Accountability

Today, for the ubteenth time, the Sacramento Bee carried another article on how the courts are forcing California to reform its health care of prisoners. A critical part of this issue is the huge overcrowding of California’s prisons.

Moreover, I have read a multitude of articles about the federal deficit, and the recent “compromise” that will continue tax cuts; adding dramatically to the deficit.

I also read articles about the health insurance industry, noting increasing costs and unfairness.

And don’t forget Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq’s latest disappointment is the exodus of Christians from Iraq vis-à-vis radical attacks on Christian neighborhoods. Afghanistan is an endless pit of American lives and resources, with little progress in sight.

I could go on with more examples, but I will briefly comment on our conservative friends contributions in: 1. Prison reform. 2. Federal spending and the deficit. 3. Health care. 4. Foreign policy and terrorism.

Prison Reform: We can thank the conservative philosophy for our mess in California’s prisons. Several years ago, the conservative approach prevailed in California criminal law, lavishing money on building more prisons to house a criminal population thanks to the “three strikes law”, ending indeterminate sentences; basically “cracking down” on criminals with tougher laws and less tolerance. Conservatives prevailed with the public in attacking “bleeding heart liberals” who pushed for rehabilitation and treating drug abuse as a disease and not a crime. The get tough on crime crowd pushed tougher prisons, taking education and rehab programs out, making the medical care spartan, and ran straight into lawsuits that show what this insane approach can produce: more crime, out of control spending overcrowding, inhumane medical treatment, and “cruel and inhuman punishment”.

A by-product of California conservatives being flat wrong is a prison system that is sucking the financial well-being of the state down a hole of corruption; prison guards who are paid like brain surgeons; etc. California is bankrupt, while incarcerating record numbers of non-violent offenders. The War on Drugs and the War on Crime are having the effect of destroying the public schools and public health programs. We spend more on warehousing drug addicts in prison than we do on kindergartens and colleges!

And it has not worked! Drug abuse is at record levels. Crime has not declined, in fact is even more violent. Recidivism rates are above 35%, prisons are becoming schools for teaching more violent behavior. “Law and Order” has produced lawlessness and disorder.

There is no accountability for these boneheaded mistakes that are harming our society. No conservative think tank has done any study on this train wreck of public policy. They just don’t talk about it, while the rest of us are left with the mess.

Federal spending and deficits: The Tea Party Movements, at least according to their own propaganda, declares that Republicans blew it during the Bush administration that produced record deficits. They promise, in their congressional declaration, to address overspending and deficits. But, they neglect to count tax cuts as cuts in revenue that directly result in drops in revenue that add to the deficit.

Tea Party members also deny any connection between two wars and tax cuts on the deficit. Finally, Republicans push for a “compromise” while holding unemployment extensions hostage, that will add massively to the deficit.

In California we have seen the Republican Party embrace tax cuts on everything including park fees but no real effort to embark on any spending cuts other than on “waste”. They do not have the stomach to actually cut the public schools, they just set up a deficit that results in starving the schools to death.

This tax cut mania has resulted in a chronic deficit in California that has resulted in the virtual destruction of public schools, highway construction, parks; you name it.

Do the conservatives show any accountability for this disaster? Of course not, they only push for more tax cuts, declaring that taxes are job killers, while their tax cuts result in an unemployment rate over 10%!

Health Care: American’s health care system has been increasingly privatized in the past fifty years. Public health once non-profit and community based, has now become part of the national for profit insurance industry. Private insurers enjoy a virtual monopoly on health care, dictating to doctors, hospitals and consumers everything from basic care, to prescription drugs. Death panels exist alright, but not in government, but in private insurance cabals, who literally decide who will live and who will die based on their profit bottom lines. This is the “wonder” of free enterprise reform according to the conservatives, leading us to economic disaster. Nearly 40% of our GDP will be spent on health insurance if this continues, which is unsustainable.

Of course, conservatives take no blame for this. In fact, they have now vowed to destroy the federal health care reform, at the bidding of the health insurance monopoly. Every indicator of health shows the United States to be paying far more for health care than other countries with deplorable results. This sounds like the prison reforms shown above. We pay more for a reform that gives us less. We pay millions for prisons, and get more crime and prisoners. We pay more for health insurance and get less care for our money; more suffering, less medicine. And the rich get richer.

Foreign Policy and Terrorism: We have been engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan for nearly a decade with little results. First, there were no weapons of mass destruction so President Bush made up the policy of bringing peace and democracy to Iraq. The results are massive amounts of money spent, with a country that cannot protect its citizens from each other. Trillions have been thrown away on “privatized contractors” who have failed in every area to provide water, electricity, or security to the citizens of Iraq. The rich get richer.

Afghanistan, where the policy is to deny its area as a terrorism training ground, has deteriorated into a terrorism training ground and a rallying area for resistance and hatred toward America. Again, trillions are being spent and the country is in turmoil, not able to govern itself, with little progress.

And, Bin Laden is still at large after all this money spent and lives lost. The architect of 9-11 is still alive and guiding international terrorism.

Again, no accountability for the neo-cons who got us into these messes. None! Conservatives now criticize President Obama as he tries to extricate the United States from both wars as they bankrupt us. The hypocrisy is legend.

Conservatives have been wrong time and again. But they cleverly package a message, based on lies, that Americans and Californians find compelling. If the public would just apply the basic accountability standards in a cost-benefit analysis, they would be appalled by the cost benefit ratio: in all areas it will be negative, far more cost than benefit.

The conservative philosophy has no tangible results to prove that their ideas have worked. If held accountable by any fair standard, they have failed, at great cost with negative benefits.