John Oneterm, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, agreed to a candid interview with this reporter, promising total openness and honesty, a prized concept in an otherwise shapeshifting enterprise.

“Mr. Oneterm, your colleagues in the House all say you will never be re-elected because of your honesty. Are they correct?”

“Oh yeah, for sure. I tell the plain truth and that won’t get anyone re-elected around here.”

“Can you tell us some plain truth right now about the new budget?”

The congressman smiles, “Sure. We are going to spend $700 billion on our military during peace time. That will be almost 40 percent of the money spent worldwide on the military. The next closest big spender is China who spends about 20 percent of what we spend.”

“Is this a good thing for us?”

“Well it is a good thing for donations to re-elections, and a good thing to the huge defense industry, and a good thing for jobs for retiring congressmen who go to work in the defense industry. For the American people, it is like buying an aircraft carrier to go fishing, sort of an overkill that keeps on growing.”

“OK. Interesting. What else can you tell us?”

“We have, far and away the highest drug prices in the world. For example, the average American spends a thousand bucks a year on prescriptions. The same prescriptions bought in Great Britain are less than half that price. And this is primarily because there are so many profit centers in the delivery chain and because Congress is not even allowed, by law to ask the price of drugs.”

“Why can’t Congress demand price deals on drugs congressman?”

“Short answer, because the drug companies donate big time to congress people getting re-elected and folks like you don’t.”

“But doesn’t Congress represent the people?”

“Absolutely, beginning with the people who sell pharmaceutical products, and ending long before consumers.”

“Sir, we understand the new Farm bill will change SNAP, the food stamp program. Will that be a good thing?”

“Depends on what you think is good. Overall, the U.S. social safety net, the welfare system, is way smaller than other developed nations. Take our neighbor Canada for an example. While the U.S. gives $418 a month to a single parent of 2 children, with a 5-year limit and a work requirement, Canada awards $941 to a single parent with one child, awards adults with no children, pays the elderly and disabled more, and has no lifetime limit on eligibility.”

“Perhaps more troubling, with our modest safety net, the U.S. pays more in corporate welfare, according to TIME magazine (2014) than for social welfare, about $93 billion compared to $53 billion for social welfare.”

“Wow congressman, any other plain truths you can share?”

“Sure. You know we are breaking the next generation with college debt that congress has made just about impossible to wipe out, even in bankruptcy. There are at least six nations that treat college like high school, provided for by taxpayers and at no cost and no debt to the students.”

“One last question Sir. Why is healthcare so expensive in the U.S.?”

“Easy question. Because there are so many profit centers and so little control on what they charge that we overpay for everything in the name of capitalism. Consumers can’t even find out what they are charged for healthcare products. All we need to do to fix it is make Medicare available for all.”

“But if we do that, then who will pay to re-elect us to ignore the needs of the people?

 

Jim Crawford is a  retired educator, political enthusiast and award-winning columnist living here in the Tri-State.