Why are American corporations so timid when it comes to demanding a solution to our broken health care system? GM is going out of business because it a) makes crappy products no one wants and b) can't afford to pay the health insurance costs of its employees.

From Paul Krugman, NYT, Nov. 25th, 2005

"According to A. T. Kearney, last year General Motors spent $1,500 per vehicle on health care. By contrast, Toyota spent only $201 per vehicle in North America, and $97 in Japan. If the United States had national health insurance, G.M. would be in much better shape than it is.

Wouldn't taxpayer-financed health insurance amount to a subsidy to the auto industry? Not really. Because most Americans believe that their fellow citizens are entitled to health care, and because our political system acts, however imperfectly, on that belief, tying health insurance to employment distorts the economy: it systematically discourages the creation of good jobs, the type of jobs that come with good benefits. And somebody ends up paying for health care anyway.

In fact, many of the health care expenses G.M. will save by slashing employment will simply be pushed off onto taxpayers. Some former G.M. families will end up receiving Medicaid. Others will receive uncompensated care -- for example, at emergency rooms -- which ends up being paid for either by taxpayers or by those with insurance.

Moreover, G.M.'s health care costs are so high in part because of the inefficiency of America's fragmented health care system. We spend far more per person on medical care than countries with national health insurance, while getting worse results."

Verizon just announced that they too are cutting benefits:

"Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telephone company, said yesterday that it would freeze the guaranteed pension plan covering 50,000 of its managers and expand their 401(k) plans instead.

Verizon is profitable, but Ivan G. Seidenberg sees problems ahead.

In freezing the plan, the company will pay workers the benefits they have already earned but will not let them build additional benefits.

Verizon said that it would also contribute less to the health care benefits of the managers when they retire. Over all, the company hopes to save about $3 billion over the next decade by taking the steps."

Rather than bang on Congress' door demanding a solution, they are just cutting costs. And Congress, rather than identifying an opportunity to create a rallying cry (Democrats, hello, anyone home?) for fixing health care, is saying nothing and doing nothing. They'd rather spend a trillion dollars on remote control robot soldiers, cut taxes for the rich, engage in self-serving political theater, and otherwise guarantee our empire's rapid decline.