How Dems can look tough without starting war or increasing defense spending

Some Dems in Congress and running for president think the only way to look tough is be more willing to nuke Iran than Bush and willing to give a bigger blank check to the Defense Department. That may actually be the only way to win over the money and corporate people, but there is a way to look tough to the American people by taking on some domestic dragons. Even if they don't succeed, they will have the respect and gratitude of the American people. Here's some to start with:


big oil

I'm stilling waiting for a Democratic leader to investigate big oil's role in the war, and say we give them tax breaks, subsidies, and wars, and in return, they keep their prices artificially high and squash alternative energy technology.

Democrats took some small steps toward this in their first hundred days, but they were not blunt enough: our troops are dying and killing for their oil contracts and pipelines. They need to replace the childish propaganda storyline of fighting terrorism and spreading democracy with the real story of using our military and inciting fear at home and hatred abroad to enrich very, very few.


health insurance companies

They profit by taking your money and NOT delivering service, by putting people with cancer on hold and hoping they die listening to elevator music. They jack their prices up so high that many Americans can't afford to buy in on their own, and they actually make me feel sorry for heartless corporations struggling with insurance costs of their employees. This industry should be a tightly regulated non-profit or a state run single payer. If the industry tries to block any reform, we will pass a law making denying life saving treatment that results in death first degree murder with a special circumstance--murder for profit, and begin prosecuting corporate officers and major shareholders.



big pharma

We give them tax dollars for research and development, then they gouge us with higher prices than they charge in other countries, and demand that medicare not using their huge customer base to bargain for lower prices. Pharma also has a sweatheart deal where they get to pick the labs that test their products for FDA approval. If I ran one of those labs, I'd err on the side of approving to get future contracts from them, and judging from some recalls, that is exactly what happens.



credit cards

Credit card companies are allowed to charge people interest that used to make the mafia blush. They give people much greater credit limits than they can ever repay, then lobby to end consumer bankruptcy. These guys need to be tightly regulated by someone who will never work at a bank or as a corporate officer again. Tie their interest rates to the prime, bar them legally from soliciting on college campuses, and use their lobbyists to replace that tainted cat food.


All republicans and most democrats grovel before these business interests, and when they kick us in the nuts, instead of standing up for us, Congress largely says, "thank you, sir, may I have another!"

Someone who went after one or all of these bastards would look pretty goddamn brave, and they could call their opponents the toadies and shills they are when they come to the defense of these leeches on the average Americans.