It’s one thing to require a citizen to pay taxes–to pay into the commons. It’s another thing to require taxpayers to pay a private corporation, and to have up to 25% of that go to paying for luxuries like private jets and gyms for the company CEOs.
It’s the same kind of deal peasants made under feudalism: some proportion of their labor in exchange for protection (in this case, from bankruptcy from health problems, though the bill doesn’t actually require the private corporations to deliver that much protection).In this case, the federal government becomes an appendage to do collections for the corporations.
Mind you, not only will citizens be required to pay private corporations. But middle class citizens may be required to pay more to these private corporations than they pay in federal and state taxes.
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/...
You want to talk about "being practical"? You want to talk about "facing reality"?
The reality is that if corporate power had already killed democracy in the United States, the Lieberman Act is the hammering of the nails into the coffin.
In the past, when corporations paid bribes to Congress for legislation that would enrich them, they were at least circumspect enough to structure it so that the money only went to them indirectly. Even Halliburton felt it needed the fig leaf of claiming it was a government contractor.
Now, in the aftermath of the Great TARP Looting, the last pretense is gone. You will now be required under penalty of law to give your money directly to the corporation. And what will you get in return?
Whatever the corporation deigns to give you. Because the legislation is being written to satisfy them - and will be certain to contain whatever loopholes are necessary to preserve their sacred profit margins.
You're eager to sign up for serfdom in exchange for worthless promises? Then the good news is that you're going to receive exactly what you deserve.