With unlimited election spending by PACS [political action committees], we are saturated with political advertising–much of it being false or deliberately misleading. We are reminded that “So-and-so voted to cut Medicare.” That is not what happened. Congress repealed provisions that were a giveaway to insurance companies, for so-called Medicare Advantage programs, that provided exercise classes for Seniors [and] Stay Well programs that were good for Seniors but not cost-effective.
What Congress has not done is enable Medicare to negotiate drug prices with the “big Pharma” [the pharmaceutical industry], in order to reduce cost and extend the life of the program. Republicans in Congress blocked this legislation. That is not a part of their advertising.
Now that the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, has enrolled millions of people who have not been insured, because they were unable to afford it. These same Republicans–who have voted some 54 times to repeal it–are suddenly silent on the issue. Why? Well, it wasn’t the nightmare they pictured it to be, and it is actually working. So, now their plan is to simply defund it.
Speaking of defunding, the Republicans did cut the budget for the Center for Disease Control by $600 million, but with the Ebola scare they are keeping quiet about this. Dribbling out bits and pieces of slanted misinformation, and not talking at all about the cuts they did make, does not tell voters where they actually stand on the important issue of health care. Having been so wrong in the past, opposed Medicare, opposed Medicaid, opposed Obamacare, can they now be trusted when the issue is our health care?
“So-and-so voted for trillions of debt.” What a sound bite! Did two unnecessary wars on the National credit card have anything to do with it? Did the big financial disaster of 2007-08, which almost put us into a full-blown Depression, have anything to do with it? This was on President George W. Bush’s watch.
Then, unlike F. D. R. whose policies bailed out the people, President Bush and his Wall Street Secretary of the Treasury persuaded Congress to bail out the wealthy 1% on Wall Street.
Research has shown that our Nation’s economy has done better under every Democratic President from F. D. R. on, except Jimmy Carter. Likewise, the economy has done poorly or been a disaster under every Republican President except for Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose economic stimulus project was the Interstate Highway System. Given all the baseless, mindless slogans this campaign season, one would never know this.
In most cases, billionaires did not get to be billionaires by playing nicely. They are not buying tons of campaign ads, because they are patriotic; quite the opposite. For them it is an investment, so they can influence the rules governing our capitalistic system, in a way that puts even more money inyo their pockets.
Voters need to go beyond the ads and take the time to find the facts. Otherwise, after the election, there will be more voter remorse.