Change? - Not so Much, Volume VII

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Well we haven't seen much change from Obama or the Democrats.  As one war sort of winds down another is about to get bogged down in an epic quagmire.  But it doesn't stop there.  Remember all those crooked and trigger happy private contractors?  Guest posting at TMV Michael Winship reports that they are getting even fatter.

KBR, Halliburton and the private security firm Blackwater have come to symbolize the excesses of outsourcing warfare. So you�d think that with a new sheriff like Barack Obama in town, such practices would be on the
�Things Not to Do� list.

Not so.

According to new Pentagon statistics, in the second quarter of this year, there has been a 23% increase in the number of private security contractors working for the Pentagon in Iraq and a 29% hike in Afghanistan. In fact, outside contractors now make up approximately half of our forces fighting in the two countries. �This means,� according to Jeremy Scahill, author of the book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World�s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, �there are a whopping 242,647 contractors working on these two U.S. wars.� Scahill, who runs an excellent new website called �Rebel Reports,� spoke with my colleague Bill Moyers on the current edition of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.

�What we have seen happen, as a result of this incredible reliance on private military contractors, is that the United States has created a new system for waging war,� he said. By hiring foreign nationals as mercenaries, �You turn the entire world into your recruiting ground. You intricately link corporate profits to an escalation of warfare and make it profitable for companies to participate in your wars.

But that's not all.  Robert Reich reports on how defeat is about to be snatched form the jaws of victory on the health care front.

I'ved poked around Washington today, talking with friends on the Hill who confirm the worst: Big Pharma and Big Insurance are gaining ground in their campaign to kill the public option in the emerging health care bill.

You know why, of course. They don't want a public option that would compete with private insurers and use its bargaining power to negotiate better rates with drug companies. They argue that would be unfair. Unfair? Unfair to give more people better health care at lower cost? To Pharma and Insurance, "unfair" is anything that undermines their profits.

So they're pulling out all the stops -- pushing Democrats and a handful of so-called "moderate" Republicans who say they're in favor of a public option to support legislation that would include it in name only. One of their proposals is to break up the public option into small pieces under multiple regional third-party administrators that would have little or no bargaining leverage. A second is to give the public option to the states where Big Pharma and Big Insurance can easily buy off legislators and officials, as they've been doing for years. A third is bind the public plan to the same rules private insurers have already wangled, thereby making it impossible for the public plan to put competitive pressure on the insurers.

Question!  If I'm going to get Republican policy anyway why in the hell should I vote for Democrats in 2010?  Obama and the Democrats have as much political capitol and power they need to do anything.  But no, the same old interest groups are still calling the shots.  Change? - not so much.  Don't count on my vote next year.

See also The Careless, Corrupt Program That Begat Preventive Detention and Torture