‘‘Our health care financing system does not work, and it’s understandable that state legislators see a need to step in,’’ said Gordon, a senior research consultant for the Iowa Policy Project and co-author of the report — Prescriptions and Placebos: Fixing Health Care in Iowa — for the non-partisan Iowa Fiscal Partnership. ‘‘They must be careful, however, to take a long-term view and not miss the underlying problem of spiraling health care costs.’’

    Previous efforts have encouraged employer-based coverage through tax credits, small-employer purchasing pools, mandates for large employers and other ideas, said Gordon, a historian who wrote ‘‘Dead on Arrival: The Politics of Health Care in Twentieth-Century America.’’

    On their own, these proposals represent a fragmented approach to the problem that would do little to expand coverage or increase affordability, and could actually make things worse, he said.

    ‘‘I really think that trying to patch up employer-based insurance is like moving furniture into a burning house. It guarantees double-digit inflation and rising uninsurance into the future,’’ Gordon said.

People Party vs. Money Party: Who's Who Among the Democrats

Many people ask me who? Who are the leading members of both sides of the actual divide? The answer is that there is no official list because no one is forced to formally declare their allegiance to the People Party or the Money Party. But it is fairly obvious which lawmakers in the new majority have specifically defined themselves on economic justice issues.

Though this is by no means a comprehensive list, here are the ones to watch in the coming Congress:

People Party Leaders

Freshman Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jon Tester (D-MT) and Jim Webb (D-VA): This is the core group of economic populists who defined the larger populist trend in the 2006 election. Brown has a long record in the House as an economic justice champion, as has Sanders (who I worked for years ago). Tester (pictured above from an event he did here in Helena last night) made his campaign about cleaning up K Street corruption, and Webb has declared that his top issue is going to be addressing the taboo issue of economic inequality.

Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL): Dorgan has been one of the strongest voices against profiteering by the energy and pharmaceutical companies, and has recently written a book called "Take This Job and Ship It," which is one of the strongest declarations against lobbyist-written trade deals from any sitting Senator in recent memory. Similarly, Feingold has voted against every major lobbyist-written trade deal that has come through the Senate, even airing campaign ads on the issue well before that kind of message became more popular. Kennedy, as the incoming chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee is expected to continue his rabid support for the People Party on nearly every economic issue. And Durbin, now the number two Democrat in the Senate, has also had a solid record on trade, and is additionally talking about pushing public financing of elections -- the most effective way to cut off K Street's ability to manipulate Congress.

House Chairpeople George Miller (D-CA), David Obey (D-WI), John Conyers (D-MI), Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Henry Waxman (D-CA): Miller will now head the Education and Workforce Committee where he is expected to turn his longtime leadership on pension security, wage protection and union organizing rights into legislative action. Obey, who will head the Appropriations Committee (and who I worked for a few years back), will make sure that any budget submitted by the White House that slashes health care, education and labor law enforcement will be dead on arrival, and replaced with a real spending plan that protects people (Obey was the guy who famously authored amendments to slash tax cuts for millionaires in order to better fund these priorities). Conyers will head the Judiciary Committee, which oversees all sorts of regulatory affairs where his pro-consumer record will finally have a chance to shine. Slaughter will chair the powerful Rules Committee -- the panel that governs how the entire chamber operates. She has been an outspoken leader against media consolidation -- one of the toughest issues to champion because the broadcasting industry is so powerful. And finally Waxman will head the Government Reform Committee, where we will now have a chairman who is serious about rooting out the waste, fraud and corruption that has plagued the no-bid Iraq contracts given to President Bush's cronies.

Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Tim Ryan (D-OH), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) Nancy Boyda (D-KS), and Bruce Braley (D-IA): Ohio's trio of Kaptur, Ryan and Kucinich have been among the staunchest critics of lobbyist-written trade pacts and advocates for the middle-class agenda in the House. Freshmen Boyda and Braley both ran their campaigns almost exclusively on the trade issue. In Braley's case, the Wall Street Journal noted that he made opposition to the Bush administration's free-trade agenda a centerpiece of his campaign" urging "more focus on labor rights in national trade policy and talked of using economic sanctions to keep America competitive."

Money Party Leaders

Sen. Chuck Schumer and Reps. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD): All three of these men, now in leadership positions, have made very little effort to conceal that they answer to Big Money interests. Schumer, for instance, recently trumpeted a new report calling for post-Enron corporate reforms to be gutted. Emanuel was the architect of NAFTA who used the prospect of his being in the majority on the Ways and Means Committee to suck corporate cash out of Wall Street. Hoyer bragged on his website about starting his own K Street Project, and, as I documented in Hostile Takeover, one of his top legislative staffers serves simultaneously as an official for his corporate fundraising operation -- 'nuff said.

To read the rest of this article, click here:

Actors in New Whalen Ad Are as Phony As Charges Leveled

By Jeff Giertz

 Waterloo, Iowa– Today the campaign of First District Democrat Bruce Braley released the following statement in response to another false attack ad from Bush-Republican CEO Mike Whalen.

 “Mike Whalen can’t find real Iowans to attack Bruce Braley, so he has to use actors,” Braley campaign spokesman Jeff Giertz said.  “It’s no surprise that a George Bush Republican would use these tried and true Washington tactics to attack a political opponent.

 “Now that these facts have come to light, can Mike Whalen be trusted to level with the people of Iowa?”

 Whalen’s new ad features “Ann,” a pregnant woman who cannot find a doctor because of Bruce Braley.  The ad also features “Dave,” a man who can’t find a job because of Bruce Braley.

 But “Ann” and “Dave” are both actors; footage used in the Whalen ad can be found at Getty Images’ online film database, http://creative.gettyimages.com.

 It seems like history is repeating itself.  In 2002, Republican US Senate candidate Greg Ganske was widely criticized after using an actress in an attack ad who falsely claimed to be an Iowan

 The Iowa City Press-Citizen called the Ganske ad “an intentional deception of Iowa voters.”  Columnist Rekha Basu called the Ganske ad “fraud.”  [Press Citizen, 9/20/02; Register, 9/15/02]

 The Whalen ad featuring actors can be viewed at the following link:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8XbsZnT7eE

 The stock footage of “Ann” from the Getty Images database can be viewed at:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMKMAdaY3Mg

 The stock footage of “Dave” from the Getty Images database can be viewed at:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POFiaCOdh3E

Braley Attacked by Enron Lobbyist

By Rapid Reponse

A well connected Enron lobbyist has entered the First District Congressional race funding negative campaign ads against Bruce Braley.  Sue Walden, a former lobbyist for Enron, is listed in IRS documents as the contact person for the 527 smear group, “Americans for Honesty in Issues”.    She was also a Bush Pioneer for 2000 and 2004 and a Bush Ranger for 2004. 
 
 http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/contributorsandpaybacks/pioneer_search.cfm
 
Americans for Honesty on Issues (EIN: 134341094) is a 527 committee running attack ads against nine Democrat candidates in the 2006 mid-term elections, the New York Times reported (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/us/politics/11donate.html?ref=politics&pagewanted=print) October 11, 2006. It states that its purpose is "to engage in political issue communications in compliance with Federal and state laws."
 
Although the new political action committee incorporates the word "honesty" in its name, little honesty has been employed by the organization regarding information about itself.
 http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Honesty_on_Issues