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Opinion Sick of Hearing the Healthcare Lies “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor T ED B ANKS Advertising Manager J ERRY F OSTER Account Executive L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers T he on-going debate about healthcare reform hit me this week when I became quite ill. I am one of the lucky ones. I have an employer-provided healthcare plan so I was ultimately able to go to a medical facility, get diagnosed and begin treatment. My co-pay was minimal, and cer- tainly would not have put me under water. But what if I had not been so lucky? I use the term “lucky” quite specifically since having healthcare, at least until President Obama’s reforms, has been the luck of the draw: Did you belong to a union? Did you have an employer that provided insurance? Did you have enough money to pay for it on your own? Not to mention the actual quality of your plan, if you were, like me, lucky to have one. Obama’s healthcare reform did not go as far as it needed to, and, with all due respect, made too many compromises with private- sector interests. In that sense, the struggle is not over for universal healthcare. President Obama, both because of his connections with corporate America and his early belief in bi-partisanship, sin- cerely seemed to believe that rea- sonable people could strike a compromise. He could not accept, and perhaps still cannot complete- ly accept, that the Republicans — T RANS A FRICA Bill Fletcher Jr. from Day One of his administra- tion — have been out for blood. We needed and still need full in no position to criticize the plan since it is largely based upon the one that he initiated as governor of Massachusetts. But the arguments of the Repub- licans actually are deeper and meaner than Romney’s flip-flop- ping. They go to the question of whether there are, or should be, a “deserving” population and an “undeserving” population. This may sound vaguely familiar, and so it should since it goes back to the Reagan era separation of the The right-wing argues that there is a segment of the population that has done little to earn any of the so-called entitlements that they receive. Therefore, these should be cut healthcare reform. We need, in other words, the extension of Medicare to cover us all. We have to reject the false notion that this means a loss of jobs. While I have been ill this week I have considered many of the argu- ments raised by the Republicans against Obama’s plan, a plan that has now been upheld by the Supreme Court as constitutional. The most ironic of the arguments comes from Mitt Romney, who is poor into the “deserving” and the “undeserving.” In both cases, a right-wing moral judgment has been cast against a segment of the population. In today’s situation, the notion is simple: the right- wing argues that there is a segment of the population that has done lit- tle to earn any of the so-called entitlements that they receive. Therefore, these should be cut. Flowing from this fuzzy line of thinking, Republican opposition to Obama’s plan — Romney’s hypocrisy notwithstanding — becomes more understandable and equally unsettling. As far as they are concerned, let the so-called undeserving swing in the wind and look out for themselves. And if this means that this undeserving population cannot get access to quality healthcare, jobs, food housing, proper education, etc., as far as the right-wing is concerned, so be it. Just in case you think that the right-wing is not talking about you, let me clarify who they see as the undeserving populations: the poor (the right-wing is not making the distinction anymore between a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ section); people of color; youth; immigrants of color; low-waged workers; and in many cases, anyone who makes less than $100,000/year. Do you see yourself in that picture? This is what the November 2012 election is all about. It is not about Obama and his record. It’s really about whether you have a right to be treated for illnesses in such a way that you are not cast into the bottomless pit of debt and poverty. Sick or not, there is no way that I am staying home on Election Day. Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies. The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by Blame Republicans for High Unemployment IMM Publications Inc., 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2012 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To see The Skanner News on your smart phone go to theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. • • • • • • • • Local news Opinions Jobs, Bids Sports Entertainment Music reviews Bulletin board RSS feeds T he unemployment rate has hovered above 8 percent for several months, most recently holding ground at 8.2 per- cent, the same as last month. Meanwhile, the African American unemployment rate went up, offi- cially to 14.4 percent, and we all know that means the real rate is even higher, probably in excess of 25 percent. Republican presidential candi- date Mitt Romney interrupted his vacation to gloat about the number of Americans who are experienc- ing misery, and his gloating might be at least somewhat amusing were this not the same man who says he likes to fire people. The 8.2 percent unemployment is not in President Obama’s best interest. Many who are feeling the misery and pain are open to an alternative, even if it is one as muddled and confused as Romney who doesn’t support health care reform now, although he engi- neered a similar plan as governor of Massachusetts. This man has so talked out of his mouth, that a simple reel of his contradictory quotes would make it clear how confused, or deliberately deceiv- ing he is. The good news for President Obama is that the lower the unem- ployment rate goes, the better his chances for re-election. The better news for President Obama is that many people don’t snap into cam- paign mode until after Labor Day. People want jobs, to be sure, but the summer numbers even if they are level, don’t alarm everyone. The employment reports that our president has to pay the most attention to are those released the first Friday of September and Page 4 The Portland Skanner July 11, 2012 B ENNETT C OLLEGE Julianne Malveaux October. This is when Republi- cans will get all cranked up and suggest that President Obama can’t handle the fractured econo- my he inherited. Can the unemployment rate drop? Well if Republicans would turned the money down in the interest of fiscal conservatism. There the Republicans go again, hurting their constituents to thwart President Obama. Part of the reason Republicans can get away with this is because no one is pressuring them. Just like the Tea Party has pushed these people to the right, some- body needs to push them back to center. The Tea Party has virtual- ly obliterated the notion of a mod- erate Republican, but there must be some out there, and what has to happen is that somebody needs to push back. Fuelled by race matters and rhetoric, working class White people are organized for Romney, someone who would cut education, health care, and Social Security and put those “savings” into military spending and tax cuts for the wealthy pass the American Jobs Act, an actual plan for employment, it might. It is in the interest of the nation’s unemployed, but not in the interest of Republican chi- canery, for the American Jobs Act to be enacted. In some ways, Republicans are starving their constituents to thwart President Obama. Similarly, when state and local governments have to lay peo- ple off because their budgets are tight, the federal government has previously stepped in to help. Part of the recovery funds went to state and local governments, some who The African American commu- nity has to push, too. While few of us are Republicans, many of us live in districts with Republican representation. These representa- tives need to hear from us, and from our neighbors, not only African Americans. And these representatives need to hear from our mayors, not only Democrats, who can pressure them to do the right thing by cities. Meanwhile, Republicans fiddle while Rome burns because no one has called them on it. Whenever Romney says the president has no plan, somebody needs to remind him of the American Jobs Act. Whenever Romney starts bab- bling about health care, someone ought to throw Massachusetts in his face. And when the braying bunch of bobbleheads who call themselves the Tea Party get worked up over the economy, we need to ask them: How many peo- ple in your family are unem- ployed? How much Social Security does your mama have? Don’t your kids have student loans? Does everyone in your fam- ily have health care? Fuelled by race matters and rhet- oric, working class White people are organized for Romney, some- one who would cut education, health care, and Social Security and put those “savings” into mili- tary spending and tax cuts for the wealthy. In other words, and not for the first time, working class White people are working against their own economic interests. Meanwhile, if House Republi- cans want to move an economic agenda that helps some 14 million unemployed people, perhaps they can see their way clear to pass the American Jobs Act. We don’t need all the Republicans, maybe just a third of them, and I’ll wager that perhaps that many have sense enough to see what their leader, John Boehner (R-Ohio], does not. In any case, let’s make it plain. The unemployment rate is stag- nant because Republicans have failed to act. Julianne Malveaux is a Wash- ington, D.C.-based economist and writer. She is President Emerita of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C.
