Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 10A
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS - Wednesday, April 7,2004
Opinion
Remove barriers to
businesses uniting
for health insurance
By Jack Faris
For the Forsyth County News
it's impossible these days
to avoid advertisements for
the latest abdominal shapers
or aerobics machines, not to
mention the guaranteed
weight-loss gimmicks.
Judging by the audiences that
tune in the mega-sports
events such as March
Madness, one would think
that America is a nation
obsessed with fitness and
physical activity.
But that's a false assump-
tion, says the
U.S.
Department of
Human
Services,
which notes
that fitness
problems such
as obesity
have reached
epidemic pro
portions in the
United States.
Faced with
unlimited
66
In the last
decade, employ
er-sponsored
health coverage
has changed
dramatically.
options for comfort, an over
abundance of food and enter
tainment delivered right to
our over-stuffed recliners, w e
Americans are gorging our
selves on the good life. We
deserve it. we rationalize,
because w e work hard and
spend long hours at our cho
sen occupations.
It's also virtually impossi
ble these days to avoid adver
tisements and news reports
about another favorite
American contact sport, the
upcoming Nov. 2 election.
Like March Madness.
November Nuttiness has
become a made-for-television
event filled with fouls, fights
and free throw s.
But this is no spectator
sport. It calls for participa
tion. Unfortunately, the par
ticipants registered voters
may head for the exits
before the final playoff
begins. Four years ago. bare
ly half of the nations' voting
age population of 205 million
people even bothered to show
up at the polls. Like our
weakening physical condi
tion. we are also in danger of
letting our political muscles
atrophy.
That's one reason the
National Federation of
Independent Business is
about to launch a fitness pro
gram for small-business ow n
ers and politicians alike that
is not based on a passing fad.
but whose roots can be found
in a document more than 200
years old. The First
Amendment to the
CARTOONISTS' VIEWS ON THE NEWS
-
m ««ww, t£ I
I OTOR-.ME Ml W.B ®Ft R®S!
<sl "*• ywlllP *IB
j* itjp- —
m 'W Im — V s **
k - />jjJr Zj*" I f **A 1 &
* wwrtsKfKjn ')z>)n. r f/ffiti'sS A />'
it/ a ■1 Aw Jll r 111 If A.// r"
g Hr wl iUyj/yXA 1
jEsskv.', KOm s fcirl
wY/k fiT|r 'fc^«>*R = !
IT kssJ® 7W K
_22__ »• I I 3 f _ vn \jr
Constitution, better known
for its protection of free
speech, also asserts our
national right 'to petition the
Government for a redress of
grievances."
Small businesses in
America have a big griev
ance: conditions preventing
them from obtaining fair and
affordable health-insurance
coverage for their employees
and themselves have become
unbearable. In the last
decade, employer-sponsored
health coverage has changed
dramatically.
Premium
increases,
which were
virtually non
existent in
the mid
-19905. have
re-emerged
with a
vengeance.
In 2003.
increases of
15 percent to
20 percent
were com-
mon.
To ensure that the increas
ingly grim health-insurance
picture for small business is
clearly understood by those
who will be facing voters in
November. NFIB is preparing
a nationwide effort to petition
the government, primarily the
U.S. Senate, to pass legisla
tion allowing small business
es to band together to pur
chase affordable health insur
ance.
The Senate, having swal
lowed a heaping helping of
hokum by labor unions, big
businesses, liberal health
groups and state officials
threatened by the idea of
Small-Business Health Plans,
has let its legislative system
become clogged.
By exercising their politi
cal muscle with a national
petition drive, small-business
owners are going to send
politicians a strong message
that obtaining fair and afford
able health coverage is their
No. I priority. They will hold
those who fail to shape up
accountable on Election Day.
Jack Faris is president of
NFIB l the National
Federation of Independent
Business), the nation’s largest
small-business advocacy
group. A non-profit, non-par
tisan organization founded in
1943, NFIB represents the
consensus views of its
600,000 members in
Washington. DC., and all 50
state capitals. More informa
tion is available on-line at
www.NFlß.com.
c™ Wi*i • '■
vUy rU A _
>? • '•<! I
-///1
"I hate to see the session end. It's easier to keep
an eye on the politicians when they're all n a crowd!"
GOP dominance won’t end fights
When someone suggested
that Rep. Tom Buck might
become a Republican, shock
and awe swept the state
Capitol. At least that’s the way
it seemed, if you read the
Atlanta papers.
How could the lion of the
Democrats, the venerable
chairman of the House budget
committee, the one-time boy
wonder of the Georgia
Democratic -controlled
Legislature dare think of turn
ing Republican?" some of us
astonished media types won
dered.
That is easy, explained Rep.
Buck. His new Columbus-cen
tered House district appears to
be heavily populated by
Republican voters. So what's a
fellow to do. if he hopes to
remain a legislator?
If you answered "consider
turning Republican," go to the
head of the class.
At this writing. Buck, now
in his 19th term in the House,
has not announced whether he
will leave the Democrats to
become a card-carrying
Republican. It may not matter.
Democratic Rep. Ann Purcell
of Rincon revealed last week
that she was switching parties.
No trumpets sounded. The
Earth did not crack open.
Nominal Democrats still con
trol 107 of the IXO seats in the
House, but their numbers are
steadily dwindling.
In fact, if the entire leader
ship of the Georgia House
rose in unison and declared
they were deserting the don
keys in favor of the elephants,
the citizens of Georgia might
not see any practical differ
ence. The agenda of the House
is as conservative as the GOP
controlled Senate or the gov-
Bill
Shipp J|
ernor’s office.
If Speaker Terry Coleman
and his lieutenants had been
Republicans instead of
Democrats in the 2004 session
of the Legislature, would any
major debate have turned out
differently?
No. The House still would
have adopted a proposed con
stitutional amendment ban
ning gay marriages. The lead
ership still would have favored
tort reform legislation. The
battle of the budget would
have been fought along the
same fault line more educa
tion spending favored by the
House versus more Medicaid
spending favored by Gov.
Perdue.
Even members of the
Legislative Black Caucus,
once the core of Democratic
loyalty, now stray from the
party fold with increasing fre
quency. as they did this year in
their votes in favor of the gay
marriage ban and last year on
the issue of easing regulations
for second-mortgage lenders.
Except in the caucus elec
tions of the legislative leader
ship, partisan labels in
Georgia mean next to nothing.
Geography and personal eco
nomic interests count more.
For instance, when the
state Senate debated tort
reform last week. Republican
and Democratic lawyer-sena
tors joined forces to try to beat
back the medical lobby’s cam
paign to contain malpractice
lawsuit damages. A joint
wunsKiw flit wsMiiHH
stampW USWtINBCm I
wsFoff? PREOTTO M
’ • PRW EILITOIW "WH |
> JSi LzZffik L Aw\ iff
J 'HI 1111 l
9 M Bk il\ (JH I
\ T J w
Ju/Hh
f>H jaWJAUfto 4 ft ? O|w q|
Democrat-GOP defense force
represented the medics.
In the House, the vote to
ban gay marriages could be
tracked as easily on a roadmap
as in a partisan roll call.
Hometowns of leading
Democrats who favored the
ban included Gordon.
Valdosta. Waycross, Vidalia,
Milledgeville, Dublin,
Greensboro and Donalson
ville.
Opposing (and losing)
Democrats came from Atlanta.
Decatur. Savannah. Columbus,
Macon. Avondale Estates,
Athens, East Point, Norcross,
etc.
Os course, exceptions exist
in the hometown voting analy
sis. But the Legislature, main
ly the House, is evolving into
a chamber divided between
metropolitan and rural inter
ests. Despite its present
Democratic majority, the
House in the not-too-distant
future is all but certain to be
led by Republicans. (The cast
of characters in leadership
positions may not change
much, just their party affilia
tion.)
When this shift occurs.
Georgia politics will have
come full circle back to
one-party rule, except the
main players will wear
Republican instead of
Democratic jerseys. Primary
elections between GOP con
testants will dominate the gov
ernmental landscape. This
year’s primary elections for
the U.S. Senate, several con
gressional seats and many leg
islative seats are a preview of
those coming events when
nearly all elective officials
will be chosen in (Republican)
primaries.
As in olden times, the
November general election
may mean little more than an
anticlimactic ratification of the
primary outcomes.
The end of partisanship,
however, is not likely to usher
in an age of unity. In bygone
days, the intraparty battles
between the Talmadges and
their enemies were often
meaner than today's jousting
between Republicans and
Democrats. And Georgia has
never seen a more vicious
election contest than the pri
mary for the Democratic
gubernatorial nomination
between Carl Sanders and
Jimmy Carter.
A bruising Republican pri
mary for governor is not out
of the question in 2006.
Suppose Democratic Secretary
of State Cathy Cox yields to
invitations to turn Republican
and decides the shortest and
easiest route to higher office
runs right through incumbent
Gov. Perdue’s suite on pri
mary' election day.
Or what if the other gov
ernor wannabe. Democratic
Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, decid
ed that his mentor. Zell
Miller, was right after all,
except Taylor took a more
direct course than did Zigzag
Zell and announced he was
switching to the Republican
Party?
A glance at the state’s dra
matically changing demo
graphics and voting patterns
makes such future scenarios
sound reasonable and even
likely well, almost.
Bill Shipp's column
appears each Sunday and
Wednesday. His e-mail
address is bshipp@ bell
south. net.