It is time for the people to finally demand what's been alluding us for years. While this can be seen in a political light, I think it needs to be applied to anyone with any kind of authority. From School Board members to CEO's to the President, we must demand accountability and transparency.
Our schools are suffering, our health care system is atrocious, and social security is dying. The public is not demanding that anyone be held accountable for these things. Senators and Congressmen are re-elected even though it's quite obvious we have some serious domestic issues. Reporters ask questions but don't require actual answers. CEO's embezzle millions and no one goes to jail. The Vice-President virtually disappears and no one asks where he's been. Parents don't get involved in their local schools. People pay thousands a year for prescription drugs and don't ask why they're so expensive. Americans are not demanding accountability from each other or their government. If things are going to improve, this is the first thing that must be changed.
People lie. People in power lie a lot. Especially when they've made a mistake. Demanding transparency doesn't mean needing to know everything about someone's personal life. It means demanding proof of what people say to us. We should see budgets and agendas for people in public office. We should know how every cent is being spent as well as what our Congressmen, Senators, and other federal, state, and local government personnel are doing during working hours. When we ask questions, we need to insist on getting the answers. We cannot allow ourselves to be appeased anymore. We know what we want. Why aren't we fighting for it?
Thursday, August 11, 2005
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16 comments:
Budgets? You expect the rich folk in public office to account for how money is spent and have a budget? Foolish girl! Didn't you know that they have a limitless supply of OUR money? When they run out of money all they have to do is borrow more from China.
Living within your means is only meant for poor folks like us.
Our elected officials quickly forget WHO they are working for and whose MONEY they spend in ridiculous ways.
We do need accountabiilty most definitely!
Yesterday, there was an article in the LA TIMES saying that Bush paints a rosey picture of the economy.
My husband said? Is he insane? Where does he live? And why, pray tell, do all the stories about what goes on under this man and his administration are here today and gone tomorrow.
Sometimes it is just surreal.
TS - I am offended that you call it foolish. The only reason why we don't have these things now is because we don't ask for them. And yes, I expect someone who is spending government money to account for every cent of it. We need to remind our elected officals who they are working for. DoD is a little more complicated.
NSC
There are thousands of things wrong with our health care system. People shouldn't have to pay so much for drugs. People shouldn't have to pay so much for health care. Poor people should not have to die because they can't afford health care. My sister should not have to beg the government (and spend a lot of money she already doesn't have on a lawyer) for the money to pay for her open-heart surgery.
I do demand government budgets and agendas, but what a person does or spends money on in his or her own time is none of my buisiness. As long as they're not spending government funds on it, I don't care.
Cindy Sheehand is demanding accountability from President Bush. Maybe she's going about it in the wrong way. If we start doing it with the people and politicians immediately around us, it will trickle up on a national scale. I'm doing a lot of things, and I'll post on them soon. TAKE ACION. Stop sitting on your butts and letting the sky fall around you.
Tongue in cheek!
Okay, I have a solution for each one of those problems. For CEO's embezzling - jail time. And not those country club jails either.
Social security - Did you know that Congresspeople aren't on our Social Security plan? They're on one entirely different, so they have no incentive to fix ours. I say, drop theirs immediately. Watch, that will scare them into fixing ours.
Medicine - Ever watch the Dave Chappelle show? I like his idea. Give every American a Canadian ID card, so we could access theirs. ;) Canadian ID cards for all Americans.
ncs: your first post is the ranting of an arrogant troglodyte who, apparently, doesn't WANT transparency in government, and assumes that, because these different budgets are thick and hard to read, it's a perfectly legitimate excuse to continue obstusion.
Your're right, ncs--I probably couldn't understand the Green book.
I'm betting most members of Congress probably couldn't understand it either.
Then again, no one could understand Enron's books.
Perhaps this is symptomatic?? Perhaps folks like you are happy with the obfuscation, because it alllows you to do not much for a decent living.
Bottom line on that comment: I also don't understand how my transmission works. It doesn't mean I shouldn't drive.
Your second comment has slightly more merit. Slightly.
So let's talk about your second post: There's nothing wrong with a company making a profit. There's nothing wrong with a company doing its level best to maximize profit. However, when the issue becomes health care, there has to be the realization that we're talking about more than the bottom line. We're taliking about lives. Yes, there's a big investment in bringing a new drug to market. But allowing prices to rise to the point where many have to choose between dying and going bankrupt, while the drug companies enjoy double-digit profit margins is unconscionable.
Now let's factor in the new bankruptcy legislation, which will not allow those bankrupted by exorbitant medical expenses to even seek legitimate relief from their debts, and you have the recipe for a large amount of discontent and hostility.
The problem with the current market economy is that those who are reaping the luxuries are doing it by the sacrifices of others.
Yeharr
TSHMOM - No harm done. I guess I was feeling a little over sensitive, and it's hard to figure out whether someone's sarcastic when they're typing.
Zombie - Dude! Everyone needs to be on the same social security plan and he general public needs to be completely aware that they aren't. Why should they be any safer than the rest of us?
NSC - I actually do mind paying so much money for a car or house. Why shouldn't people have to pay so much for drugs? BECAUSE DRUGS SAVE LIVES. My sister would die without her daily prescription, and my family works their butts off to come up with the money necessary. Everyone pitches in, whcih means every one of us is suffering financially. And most of us aren't sick. Would you suggest we let her die? Yes, this is a close issue to me, but it is for MILLIONS (not just a few) of Americans. Kids get put in foster care because their parents can't afford health care. Elderly people sometimes forgo medication in order to not be burdens to their family. I would suggest that doctors be more discerning in what they prescribe and what tests they order. Besides, I think you overestimate the cost of making drugs.
Ballon - I undestand your rage, but we try not to call people names here. Please refrain in the future. NSC is a prep school boy. While there are stereotypes that go along with that, I hink we need to relize thatb there is something of a class problem in America. The upper and upper-middle classes (CAUTION: Stereotype to follow) don't often realize that a lot of us have to pay close attention to the prices of milk, bread, and gas, making health care a luxury, and something we only use if ABSOLUTELY necessary. For example, I have Lymes Disease. I have not been taking my medication because it's too expensive and my sister's is infinitely more important. As a result, I'm in serious pain, (I had it for years before it was diagnosed), but it's a trade-off, because my sister is alive. So you.re right. They system is making thousands off of us and they're doing it by causing us actual pain.
Part of demanding transparency is demanding that budgests, laws, and agendas are written in a way that we can ALL understand. I should not need a law degree to understand the laws of my country and how my government works.
Ok--point taken. No more name calling.
And trust me, that's not rage.
As far as the market economy being the best system we have right now, well it would be, if we had one. What we have is corporate welfare.
The government supports corporations-even ones with insanely, obscenely huge profit margins--by giving them subsidies. It tries to shape the playing field--already tilted aggressively towards the 'haves' --into an even less fair one with calls for Social Security reform, cuts in programming, and other actions while simultaneously crying for a reduction in estate taxes.
The good thing about market economies is that people can get rich. The bad thing about market economies is that people can become abjectly poor. Not 'my dad had to scrape to send me to prep school,' poor, but 'I can't afford prep school for my son.' poor.
The proper role of government in a market economy is to do its best to keep the playing field level for everyone, thus letting those with the best ideas, work ethic, and products prosper. What this government is doing is exactly the opposite. And it's being amply rewarded by those companies.
Yeharr
PC,
I have a new post up today about Mr. Bush demanding some accountability from him and his administration.
Polano,
If you are in Pinellas County still go to this website for Rx. See if your Rx is on the list. You should not be going through pain for your Lyme Disease.
http://www.rxmedssupport.com/
NSC - That was no meant to be offensive. I'm sorry. It was meant to show that there are, as we all know, differences in the way we all look at things based on our socio-economic background and our schooling. I apologize for offending you.
OK, I was in politics for a long time. I mean, it was serious. So, I don't talk about it a lot, because the reasons I got out were serious too. I found that both parties were corrupt, everyone compromised no matter what they said or promised, and constituents are cattle.
That's right, people are like cattle. So it's easy to make a difference, because if you want to make a difference, you're only about 1-5% of the population.
And that's why no one fights for it. They are used to the concept of government taking care of them. And they're used to the belief that they can't change anything. The truth is, if they tried they could change a tremendous amount. They just are lazy and buy into the "helpless me" myth.
It has always amazed me.
Saur -
I refuse to allow the people in my life to follow the "helpless me" routine, especially my students. I have taught every one of my classes to write letters to express their opinions. I even pay for the stamps and give extra credit. I agree, both parties are corrupt and people are like cattle, so it's up to us to lead them in the right direction.
Barbara, Good for you!!
NSC - As for the haves, I know people work for their money. I don't think the government should make it easier for them to have more, or for the have nots to have less. A lot of economic poliy benefits those who already have money, and is a detriment to those who don't.
PC - Yeah, that's what I was saying. Since they're on a better plan, they have no desire to fix ours. That's why I'm for dropping their plan and forcing them to use ours.
nsc--Unless you live in a gated community or two, take the corporate jet for your vacations, have pictures of you and senators on your library wall, I don't consider you a 'have.' If you're working because if you lose your job, you lose your way of life, I don't consider you a 'have.'
As to where they 'haves' get their money, they can get it from any number of places, but most if not all get it from a combination of the following three things: Talent, Skill, and Luck.
I'm in Nevada right now, helping my son pack for deployment in Iraq, so I don't have the time to expound.
Yeharr
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