To the Editor:

If we hadn’t figured it out by 2008, we should have at least gotten a clue. The congressional and White House phones and emails were jammed with unprecedented pleas from We the People. Not only were the lines jammed; the polls strongly indicated that We the People oppose the banker bailout. Regardless, the banks got bailed out and We the People got sold out.

Corporate privilege continued into the next administration. We see now that the health care reform effort had little to do with the care of our health but a lot to do with the care of healthy profits for private insurance conglomerates. Elizabeth Fowler, Wellpoint VP in charge of government lobbying, was invited as chief advisor and principal drafter of Obamacare. In contrast, advocates for the health of We the People, such as physician Margaret Flowers, were barred – even imprisoned for the impudence of insisting that the People’s voice be heard.

Whether one supports or opposes Obamacare and the coming mandate, the shameless advancement of corporate privilege throughout its passage and implementation is impossible to deny. In 2010, after helping with initial implementation as a special assistant to the president, Wellpoint’s Fowler left the administration to lobby for Johnson & Johnson. The pharmaceutical industry, one of the biggest backers of ObamaCare, will be one of its greatest benefactors. Fowler is one of many jumping the ship of “public service” for the conglomerate plunder to come. 

These are only two examples of the egregious privilege our government grants at our expense to corporate conglomerates. The list is endless.  

We are not helpless. As Obamacare open enrollment begins this month, remember that we are not sheeple; we have the power to make a difference. A People’s movement is underway to reclaim the vision of the Founding Fathers and amend the Constitution, to put the freedom of We the People above the privilege of the mega conglomerates that have taken control of our government. 

The system isn’t broken. It’s fixed!

Allen Lomax

Sylva