NAME: Ira Grupper
EMAIL: irag@iglou.com
DATE: 08/31/2009

TITLE: Goon Squad Tactics’ Harm Health of Health Care Debate

LABOR PAEANS—September 2009
by Ira Grupper
(published by FORsooth, newspaper of Louisville, Kentucky chapter of F.O.R. [Fellowship of Reconciliation] )

Goon Squad Tactics’ Harm Health of Health Care Debate

There are those of us in the U.S. who are disgusted with so much unemployment and so many home foreclosures, ashamed that there are people who get sick and are not able to afford good medical care. This, the wealthiest country in the world, treats the ordinary folk, who made the rich folk rich, like outcasts.

There are the few who eat filet mignon and sip Dom Perignon. There are the many who eat lunch meat and drink Sneaky Pete. The rich call this distinction hard work. The rest of us call it exploitation and theft. The tug-of-war between them and us is called class struggle. Those who say “class struggle” is an outdated term either are ensconced in the corporate board rooms, the ivory Towers or the fleshpots moored in yacht basins.

And, so, we come to the debate in the U.S. Congress, now spilling into local communities, about different ways to change health insurance to benefit the masees, between Single Payer and Public Option, and—and keep things as is.

President Barack Obama, and the Democratic Party leadership, seemed taken aback by the disruptions of meetings of U.S. Congressmen wanting to talk about healthcare legislation. The rowdy crowds of seemingly ordinary citizens were just what the Democratic Party did not want.

Yet the party seemed flummoxed, thrown off by it all.To the rescue has come Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic Party, saying “…he doubts there can be meaningful health care reform without a direct government role, putting him at odds with President Barack Obama, who says such a public option is only a sliver of the solution” (AP Aug. 17). The article continues: “Dean appeared on morning news shows Monday amid increasing indications the Obama White House is retreating from the public option in the face of vocal opposition from Republicans and some vocal participants at town-hall-style meetings around the country…(Dean) called a direct government role ‘the entirety of health care reform. It isn't the entirety of insurance reform ... We shouldn't spend $60 billion a year subsidizing the insurance industry.’ ”

One labor union, the UE, had a very clear analysis (August 10), headlined “Democrats Taste Union Busting at their Town Hall Meetings, Will they Learn its Lessons?”: “Taking a page from the union-buster play book, squads of well organized and financed agitators have disrupted the town hall meetings of a growing number of Democrats during the August recess. Congressional Democrats have held a number of these town hall meetings in order to answer questions and clarify some of the details surrounding the ongoing health care reform debate. In an escalating number of places, however, the meetings have been derailed by highly orchestrated disruption techniques, launched by the obviously well-planned Republican and corporate operatives. To add to their minuscule ranks the paid staffers have enlisted a hodge podge of fanatic anti-Obama protesters as well as hard core right wing and anti-labor elements.”

The article, written by Chris Townsend, UE’s Director of Political Action, continued: “Several of the meetings have been completely dominated by goon squad tactics, with flustered lawmakers, their staffs, supporters of reform, and members of the public watching as the meetings were systematically wrecked or taken over by the screeching supporters of the health insurance industry. The most outlandish lies and misrepresentations about the Democrats' health reform proposal were repeated over and over again during the meetings, and when combined with the boisterous and sometimes violent conduct of the disrupters the town hall meetings have become a public relations disaster for the Democrats.”

As this column is being put to bed, we await word on whether certain Democrats, watchers of which way the wind is blowing, will develop any courage. They seem so afraid.

Perhaps they should listen to Richard Trumka, leader of the United Mineworkers and incoming president of the AFL-CIO labor federation, who recently condemned (speech to Network Nation August 15)) all those who are “lying about the loss of (health) insurance.” He forthrightly advocated Single Payer, saying also that Public Option was “the absolute minimum.”

Trumka denounced the so-called spontaneous demonstrations by those opposing government interference as the work of organized right-wing elements. The Washington Post (August 16) went on to explain: “The rowdy protests that threaten President Obama's health-care reform efforts have been spurred on by a loose network of activists -- from veteran (rightwing—I.G.) advocacy groups with millions of dollars in funding to casual alliances of like-minded conservatives unhappy over issues from taxes to deficits to environmental laws.”

Yet the silence, read: vacuous villainy, of the major TV networks is exposed by their refusal to explain these demonstrations as tools of such right-wing groups and individuals as the American Liberty Alliance, former congressman Dick Armey”s FreedomWorks, Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, Americans for Prosperity, Patients First. Patients United, 60 Plus. Club for Growth, ad nauseum. Let’s also not forget the role of the Republican National Committee in all of this. A notable exception to the media silence is MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow , who has done good work in exposing the reactionaries.

McClatchey Newspapers reported Aug. 14): ”These opposition groups appear to have spent at least $10 million so far on ads attacking the Democrats' plans.”

The media sycophants seem fearful of the detested diarrhea diatribes of Rush Limbaugh (who called pro-healthcare reformers’ tactics “Hitler-like”) and others, who try to smash even the meager attempts by the Democratic Party leadership to push a wimpy healthcare bill, fearful that the wonderful John Conyers (HR 676) bill might have a shot at passage. The ruling class is split on this issue, with—I don’t make this stuff up, sports fans--drug makers and the American Medical Association favoring some sort of progressive legislation.

On the other side, the McClatchey article said: “…also noteworthy are (FreedomWorks’) other backers and board members. They include billionaire flat-tax proponent and former GOP presidential candidate Steve Forbes; Richard J. Stephenson, who founded Cancer Treatment Centers of America, which offers alternative as well as standard therapies, sometimes not covered by insurance; and Frank M. Sands, Sr., chief executive officer of an investment management firm whose offerings include a Healthcare Leaders portfolio.”

Truth be told, there are two positions among those advocating robust healthcare reform. One, backed by a coalition of groups, is HCAN, Health Care for America Now, which includes the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). As this column goes to the editor, they have been running national tv ads, targeting Blue Dog Democrats. The ad shows the hypocrisy of Republicans using such a plan, as members of Congress, yet opposing the same benefit that would lower costs to both American consumers and small businesses. The ad blames their reluctance to back a public option on the millions of dollars in campaign contributions the lawmakers have taken from the health care industry.

A second position among progressives views the compromises much more cynically, both the public option as originally proposed by policy wonk Jacob Hacker, and its shriveled remnant as embodied in HR 3200, the House tri-committee bill, as sound health care policy. They feel the fight now for the Public Option has no substance and is based on the illusion that it can control the costs and cover all the people. They view the Public Option, even if politically correct, as policy nonsense.

An advocate of this view told me: “One item that has been totally left out of the discussion is the individual mandate in all of the bills currently under consideration. Can any bill be called progressive that forces people to buy insurance from private health insurance companies or be fined large sums? What kind of health care reform bails out the private insurance companies? We now have both (big business lobbyists) AHIP and PHarma running ads for reform…Without saving the $400 billion per year that happens with HR 676, there is no way to cover everyone, improve care for all, and reign in the cost.”

The real world of politics is not pretty. With Public Option, the Democratic Party does not have to take on the massive insurance lobby in all-out war. Your columnist has questions: By the time it gets thru the Congressional sausage mill, how many people will Public Option serve? How much money will taxpayers spend to subsidize the insurance industry?

Nowadays, medical coverage does not necessarily mean medical care: it’s priced beyond most of our means. The labor movement knows that its members, and others, need decent health care. So the battle continues. Stay tuned.

Contact Ira Grupper: irag@iglou.com