This Monday President Obama will deliver a speech on Wall Street, one day prior to the first anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy filing, with the purpose of jump-starting plans for a financial overhaul. Part of the plan is to establish a federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Get ready, taking a page from the Healthcare Reform opponents' handbook, the U.S Chamber of Commerce is planning a campaign to fire up the little guy. Only this time, they may have gotten, shall we say the wrong end of the cleaver?
According to a September 8 article in the Wall Street Journal, the Chamber spent $2 million on an ad that shows a picture of a butcher and the caption, "Virtually every business that extends credit to American consumers would be affected -- even the local butcher and the credit he extends to his customers."
The local butcher? Who the heck are they after with this one anyway? Do these guys spend so much time on Wall Street that they believe the Main Street the media keeps referring to really exists outside of Disney World?
About the only place you find a local butcher these days is in those gentrified city neighborhoods where customers pay through the teeth so they can walk to their shopping from high-end condos and tote home specially ordered cuts in eco-friendly reusable shopping bags. All the credit extended is on a plastic card. Somehow I don't think that's the demographic the Chamber is trying to reach.
But here's the really funny part. When you think of a time when the local butcher did extend credit to cash-strapped families, what does it bring to mind? Like maybe the Great Depression? So is that the best image for the Chamber's anti-financial reform message?
I guess they figure they're too big to fail.
BLOGGING FOR HEALTHCARE REFORM
And maybe more...
Deaths from Uninsured or Underinsured 2
How You Can Show Your Support
ATTEND AN AUGUST EVENT
If you see healthcare reform as an important issue, perhaps the most important issue in decades, you may be getting frustrated and wondering how you can make your views known. One way is to contact your lawmakers (see sidebar). Another is to attend an event.
Opponents of healthcare reform are organizing to show up at town hall meetings all over the country, and where they are in the minority, they sit in strategic spots in the audience and interrupt the speaker. They've already caught the attention of the media.
Free speech is fine, but we can't allow a minority of shouters to monopolize the debate. Go to the above site and commit to attending one event in the month of August.
Blogging About Healthcare and maybe more...
How does that ad go? "This isn't a liberal or conservative issue, it's a human issue." They're talking about the environment, but it could apply to healthcare reform as well, at least in the US. That's not altruism for the 48 million and counting uninsured. It's good old American "what's in it for me" thinking for both the uninsured and the currently insured who could find themselves uninsured at any moment.
Even if you've already taken sides on healthcare reform––especially if you have––I urge you to read these posts and simply consider these points. I have a writing blog and a book review blog, and I swore I'd never add my voice to the cacophony of angry voices blogging on politics. Only there are so many people adding their voices who don't have a clue what they are talking about, that I figured my more than 10 years experience working in benefits––most of it looking for ways to contain costs without cutting benefits––might actually add something to the conversation (if you can call it that).
I promise not to make statements I can't back up with experience or research. In return I ask that you approach my posts with an open mind, and when you comment, which I hope you will, make the comments civil so that they invite further discussion. Also, please comment on this blog rather than dragging the discussion to your own blogs, so that we can all take part.
I'm open to guest posts on either side, so long as they are well-informed and cite sources. Contact me
Even if you've already taken sides on healthcare reform––especially if you have––I urge you to read these posts and simply consider these points. I have a writing blog and a book review blog, and I swore I'd never add my voice to the cacophony of angry voices blogging on politics. Only there are so many people adding their voices who don't have a clue what they are talking about, that I figured my more than 10 years experience working in benefits––most of it looking for ways to contain costs without cutting benefits––might actually add something to the conversation (if you can call it that).
I promise not to make statements I can't back up with experience or research. In return I ask that you approach my posts with an open mind, and when you comment, which I hope you will, make the comments civil so that they invite further discussion. Also, please comment on this blog rather than dragging the discussion to your own blogs, so that we can all take part.
I'm open to guest posts on either side, so long as they are well-informed and cite sources. Contact me
Saturday, September 12, 2009
US Chamber Plans to Butcher Financial Overhaul
Labels:
financial reform,
main street,
president obama,
Us Chamber,
wall street
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