to keep abreast of developments on the health care front and so many things run through my mind on what has happened to this society, this state and the dream that was America. First and foremost, that kind of statement has been coming out of the other side so frequently as to make it meaningless. To try and peel back all the layers in order to see how we got to the present situation of debased, vulgar and utterly hopeless state of polarization is the subject of a multi-volume book, not a blog. It will suffice to repeat Noam Chomsky's statement that there has always been a significant portion of upper-class Americans waging a class war on the rest of us. There has also been a significant portion of working-class Americans that are really angry at the government and their fellow Americans regardless of who is in charge or what their relative power and status are.
Bringing those two elements together, as they are today, is part and parcel why elected officials of the governing party are being spat on and called all manner of nasty names by the angry people, directed by the class warriors. Neither one of these factions believe in democracy, or the rights of people they do not like; instead believing in their right to rule by force, propaganda and manipulation in whatever combination is most expedient.
At the core of the current state of the union: we face great crises in many areas, almost too many to count. You have to be an idiot to not believe the health insurance system is broken, or that this is one symptom of the nearly unprecedented income and wealth inequality in America. The trouble is that the villians benefit from this and do whatever they can to convince the angry peasants that not only is this situation not the villains' fault, but either it is the Democrats' fault or just the inevitable and natural evolution of American society. It does not matter what the little people believe as long as their rightly felt anger is directed away from the real cause.
Why they have been so successful is the subject of another day. I am proud that my party finally showed some backbone and used their majority to pass legislation that will make a difference in many people's lives. It is not perfect, I admit (which is not the same thing as outright rejecting the right of the governing party to pass legislation) but it is a start. More importantly, something was passed. The republicans and their angry mobs still defiantly act like they rule, when they were soundly defeated. Also, this is a crucial first step in reasserting the authority and sovereignity of the elected government over corporate interests, specifically the insurance companies who until now felt they ruled the country in partnership with other corporations.
As an unemployed 33 year old grad student hoping to teach, you obviously lack any real experience in corporate America. Experience you could use to base your belief that wealthy American business owners and CEOs are waging a class war. Well Zombie377 let me tell you the story of a real wealthy American and what the health care reform bill means to him and the nearly 5000 employees he is responsible for.
ReplyDeleteIn the early 90’s a young family man with 2 daughters and a son on the way was carving out a decent living as a project manager for a national restaurant chain. Then his father passed away and left him a substantial amount of money. After the government raped nearly 50 percent of his inheritance he decided to take a chance. With 3 children and a wife to support he took his inheritance and purchased a small chain of 10 fast food restaurants.
Running 10 restaurants was exhausting and round the clock work, but he had a dream of selling his 10 restaurants and expanding his company. After 5 years that is exactly what he did. He took the money from the sale and along with 5 other entrepreneurs he purchased 26 casual dining restaurants. He again worked day and night with a tiny corporate staff to squeeze as much profit as he could from these 26 restaurants hoping to expand his business once again.
By 2001 his company owned and operated 110 restaurants and as of today that number has grown to 122. He had a full corporate staff and was ready to enjoy the fruits of his years of hard work. But that didn’t mean sucking every penny out of his working class employees. He instead turned daily operations over to others and focused on expanding his company beyond food service. He organized fund raising campaigns for Children’s Hospital and Camp Heartland. His company has donated millions of dollars to these groups. He organized gift donations for abused children and woman. He is also the originator of free meals for all active and veteran military personal on Veterans Day. A program that has expanded nation wide yet costs his company nearly an entire week’s profit every year. When the economy and his business began struggling did he cancel the program? No way, he wrote a personal check to the business to cover the losses. Sound like a war mongering upper-class American villain yet.
So what does this all have to do with health care reform? Well most of his employees are low income part time workers. There is no way his company can afford to provide company health insurance for them all. So instead he negotiated reduced rates for self insurance and uses his corporate staff to manage the program. He then offered any hourly employee averaging more than 38 hours a week for a period of one year the option to join the same insurance plan his salaried employees enjoy.
Keeping these options available over the past 3 years has been tough. Company sales are down and new restaurants are not performing. Government mandated minimum wage increases and combined tax reporting have reduced profit margins to barely over break even levels. However as CEO he has managed to cut other expensive to keep up with decreasing sales and increasing costs. Over the past two years his entire executive team has taken a 15 percent pay cut and stopped the company 401K match for executives only. He but many other perks as well just to keep low cost health care available to his employees.
The Health Care Reform Bill is the straw that finally broke the camels back. After vigorously campaigning against the bill it’s passage means a significant new burden has been place on the company’s cash flow. His analysts estimate the new tax on the workers that choose not to purchase insurance from his company’s self-insurance program is approximately 3.2 million dollars per year. Job and benefit cuts are now his only option.
Effective next month his company will be closing 4 restaurants putting almost 300 people in already economically troubled cities out of work. The company funded health care plan for hourly full time employees will be eliminated. The part time employee health care program the company has managed will also be eliminated along with the corporate position that managed that program. Health insurance for salaried employees will continue but the employee’s share of the premiums will increase after staying constant for the past 5 years. Along with cuts in the health care and other company sponsored programs he has also been forced to freeze spending. No more construction contracts or new equipment purchases. Millions of dollars typically spent with hundreds of companies gone. Instead the money is going to support a massive government welfare program and bureaucracy.
ReplyDeleteThis is the real impact of what your party rammed down the throats of thousands of hard working American business owners. This country depends on large and small business to employee the 243.3 million or 84.4 percent of Americans with health insurance. You would have to be an idiot to believe that taxing business and expanding government to enforce the new tax will do anything to improve the health care problems in this country. Your photo would indicate a military background and that would tell me you understand the concept of sacrificing the few to save the many. This bill sacrifices the many (84.4 percent) to save the few (15.6 percent). Millions of hardworking Americans will be negatively impacted by this bill. My story will be just one of many.
Yes I believe in smaller government and that this country offers opportunities to any willing to take them. I also believe that this country was founded on individual sovereignty not that of the federal government. I don’t believe it is the right of every American to have health insurance, drive a car or own a home. It is a choice each American has the right the make and bad choices have consequences. My individual sovereignty is threatened every time the government takes more from me or my employer to provide for others. Call me an angry right wing tea bag nut job if you wish. It only proves we are not the party full of hate but of pride for our country and disgust for what it is becoming.
Thanks for the input. Anecdotal and superficial evidence aside, these comments give a concrete example to a phenomenon I've been trying to put a name on for quite some time. Namely, what drives people of SE Wisconsin and I assume other areas of the country to knee-jerk a "woe is me" and "have sympathy for me even though I have none for you" response? In this instance a better analogy would be the resurgence of feudalism, peter pays homage to his employer and eschews any solidarity with society at large. And why not? With a good patron one can live the good life and preach to all of us struggling peasants about the big, bad government.
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