LABOR OF LOVE TO VOTE!

Thursday, October 27th, 2016

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

LABOR OF LOVE TO VOTE!

People are early voting in record numbers all over America.  Here in my home state of Louisiana, election participation is up 25% over the presidential election just four years ago. Predictions are that as many of 40% of total voters will cast their ballots before Election Day. This means long lines, and in most states, a long ballot to consider.

So I figured I would beat the crowd and absentee vote. It became a real labor of my civic responsibility. The line wound around the local early voting location at the State Archives in Baton Rouge, with a wait of an hour and a half.

If you are following the numerous polls that are coming out daily, Hillary Clinton appears to be slightly ahead nationally with the popular vote.  But Donald Trump seems to be making a major push in four or five swing states, including Ohio.  This leads to the possibility that Clinton will carry the day in acquiring a majority of voters across the nation, but Trump could be elected by garnering an Electoral College majority.  Déjà vu Bush-Gore?  The Democrats who would go absolutely bonkers again just like they did back in 2000. 

So the line continues to move forward, and I check out some of my fellow about-to-be voters.  That older lady with a face-lift and the Sketcher Shape-Ups?  Definitely a Trumpite.  How about the guy right in front of me wearing Birkenstocks and a t-shirt that says: “FAUX News - where facts don't matter.”  Clinton had him wrapped up from the beginning.

On the wall a little closer up, there is a stop sign that says: “No political activity within 300 yards of this polling location.”  I came up with this idea to place such a sign at all polling locations back when I was Secretary of State and Louisiana’s chief elections officer in 1982.  Oh, yes, I did add:  “Ordered by James H. Brown-Secretary of State.”  I thought it looked pretty good until, when it was time to run for re-election, my opponents hollered that I was the one who was doing the politicking.  Oh, well!

I finally arrived at the voting booth, gave my name, showed my photo ID (no big deal), and then asked the lady-polling commissioner if she had any doughnuts?  You see, back in the days when I was running for office, I always delivered boxes of doughnuts to each polling location.  The voting commissioners loved it, and I’m sure they would occasionally volunteer a suggestion as to whom to vote for when a quizzical voter wandered in. And there were always extra doughnuts for voters who asked. This time, (34 years later) the lady looked at me like I was nuts.

I entered my voting booth along with the lady commissioner who inserted a little plastic card into my computerized machine. She must have figured I was too stupid to stick it in myself.  I made my choices, and like many voters, guessed at voting for a few candidates and propositions where I hadn’t a clue of how, or for whom to vote.  But I finished.  I had done my civic duty.

But I felt a bit let down.  Is that all there is?  Maybe it was the candidates.  Clinton campaigns defending the status quo and carries lots of political baggage.  And Trump flip-flops on any number of issues, along with a lifestyle that is offensive to a large number of American voters.  Both parties seemed at constant political war, with a disregard of what’s in the best interest of the nation.

Whoever is the victor on Election Day, here’s hoping the winner will immediately set out a workable agenda of specific goals for America in the coming four years. If not, here’s the encouraging news. It’s only 1,465 days until the next presidential election.

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Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right?

Robert Orben

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9:00 am till 11:00 am Central Time on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

WHY YOUNG VOTERS ARE DISENGAGED FROM POLITICS!

October 20^th, 2016

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

WHY YOUNG VOTERS ARE DISENGAGED FROM POLITICS!

Do young voters really care about who runs their local, state and federal government?  Whatever buzz inspired younger voters to support Barack Obama has been severely diminished by the gridlock in Washington.  Voters under thirty (and the rest of us, for that matter) have witnessed conflict and partisan politics while the economy languishes and major problems go unresolved. The idealism of youth is being replaced by a cynicism towards those in charge, and this includes from the President right down to the local level.

Software pioneer Tim O’Reilly talks about voter disconnect in TechCrunch magazine, where he writes: “Too often, we think of government as a kind of vending machine. We put in our taxes, and get out services: roads, bridges, hospitals, fire brigades, police protection…. and when the vending machine doesn’t give us what we want, we protest. Our idea of citizen engagement has somehow been reduced to shaking the vending machine.”

This vending machine analogy is a good one.  Not only do you often not get what you want, both the machine and government have made the decision of just what you can buy or get in the first place.  You are at the mercy of the information that the system allows you to have. 

Freedom of information has been a hallmark of American democracy since the nation’s founding.  Make the information available, and then let the public decide. In the ‘70s, when I served as a Louisiana State Senator, I authored and enacted into law what at the time was considered to be the strongest open meetings and public records legislation in the country.  And today, we have the technology – the Internet, the huge online databases, and the cloud — that should make access to this information we need to make good decisions about our government so much easier.

But in spite of the advanced technology, questionable barriers have eroded the access to public information.  High copying fees, long wait times, locked government data bases, the refusal to produce requested documents based on bogus security issues, and capricious personal decisions have thwarted the public’s right to know. 

Many of these obstacles are put in place by public officials wanting to conduct their business in secret.  Many citizens, particularly the younger, more idealistic voters, are turned off by what they see as political cynicism.  They rightly feel that the information is paid for with their tax dollars, and that they have the right to see it.  Too many elected officials are offering only the vending machine, where in a world of the cloud and other advanced technology, most of this information should be easily available to whomever cares to access it over the Internet.

A number of younger voters have told me they feel the agenda of most bureaucrats and elected officials is to keep the status quo.  One young woman put it bluntly:  “Look, we’re all into networking and building businesses with new technology.  Most of us see government not as a help, but as a hindrance.  We just need for them to open up their information base, then just get out of the way and leave us alone.”

Another young man asked, “where’s the innovation, where’s the creativity in government?”  He quoted Einstein’s thoughts that Imagination is more important than knowledge.  “I have a number of bright, imaginative friends that are doing some really cool things and creating value,” he said. “Where’s the vision in the public sector?”

Knowing that I’d been Louisiana’s chief elections officer as Secretary of State back in the ‘80s, some young voters zinged me over the archaic election process, “You can do about anything online at home, around the clock.  You can text, call an 800 number to vote on American Idol.  But voting?  Long lines, limited time, hanging chads; why so many barriers?  That’s so last century!” 

What these young people are saying is that the boundaries need to come down. No more toleration of the vending machine.  Make government a two way street.  Let technology put many decisions — more power of government — in the hands of citizens. Will this inspire younger voters back into the participatory fold?  Right now, there seems to be a lack of younger voter enthusiasm for any candidate. We will know on November 8^th whether they care enough to go vote.

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“I’m not afraid to shake up the system, and government needs more shaking up than any other system I know.”

Former Texas Governor Ann Richards

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9:00 am till 11:00 am Central Time on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

COST OF DRUGS NO ISSUE IN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE!

Thursday, October 13^th, 2016

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

COST OF DRUGS NO ISSUE IN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE!

If you watched the presidential debate last week, the only real winner was the guy who wore the red sweater and asked an intelligent policy question about energy. His Izod sweater has become a hot clothing item at stores all over America. He has become a media sensation, simply because he has legitimate concerns over issues, not the personal peccadillos of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Most Americans have several major concerns.  First of all, they want to be kept safe.  And they want affordable healthcare. Trump’s answer for affordable healthcare is to abolish Obamacare. Clinton says just “tweak” Obamacare more. But the medical costs keep going up and neither candidate has any specific solutions.

One would think that the Louisiana congressional delegation, with four members being physicians, would be in the lead by offering legislation to deal with increasing high costs.  But nary a word from the doctors who are Bayou State Representatives and a U.S. Senator. 

Here is one of the big problems that need addressing.  Back in 2003, Congress added Medicare Part D as a new and important benefit for seniors over 65 to allow for prescription drugs. But as the legislation was about to pass into law, the pharmaceutical industry slipped in a provision prohibiting the federal government form negotiating price reductions.  So the United States government, that has the largest buying power on the planet, is prohibited by law from negotiating drug prices with Big Pharma.

Drug prices, in many instances, are completely out of control, yet drug companies have a monopoly, and can charge any price they want. How could Congress allow such a sweetheart deal?  Could it be that the pharmaceutical industry pours hundreds of millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of numerous congressmen?

Here is just one of many glaring examples.  A drug called Havoni, which is known by it brand name Sovaldi, is a cure for hepatitis C, an infection that can kill.  The company did not develop the drug, but only bought the patent and began producing and selling it. The drug costs one dollar to manufacture.  But the federal government is being charged $1000. That’s right. One thousand dollars!  National Public Radio reports that a typical course of treatment will last 12 weeks and run $84,000, plus the cost of necessary companion drugs.

And get this. The actual cost of producing the drug is about one dollar a pill. One Dollar!  The company that makes the drug billed the federal government $15 billion last year. This very same drug sells in India for $4.00 a pill.  And can it get worse? Yes! The company’s profits are being funneled to Ireland so that few if any taxes are paid to the U.S.

This is just one of numerous examples where exorbitant price gouging has caused both Medicare and Medicaid to be on the verge of bankruptcy, and will require a massive infusion of taxpayer dollars to keep both programs afloat. There is absolutely no legitimate justification for the federal government not to be able to negotiate drug prices as any other private business can do.  Decision s about drug laws should not be based on the influence of campaign contributions, as is the current case.

Here is what every Louisiana voter should do. Two doctors are running for U.S. Senate, current Congressmen John Fleming and Charles Boustany, and one doctor, Congressman Ralph Abraham is running for re-election. One other doctor is current U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy. Corner them at a debate or town hall meeting, and ask them directly. Will they commit to author and support legislation that will repeal any prohibition that keeps the federal government from negotiating drug prices?  If they won’t agree on the spot, make it clear they will not have your support in the future.

Every Louisiana voter should be outraged, and consider who has voted to allow this rip off to happen come election day in November.  Taxpayers deserve much better.

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Our fragmented insurance system has not until now provided any counterweight to drug companies who want to raise prices.

Peter Bach

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9:00 am till 11:00 am Central Time on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

SENATE DEBATE ORGANIZERS DO DISSERVICE TO VOTERS!

Thursday, October 7th, 2016

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

SENATE DEBATE ORGANIZERS DO DISSERVICE TO VOTERS!

There are twenty-four candidates in the running for the open U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana.  A televised debate has been set on the state’s public television network for October 18^th, to give Louisiana voters a chance to size up the candidates. But there will only be five contenders in the debate. And the losers are the voters.

Louisiana is the only state in the nation to hold a convoluted open primary, where all candidates run at the same time, regardless of party or independent affiliation.  There are no party primaries.  So the result has too often allowed the extreme candidates on both the left and the right to get into a run off.

Party primaries allow consensus candidates to emerge that better reflect the views of a majority of voters.  Oh, but party primaries are obsolete, a number of good government groups allege. If that’s the case, why is Louisiana the only state to adopt such a system?  I guess, like in so many other areas of government reform, the Bayou State is just way ahead of the curve. Yeah, right!

The statewide public television network, paid for by taxpayer dollars, has allowed an outside private organization called the Council for a Better Louisiana to pick and choose who will be allowed on the debate stage.  According to the Advocate, the CABL group “drew a line and invited the candidates they deemed to be the most serous of the bunch.”

So we are to believe there are only five “serious candidates” with the other 19 just tagging along for the ride.

When public tax dollars are involved, no private organization should be calling the shots of who can make their case to voters and who will be left out.  If CABL or any other groups want to hold a debate at their expense, so be it.  But allowing any private group to dictate who should be included when taxpayer dollars are footing the bill is both wrong, and probably a violation of the law.

In fact, a lawsuit was filed just this week by candidate and former State Senator Troy Hebert alleging the unfairness and outright illegality of allowing public funds to discriminate as to who is in and who is out of the debate.  In previous debates sponsored by CABL, a candidate had to raise a minimum of $250,000, which seems to be a reasonable amount.  But now the group has raised the total to one million dollars, which appears to be unreasonably high.  Remember that Donald Trump had not raised anywhere close to this amount at the time of his first presidential debate.

There are several candidates who, in the words of CABL, should not be considered “serious.”  Retired Air Force Colonel Rob Maness, a Republican, garnered 15% of the statewide vote just two years ago in his race for U.S. Senate that was won by current incumbent Bill Cassidy.  A former U.S. Congressman, Joseph Cao, is in the mix and has a Washington perspective to offer. David Duke, who has run as high as 12% in recent polls, more than twice the threshold set by CABL, could certainly liven up the debate.  Trump, in his early campaign efforts, was so well known that he did not need to raise that much campaign cash. Duke is in the same category with his name recognition, whether it’s positive or negative.

But regardless of the polling numbers or amount of campaign dollars a candidate raises, it’s disturbing that a small group of businessmen (CABL) can dictate who can be the beneficiary of taxpayers’ dollars.  The Louisiana Pubic Broadcasting network, the debate sponsor, is doing a public disservice by allowing such a process.

The legislature can do two things to vastly improve the process.  Get rid of the current “jungle primary” system that has been rejected by every other state in the nation.  And put tighter limits on how private organizations can dictate how public agencies spend taxpayer dollars.  The public deserves better than it is receiving by current process.

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“The American people are demanding more competitive and inclusive elections, not less.”

Former Senator Joe Lieberman

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9:00 am till 11:00 am Central Time on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.