Can Voters Trust GOP, Inhofe With Social Security, Health Care?

(In the coming weeks, Okie Funk will set the record straight when it comes to U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe. This blog will be publishing an open-ended series, “The Case Against Jim Inhofe.” The series will comment on Inhofe’s political and business escapades, from his earlier lies about when he graduated from college to the insurance company he ran into insolvency to his dirty campaign tactics. It will show how Inhofe has consistently hurt the state’s image. It will focus as well on Inhofe’s atrocious record on economic, health, energy, environmental, military and government spending issues. Here are the installments published before this post: Part I: “Rice Gains Ground on Inhofe," Part II: “Character Issue Follows Inhofe,” Part III: “When Inhofe Talks, People Cringe,” Part IV: “Iraq Distortions Cast Shadow Over Inhofe Campaign.”)

"The fundamental business of the country, that is the production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis."-Republican President Herbert Hoover, October 25, 1929

The failed economic policies of the Bush administration and the Republican Party have taken this country close to a complete financial collapse once again.

People around the country are now asking these basic questions: Is my money safe in the bank? Will I lose my job and home? Are my retirement funds safe? Will food and energy prices continue to go up? Will I be able to fill my prescriptions this month? Can I help my children go to college?

In a form of corporate socialism, the Bush/GOP ideology rewards the wealthiest in our culture through tax cuts, business deregulation and other incentives. The ideology punishes most everyone else with higher prices, stagnant wages and inadequate health care.

The recent collapse of several major companies tied to the subprime mortgage controversy has shown, once again, the harsh reality behind the Republican trickle-down theory. In the midst of this man-made muddle, there is much to condemn about the GOP’s bogus philosophy that creates the free market as the arbitrator of all American reality.

Yet the crash of huge business titans—Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, AIG—has also clarified for voters, both locally and nationally, the issue of financial security and its relationship to privatization.

Let’s focus on Social Security for a minute. Is there anyone left in America—except for Republican ideologues—who actually thinks we should privatize any aspect of Social Security given the reckless business practices of our banking and stockbroker firms? Should we really trust businesses, such as Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers or AIG, with our retirement money? Make no mistake about it. These corrupt and ill-managed operations would be exactly the type of companies in control of your Social Security benefits under the GOP-mandated privatization edict. President George Bush has long advocated privatization of Social Security, and his supporters, including U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, have hardly disavowed the president’s plan to take our retirement money and invest it in Wall Street.

In fact, an Inhofe spokesperson, Josh Kivett, indicated the senator still supports personal Social Security accounts. According to a Tulsa television station, Channel 8: “…Josh Kivett, a spokesman for Inhofe, says giving people the option of establishing personal accounts wouldn't jeopardize their Social Security.” Kivett was quoted on August 15, 2008.

Inhofe faces reelection this year. His opponent, state Sen. Andrew Rice, has repeatedly said he would never support the privatization of Social Security.

Americans also face a health care crisis, which creates more financial insecurity. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, wants to implement the GOP plan that one major study says will actually leave 20 million more Americans uninsured. As New York Times columnist Bob Herbert recently wrote, “These are changes that will set in motion nothing less than the dismantling of the employer-based coverage that protects most American families.”

Herbert goes on to say, “The whole idea of the McCain plan is to get families out of employer-paid health coverage and into the health insurance marketplace, where naked competition is supposed to take care of all ills. (We’re seeing in the Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch fiascos just how well the unfettered marketplace has been working.)"

Inhofe almost always votes with the Republican majority, and given his opposition to bills improving and simply maintaining Medicare, Tricare, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Programs in the past, he is most certainly going to favor the McCain plan-if the Arizona senator is elected president-or some version of it. (Click here for Inhofe’s record on health care.)

The ongoing Wall Street crisis continues to clear the campaign fog and silliness on a national and local level. Do we continue on with at least four more years of willy-nilly GOP deregulation and privatization or do we vote in common sense people, who want to ensure regular people can retire and have health care?