(following is an editorial from the Savage Pacer of 2009-08-29)
It troubles me that John Kline is given the bully pulpit of “Guest Commentator” to spread neocon propaganda. His continual rants against the Obama administration’s policies distort truth and ignore fact. His commentary of last week is no exception.
The first part of his screed states that “…through the end of 2007, we saw job growth for a record 52 consecutive months.” This is true, but what Kline fails to mention is that this was the slowest rate of job growth in the last 75 years! He also doesn’t point out that 3.1 million manufacturing jobs were lost during the same time, bringing the number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. to its lowest total since 1950! He also conveniently forgets to look at the root causes of current levels of unemployment: a recession brought on by deregulation of the financial industry initiated by Reagan in 1982. It has become obvious that unregulated “free market” economics don’t work, yet Bush I and II continued to push them, along with “free trade” policies that have resulted in our current crisis.
Kline continues his attack on the truth by inaccurately characterizing the Employee Free Choice Act. Contrary to Kline’s statement, this Act actually adds an option for workers to join unions. If John Kline is concerned about jobs and wages, he should support unions, as union workers earn more than non-union workers. But the Republican Party attacks the right of American workers to unionize, and fought against an increase in the minimum wage.
I find it amusing that Kline rails against the state of the economy and the efforts to fix it, but fails to address how we got into this mess! This crisis was in the making going back to the Reagan administration, so to complain about a fix not working in President Obama’s first six months is ridiculous! It’s also interesting that Kline criticizes the $787 billion allocated for the Stimulus Package, but says nothing about the $700 billion that Bush gave to the financial industry; $700 billion handed out to the richest of the rich, with no controls, no oversight, and which has mostly disappeared into places that no one can – or will – account for. That’s over $2000 out of the pocket of every man, woman, and child in the U.S. going to the very people that caused the recession.
Finally, I must address the issue of universal health care. The United States spends more on health care than any nation in the world, but our health care system ranks 37th out of 191 countries. We have over 45 million people without health care in this country. Our health care industries (and executives!) make obscene amounts of money, yet costs go up and coverage goes down every year. Not having universal health care costs us more, as those in need use the most expensive services – emergency room – for their health care. They also don’t use preventive services, and thus end up costing more in treating illnesses that could have been prevented. A majority of Americans want universal health care, and we are the only industrialized nation in the world without it! The fact that the richest, most advanced country in the world doesn’t have universal health care is unbelievable.
I hope that John Kline will begin to serve by making himself available to his constituents and by working to serve the interests of all the people, including those too poor to afford health insurance.