-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.bostonherald.com/bostonherald/colm/wayne07041999.htm
> Degradation of independence
> by Wayne Woodlief
>
> Sunday, July 4, 1999
>
>
>
>
>
> On this Independence Day, we aren't really as free as we think we
> are, or want to be. In America, at the cusp of a new century,
> money rules - from our politics to the place we live.
>
> What does freedom, the freedom that our forefathers wrenched from
> the British by asserting independence 223 years ago, mean to me?
>
>
>
> At first, I thought, freedom means freedom to choose, freedom to
> find the kind of job you like, to buy the kind of medicine that
> will make you well; freedom to dream of owning a fine house in a
> good neighborhood; to send your kids to the schools where they
> have a chance to learn and thrive; freedom to choose whom you
> want to represent you in government.
>
>
>
> But hold on. Almost all those freedoms are limited by how much is
> in your wallet, and by the enormous income chasm of the '90s,
> with some making millions overnight in the stock market while
> others work two jobs to make ends meet. Just ask those folks who
> are being gentrified out of South Boston and the South End,
> priced out of neighborhoods their parents and grandparents once
> could afford. And a quarter of a million dollars might get you a
> decent place in suddenly hot Jamaica Plain.
>
>
>
> Pick the best schools? Hard to do, even if your city gets a
> neighborhood-oriented school assignment plan. Real freedom is the
> freedom to get into a charter school, but there aren't nearly
> enough of those. Or the freedom to choose a private school, but
> those are beyond the means of many parents. And thus it will
> continue to be, as long as the special interests and
> public-school lobbyists block school voucher systems.
>
>
>
> Freedom to buy the miracle medicines on the market now? Only if
> you're among the lucky few whose health maintenance organizations
> don't severely cap your prescription benefits, and thus give you
> some truly grim choices: Miss your mortgage payment or stint on
> your meds; get your husband's prescription now and yours next
> week; maybe skip both. Freedom isn't free.
>
>
>
> As for picking our political leaders, who can doubt anymore that
> big money, especially in presidential races and in the
> overweening influence of the special interests in the legislative
> branch, has handcuffed our freedom to choose?
>
>
>
> Texas Gov. George W. Bush - untested on national issues, a man
> with less than five years experience in any public office, a
> governor whose grasp of some state issues is not all that great
> according to some Texas journalists - is now the odds-on favorite
> to be our next president.
>
>
>
> One big reason why is the huge expense of campaigning now -
> especially with so many big state primaries that require major TV
> ads, such as New York's and California's, all crammed together
> next year - and Bush's ability to pay. He raised a record $36
> million in the first six months of 1999. That's 1-1/2 times what
> all 10 of Bush's opponents raised, and $6 million more than the
> combined take of Vice President Al Gore and his Democratic
> opponent, Bill Bradley.
>
>
>
> Pundits are predicting that some of Bush's rivals, candidates
> with ideas and passion, may be priced out of the race before the
> first ballots are cast. That's democracy? That's freedom?
>
>
>
> We won't know until July 15 where all that cash for George W.'s
> campaign is coming from. That's the deadline for the candidates
> to file their formal fund-raising reports. But it's a safe bet
> that a lot of those contributions came from the oil, banking and
> insurance industries, from HMOs, from corporate chieftains and
> their lieutenants all over America; all anxious to gain access to
> the hottest political property on the scene, to hasten the Bush
> Restoration in the (White) House that Clinton soiled.
>
>
>
> Still, there's one candidate Bush's money won't scare off, one
> who has decided that, win or lose, he'll make reforming our
> rotten system of campaign finance a major theme of his campaign.
>
>
>
> That's U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Never mind that he has
> raised $4.1 million, dwarfed by Bush but ahead of everybody else
> in the Republican race, largely because he has clout as chairman
> of the Senate Commerce Committee. McCain is hellbent on changing
> the system.
>
>
>
> He and Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.) are trying again this year
> to pass a bill to curb unregulated so-called ``soft money''
> distributed through the two national parties.
>
>
>
> The bill also tightens disclosure rules and restricts the
> duplicitous, so-called ``issue ads'' that corporate and union
> money have paid to help favored candidates in the past.
>
>
>
> And - even as Bush hints he'll probably refuse federal matching
> money so that he can spend without limit - McCain, Feingold and
> Bradley are connecting the dots to show how special-interest
> money often kills popular legislation.
>
>
>
> In a series of Senate speeches, Feingold has been ``calling the
> bankroll'' on big money influence. This is what he found health
> care reform is up against:
>
>
>
> � Managed-care companies and their affiliates gave congressmen
> $3.4 million during the 1998 election cycle, double what they
> gave to help defeat Clinton's health care plan in 1993.
>
>
>
> � Pharmaceutical companies contributed $10.6 million in 1997-98.
> Don't think for a minute that some of those congressmen won't
> remember that when they vote on prescription relief this year.
>
>
>
> � The American Medical Association shelled out $2.4 million.
>
>
>
> As for school vouchers, try this for negative influence from the
> left side of the political spectrum: The AFL-CIO, allied with
> teachers unions that oppose vouchers, contributed nearly $2
> million in 1997-98. Want to bet how many votes there'll be for
> vouchers among congressmen who got those donations?
>
>
>
> If the campaign money reformers can keep connecting the dots -
> and McCain keeps defying the anti-reform fili-blusterers within
> his own party - maybe they'll have a chance to make this a
> presidential issue.
>
>
>
> It ought to be. As McCain said in New Hampshire this past week,
> to whoops and applause at Bedford Town Hall, ``I've been told
> there's no room for this issue in the Republican primaries. Well,
> I intend to make room for it.''
>
>
>
> Let's hope he - and maybe Pat Buchanan, Elizabeth Dole and others
> for that matter - also challenge Bush on the issue when the
> televised primary debates begin.
>
>
>
> The Texan is getting too enamored of campaign cash. Not to get
> too personal, but George W., who admits to having been a problem
> drinker before he got religion, should know how addictions work.
> Bill Clinton got hooked on campaign money, couldn't get enough,
> just drank it in.
>
>
>
> And, as McCain said in New Hampshire last week, ``the Lincoln
> bedroom (became) a Motel 6, where the president served as
> bellhop.''
>
>
>
> That's not independence. That's not freedom. But, though money
> may rule now, we still have some choices on our own. And if we
> make the right ones in 2000, we can at least threaten the throne
> of Mammon, the ancient false god of money worship.
A<>E<>R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
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