This past week we heard Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana announce his departure because he is sick of bipartisanship in Congress. Then we heard Tiger Woods confess about his transgressions. I was thinking -- is there a connection? After much thought, I came to the conclusion that I could make that argument. They are both greedy hawkers.
Let's take Bayh first. He and his wife made millions. He would have been in the Senate just two terms when he leaves. Susan Bayh sits on the board at WellPoint, Inc., one of the largest health care insurance companies.
Between them they own over a million dollars of WellPoint stock. Susan started stacking up memberships on the boards of health care corporations when it became evident that he was going to win the Senate seat. She got paid over $2 million for her service between 2006 and 2008.
Evan collected over $500,000 in campaign donations from the health care industry. After he was elected, he fought hard to protect insurance company interests. The Bayh's basically became hawkers for the insurance industry and their lobbyists. And there were lots of lobbyists. Don't shed any tears for them when he leaves Congress. They will probably become lobbyists themselves and hawk to other incumbents and make millions more.
Now look at Tiger. He was a hawker for about half a dozen companies. He made over a billion dollars for this. Remember that this money was not for playing golf, just for hawking watches, cars etc. He could have written a check for the controversial public option in health care. Instead, he indulged in homes, cars, yachts, jewelry and women. Yes, lots of women. Nineteen at last count. And now that he has said he is sorry publicly, the money will start coming to him again (not that it ever left him).
So what is at play here? The worst of capitalism. We have the rich looking out for themselves while the general public is tearing their hair apart on how to find jobs, fund their children's education, afford health care, etc.
Remember, many incumbents in Congress are filthy rich. And they get richer the longer they stay. And the longer they stay, the more lobbyists and self interest groups they hawk for. It doesn't matter if they are Democrats or Republicans. If one party gets voted out, the old guard takes over. The status quo remains.
What is interesting about Tiger is that he is married to a lady from Sweden, Elin Nordegren, and she is a politician's daughter. Sweden is considered one of the top two nations in the world (Denmark is the other) for quality of life: excellent, affordable health care for everyone, subsidized college education, no poverty, essentially no crime or unemployment, no hate mongers on the air waves, stable government where politicians treat each other with civility and look out for the public good, and everyone paying their share including the rich.
It is not a place where the rich pay millions of dollars to accountants to find every tax loophole. It is a place that conservatives like Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and a host of others would abhor. Why? Because Swedes are "socialists." How can a socialist country be better than us? According to the conservative mind, we are not capitalist enough.
We still have too many rules imposed by the government. They believe that we need to be at a stage where we have no rules-just free enterprise. Then all will be well. In eight years of the previous administration the systematic dismantling of oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission caused a worldwide financial meltdown which will take years to recover from. The common people got hurt.
The congressional elite continued to prosper-they had very high paying jobs, great benefits and lots of money from lobbyists.
All we have to do is listen to our politicians tear each other down every day simply based on their party affiliation. Lots of fluff and finger pointing. No substance. No ideas on how to reach out or solve problems. And the longer they are in Congress, the more partisan they become. And the more they hawk. And our life goes on.
But we voters can change this. Let's remember to throw the incumbents out in November, or we will be no better off. And Will Rogers' saying "the short memories of American voters is what keeps our politicians in office" will be alive and well.
Kulkarni lives in Perry.
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