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"Unlimited freedom to speak is not the same as unlimited freedom to buy votes. It is time to limit the financing of propositions." I do have an opinion but before voting to agree and says its time to limit...I need to see the recommendations.— Jose A. Arevalo, MD What should be controlled is dishonest statements. As of now, it seems that a candidate can be slandered, a candidate can lie, and the proposition arguments can be worse than misleading. Someone needs to prosecute a few times, to start to clean up our voting system. And, of course, who contributes should be public, and perhaps entered along with the arguments in the voter booklets. But we, as people, should be able to contribute as we wish. However, a BIGGEE is the "Personhood " of corporations; THAT should be eliminated, or revised . That would clean up a lot of problems. — Nancy Gilbert, MD I feel we have to right to vote with our contributions too. I am not in favor of limiting contributions. —Richard Jones, MD Tough balance between buying votes and freedom of speech. —Maynard Johnston, MD Money interests run America anyway. The rich will always find a way to buy influence. The propositions are the only direct democracy left. Flawed as that may be, it is better than relying on the legislature where special interest groups can block even the best legislation. Prop 36 is an example of important legislation that the criminal justice lobby would have totally stonewalled. Without direct democracy via propositions, on many issues there would be no democracy at all. —John J. McCarthy, MD There are big first amendment concerns for this posit. Who is to determine how much is to be spent, when is the determination made, what forms of advertising are affected, and how would this be uniformly enforced. I see big problems with this idea, as the ill-fated McCain-Feingold elections law demonstrates right now. — James Foerster, MD The names of the donors should be instantly made available to all. — James A. Affleck, MD I strongly agree. The propositions essentially tie the hands of our elected representatives. In addition the elected representatives will retreat, hide or take no position on tough issues, if they think it will come to a proposition. I think the propositions ought to be eliminated entirely and let us get full value from those we elect and pay to represent us. — R.J. Frink, MD I favor public financing or all elections including propositions. — Gordon Isakson, MD The core for all of these propositions is the benefit of the hospital – specifically the emergency departments. Organized medicine does not have “a dog in this hunt.” By carrying the water for other interests, organized medicine has isolated physicians in the coming political debate. When our new found friends – organized labor, trial lawyers, consumerists – bring the issue of MICRA back to the legislature next year, which they do EVERY year, do not count upon our traditional allies – the CA Chamber of Commerce, various business industries and the Republican Party – to defend our flank. They won’t! 2005 is payback time for doctors thanks to the short sighted efforts of the CMA. — David J. Gibson, MD I’m even more concerned about the issue of truth in advertising. There are laws that support truth in advertising for services for products in the private sector. However, there are no laws that prohibit politicians for stating misleading or blatently inaccurate information. For example, several independent monitoring organization have concluded that 70%-80% of the Advertising supporting George Bush as been totally inaccurate. The amount spent on this advertising exceeds $200 million dollars. Although independent organizations can expose the misleading statements, they do not have $200 million dollars to spend correcting the information at the equivalent level of exposure. Thus without laws or money to protect the public, organizations can’t stop politicians from lying freely or influencing vote not only by more support but by propogating false information. My example here is the presidential race but this fundamental problem exists on all levels. — Mark Moeller, MD |
Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society
5380 Elvas Avenue #100 • Sacramento, CA 95819
916.452.2671 PH • 916.452.2690 FX • Email: info@ssvms.org
Copyright © 2000-2008 Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society - All Right's Reserved
5380 Elvas Avenue #100 • Sacramento, CA 95819
916.452.2671 PH • 916.452.2690 FX • Email: info@ssvms.org
Copyright © 2000-2008 Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society - All Right's Reserved