DownWithTyranny!: Why Debbie Wasserman Schultz Should Never Be Speaker Of The House

Sugar is just one reason to keep her away from power; more later

Since 1990, Big Sugar has given just over $34.3 million in legalistic bribes to Members of Congress and candidates to Congress. The biggest recipient in the House is corrupt Blue Dog Collin Peterson (MN), once chair, now ranking member, of the den in inequity known as the House Agriculture Committee. He's banked $321,627 so far. The current Ag Committee Chair, Frank Lucas (R-OK) has gobbled up $205,000 from the sugar barons so far. DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) has done nicely as well-- just about $100,000 but her power lies not in the amount of bribes they gave her but in her ability to tell them who among Democrats to finance. That money goes direct from Debbie's financial backers among the sugar barons and their third party instruments into the campaign coffers of Members, mostly freshmen, who clearly understand they owe Debbie a favor when she calls on them. In 2007, when it looked like Charlie Rangel was about to pass a completely bipartisan bill to open up trade with Cuba-- and drive down the price Americans pay for sugar-- Wasserman Schultz defeated it by demanding the hapless freshmen who accepted bribes from Big Sugar affiliates vote NO. At the time, The Hill wrote "Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) was instrumental in winning Democratic votes against the Rangel amendment. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) told the Miami Herald that Wasserman Schultz was 'a tiger' on the Rangel vote, while Antonio Zamora of the U.S.-Cuba Legal Forum described her as a key party in building Democratic opposition."

I have no doubt how the tiger will feel about the "Take No Money From Sugar" pledge circulating in Florida political circles now. Wasserman Schultz, who is counting on Big Sugar to fuel her fight to win the top spot in the Democratic Caucus, has no time for these do-gooders and idealists. Like her main,equally unfit rival, Steny Hoyer, her only ideal is advancing her miserable, corrupt career.

A recent report by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) highlights that the U.S. spends two and a half times per capita than any other OECD country. "Higher health spending per capita tends to be associated with lower mortality rates and higher life expectancy, but this is not the case for the United States." ("OECD: Switzerland tops 34 nations for life expectancy at 82.8", UPI, Jan. 7, 2014) Since the United States is an "exceptional" democracy, is there any conclusion except that a short life expectancy is the fruit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

There is another: American politics are organized to protect corporate interests that make voters and taxpayers sick. How does this happen? Sick Americans get well by paying exorbitantly to corporations but only well enough to fall ill again and thereby profit.

How does this happen? Take a look at a key player in the paradox of the world's wealthiest nation tossing away the gift of life: the sugar industry. In Florida it is called, Big Sugar. In other states it is beet production, maple syrup and most ubiquitous of all: fructose extracted from corn and carbohydrates from wheat.

Sugar is the big stake in the heart of American health. "Annual high fructose corn sweetener, one type of sugar in the food supply, increased to 28.7 pounds per capita (in 2013), up from .3 pounds per capital in 1970." (American Heart Association, "With a Heavy Heart: Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease").

"30%-40% of healthcare expenditures in the USA go to help address issues that are closely tied to the excess consumption of sugar." (Credit Suisse Report: "Sugar: Consumption At A Crossroads", Sept. 2013) In Forbes Magazine, contributor Dan Monroe wrote, "Basically, the U.S. healthcare system spends about $1 trillion per year (and possibly more) fighting the effects of excess sugar consumption."

The pathways to obesity and heart disease are like cattle chutes through which voters are channeled in order to profit Big Agriculture and corporations that focus on delivering carbohydrates and sugar.

According to a recent United Health Foundation study, "Nine of the 10 least healthy states in the nation had among the 10 worst obesity rates in the country." Since a root cause of obesity is excess consumption of carbohydrates and sugar, one would think the most exceptional nation in the world ought to be able to devise a better way to protect its citizens' well being.

In the United States, the right wing calls the phenomenon, freedom of the market place. We are free to choose our destinies beyond the reach of government even if that means skyrocketing obesity or dying earlier than we should or inflict costs on the economy of more than twice the average of other developed nations. The combination of factors that organize American politics around what is harming voters -- free from the iron lung of exorbitantly expensive health care-- give Americans a statistical probability of dying earlier than a citizen from Slovenia or Chile.

Name one Republican or Democratic member of Congress or local town selectman or county commissioner who wants to die before their time. Name one.

The recent study by United Health Foundation helps illuminate the paradoxes. (The United Health foundation was established by UnitedHealth Group in 1999 as a not-for-profit, private foundation dedicated to improving health and health care. UnitedHealth calls itself "the most diversified health care company in the United States.")

"America’s Health Rankings" rates the most healthy and least health states by evaluating factors such as healthy behaviors, quality of health care, health policy, the presence of diseases and deaths from illnesses. So what are the most healthy and least healthy states? Which political party have voters chosen to represent their interests in these states?

The ratio of Democrats and Republican governors from the most and least healthy states is inverse. For example, 70 percent of governors in the most healthy states are Democrat. Only 30 percent of governors are Republican. In the most healthy states, Democrats are 80 percent of the aggregate number of senators, and in the least healthy states, Democrats are only 35 percent of that number.

…Life in America is cheap. In the case of Big Sugar, it is good to be king. American voters are ill and suffering under the illusion that among the world's developed nations, the United States is exceptional. Closer to reality: the United States is that special snow flake fallen on a pile of white sugar and melted by campaign finance laws organized to make corporations more powerful than people.

Americans should weigh these costs: of sugar, life expectancy, health care concerns, and take the time to write and call representatives in Congress and the President. Democrats and Republicans should embrace the pledge, "Take No Money From Sugar", as though their lives depended on it. The message is: in fact, they do.