Just a Couple of Things…

Dr. Errington Thompson is a critical care trauma surgeon, author, and talk show host. Listen to the Errington Thompson Show, available through Podcast and download at: www.whereistheoutrage.net

by Errington C. Thompson, MD

There are times when I sit here in front of the computer and wonder exactly what I should say/type for the month. Every now and then, I like to do something less serious and more frivolous. There are hundreds of people and thousands of blogs that are dedicated to the crazy, the ridiculous, the fascinating, and the curious. It seems to me that very few people will or do focus on what’s really important—you and me.

Jobs

A couple of days ago, the new jobs numbers came out. There’s been lots of discussion in the mainstream media over why the economy produced “only” 80,000 private-sector jobs. Was this good? Was this bad? The mainstream media seems to have an endless parade of experts who can give us both sides of the issue within the same two-minute segment: The economy is great/The economy has never been worse. We’re on the right track./We’re going in the wrong direction. Obama could win./Romney can’t lose.

The truth is, you and I both know of people who are out of work, or can’t find work. We also know people who are terribly underemployed, and we know people who are really good at their job, but who haven’t seen a significant pay raise in years. We also know that profits, and executive pay, for Wall Street corporations are soaring, while hard-working middle-class workers are being laid off.

The honest answer to our problem is that it’s going to take a long time for us to get out of the Great Recession. The economic engine that drove the last decade was the housing industry, which is currently on life support—and building more new houses and renovating old houses is not going to fix the problem this time, not as long as nobody can afford to buy them.

We need to do something new that will put middle-class people back to work producing goods and services that other people can afford to buy. Green Energy—solar heating systems, batteries for Electric Vehicles—is one possibility, but that gets shot down by Republicans every time it is brought up. That’s why most solar panels and EV batteries are made in China and Mexico, and Americans are out of work and out of luck.

Voting Rights

There’s been a lot of discussion about voter ID laws and voter fraud. Over the past several years, especially since the American people elected a black president, we’ve heard many politicians (almost all of them Republican) declare that voter fraud is widespread. We’ve been told that our elections have been corrupted because of “illegal voters.”

Even back during the Bush Administration, the Justice Department was going to investigate and prosecute evidence of voter fraud throughout the country. Yet, in five years, the Bush Justice Department found only 120 people to prosecute for voter fraud—and of those only 86 were convicted, yet not one of them for impersonating a real registered voter. That’s all the Justice Department has to show for hundreds of thousands of man-hours that were dedicated to fighting a bogeyman that does not exist.

How do we know it’s a phony issue? Maybe it wouldn’t be if we found out a senator was elected fraudulently or that a congressional race was turned because the ballot box was rigged. But one study, in Wisconsin, found seven examples of voter fraud out of over three million votes cast there. Seven in 3,000,000.

There’s a reason that the GOP has been pushing for voter ID laws: if they’re able to purge voter rolls of tens of thousands of legitimate American voters, as Florida did in 2008, they will be able to limit voter turnout and turn some close elections in their favor—as Florida did in 2008 (to say nothing of 2000 and its “hanging chads”).

Don’t believe me? There’s clear evidence that came to light just a few weeks ago: Mike Turzai, the majority leader of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, stated that the Keystone State’s newly passed voter ID law “is gonna allow Governor Romney to win” the state of Pennsylvania.

Affordable Health Care

The Affordable Care Act—“Obamacare”—is constitutional. If the law is fully implemented and not dismantled by the GOP, it has the potential to help millions of Americans. It already allows young Americans to stay on their family’s health insurance policy until the age of 26. Eighty-six million Americans now have access to free preventive care including mammograms and wellness visits for seniors.

Millions of citizens who already have private insurance will get rebates this year because their insurance companies have spent too much (more than 20 percent) on executive salaries, perks, and overhead and not enough on benefits for beneficiaries. And as the rest of the law’s provisions kick in in 2013 and 2014, more lower-income Americans will be able to afford health insurance using government subsidies and Americans will not be kicked off of insurance roles because of pre-existing conditions or because they met a lifetime limit of coverage.

Many Americans have been scared by the fact that “small businesses” with 50 employees will be forced to provide healthcare coverage to their employees. Well, if you have 50 employees you are no longer a “small” mom-and-pop shop; you are making some change, and you should be able to pony up the money to treat your employees a little better.

The Affordable Care Act is not perfect— the blind will not see, those who are crippled will not suddenly walk—but it is one step closer to the healthcare that we truly deserve. It is one step closer toward the universal access to medical care that all civilized societies guarantee their citizens.

The next step needs to be a system in which doctors and nurses work not only at getting us well when we’re hurt or ill, but also in keeping us well throughout our lives.