In his CBS 60-Minutes interview last year with Lesley Stahl, Abramoff let the cat of the bag when he explained how he asserted power and influence over so many in Washington, D.C., with just a swipe of the pen.
The answer was simple for Abramoff: find a moving train, find the reform bill. Lobbyists, Abramoff stated very matter-of-factly, love the reform bill. It was his client’s ticket to getting what they wanted out of a law.
In this instance, the reform bill took on a new form. It was a means to end or the provisional key for the client and meant big bucks for the involved politicians, which required a Congressional conduit.
Abramoff spent three and a half years of a six-year sentence in prison. And, he’s still paying millions in restitution. Ironically, many of the Congressmen and Senators who knowingly took Abramoff’s checks are still in D.C. working their magic into new bills on behalf of special interests instead of their constituents.
If you happen to live in Salt Lake City, you can listen and learn for yourself from the author of Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From America's Most Notorious Lobbyist. Jack Abramoff will be in town on 2/23 speaking at the Radisson downtown SLC to the lobbyist community, public and elected officials about his former life as a K Street power broker, redemption, and what he is doing now to change the tide of corruption in Washington as well as speaking signing books at the Costco at 1818 South / 300 West, Salt Lake City and presenting at the Hinckley Inst. of Politics forum at the U of U.
Bringing Abramoff’s tactics forward 20 years, put this in the context of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare). It consists of more than 2,000 pages and 1.15 million words representing the mother of all reform bills.
Americans today need to quickly comprehend the “why” and the urgency associated with repealing this monster healthcare reform bill. Despite the early warnings and a few desperate pleas against Obamacare, there were very few who were “in the know” at the time of its passing. Their exasperation fell on deaf ears. En masse, Americans were, and continue to be unable to comprehend the end-game behind such a reform bill. Socialist medicine has arrived while Americans remain most concerned with who will be the next American Idol.
In the simplest of terms, the federal government has overstepped its limited authority by attempting to force citizens to purchase health insurance.
Aside from its unconstitutionality, the universal mandate is also a job killer. The business that pays fines to Uncle Sam for employer-paid healthcare will either decide to no longer offer the assistance, or will find other ways to trim its budget, which often results in a hiring freeze.
And, despite its promise or the rebuttals of its supporters, Obamacare does not establish a patient-focused health care system that saves money. According to The Heritage Foundation, Congress cannot build sound, market-based health care reform on Obamacare’s crumbling foundation, which is utterly incompatible with consumer choice and free markets.
Moreover, being mindful of past mistakes and the tactics of a duplicitous Abramoff, we must take the time to better understand who is already receiving a payday from Obamacare’s passing. Who “got the ticket to ride” so that once efforts to repeal the seriously expensive and damaging bill are successful, these mistakes won’t be repeated and those who benefit from the labors of the American worker are exposed.
While repealing universal healthcare is of great importance, Utahns must find the time now to understand how this deceptive reform bill has the real possibility of driving Utah’s and U.S. healthcare over the cliff, especially given the new CBO report findings which prove we can’t afford Obamacare.
