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Governor's Need to Address the Need for
More Democracy
Printed in the Westerly Sun, 5 March 2002
The Governors of all the states of the nation are collaboratively seeking remedies for their financial woes, as is to be expected in this era of federal
under funding. The federal government is preoccupied with giving tax breaks to the wealthy, empowering corporations to settle offshore so as to avoid all taxes, and let's not forget that astronomical tax rebate to the big corporations which weren't entirely tax exempt in the past five years. The Governors have to make roads smooth with fewer highway dollars than they had hoped for. They are feeling the pain of welfare reform, as 100-200 people in CT alone fall from the welfare rolls into the no-safety-net zone. They are very concerned about Medicaid costs. What's a governor to do?
Perhaps the more relevant question is: what are the people to do? We, the people, elected these governors, the very
people who gave us welfare "reform;" who perpetuate the build-more-roads-cause-more-asthma-destroy-more-wildlife-habitat transportation system; the ones who preside over the healthcare system by virtue of which the US now ranks in the low 20's in infant mortality rates and life expectancy (not due to lack of quality care, but to lack of access to that care). What are the people to do?
We, the people, already know. It's easy to see how all these things are connected. For starters, there is too little money for the states primarily because of corporate welfare; corporate welfare is due to exorbitant campaign contributions; lack of campaign reform is due to lack of competition at the polls. We need publicly fund elections, and we must reform the electoral process to allow all people to have representation.
As for transportation, asthma and habitat loss, we need to bring comprehensive plans to the table, which consider the interrelationships between transit systems, health, environment, and development. We can reduce pollutant emission to reduce asthma and other exhaust-related health problems, first by developing regional and interstate mass transit (shifting the heavy subsidies highways, auto manufacturers and oil companies receive into comprehensive transit needs), by setting appropriate polluter fees on trucks and low-mileage vehicles, and by encouraging locally owned, less shipping-intensive production, especially of food supplies. We should certainly fight to reduce sprawl. (Why do the current legislators not push for things like fuel-efficient vehicles and fewer Wal-Marts? They are beholden to corporate money.)
Welfare has been ended as we know it. And now we are witnessing a surge in homelessness, even among the working poor. In a country where the median taxpayer in 1999 only earned $26,415 per year (meaning half the taxpayers in the country make that little or less), we do not need to make things harder for the poor. It is unconscionable to allow children to suffer and - yes - die in poverty, in a country that Bill Gates calls home. People need livable wages, and a social safety net for hard times should be a basic right of citizenship (we can finance it by bringing those offshore corporations back home, and taxing them).
And Medicaid? Of course its costs are high. It is one healthcare provider among many, with its own redundant set of administrators. Despite its high costs, seniors now spend about a third of their income on healthcare. If all CT's publicly financed healthcare networks were folded into one, and universal coverage guaranteed through a single-payer (not socialized) system, the state could save an estimated $1-2 billion per year, by eliminating bureaucratic overhead and by allowing for bulk purchasing and coordinated equipment purchases; and by giving people the ability to seek preventative care and early treatment for diseases. An improvement the insurance and pharmaceutical companies vociferously oppose, and their campaign contributions have an impact in the state assembly.
Other items which should be on the agenda include eliminating genetically modified "foods", catching up to Japan and Germany in use of clean energy; ending our dependence on fossil fuels; promoting sustainable agricultural methods...the list goes on and on. We must change the way things are economically valued, giving the market edge to renewable, clean and sustainable goods and practices, while making the price of polluting, wasteful commodities reflect their environmental and health costs.
We need to transform government, giving all people the power to make the decisions, rather than an elite few. We need fundamental transformation, not slap-a-bandage-on-it reactions to damage we can no longer endure.
Most likely, the nation's governors won't do anything other than business as usual. In that case, the people of the nation should join the call to clean up our economy, our environment, and our government.
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