Blagosphere

It's been the talk of the globe for the last couple days: Yet another corrupt IL Governor busted. His crime? Well, they're many...but the most serious: soliciting bribes for a now-vacant United States senate seat. Some of his other crimes: pressuring the Chicago Tribune to fire editorialists that were bad-mouthing him in exchange for "help" in the sale of the Chicago Cubs. And then there's the Rezko fiasco. All these crimes have one common denominator: Blagojevich used his politcal power for personal gain. This is illegal.

However, there is a variation of this sort of pay-to-play politics that is legal, and is going on outside of our National Capital every day. It's called Lobbyism. I won't waste time on details about Lobbyism, but suffice it to say that corporate America has their lobbyists, and so does the NRA, and the AARP, and just about every group of people in America (except one: poor people).

On one hand, Lobbyism can be seen as the people letting their legislators know what they want. It's representative government, right? Well, yes and no. These lobbyists are being paid to lobby...it's their full time job. And so while most of America is working a "real" job, these lobbyists are influencing the legislators of our country. How? Promises of political campaign contributions, for one (although dollar amounts have been limited by the government). But there's also the promise of votes and endorsements, because the lobbyists represent an organization which is organized and which can rally support for one particular candidate.

This explains a few things...I'll give some examples. It explains why so much federal money is spent in the pharmaceutical industry, while many needy people can't pay for their medications.

It explains why 75% of Medicaid spending (which was established to assist the poor with basic medical costs) is spent on long-term living costs for the elderly, which constitute only 25% of the Medicaid recipients (AARP at work). This has been a disaster, by the way. Medicare (established for the elderly) and Medicaid (established for the poor) are HUGE parts of the National budget, but thanks to the elderly's takeover of Medicaid as well as Medicare, there is not enough money for the nation's poor that need medical attention, and therefore now we have calls for UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE COVERAGE. Think about it: the over-represented minority (elderly w/ AARP) have, over time, usurped the benefits of the under-represented majority (the poor), which has led to the failure of our national healthcare system.

What to do about it? I don't know.