For one thing, we may soon - - and I emphasize "may," as Assembly poison pills may get written into the prescription - - have an answer to the question oft-asked since Scott Walker was elected Governor, and the Brothers Scott and Jeff Fitzgerald took the reins in the Senate and Legislature:
"What will it take to make them abandon a special interest?"
The answer seems to be cancer.
Cancer, and reasonable access to modern-day, life-saving oral chemotherapy, may trump the inside political power of corporate, conservative money.
We'll know for sure by the end of this disgraceful Legislative session Thursday if all you have to have is metastasizing melanomas to break past a know-nothing Governor, a flip-flopping Senate Majority Leader, and a soulless Assembly Speaker who hinted as late as yesterday that he still had some procedural tricks up his sleeve to outmaneuver cancer patients and hand a victory to former GOP Assembly Speaker-turned-lobbyist Jeff Fitzgerald on behalf of the insurance industry.
As for Walker, why it was only yesterday that he offered up the preposterous notion that he didn't have a position on the chemotherapy access bill because he hadn't studied it.
Right: the guy whose County and political teams' emails showed him online in the daily 8:00 a.m. briefings, the take-charge guy firing off instructions, cobbling together strategies, and dictating memos and news releases didn't know enough about the bill to take a position.
That's changed, too, as Walker now says he'd sign the bill.
Because he'd seen the headlines statewide and got briefed - - about internal polling or talking-point development that was sending one message:
Running for re-election against cancer politics is a losing proposition.
"UNINTIMIDATED!"
ReplyDelete"What will it take to make them abandon a special interest?"
ReplyDeleteYou answered 'cancer', but I must disagree.
I think the answer is 'statewide headlines'.
Can't have the outrage if the story isn't widely covered. And a lot of stuff hasn't been widely covered these last few years.
Any time your party sets itself up as the legitimate target of a Sarah Palin anti-death panel diatribe- you aren't living right.
ReplyDeleteDavid Koch funds cancer research because he had cancer. As I've said before, all of these legislators and governor are elected--and paid by us!--to represent us, but they all have a constituency of one.
ReplyDeleteRepeating my comment from a previous thread.
ReplyDeleteCancer touches everyone. If you've ever had to have the surgeries, then a mediport installed, go for 4-6 hour sessions of IV chemo weekly for months knows how horrifying and physically challenging the experience can be. And then another surgery is required to remove the port. Call your representative and tell them your story. Put a face on this legislation. Don't let them off the hook.
"Pass SB300 as is, without amendment".
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/pages/waml.aspx
Call the governor's office. http://walker.wi.gov/content/contact-us
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Walker and his boys, internal differences aside are playing the feild. Big pharma v.s. ithe insurance industry. Who wants to pay to play?
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Made some calls. Spoke to several office reps within the senate and assembly today. Amendments forthcoming. Some senators unaware. Some assemblymen aware.
The game continues to be played. While people suffer or die.
Know this- some chemotherapy treatment are ONLY available in pill form.
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Robin Vos- the worst kind of cancer is the kind you are to this state and the assembly. May you never suffer the fate of your own hand.
Don't get your hopes up. The Senate action could be a political ploy to give senators coming up for re-election cover. The Assembly with its almost 2 to 1 margin could afford to loose a few seats and still protect Walker from having to sign a bill that his special interest donors disfavor. Or Walker could have them overwhelming support it so he can sign it and still get cover because his Republican legislature forced his hand. Did you hear how Walker's office phrased his position: "He would sign the bill if it passed by as wide a margin as in the Senate."
ReplyDeleteThe Koch brothers also CAUSE cancer with the toxic pollution some of their businesses produce. see Outchita River. And recall their pet coke piles in Detroit and Chicago.
ReplyDeleteHi,
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