In this wicked world of woe, there are hucksters, flimflammers, plain ol’ crooks… and Republican members of the California Assembly.
This last bunch of scoundrels went out of their way to monkeywrench the rollout of President Obama’s new health care law. Obama’s computer geniuses were making a hash of the initial rollout in October, but the sign-up was finally smoothing out – and with any Obama success, GOP lawmakers automatically start tossing monkeywrenchs.
This time, the tool they tossed is a fake website created by California Republican legislators in August to look like the state’s official health exchange site, where people can sign up to get coverage under the Affordable Care Act. When things finally got worked out on the national health care exchange in November, the Repubs mailed a pamphlet to their constituents, directing them to the decoy site, calling it a “resource guide” to “help” them navigate the ACA sign up process.
Far from help, however, the faux site is a trap. It’s filled with boilerplate Republican propaganda against the law, gimmicks to discourage viewers from even applying for the health care they need, and a rash of distortions and outright lies. There’s so much bunkum on the site that its fine print includes a disclaimer saying they don’t vouch for “the quality, content, accuracy, or completeness of the information” it provides.
The silliest thing about the lawmakers’ blatantly political ploy is that even if it convinces some people to forgo the ACA’s benefits, who does that hurt? Not Obama – but their own constituents! I know there’s no IQ requirement to be a state legislator, but what were they thinking?
We can laugh at their low comedy, but if you’re a California taxpayer, congratulations: You paid for the GOP’s bogus website and mailings.

“A bogus Health care website, courtesy of the GOP,” www.msnbc, December 4, 2013.
“California Republicans Defend Fake Obamacare Site,” www.abcnews.com, December 3, 2013.
“California GOP creates fake health care website to discourage constituents from obtaining insurance,” www.dailykos.com, December 2, 2013.
“Email from Ed H.” December 16, 2013.

Global bankers holding a pity party for themselves

Here’s an odd headline: “It’s Hard to Summon Sympathy for Big Banks.” Well, yeah… and why would you try?
This piece began with another odd sentence: “It’s no fun to be a banker these days.” Really? I’d think that counting those multimillion-dollar annual paychecks would be jolly fun. But money doesn’t buy love, and it seems that the global princes of high finance are glum because they’re not even respected, much less loved. Well, of course not – they’ve been pigs!
No offense to pigs, but bankers have gotten filthy rich through greed, plundering and damn-the-public narcissism. So, not only are they social pariahs, but even bank regulators around the world are no longer as deferential as they were before the 2008 financial crash. While meek regulators haven’t exactly turned into tigers, at least they’re slapping some of the banking syndicates that caused the crash with multibillion-dollar fines – and they’re even publicly scolding a few of the banksters.
This has set off a pity party among Wall Streeters and other big bankers. “At what point does this stop?” whined a Bank of America executive. Complaining about paying out $13 billion for some of his bank’s crimes, a JPMorgan poo-bah said: “We should all be concerned that there doesn’t seem to be a natural end point to how high fines can go.”
Note that he wasn’t concerned about an end point to the crimes bankers are committing. Likewise, the top executive of Deutsche Bank was outraged that a German official has criticized bankers there for evading regulation: “It’s irresponsible to comment in such a populist manner,” cried the haughty banker. Again, no concern for the irresponsibility of bankers who keep evading regulation.
What we have here is business as usual. For bankers, it’s still all about themselves – money over ethics. And they wonder why they’re not loved?
“It’s Hard to Summon Sympathy for Big Banks,” The New York Times, December 13, 2013.

Measuring Congress by the numbers

Never have so few done so little for so many. But at last, they’re gone – Congress has adjourned for the year.
And what a year it was! A few numbers sum up the sorry story, so let’s review them. For example, 16. That’s the number of days that a gaggle of tea party Republicans shut down our government by throwing an October hissy fit. Oh, add 24 billion to that – $24 billion is the economic loss America suffered from the tea partiers’ shut-down stunt.
Speaking of stunts, check out the number of times the House GOP has voted to make the political point that it doesn’t want Obamacare to work. It now totals 47 times.
Now here’s a telling number: 239. That’s how many paid days off our congress critters gave themselves in 2013. Yes, for two-thirds of the year, they were no-shows at their ornate workplace. Hey, stuff like shutting down government and casting meaningless votes is tiring, and you’ve gotta get your rest to keep up the pace.
And here’s a big, angry number that our well-heeled lawmakers can’t seem to see: 11 million. That’s how many of our fellow Americans are jobless, some 4 million of whom have been out of work for more than 6 months. Yet, Congress went AWOL on its duty to respond to this raging jobs crisis. However, members did show up to slap America’s hardest-hit workers. Just before taking off for their Christmas break, GOP lawmakers pushed a budget deal that killed an emergency benefit program for people who’re mired in the misery of longterm unemployment. Yes, in the Season of Joy and Goodwill, Congress – Ho-Ho-Ho! – cut off this essential lifeline for 1.3 million workers and their families. Another 1.9 million will lose their benefits next year.
But, hey, who’s counting? It’s all just a bunch of numbers to Congress.

“Congress’ Cushy Jobs: 239 Days Off While Workers Guaranteed Zero,” www.alternet.org, December 3, 2013.
“Jobless Fear Looming Cutoff of Benefits,” New York Times, December 13, 2013.