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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.