I am reading a few books right now about President Johnson and the Great Society. I think it was a good idea, but it failed in some minor ways, particularly in terms of how it let corporate interests hijack the Progressive Agenda.

 Don't get me wrong. I am a Progressive, but my readings are telling me that many of  the programs enacted by the Great Society, while aimed at helping the poor, the elderly and the sick, may actually have hurt them because these programs were not "progressive enough," and because the Aristocracy and Special Interests were able to insert DEADLY TROJAN HORSES into various pieces of legislation, so as to DESTROY both their EFFICACY and LONG-TERM LEGITIMACY.  

My readings are showing me that many of these programs, in order to withstand conservative attacks, had to make so many compromises with the corporate and special interest wings of the Democratic and Republican parties, that the long-term efficacy of said programs was bound to decline. And not for the reasons the GOP and conservatives said.

 My readings about the legislative maneuverings and Realpolitik of the Great Society are showing a few interesting trends.

First, LBJ was able to get many of these programs passed in a "consensus" rather than true "redistribution" manner. This means that rather than centralize and redistribute public goods on the basis of pure need, the benefits were aimed at the appearance of need, but various corporate interests were allowed to have their hand in the cookie-jar, so that the vast majority of the intended beneficiaries of said programs never received as much as the programs intended them to receive. Further, this level of corporate/special interest collusion led to the long-term erosion in the efficacy of said benefits, such that, when coupled with inflation and the declining power of wages, the programs seemed, increasingly, to be doing more harm in some ways than good.

The most salient example of this is in terms of cost: LBJ and the Democrats allowed the Companies and Interests to dictate the costs of many of these programs and there were no benchmarks or price-controls, such that these progams became, in many ways, additional udders upon which the corporate parasites could feed and become bloated, without many benefits accruing to the needy for which these programs were originally intended.

Let's look at Medicare/Medicaid as an example. Many of my readings of both right and left-wing publications seem to indicate that the greatest beneficiary here weren't the poor or the elderly, but the American Medical Association. The AMA was staunchly opposed to Medicaid and Medicare from the getgo, fearing "socialized medicine" would destroy the cherished class-position and wealth of countless doctors and family-based doctor dynasties, where grandfathers, fathers and sons all became doctors and went to the same schools and amassed huge treasuries of family wealth and privilege.

In any event, the AMA was able to persuade many Congressmen that they should ONLY support the bill for Medicare/Medicaid if there were NO PRICE CONTROLS over hospitals or physicians. Previously, without government spending, hospitals were forced to keep prices down, because people had limited ability to pay. The PRICE-CONTROL or PRICE-BARGAINING prohibition extracted  by AMA-controlled Congressmen (who were, in effect, nothing but Prostitutes or Rent Boys working for unethical AMA Pimps) ensured that the Medicare/Medicaid Act, rather than being a true piece of Progressive Legislation, would actually be a PARASITIC BILL, Clothed in the Guise of Progressive Legislation.

Don't get me wrong. Many folks have benefited in numerous ways from these programs. I think these programs are good, beneficial and should be EXPANDED. That said, this PRICE-CONTROL Prohibition seems to have caused COUNTLESS HORRORS, and PREVENTED THE TRUE BENEFITS OF SOCIALIZED MEDICINE FROM BEING REALIZED.

The lack of price-controls, and the prohibition on Government Price-Negotiations ensured that Hospitals would OVERCHARGE for procedures and treatment, because they would be ENSURED PAYMENT by a CAPTIVE GOVERNMENT SUBROGEE (in law, a subrogee is somebody who is legally bound to pay on the behalf of another. In insurance, the insurance company or Medicare is the subrogee for the individual receiving the treatment).

This led, in many ways, to SKYROCKETING HEALTH CARE COSTS and OVERALL INFLATION throughout the medical treatment industry. Hospitals felt that they could raise-prices across the board, because government and other insurance companies would pick up the tab. Further, those without private or public health insurance, namely, THE WORKING POOR, would be CRUSHED IN A VICE GRIP. They had no Subrogee paying their medical bills, but they faced INCREASING MEDICAL COSTS. As such, these would be the folks forced into poverty and bankruptcy by the resulting MEDICAL INFLATION.

Worse, still, the Medical Price Inflation often became so severe, over the past 40 years, that it ATE INTO THE BENEFITS conveyed by Medicare/Medicaid. This happened in much the same way that monetary inflation eats into the raises that many of us and our parents received at work. The benefit means nothing if the external economic forces are eradicating its efficacy from without.

Apparantly, by inserting this clause into the legislation, the Conservatives utilized a CORPORATE TROJAN HORSE STRATEGY.

Not only would they be able to PROFIT FROM the new programs, but they would also be able to have a PRETEXTURAL REASON, down the line, for (a) arguing that the programs are inefficient, (b) ineffective and (c) should be abolished.  

The second interesting thing is how the corporate/special interest elite approached the politics of consensus from a tactical perspective. These elites pursued a legislative policy of consensus with their left hand and opposition with their right hand. If the law passed, the Corporations would be happy that they made a great deal of money from the new liberal policies.

Here, the AMA publicly opposed the Medicaid/Medicare bills, but secretly worked behind the scenes to ensure that IF IT PASSED, hospitals would win nonetheless.

 I have to read more about other GREAT SOCIETY programs, but my experience in the Insurance Industry and Public Defender's Office has shown me the dangers that often occur when there is UNHOLY COLLUSION BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND CORPORATIONS.

I remember the story about the Juvenile Delinquent Treatment Facility in Pennsylvania. Here, the taxpayers created a progressive program where kids could be treated for behavioral disorders, rather than go to jail. The Facility was run by a private company. Apparantly, the company bribed various lawyers and judges into steamrolling numerous innocent kids into these camps, irrespective of need or the presence of actual behavioral problems. The company received tens of thousands of tax-payer dollars for each kid they received and they wanted as many kids pushed into these camps as possible. IT WAS COLLUSION OF THE WORST AND MOST REPREHENSIBLE SORT.

Oftentimes, policies that say they are aimed at helping the poor or the sick or the troubled, are actually aimed at HELPING THE RICH. Worse, the Rich use this fact as a justification for abolishing the program/policies altogether, which IS NEVER THE SOLUTION.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION? We must weed/rake through every piece of progressive legislation and find the CORPORATE TROJAN HORSE within, the clause or section that is the #1 Cause for the programs lack of efficacy.

MEDICARE and MEDICAID can be saved----the entire HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY itself can be saved from the ravages of INFLATION if we remove this special AMA-SANCTIONED CLAUSE.

I have also noticed that the insurance industry is often FIGHTING with the American Medical Association over costs. Doctors want higher costs and the insurance industry wants lower costs. PRICE CONTROLS would help both CONSUMERS and the INSURANCE INDUSTRY.

"Aside from middle-class old persons protected from the financial ravages of long illness, the clearest beneficiaries of Medicare and Medicaid were doctors, who, according to one estimate, enjoyed an average income gain of $3,900 in 1968 as a result of these programs. Medicare-Medicaid, then, primarily transferred income from middle-class tax-payers to middle class health care professionals. In this way, once again, the politics of consensus prevailed over the policy of redistribution." (The Unravelling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s," by Allen J. Matusow, page 232).

THE MORAL OF THE STORY: Socialized Medicine and/or government control and/or interference in health care DIDN'T RUIN Medicare/Medicaid or the Health Care Industry in General.

RATHER----it was CORPORATE TROJAN HORSES that brought down and that are continuing to bring down the MEDICAL CARE SYSTEM in America.

Rather than abolish these programs, we should ANNIHILATE, PURGE and EVISCERATE these TROJAN HORSES.

REDISTRIBUTIONIST POLICIES have always been tempted to forge CONSENSUS COALITIONS with Large Companies. The problem is that these "HELPFUL" companies are often intent on one thing alone: DELIVERING A TROJAN HORSE.

Perhaps President Obama should obey the warnings of old, and

BEWARE OF GREEKS BEARING GIFTS.

OR, as they said in Latin: Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes

Oftentimes, in negotiations and "compromises," the pound of meat you deliver to the enemy often contains the seeds of your own undoing. The more sophisticated the foe, the more likely this is the case.

BEWARE OF CONGRESSIONAL "RENT BOYS"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_boy