Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

Were You Asked to Vote on This?

as if to underscore my point earlier in my essay on not voting, the Center for American Progress has posted a nice article entitled "Stonewalling A Controversy" Excerpt:

The White House yesterday categorically refused to answer questions about why President Bush's longtime business associate was allowed to "craft" key portions of the Medicare bill which could send millions to his own company. The Boston Globe�reports a Texas company owned by David Halbert "a campaign contributor and former business associate of President Bush" could profit from portions of the Medicare bill. The Globe notes the story was first reported in yesterday's Progress Report�and points out that Halbert specifically helped "craft the portion of the Medicare bill that allows seniors to buy discount drug cards." Bush had been an investor in a Halbert-owned predecessor company to AdvancePCS, which, "is one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit management companies and would be well-positioned to compete for Medicare's endorsement to issue the discount cards." Of course, the discount card guarantees no discount � only that companies like AdvancePCS (of which President Bush was an original investor) would gain millions of new customers. Sen. Edward Kennedy said, "Only in this administration would the words `discount card' mean seniors get the card while corporations get the discounts.'' When asked about the controversy, the White House invoked a line similar to its previous stonewalling about which oil industry CEOs wrote its energy bill. Said White House spokesman Trent Duffy, ''I'm not going to be able to say anything about specific conversations the White House had in crafting this legislation.''

You can read the rest by following the link below But it goes to show that those in positions of power and have enough influence (money) can influence decision making regeardless as to who is in office (remember that it was the Democrat Clinton that ended medicare as we know it).

Now I'm not going to get into the ethics of the whole thing. It is a clear case of "conflict of interest." However, the question that should be in your mind is this: Do I wait until these folks fix their system, or do i learn the system and use it to our advantage. Of course if one is of the opinion that the system is inherently evil and cannot be made to provide for our needs, then I guess there isn't much left to do then roll over and die.


links:
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=14528