When Money Talks

THE WAY IT IS

Let’s be honest. When money talks everybody listens. It is as American as apple pie. And it’s a global factor. Everybody listens. Nothing new you say. True…but…maybe with this new generation and the millennials before them…there is an awakening. Driven by the fear of climate change, the way technology is taking jobs and governing behaviors, a disgust with the political system… maybe there is the reality that life should not only be about money but about values like humanity and even fairness.

Maybe. But the examples of the way money talks and who listens offers a lesson that we have a long way to go before anything else really counts and we as humans, achieve something more.

When you look around this is what you find.

Political contributions and the astounding cost of maintaining and propelling our political system have cornered us into a government that is too often for sale. And that ‘sale’ leads to the obvious conclusion that if our government is for sale those who can buy it, do so.

Open a newspaper -some people still do – flip on cable news…scroll your computer…the news is full of those who sell and those who buy.

Here is the Rev. Al Sharpton and former long-term Assemblyman and present head of the Manhattan Democratic Party Keith Wright doing business with Reynolds Tobacco to avoid a City Council vote banning the sale of menthol cigarettes in New York City. The Council has put the matter aside for further consideration.

Here is Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. doing business with wealthy Harvey Weinstein and wealthier Jeffrey Epstein, to help them avoid the penalties of their criminal sexual behavior. And that same District Attorney looking the other way as the DeBlasio Administration finds obvious ways to keep money flowing from clearly illegal opportunities. It makes sense when you know he is taking money from the same sources.

Here is the City Council of New York supporting then Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s desire to serve a third term despite two public votes limiting the Mayor and Council to only two terms of office. The Mayor’s promise of support to the Speaker of the Council and her members broke the understanding and Bloomberg had his third term and the Council did as well.

Here is the matter of the then Republican controlled New York State Senate refusing to accept and support the Marriage Equality bill until Bloomberg and Rochester businessman Tom Golisano promised four Republican State Senators that they would be financially assisted if they had primary opposition because they voted to support the legislation. They accepted the offer and the bill passed.

Here is the matter of student loan debt and the American Presidents from Reagan through George W. Bush establishing a punitive system of repayment at the will of the banks and agreeable colleges and universities…loan arrangements unheard of in those covered by the Fair Lending Practices Act…and so the current debt of 1.6 trillion dollars.

And here is the accepted reality that the nation’s health care delivery system is totally owned by the Health Care and Pharmaceutical industries whose lobbyists and political contributions reach all but a very few in Congress. All that money initially funded the then acceptable Affordable Care Act but now that money is funding the dismantling of that reasonably decent health insurance system.

Money does talk but sometimes it doesn’t have to get desired results.

“CHERRY PICKING”

Sometimes money doesn’t have to talk; sometimes money can simply be sitting there waiting to be taken because no one seems to be paying attention…in other words that kind of money is ‘cherry-picked’…the simple stealing that might occur when one is walking through a ripe cherry orchard…picking cherries as one goes.

We look at the astounding amounts of money – billions of dollars – being spent over the years on New York City’s Housing Authority (NYCHA) and wonder how the more than 300 developments throughout the city can look so reasonably well cared for on the outside and be outright slums on the inside.

We hear about what we cannot see: of the leaking roofs, the black mold, the broken walls and plumbing, the pitch dark hallways and stairs, the lead poisoning from paint. We see hear the outrage in the voices of authority; we watch one administration after another cover-up the problem with promises or look the other way at the lies that come from executives and staff; we hear the Secretary of HUD and the Mayor of New York -imposters for certain – make a new plan of action and wonder whether someone will finally stop the mess and clean it up.

But then we realize that this is all about ‘cherry-picking’…money just sitting there waiting to be taken by any number of people: contractors who get paid but don’t complete the work; staff – often Teamster Union members – making up reports of work never even attempted; chairpersons lying about facts or ignoring them entirely knowing that they will be paid six figure salaries regardless.

Then we look back to the 1990’s when four of New York’s leading crime families coordinated a plan to cheat NYCHA in a contract to replace or repair two million windows. They were caught. The union involved dissolved; several minor players jailed. The mob “cherry-picking” at NYCHA. Just 20 years ago. Why would we think they stopped?

Because the cherry-picking goes on.

There will be a new Chairman. A 67 year old from the Midwest who once worked in Chicago but has most recently in Minneapolis where he was in charge of a public housing program with 6,700 units.

New York City has 176,000 units. And half a million people. He took the job without once going inside a NYCHA development…although he’d heard about the problems.

He will be paid a salary of $400,000…double the amount paid to the Governor and Mayor of New York.

What will he do? Will he last for the life of DeBlasio’s term of office. What will he accomplish? Unknowns at the moment.

And then there is the story of the Monitor employed by agreement with HUD and the Mayor but paid by the city. Bart Schwartz..a known and respected member of the New York community. He is to oversee what happens at NYCHA and report to one and all. He has been on the job for three months and his first report is due soon, although he did say that the city was not fixing the lead poison problem as promised.

He has charged the city six million dollars to date; three million for his firm and three million for the work of Keith Wright…yes that Keith Wright, former legislator and now chairman of the Manhattan Democratic Party. What did Mr. Wright do for the money? Introduce the well known Mr. Schwartz to various influencers around town.

Cherry-picking at its best.

Recently, we began hearing of the Metropolitan Transit Authority paying some of its workers astounding amounts of overtime money and then from its new Chairman Patrick Foy, we learn that there are all kinds of fraud being practiced by the workers…claims for disability when no such conditions exist but claimants have been receiving tens of thousands of dollars. There is so much fraud that Foy didn’t attempt a list…just made sweeping charges and then made sweeping promises he would fix the problem.

Even without greater details, this kind of situation sings of ‘cherry-picking’ and we await further word from the authorities about penalties and whether these problems have a fix.

CHANGES

What changes can be made to offset the reality that money talks, works to influence government and often succeeds? Solutions are difficult because we have a government of laws not of people. The laws are supposed to protect the people but often work to prevent that protection.

The laws in fact are made by the very people working under the influence of money that talks and so progress will be very slow and very difficult.

The quickest, surest way to make a change is to prevent lawmakers from serving for an endless period of time…often for a lifetime. The simple idea of ‘term limits’ becomes difficult because only the lawmakers themselves can change the law.

Think of the fox in charge of the henhouse.

Only the American people can bring about the changes that need to be made. Only the American people can bring the resistance to change to an end as they provide an insistence for change, instead.

The challenge exists. How many will accept it?