The History of Amerika’s Cartoon Government (part 2) (by ContraSuggest)

In part one of this series, we laid out much of the how, where, why, and when the corrupt Amerikan political system came into existence; how it persists in an even more dangerous form to this day, and how it has resulted in the wholesale destruction of the constitutional system created by the Founders.  Here in part two, we’re going to concentrate on the shape of modern-day political corruption in our state governments, specifically in New York State, where crooked, machine politics was practically invented.

It’s important here to understand the seductive and all-consuming nature of Amerikan political corruption.  Undoubtedly, from time to time there are some truly good men and women who decide to run for public office because they want to effect positive change.  Many of them eschew constitutional principles simply because they do not understand the constitutional system put in place by the Founders, nor do they care to. If that weren’t tragic enough, most soon discover the need to solicit lots of campaign cash from various special interests, and to make lots of campaign promises that are called-in once they’re in office.  If elected, legislators find it necessary to almost immediately start running for reelection; begin lavishing patronage jobs on friends and family members, possibly with good intentions (like trying to help friends or relatives who are out of work). Unfortunately, this practice precludes them from criticizing similar practices by other legislators, thus propagating a crooked system.  The need for electoral support and ever more campaign cash makes it difficult not to cave-in to special interest demands, like those of the public employee unions, who fill legislators’ campaign coffers with cash.  The crack-like addiction makes ‘going along to get along’ much easier than standing up against the forces of corruption.  As illustrated in part one, the New York (City and State) of the 1820s was the birthplace of the political instrumentalities and much of the “innovations” that accelerated the nation’s path toward wide-spread institutionalized corruption.  In the early 21^st century, New York is still the poster child for all that is destructive in American politics.    

Let’s consider how the surrender of New York State’s politicians to special interest pressures has nearly bankrupted the state, and overburdened citizens with crippling taxation and regulation.  Corruption in the funding of public programs has led the state to the brink of fiscal insolvency.  For the sake of brevity, we will concentrate on one notable area where financial corruption flourishes: New York State’s bloated Medicaid program.  The Medicaid program, mandated by the Feds and inaugurated in New York in 1966, was the brainchild of uber-liberal Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller.  Rockefeller was, in today’s vernacular, a RINO, who made a career of out-pandering liberal Democrats, and purposefully designed Medicaid to offer lavish medical benefits to the “poor”, while raking in the maximum amount of Federal matching funds (funding was to be shared in a 50-50 Fed/State split).  New York’s Medicaid bill was quickly pushed through the legislature with almost no real consideration or public review; amendments were recklessly added by legislators, one of which mandated that Albany would pick up only half of the state’s portion of Medicaid costs; the rest of the financial burden was pushed onto the local governments.  This assured that the program would be an unmitigated fiscal disaster from day one, and it got progressively worse as time wore on.  Today, the average NY county devotes more than half of its county taxes just to covering its state-imposed share of Medicaid costs. 

Medicaid benefits are controlled by city and county officials who, for many years, have used them as patronage.  The legislature in Albany continually turn a blind eye to the runaway costs of Medicaid, and the massive deficits that it creates, because they look at it as just another constituency service.  Hundreds of thousands of health-care workers (represented by their powerful unions), health-care providers, and those receiving medical and nursing home benefits, are bestowed with Medicaid dollars in return for campaign cash and votes on Election Day.  In New York City hospitals, for instance, local politicians exercise wide control over everything from supervisory appointments down to which departments will receive funding and which ones won’t.  In a criminally dysfunctional atmosphere like this, where Medicaid services are doled out as political rewards by apparatchiks of the inner city politburo, Medicaid costs have, and will continue to spiral out of control, and consume ever-increasing portions of state and local government budgets.

The twisted morass of corruption and mismanagement is dizzying; consider the following:  New York State’s Medicaid budget is far bigger than California’s, a state which has over twice the population of NY.  Fraud runs rampant in the system (estimated to be in the double-digit billions), yet the Medicaid budget balloons every year (spending tripled between the 1980s and the early 2000s), while the fraud investigation unit gets smaller and smaller.  Despite a huge oversupply of state hospital beds, the powerful 1199 Healthcare Workers Union has continually blocked any cuts that would eliminate surplus jobs or hospitals.  Thanks to the mismanagement of Medicaid, New York State is hemorrhaging money, continually increasing taxes and regulations, going deeper and deeper into crippling debt, while doctor reimbursements continue to be reduced, and health care choices for the truly poor become more and more restricted.       

A complete list of New York’s Cartoon Government abuses would run far too long to include here; unfortunately the state’s Medicaid debacle is emblematic of how most government programs are run in the Empire State.  Education is another fraudulent cesspool of back-room deals and budget busting corruption.  These abuses are very much part of the crooked political culture in other states like New Jersey, California, Michigan, Illinois, and many others.  Our national woes will continue until these abuses are at least greatly curtailed; the first step to fixing our system is to identify the problems, which is what I am attempting to do with this series of posts.  Stay tuned for part 3.