Is There a Moral Option?

As congressional fulminations rage on and Republicans, sensing a window of opportunity, throw every conceivable roadblock in the path of palliative health-care legislation and beat the drum of the party’s agenda the public is left in a state of confusion anger and a weariness with the workings of government in general.

Sadly our political process often confounds efforts to get to the crux of what ails us. Most ordinary Americans aren’t clear about who’s really pulling the strings or how to influence whoever it is. They just know something isn’t quite right. Time after time narrow causes and small-minded politicians influence decisions that affect great swaths of the country. While tea partiers, birthers and mindless partisans may represent a lunatic fringe, there are nonetheless real concerns about where the country is headed. Average voters depend on their elected representatives to serve their interests and those of the country. Unfortunately legislators are often preoccupied with raising funds for their next campaign - - less focused on constituents than on currying favor with large donors.

How else could the NRA, the insurance industry and a myriad of other special-interest groups have such leverage in Congress if not for their ability to contribute so generously to campaigns or threaten incumbents with challenges from hand-picked candidates? Lobbyists influence and sometimes even write legislation that furthers their agenda rather than the public welfare, morality or ethics. Small wonder we’re in such a sorry state.

Without a moral compass our whole system is at risk. It has long been known, for example, that Blackwater and Halliburton’s KBR division were guilty of abuse, a lack of accountability and in some cases criminal behavior. Yet their government contracts remain in effect with little or no oversight. On the other hand, suspension of ACORN’s government funding in response to various complaints about its conduct shows how reactions differ when it comes to the haves and have nots.

ACORN has long been a Republican target mainly because the group has had great success registering the poor and people of color who tend to vote for Democrats. But far less concern is accorded those members of the armed forces in Iraq electrocuted in showers improperly wired by KBR. As Christopher Hayes points out in The Nation, for 10/12/09, “The disparity in the treatment of Blackwater et al. and ACORN is part of a larger American problem, what might be called the Inequality of Accountability. We diligently apply the principle of accountability to the poor and powerless, and the principle of forgiveness to the wealthy and powerful.”

It isn’t, however, only Republicans who fail the American people. The Senate Finance Committee, with Democratic support, proposes legislation that would force everyone to buy medical insurance, with government subsidies if need be. But without a public option or guarantees that insurers would agree to lower rates and fewer exclusions, such a plan would simply swell the coffers of the health-care industry at taxpayer expense. Health-care reform, seriously?

And as for prescription drugs, big Pharma was rewarded for subscribing to the Medicare Part D benefit and its profits soared. The industry fights re-importation of its products from Canada where government bargaining reduces cost, and it protects its patents at every level. Patents can run for as long as twenty years keeping costs high and generics unavailable, a condition that can represent a lifetime for a patient or, as the case may be, a death warrant. Some patents are so stringent they keep facilities from providing second opinions and shaping procedures. In an article “Lawsuits Test Boundary Rights of Medical Patents” at www.ama-assn.org, 6/29/09, Amy Lyn Sorrel writes: “Doctors say discoveries of basic scientific principles are meant to be shared - - not monopolized - - to provide cost-effective quality care and medical advances.”

But it is basic to the American ethos that nothing is as important as the profit motive. It is with no sense of irony or shame that special interests fight to preserve their status and profitability by spending huge amounts of money to stave off the weakest and most under-represented segments of society in what is essentially a monopolistic power grab without regard to the human cost.