Politicians Who Preach Sacrifice Spare Themselves

After months of listening to the debate in Congress over the fate of Medicare and Medicaid, two words stand out - hypocrisy and greed.

The first thing to remember is that all the politicians getting up on their hind legs and self-righteously preaching the gospel of accountability and sacrifice are talking about others.

Nobody in Congress is calling for accountability and sacrifice from themselves. They just want the rest of us to shape up and cut back.

The leaders of the Republican revolution seek to sacrifice benefits that others thought they had earned by their labor and taxes over their work lives. But these two-faced cynics dismiss questions about their own lavish entitlements as inflammatory and obstreperous.

Let there be no doubt about it: Fat-cat politicians want no part of sacrifice themselves. Consider:

While congressional Republicans voted down minimum-wage increases for the working poor as being too lavish, they haul in huge salaries from the public. Plus, privileges and perks too numerous to mention. Plus gifts and expensive gratuities from special interest groups and individuals endeavoring to buy their favors. Plus highly paid speaking engagements. And on and on.

But it doesn’t end there. After enriching themselves in office, they quit (or get kicked out) with rich “retirement” salaries which they voted to pay themselves. These payoffs range well over $100,000 a year for doing nothing - for life.

Even right-wing presidential contender Pat Buchanan calls it “obscene” that pols “like Tom Foley” of Spokane receive $3-million pensions.

But it doesn’t end there. In “retirement,” these self-styled role models continue to take advantage of privileges and perks and opportunities - like going to work for their old special-interest political patrons for giant bucks. Lucrative lobbying opportunities abound to peddle influence on Capitol Hill, like Foley is doing.

But it doesn’t end there.

In “retirement,” the rich pols who continue to rake in huge paychecks also are guaranteed Cadillac health care - again, for life.

What a setup. But, by gum, they aren’t going to let anybody else get away with an extra dime. Shame on elderly taxpayers who have been working for and paid into Medicare for the past 30 years.

But opinion polls all show overwhelming public opposition to the Republican scam to cut care for the elderly and working poor with one hand while dishing out tax cuts to the wealthy with the other hand. The public sees this as a payoff to GOP backers who fund political campaign chests and keep the pols supplied with gifts and trips.

“For years,” charges Art Caplan, director of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, “corporations and insurance companies have been driving up the costs of Medicare through all sorts of creative accounting practices.

“Yet, Congress continues to let hordes of health care lobbyists - many nattily attired in their Medicare-purchased, logo-adorned cuff links - whisper in their ears,” the ethicist deplores in a column.

“If you listen carefully to your representatives in Congress, it is clear,” says Caplan, “that those inside the Beltway intend to stick those who get Medicare coverage with the solution to the program’s financial woes.

“Before that happens, you should insist that they also stick it to those who spend their days golfing, lunching and wolfing down high-priced snacks with congressmen while putting the tab on America’s Medicare bill.”

Meantime, Newt Gingrich expects to wring added savings out of Medicare by promoting a medical savings-account plan that he describes as a “very entrepreneurial, risk-taking model.” That’s easy for him to say.

But older people without his deluxe guaranteed-forever health plan are already vastly more at risk than he and his kind. Encouraging high-risk seniors to gamble with their lives is a calculated, callous scam.

No thanks, Mr. Revolutionary.

Congressional cynics preaching sacrifice for others ought to put their money where their mouths are. Politicians should vote to cut their own pay and benefits, instead of demanding that the poor, the old and the sick do all the sacrificing.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel’s column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review