First, Do No Harm to Your Political Party
Can doctors refuse to treat patients based on their political beliefs?
By Jessica Dweck
Posted Tuesday, April 6, 2010, at 4:44 PM ET
Incensed by the recent passage of health care reform, Florida physician Jack Cassell taped a sign to his office door advising Obama supporters to "seek urologic care elsewhere." Cassell does not plan to quiz would-be patients on their views, but many bioethicists believe he crossed the line of professional conduct. His actions raise the question: Can doctors refuse to treat patients based on their political ideology?
It depends on the circumstances. Hospitals and ambulances must provide emergency care to everyone regardless of citizenship, ability to pay, or any other criterion. But the government has not yet enacted a universal right to basic or preventive care, which means a private provider can refuse to treat a walk-in patient with a sore throat or a bum knee, say, just because he's wearing an "I Love Obama" pin. The exception here is if the doctor and his liberal patient had a pre-existing relationship. Turning away a current patient—whether by explicit instruction or passive-aggressive signage—constitutes abandonment, a potential violation of both professional ethics and the law. In order to sue successfully for medical negligence, the patient must prove that he was in need of care, that his doctor terminated care without giving proper written notice or helping to find a replacement, and that he suffered an injury as a result of the doctor's breach of duty.
From a civil rights perspective, Cassell is probably in the clear. While the law bars physicians from excluding patients on the basis of traditionally protected classes like race, religion, national origin, and disability, most jurisdictions permit political discrimination. One notable exception is the District of Columbia, which, along with a handful of other cities, specifies that it's not OK to discriminate based on political affiliation.
Even if the Florida urologist's stunt does not constitute unlawful discrimination or abandonment, he certainly violated the American Medical Association's Code of Medical Ethics. According to Opinion 9.012, "Under no circumstances should physicians allow their differences with patients or their families about political matters to interfere with the delivery of high-quality professional care." But the AMA is merely a club, and its sanctions have no teeth—especially since Cassell isn't even a member. Pointing to the code as a statement of national consensus on professional standards, an aggrieved party could lodge a formal complaint to the state licensing board. A revocation of license would, however, be unlikely for this particular offense. At worst, the board might require the physician to receive several hours of ethics training.
Bonus Explainer: Are urologists more likely than other doctors to lean right? No. According to a 2007 study, conservatives tend toward surgery, anesthesiology, pathology, and radiology, while liberals tend to choose psychiatry, gynecology, and pediatric sub-specialities. Predictably, the authors found a strong correlation between political conservatism and disagreement with the belief that access to health care is a human right.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Idiotic Congressman Worries that Sending More Marines to Guam May Cause the Island to Tip Over
More proof that we are doomed – Democrat congressman Hank Johnson in a Congressional hearing asked a Navy admiral if sending 8,000 Marines and their families to the island of Guam would cause the island to tip over and capsize. The astounding question is captured on a video that will probably go viral. Look at the look on the admiral’s face as he answers the question. For some of Representative Johnson’s other fears, see Ace of Spades HQ who discovered he also fears moon missions may cause the moon to depart its earth orbit and drilling in Alaska could cause Kansas City to become the north pole.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
How We Could Fix Congress
I know many of you will say "this is impossible." Let me remind you, Congress has the lowest approval rating of any entity in Government. Now is the time when Americans will join together to reform Congress - the entity that represents us.
We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American heroes.
**********************************
Congressional Reform Act of 2010
1. Term Limits.
12 years only, one of the possible options below..
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms
2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.
If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete.
We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American heroes.
**********************************
Congressional Reform Act of 2010
1. Term Limits.
12 years only, one of the possible options below..
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms
2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.
If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Obamacare Bill Turns the IRS Into the Secret Police
No three letters strike fear in the hearts of Americans that I-R-S. According to a new report by the GOP members of the House Ways and Means committee, If the Senate Obamacare bill gets passed by the house, the IRS is going to gets a lot more intimidating because it is going to get a slew of new responsibilities. They be acting as Barack Obama's not so secret health insurance police.
“If the Democrats’ health care bill becomes law, the IRS could have to hire more than 16,000 additional agents, auditors and other workers just to enforce all the new taxes and penalties,” said Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI). “It is a dangerous expansion of the IRS’s power and reach into the lives of virtually every American.”
Under the Individual Mandate Tax (IMT) provision in the bill, the part that forces you to purchase Obamacare whether you want it or not, the progressive Democrats make the IRS the chief enforcer for a new government-run health insurance system.
The IRS would be in charge of verifying that every American taxpayer has obtained acceptable health coverage for every month of the year. If the IRS determines that a taxpayer lacks acceptable insurance for even a single month, then the IRS would impose a
new tax on that taxpayer, even auditing the taxpayer and could assess interest and penalties on top of the tax. This is an unprecedented new role for the IRS – one that will inject the federal government even further into the lives of American families. The bill also gives the IRS some new "teeth" to strike fear in the hears of the people with, including:
* IRS agents verify if you have “acceptable” health care coverage
* IRS has the authority to fine you up to $2,250 or 2 percent of your income (whichever is greater) for failure to prove that you have purchased “minimum essential coverage”
* IRS can confiscate your tax refund
* IRS audits are likely to increase
* IRS will need up to $10 billion to administer the new health care program this decade
* IRS may need to hire as many as 16,500 additional auditors, agents and other employees to investigate and collect billions in new taxes from Americans Nearly half of all these new individual mandate taxes will be paid by Americans earning less than 300 percent of poverty ($66,150 for a family of four). There goes that less than $250,000 thing the POTUS promised.
And then the Pièce de résistance:
* The IRS is barred from imposing these taxes and penalties on illegal immigrants
Lets put it a different way, if you are here legally you are screwed, but if you are here illegally, hey don't worry, be happy.
The report warns of the danger of giving the IRS double duty:
The 2009 National Taxpayer Advocate’s report to Congress includes an extensive and ominous discussion on the risks and challenges involved in running social programs through the tax system. The report expresses concern that the IRS has neither the mission nor the expertise to perform such tasks.
“When social program delivery is grafted to traditional IRS activities,
there arises a potential conflict with the IRS’s traditional mission [of revenue collection],” the report states.
The Taxpayer Advocate discusses these concerns in the context of refundable credits such as the earned income tax credit, but the analysis is especially timely considering that the IRS could soon be responsible for administering large portions of the nation’s health care system – a social program that dwarfs any of the existing refundable credits.
The IRS' new powers will simply be another loss of freedom from the folks who brought you "hope and change."
“If the Democrats’ health care bill becomes law, the IRS could have to hire more than 16,000 additional agents, auditors and other workers just to enforce all the new taxes and penalties,” said Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI). “It is a dangerous expansion of the IRS’s power and reach into the lives of virtually every American.”
Under the Individual Mandate Tax (IMT) provision in the bill, the part that forces you to purchase Obamacare whether you want it or not, the progressive Democrats make the IRS the chief enforcer for a new government-run health insurance system.
The IRS would be in charge of verifying that every American taxpayer has obtained acceptable health coverage for every month of the year. If the IRS determines that a taxpayer lacks acceptable insurance for even a single month, then the IRS would impose a
new tax on that taxpayer, even auditing the taxpayer and could assess interest and penalties on top of the tax. This is an unprecedented new role for the IRS – one that will inject the federal government even further into the lives of American families. The bill also gives the IRS some new "teeth" to strike fear in the hears of the people with, including:
* IRS agents verify if you have “acceptable” health care coverage
* IRS has the authority to fine you up to $2,250 or 2 percent of your income (whichever is greater) for failure to prove that you have purchased “minimum essential coverage”
* IRS can confiscate your tax refund
* IRS audits are likely to increase
* IRS will need up to $10 billion to administer the new health care program this decade
* IRS may need to hire as many as 16,500 additional auditors, agents and other employees to investigate and collect billions in new taxes from Americans Nearly half of all these new individual mandate taxes will be paid by Americans earning less than 300 percent of poverty ($66,150 for a family of four). There goes that less than $250,000 thing the POTUS promised.
And then the Pièce de résistance:
* The IRS is barred from imposing these taxes and penalties on illegal immigrants
Lets put it a different way, if you are here legally you are screwed, but if you are here illegally, hey don't worry, be happy.
The report warns of the danger of giving the IRS double duty:
The 2009 National Taxpayer Advocate’s report to Congress includes an extensive and ominous discussion on the risks and challenges involved in running social programs through the tax system. The report expresses concern that the IRS has neither the mission nor the expertise to perform such tasks.
“When social program delivery is grafted to traditional IRS activities,
there arises a potential conflict with the IRS’s traditional mission [of revenue collection],” the report states.
The Taxpayer Advocate discusses these concerns in the context of refundable credits such as the earned income tax credit, but the analysis is especially timely considering that the IRS could soon be responsible for administering large portions of the nation’s health care system – a social program that dwarfs any of the existing refundable credits.
The IRS' new powers will simply be another loss of freedom from the folks who brought you "hope and change."
Why You Should Oppose Obamacare: 32 Quotes From Democrats
The (Healthcare) bill that’s coming through the House, with or without the public option, isn’t good for America. -- Rep. John Adler (D-NJ)
There's a lot of discomfort with the reconciliation process, the self-implementing rule, where you wouldn't have a formal vote on maybe the most important policy of the past 40 years. I have a big issue with the way they're doing the process. I think it's wrong and my constituents don't like it. -- Jason Altmire
Reconciliation would hurt healthcare reform, it would make it partisan, it would hurt, it would stymie it, it would make it very partisan. -- Max Baucus (D-MT)
There’s going to be a tendency on the part of our people to be in denial about all this, but if you lose Massachusetts and that’s not a wake-up call, there’s no hope of waking up. -- Evan Bayh
You know we’re going to control the insurance companies. -- Joe Biden
I was one of the authors of the legislation that created the budget reconciliation process in 1974, and I am certain that putting health care reform and climate change legislation on a freight train through Congress is an outrage that must be resisted. -- Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Bluntly put, this is the political reality: First, the battle for public opinion has been lost. Comprehensive health care has been lost. If it fails, as appears possible, Democrats will face the brunt of the electorate's reaction. If it passes, however, Democrats will face a far greater calamitous reaction at the polls. Wishing, praying or pretending will not change these outcomes. -- Patrick H. Caddell & Douglas E. Schoen
Pelosi says she might use a procedural tactic where the House will vote on the package of fixes to the Senate bill, and then that vote would signify that lawmakers- quote, 'deem' the health care bill to be passed.
Politically speaking, this is beyond sleazy. It's meant to protect House Democrats, who are all running for reelection in November, from having to make a tough vote up or down on health care reform. Pelosi says of this process- quote, 'I like it, because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill,' unquote. In Nancy Pelosi's world, accountability is a dirty word. -- Jack Cafferty
As I said publicly, I can't vote for a bill that will publicly fund abortion. -- Chris Carney (D-Pa.)
I don't believe reconciliation was ever intended for (health care reform). It doesn't work well for writing major, substantive legislation. -- Kent Conrad (D-ND)
What good is reading the (health care) bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill? -- John Conyers (D-MI)
The reason tort reform is not in the [health care] bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on. And that's the plain and simple truth. -- Howard Dean
The last time I had to confront something like (these town halls) was when I voted for the civil rights bill and my opponent voted against it. At that time, we had a lot of Ku Klux Klan folks and white supremacists and folks in white sheets and other things running around causing trouble.” -- John Dingell (D-MI)
While I certainly support this initiative...I will not bend on the principle of federal funding on abortion. They are going to have to do it without me and without the other pro-life Democrats. -- Steve Dreihaus (OH-1)
Anyone who would stand before you and say ‘well, if you pass health care reform next year’s health care premiums are going down,’ I don’t think is telling the truth. I think it is likely they would go up. -- Dick Durbin
Insurance companies win. Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate. -- Kos
This bill represents a giveaway to the insurance industry. $70 billion dollars a year, and no guarantees of any control over premiums, forcing people to buy private insurance, five consecutive years of double-digit premium increases. -- Dennis Kucinich
The problem is this we are spending almost a trillion dollars and folks are telling me I should vote yes and we will fix it later. You wouldn't buy a car for a trillion dollars and say yeah, it doesn't run but we will fix it later. -- Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.)
(The Slaughter Rule is) disingenuous. It would really call into question the credibility of the House. -- Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.)
And what I believe that means is we’ve got to break out of what I call, sort of, the 50-plus-one pattern of presidential politics. Which is, you have nasty primaries where everybody’s disheartened. Then you divide the country 45 percent on one side, 45 percent on the other, 10 percent in the middle — all of them apparently live in Florida and Ohio — and battle it out. And maybe you eke out a victory of 50-plus-one, but you can’t govern. I mean, you get Air Force One, there are a lot of nice perks to being president, but you can’t deliver on health care. We’re not going to pass universal health care with a 50-plus-one strategy. -- Barack Obama
You know I respect what the Clinton's tried to do in 1993 in moving health reform forward. But they made one really big mistake, and that is they took all their people and all their experts into a room and then they closed the door. We will work on this process publicly. It'll be on C-SPAN. It will be streaming over the net. -- Barack Obama
How many people are getting insurance through their jobs right now? Raise your hands. All right. Well, a lot of those folks, your employer it’s estimated would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent, which means they could give you a raise. -- Barack Obama
I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what the procedural rules are in the House or Senate. -- Barack Obama
We said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your -- if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you're not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge. -- Barack Obama
Bipartisanship is a two-way street. A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes. Republicans have left their imprint. -- Nancy Pelosi
(The Slaughter Rule is) more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know. But I like it because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill. -- Nancy Pelosi
These disruptions (at Town Halls) are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views -- but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.” -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Md.) (D-MI)
While deeming, like reconciliation, has been used by Republicans and Democrats in the past, the context in which it would be used in this case leads me to conclude that it would poison an already terribly partisan atmosphere and leave the Congress even less able to find bipartisan solutions to fiscal problems that are on the verge of becoming overwhelming. -- Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.)
No one has talked about reconciliation, but that's what you folks have talked about ever since that came out. -- Harry Reid
I do not like the slaughter rule, it lacks honesty and transparency. -- Joe Sestak
Without a public option, it’s just a giveaway to the insurance companies, and it does nothing to control costs. -- Patrick Robinson, spokesman for MoveOn
If you pass the Stupak amendment, more children will be born, and therefore it will cost us millions more. That’s one of the arguments I’ve been hearing. Money is their hang-up. Is this how we now value life in America? If money is the issue — come on, we can find room in the budget. This is life we’re talking about. -- Bart Stupak
Republicans and their allied groups -- desperate after losing two consecutive elections and every major policy fight on Capitol Hill -- are inciting angry mobs of a small number of rabid right-wing extremists funded by K Street lobbyists to disrupt thoughtful discussions about the future of healthcare in America taking place in congressional districts across the country. -- Democratic National Committee communications director Brad Woodhouse
There's a lot of discomfort with the reconciliation process, the self-implementing rule, where you wouldn't have a formal vote on maybe the most important policy of the past 40 years. I have a big issue with the way they're doing the process. I think it's wrong and my constituents don't like it. -- Jason Altmire
Reconciliation would hurt healthcare reform, it would make it partisan, it would hurt, it would stymie it, it would make it very partisan. -- Max Baucus (D-MT)
There’s going to be a tendency on the part of our people to be in denial about all this, but if you lose Massachusetts and that’s not a wake-up call, there’s no hope of waking up. -- Evan Bayh
You know we’re going to control the insurance companies. -- Joe Biden
I was one of the authors of the legislation that created the budget reconciliation process in 1974, and I am certain that putting health care reform and climate change legislation on a freight train through Congress is an outrage that must be resisted. -- Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Bluntly put, this is the political reality: First, the battle for public opinion has been lost. Comprehensive health care has been lost. If it fails, as appears possible, Democrats will face the brunt of the electorate's reaction. If it passes, however, Democrats will face a far greater calamitous reaction at the polls. Wishing, praying or pretending will not change these outcomes. -- Patrick H. Caddell & Douglas E. Schoen
Pelosi says she might use a procedural tactic where the House will vote on the package of fixes to the Senate bill, and then that vote would signify that lawmakers- quote, 'deem' the health care bill to be passed.
Politically speaking, this is beyond sleazy. It's meant to protect House Democrats, who are all running for reelection in November, from having to make a tough vote up or down on health care reform. Pelosi says of this process- quote, 'I like it, because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill,' unquote. In Nancy Pelosi's world, accountability is a dirty word. -- Jack Cafferty
As I said publicly, I can't vote for a bill that will publicly fund abortion. -- Chris Carney (D-Pa.)
I don't believe reconciliation was ever intended for (health care reform). It doesn't work well for writing major, substantive legislation. -- Kent Conrad (D-ND)
What good is reading the (health care) bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill? -- John Conyers (D-MI)
The reason tort reform is not in the [health care] bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on. And that's the plain and simple truth. -- Howard Dean
The last time I had to confront something like (these town halls) was when I voted for the civil rights bill and my opponent voted against it. At that time, we had a lot of Ku Klux Klan folks and white supremacists and folks in white sheets and other things running around causing trouble.” -- John Dingell (D-MI)
While I certainly support this initiative...I will not bend on the principle of federal funding on abortion. They are going to have to do it without me and without the other pro-life Democrats. -- Steve Dreihaus (OH-1)
Anyone who would stand before you and say ‘well, if you pass health care reform next year’s health care premiums are going down,’ I don’t think is telling the truth. I think it is likely they would go up. -- Dick Durbin
Insurance companies win. Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate. -- Kos
This bill represents a giveaway to the insurance industry. $70 billion dollars a year, and no guarantees of any control over premiums, forcing people to buy private insurance, five consecutive years of double-digit premium increases. -- Dennis Kucinich
The problem is this we are spending almost a trillion dollars and folks are telling me I should vote yes and we will fix it later. You wouldn't buy a car for a trillion dollars and say yeah, it doesn't run but we will fix it later. -- Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.)
(The Slaughter Rule is) disingenuous. It would really call into question the credibility of the House. -- Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.)
And what I believe that means is we’ve got to break out of what I call, sort of, the 50-plus-one pattern of presidential politics. Which is, you have nasty primaries where everybody’s disheartened. Then you divide the country 45 percent on one side, 45 percent on the other, 10 percent in the middle — all of them apparently live in Florida and Ohio — and battle it out. And maybe you eke out a victory of 50-plus-one, but you can’t govern. I mean, you get Air Force One, there are a lot of nice perks to being president, but you can’t deliver on health care. We’re not going to pass universal health care with a 50-plus-one strategy. -- Barack Obama
You know I respect what the Clinton's tried to do in 1993 in moving health reform forward. But they made one really big mistake, and that is they took all their people and all their experts into a room and then they closed the door. We will work on this process publicly. It'll be on C-SPAN. It will be streaming over the net. -- Barack Obama
How many people are getting insurance through their jobs right now? Raise your hands. All right. Well, a lot of those folks, your employer it’s estimated would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent, which means they could give you a raise. -- Barack Obama
I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what the procedural rules are in the House or Senate. -- Barack Obama
We said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your -- if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you're not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge. -- Barack Obama
Bipartisanship is a two-way street. A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes. Republicans have left their imprint. -- Nancy Pelosi
(The Slaughter Rule is) more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know. But I like it because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill. -- Nancy Pelosi
These disruptions (at Town Halls) are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views -- but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.” -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Md.) (D-MI)
While deeming, like reconciliation, has been used by Republicans and Democrats in the past, the context in which it would be used in this case leads me to conclude that it would poison an already terribly partisan atmosphere and leave the Congress even less able to find bipartisan solutions to fiscal problems that are on the verge of becoming overwhelming. -- Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.)
No one has talked about reconciliation, but that's what you folks have talked about ever since that came out. -- Harry Reid
I do not like the slaughter rule, it lacks honesty and transparency. -- Joe Sestak
Without a public option, it’s just a giveaway to the insurance companies, and it does nothing to control costs. -- Patrick Robinson, spokesman for MoveOn
If you pass the Stupak amendment, more children will be born, and therefore it will cost us millions more. That’s one of the arguments I’ve been hearing. Money is their hang-up. Is this how we now value life in America? If money is the issue — come on, we can find room in the budget. This is life we’re talking about. -- Bart Stupak
Republicans and their allied groups -- desperate after losing two consecutive elections and every major policy fight on Capitol Hill -- are inciting angry mobs of a small number of rabid right-wing extremists funded by K Street lobbyists to disrupt thoughtful discussions about the future of healthcare in America taking place in congressional districts across the country. -- Democratic National Committee communications director Brad Woodhouse
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Africa Aid goes for Weapons
The BBC tells us aid recipients in Ethiopia during the famine of 1984-85 were rebels who perpetrated a gigantic fraud to buy weapons 1.
So if private charities can easily be duped, then perhaps it would be safer and more efficient to execute payment schemes government-to-government such as those mediated by the World Bank? Well, that is even worse: Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo has been warning us for years that such bilateral programs are counter-productive; as Moyo puts it:
"Foreign aid props up corrupt governments — providing them with freely usable cash. These corrupt governments interfere with the rule of law, the establishment of transparent civil institutions, and the protection of civil liberties, making both domestic and foreign investment in poor countries unattractive. Greater opacity and fewer investments reduce economic growth, which leads to fewer job opportunities and increasing poverty levels. In response to growing poverty, donors give more aid, which continues the downward spiral of poverty. This is the vicious cycle of aid.2"
Please, for God's sake, Bono, Bob Geldof, Boy George, David Bowie, Dennis Thomas, George Michael and all you other celebrities who think you are helping, please stop. All you are doing is adding more hunger, disease, and death to Africa. If you have any mercy in your heart, please investigate what your actions have already done and promise to stop doing anymore in the future.
So if private charities can easily be duped, then perhaps it would be safer and more efficient to execute payment schemes government-to-government such as those mediated by the World Bank? Well, that is even worse: Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo has been warning us for years that such bilateral programs are counter-productive; as Moyo puts it:
"Foreign aid props up corrupt governments — providing them with freely usable cash. These corrupt governments interfere with the rule of law, the establishment of transparent civil institutions, and the protection of civil liberties, making both domestic and foreign investment in poor countries unattractive. Greater opacity and fewer investments reduce economic growth, which leads to fewer job opportunities and increasing poverty levels. In response to growing poverty, donors give more aid, which continues the downward spiral of poverty. This is the vicious cycle of aid.2"
Please, for God's sake, Bono, Bob Geldof, Boy George, David Bowie, Dennis Thomas, George Michael and all you other celebrities who think you are helping, please stop. All you are doing is adding more hunger, disease, and death to Africa. If you have any mercy in your heart, please investigate what your actions have already done and promise to stop doing anymore in the future.
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