This is exactly what the for profit "health" insurance industry will do to the ACA.

[Uncle Joe]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/04/06

The Best Congress the Banks’ Money Can Buy
by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

"When it is all added up, opponents of a tough Volcker Rule received over 35 times as much from the financial industry -- $66.7 million -- than advocates for a strong stance, who received $1.9 million."

All of which makes it darkly amusing to read in the April 4 edition of the financial newspaper The American Banker that, in the words of Roger Beverage, president and CEO of the Oklahoma Bankers Association, "Congress isn’t afraid of bankers. They don’t think we’ll do anything to kick them out of office. We are trying to change that perception."

Which is why Beverage and his colleague are creating the industry’s first Super PAC. They’re calling it -- we’re not making this up -- "Friends of Traditional Banking," a smokescreen of a sobriquet if we ever heard one, vaguely reminiscent of the Chicago mobsters in Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot who dub themselves "Friends of Italian Opera."

Matt Packard, the Super PAC’s chairman, told The American Banker, "If someone says I am going to give your opponent $5,000 or $10,000, you might say, 'Yea, okay.' But if you say the bankers are going to put in $100,000 or $500,000 or $1 million into your opponent's campaign, that starts to draw some attention." Don Childears, president and CEO of the Colorado Bankers Association chimed in, "It would be nice to sit on the sidelines or sit on our hands and say, 'Oh we don't get involved in that stuff,' but that just means you get run over. We need to get more deeply involved as an industry in supporting friends and trying to replace enemies."

The primary difference is the American People will be mandated to subsidize the for profit "health" insurance industry's fight against ACA.

The moral of the story is, you can't leave poison ivy in the ground and expect to harvest cherry tomatoes.

[sabrina 1]

1. I love this, Uncle Joe:

Don Childears, president and CEO of the Colorado Bankers Association chimed in, "It would be nice to sit on the sidelines or sit on our hands and say, 'Oh we don't get involved in that stuff,' but that just means you get run over.

And that's the position of the American People. We are 'run over' because we are not a Corporation with lobbyists in DC fighting for our issues. So, who is?

It's a vicious cycle, it's obvious that this poor Banker wouldn't have to worry about being run over if the money were taken out of Politics. Maybe that's what he should be fighting for. It would save him a lot of money.

But so long as Elected Officials are bought and paid for who is going to take the money out of Politics?

The HC Industry poured money into the HC debate, so they wouldn't 'get run over' by the People.

I don't know what the answer is.

[Uncle Joe]

2. It is a vicious cycle Sabrina,

which is why the idea that the people should be forced to directly subsidize an industry diametrically opposed to their health for the sake of the almighty dollar is so repugnant to me.

Perhaps public financing of elections would help but I'm not sure of how that should be arranged.

[sabrina 1]

3. Money rules, literally.

No wonder they wanted to give it 'personhood'. And money doesn't care about people. I definitely agree regarding the HC industry. It's hard to believe people still don't realize that as long as we have a for profit HC system, people will shamefully, continue to die. How do other countries do it? If we are supposedly the 'greatest country in the world' surely someone could figure out how to do it? All we hear are excuses.

[Uncle Joe]

4. I believe that's one of the problems from being an empire,

that kind of national/global power and wealth can be a double edge sword creating rigidity in the system as it easily corrupts representative government.

The other developed nations don't have to worry so much about keeping an over-sized military stationed all over the planet, so they can take better of their people with the resources they do have.

Between the triad of greed, pride and fear, actually representing the best interests of the people is a daunting challenge but if our political leaders don't meet that challenge, all will be lost and we will rot from the inside out just like ancient Rome.

[sabrina 1]

5. Absolutely. Once a country grows into an Empire, as history shows, people are no longer a

priority. All the 'benefits' of Empires go to the top, always. Which is why the Founding Fathers who knew a little about the subject, warned against 'foreign adventures'. We don't need to control other countries' resources, we have the ability to survive by, when necessary, buying what we need but with so many resources of our own, the claim that we need all these wars and the huge Military Budget, just doesn't make sense.

Imagine the good that could be done with all the money that is spent on weapons designed for one purpose only to destroy life.

We could probably provide free healthcare for half the world.