Business leader Sandy Parker unshackled

By Tim Louis Macaluso on March 25, 2009

Looking out from her State Street office, Sandy Parker points to a vacant parcel between the river and the Inner Loop. The leveled site is a rough-looking reminder of Rochester's past, when much of the area was the pulse of the city, with small factories, stores, and businesses.

Parker heads a nine-county organization whose members come from industries ranging from agriculture to defense communications. President and CEO of the Rochester Business Alliance since 2005, Parker says that upstate, like much of New York, is at a crossroads. Either upstate becomes more business friendly or it will continue to stagnate and lose jobs and people to other parts of the country, she says.

Parker has spent much of the last 20 years trying to connect businesses large and small to Rochester's economic future. Her frank and unwavering support of the area's business community has made her a welcomed guest in some circles and an anathema in others. You can't offend her by calling her a lobbyist.

She was instrumental in the formation of Unshackle Upstate, a coalition of businesses that has been trying to revive the upstate economy. Her mantra -- reform, reform, reform - has won her few friends among public labor unions. And she raised eyebrows a few years ago when she promoted radical change in the governance of the city school district.

Even if you don't agree with Parker's positions, there's no question that the Rochester region has struggled to find its economic foothold. Parker's advice to Governor David Paterson and politicians across the state is to cut spending and to stop increasing taxes at every level of government.

Whether it's through consolidation of services or by cutting government employees, New York's bloated bureaucracy and era of government giveaways has to end, Parker says. The private sector has already made extreme cuts to survive, she says. Now it's government's turn.The following is an edited version of two recent interviews with Sandy Parker.

CITY: Rochester has been in decline since the 1970's. Why did medium-size cities like Austin, Texas or Charlotte, North Carolina grow economically during the last 30 years and Rochester didn't?

Parker: I think to a significant extent it has been due to the economic environment in New York State. And downstate in particular has received more than its amount due in attention in recent years compared to upstate.

You have to consider that Rochester had a higher percentage of its employment coming from manufacturers than most parts of the country. Manufacturing jobs paid more so it really served our economy well for many years.

But as the economy shifted to a more service-based economy, that was good for New York City, but we experienced a loss in our wage growth here. That was coupled with an increase in property taxes, state income taxes, and our business taxes. We began to see an exodus of people from upstate, and I would say from New York State in general. When you drive the businesses out, you drive the jobs out.

Those are the primary reasons that we have not done as well as other parts of the country like Austin, which by the way, doesn't have a state income tax.

What are the primary impediments to our economy looking into the future?

I firmly believe it is the overall business climate and dysfunction in Albany. It costs businesses more to come here and set up shop. It costs more for existing businesses to expand. And when they recruit employees here, those people are hit with higher taxes.

New York State is really being driven by special interest groups, particularly public labor unions. So it has created an atmosphere that is not private-business friendly.

Can you be more specific?

All you have to do is look at the conversation about what they're calling the "millionaire's tax". It's really a tax on individuals earning $250,000 a year or more. These people are largely business creators and incubators.

If they keep seeing their income taxes increase, they will go elsewhere. They're not wedded to upstate or New York. They will go to North Carolina or Texas or any number of other places that are more pro-business.

You see the population decline in this region going hand and hand with the loss of businesses, don't you?

Oh yes. People move to where the jobs are.�I think if we had more jobs and a greater diversity of jobs, we would not have seen the decline in population that we've experienced. And we would have more success in retaining our young people if we had an array of good-paying jobs to offer them after graduation. This is a serious problem for our region.

But some would argue that high taxes can't be entirely to blame for the upstate slump. If you look at states like California and Massachusetts, they both have very high taxes. And look at the explosion in growth they've experienced in multiple industries, particularly in high technology.

Well, first, I think we are seeing the implosion of California.

But there is another piece to this. When Wall Street was strong, we had good revenue coming off of those salaries. And that offset the job losses in upstate. But when Wall Street imploded, you can see what this has done to the entire state, especially when there is no help coming from a strong upstate economy.

The same thing has happened in California for many of the same reasons we have discussed. They are in as bad or maybe worse shape than New York. I really think that there has to be real reform there for many of the same issues New Yorkers are facing. It can't be a series of patches. We need real reform.

You have expressed disappointment in Governor David Paterson. You're not alone; his poll numbers have dropped significantly. What do you think of him now?

Well, I am a little disappointed in him, but I am still a supporter. I think he truly wants to do the right thing and I think he understands the serious problems New York State faces. We cheered when he held his ground against the Legislature on many of the spending items and reform issues.

I, quite frankly, was very disappointed in the deficit reform bill because all that does is plug holes. It increases taxes. It takes money from one pot and moves it to another pot. It does nothing to reform the way the state delivers services.

The tax on gym memberships and soda pop, though I hear now that is dead, and taking money from the Power Authority's general fund, which took money away from Power for Jobs - these things do nothing to create jobs and stop spending. They just look to other sources of spending to fill the hole.

If you were advising Paterson on the budget and how to revitalize the upstate economy, what would you tell him?

I would tell him he has to cut the work force, just like private businesses have been forced to do to reduce costs. The cuts that they've made so far don't even begin to make a dent in what needs to be done.

I would raise an awareness campaign to withhold the 3 percent pay increase public employees are scheduled to receive. I mean, you can pick up the paper every day and private employers are saying no pay increases right now. And people will understand because they are thankful to have the jobs.

I would look at Medicaid benefits because the benefits people receive in New York State are the Cadillac of all benefit programs.

And I support his idea of reforming Tier 5 pensions, which would make it mandatory that employees contribute to their pensions. I mean, that's the real world we live in now.

All that being said, he's been facing a real battle. And there have been signs that he is wavering. He needs to put strong people around him, because I think this governor really wants to do the right thing, but the clock is ticking.

To switch to a subject that is more local, you weren't the first person to come out in support of mayoral control of the city school district, but you revived the conversation. Do you still support it?

I meant what I said and I still support it.

There are many different forms of mayoral control and I think when you talk about it, you have to exclude the current mayor because it has to work no matter who is in the mayor's office. I happen to think that it would be especially right for our current mayor, but you can't just look at Bob Duffy and say he should have mayoral control.

But I think there needs to be greater accountability and authority over those dollars the city provides to the district, something like $119 million.

What is the problem with many of the city's schools? Why have we seen such a low graduation rate, though it is improving?

I think there are several things going on there. I think they have just too many programs, and not enough focus. I think we still have too many dollars spent in administration and not enough on teaching in the classrooms.�And I don't think we have the right leadership in some schools.

If you look at those schools that are recognized as high-performing institutions, they are institutions with excellence in management at the principal level. So I think we need to do a better job of making sure that we have the highest quality principals running all of our schools and that they have the appropriate authority to do their jobs, just like in a private business.

Too often, I think principals find their hands are tied in trying to get rid of a bad teacher or a bad administrator. They just move them to another job somewhere else in the district and live with them.

What role has the school district played in business and real estate values? People may like city living, but if they have children, they head to the suburbs before those children reach school age.

The school district right now is an obstacle to raising the economic profile of the person who lives in the city. Until we solve the problems with our schools, you're going to have that very scenario. We know that young people want to live in the city, and I think we're doing a tremendous job of providing them with the kind of housing options that they want. But once they get married and that kid gets ready for kindergarten, they're out of here.
Then we see that once the child leaves and they are empty nesters, they want to come back to the city. But we're losing a whole cohort of people that work, live, and spend money here. And most of all, we lose those people who add to the overall tax base of the city.

When you look at the high technology growth of the Silicon Valley and Boston's high-tech corridor, it was more than the clustering of colleges that caused that growth; there was an enormous amount of venture capital money flowing into those areas. But here Rochester is right next to Wall Street, and it gets very little investment.

You're absolutely right. And that is something that the region really has to work very hard on because until we have that, we won't have the sheer volume of entrepreneurial ideas and small start-up companies that you see in those parts of the country.

I mean, you've got groups like the Trillium Group and High Tech Rochester that focus on that, but we must have more money coming into the area to support these people who are trying to create new businesses here and need the capital.

Is that because Rochester has an image of being an old company town?

I think that's true, but I think that image is transforming itself. But I don't think we've made the full transformation yet.

Again, I think that the business climate in New York overall doesn't encourage entrepreneurship. You don't have people chomping at the bit to start companies here.

A lot of your critics would say that you're anti-union. Are you?

I think there was a time and a place for unions in this country, and there may still be a place for unions. But particularly in this state, I feel the pendulum has swung too far to the other side.

I think I gave you the figure that 70 percent of New York State workers are unionized. I think part of the demise of the automobile industry, which greatly impacts our area, is partly the fault of the unions. When you look at the benefits and wage packages that they bargained for, they put themselves in a spot where they became totally uncompetitive.

But if we had health-care reform in this country, the auto industry might be more competitive. The Japanese and the Ontario, Canada employers don't have to carry that burden, so they can produce a less expensive product.

You know I am not a proponent of universal health care. And I know that everyone likes to point out the Canadian model as the one the US should follow. But tell me why when it comes to elective surgery, so many Canadians come across the border to get the care that they want? It's because they can't get it there, and if they can, they have to wait so darn long to get it.

I do think we need to reform the health-care system to make it more efficient. I think employers genuinely want to provide their employees with that benefit. But a national health care system is going to be a very expensive system. We need to realize that we have to pay for it if that were to happen. And the only way to pay for it would be to increase our taxes, which I don't think is a good way to go.

The University of Rochester is the area's largest employer. Looking 20 years into the future, what are the growth industries of tomorrow?

I think our future is with our 19 colleges and universities; many of them are top-ranking institutions.

I don't think that the growth will come out of their teaching capabilities, but out of the research and development capabilities that they have. Companies are coming out of this work that they are doing. Two examples are the Clinical and Translational Sciences Center at the UR and the Golisano Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing at RIT. The Center for Governmental Research did a study on the latter and they found that 6,000 jobs could come out of there. These institutions have the unique capacity to transform our region.

I think health care will continue to grow in our region and we have a lot of defense industry-related companies. With the number of large and small conflicts we have throughout the world, the Harris Communications and ITT Systems will continue to grow.

Manufacturing as it was once known has taken a beating. But there are CEO's and managers of local companies that have jobs they can't fill.

That's true. For as long as I've been CEO of this organization, we've had companies in the tool and die industry in particular with this problem.

You need to understand that these are the companies that supply a lot of other companies with the parts they need to function. They just cannot get these young people interested in these jobs.

I think there is a lack of understanding about what this work is like now, and I think parents want their kids to get a four-year degree rather than look at the trades. They have an old frame of reference of what the environment is like in these places. But these are good-paying jobs that start at $40,000 to $60,000 a year.

We really need to reach our guidance counselors and parents because I think there needs to be some education about what the trades can offer some students today.

Rochester has traditionally had this thing about being a white-collar town; we've always looked at Buffalo as the blue-collar town. What is Rochester today?

I think the people who live here have an appreciation for the arts and culture. We are a concerned community. We're involved. I don't think that we ever were a blue-collar town. I think first and foremost, we're a college town at this point and we're just beginning to realize that.

I also think we are resilient. When you think of the downsizing that Kodak went through over the last 10 years, it wasn't pleasant, but we've survived it where a lot of other places wouldn't have done as well.

The people who live here want to stay here. Even when people lose their jobs, they often hang on as long as they can because they really would like to stay here. They don't want to leave. And I think that says something about upstate.

Comments for "Business leader Sandy Parker unshackled " (16)

City Newspaper is not responsible for the content of these comments. City Newspaper reserves the right to remove comments at their discretion.

Michael H Ballard said on Mar. 25, 2009 at 11:10am

Agree or disagree Sandy Parker is right we need people to think, change and take action to help citizens, organizations and cities stay resilient.

It impacts incomes, tax bases, health costs, education graduation rates.... it gets them all.

local Observer said on Mar. 25, 2009 at 12:55pm

Local Observer

Good interview, most of it accurate. This is somewhat related to the theme of the topic.

One of the things I’d like to see in Rochester is a something I call an “Incubator Oven”
We always hear about high-tech incubators generally geared to a new electronic or computer product.
My idea is more of a low tech kitchen approach. An approved ready to use test kitchen to launch new food products that someone could lease at a very reasonable rate. The local collages could be used for things like food safety testing, business plans etc. I know of many people that have ideas for food products but when faced with all the regulations and requirements that are needed simple give up before they even start. Upstate NY is really good at producing food and with Wegmans located here as a major distributor we could have the next Lidestri Foods or Barilla Pasta just waiting for a spot to test the product. Not as glamorous as the high tech we constantly hear about but it does provide well paying jobs that the area needs.

David Lum said on Mar. 25, 2009 at 10:45pm

Our formerly great state is crumbling under the heel of the powerful lobbyists with bulging pockets that slither in and out of Albany. Leaders of the powerful special-interests care little about private-sector jobs. This includes the health care crowd, NYSUT, SEIU, trial lawyers, nursing home operators, and countless more.

They have a stranglehold on our legislators. And my fellow apathetic voters have mostly thrown in the towel on state issues. President Obama can print money: Governor Patterson cannot.

When will citizens rise up and fight, rather than rise up, get in their car, and find a job in Colorado or North Carolina?

Will Condo said on Mar. 26, 2009 at 2:39pm

Unfortunately, Sandy Parker comes across as another elitist "leader" who accomplishes little to benefit the average Rochester family. She is against the "millionaire's tax" , but , according to a recent D&C report, falls within the income bracket that might be taxed more. She is against universal health tax but of course her membership includes area HMO's who are partly responsible for the demise of quality health care . And she thinks Rochester is not "bluecollar", but local people have an appreciation for art and culture. What does this mean; that blue collar workers can appreciate "culture?" How many people would keep their jobs for 5-10-20 years without accomplishing anything ? How many people would spend year after year on meaningless boards and committees and find it satisfying ? All we hear is "I think," I think," I think", -well who really cares ??

Patrick Domaratz said on Mar. 26, 2009 at 6:53pm

Sandy Parker's (and the RBA's) ideal workforce would be weak, meak and poor. They simply cannot stand the fact that workers have the right to assert their rights and have them enforced. Do you think that a non-profit CEO who made $227,000+ in 2007 (2007 IRS records) and a healthy benefits package to boot understands or cares about the interests of working Rochester? If you're worried about her retirement, don't. The last RBA CEO suffered with $111,000+ in pay for not working in 2007 (2007 IRS records). Let's focus on working families in future articles of City.

Jon Greenbaum said on Mar. 26, 2009 at 9:15pm

Wow. That's bracing. Two whole pages of Sandy Parker hating on the working class. You gotta hand it to Tim Louis Macaluso. He gave her enough rope to hang herself.

I'm kind of struck about how factually impaired she came off. Is she just lying or does she actually not understand that income taxes (for the rich) and business taxes were cut in half under Pataki (which dried up revenue sharing with municipalities and school districts which then lead to high property taxes).

Her health care analysis is kinda scary. Can you think of a more inefficient bureaucratic and costly system on the planet than the American health care system? The only efficient components in the system are publicly run. Yikes.

At some point Sandy Parker will have to look back on her life and come to terms with the fact that she spent her energies as a special interest lobbyist trying to bend public policy to increase corporate profits for the wealthy while opposing policies that help ordinary working people, people struggling to pay their medical bills to businesses represented on the Business Alliance board of directors and pay rent to landlords represented on the Business Alliance Board of directors to pay back the high interest loans to the banks represented on the Business Alliance Board of directors, taking expensive classes (to get a better job) at the schools represented on the Business Alliance board of directors, working two jobs because they earn so little working for corporations represented on the Business Alliance board of directors,

Jason Haremza said on Mar. 27, 2009 at 6:29pm

Ms. Parker makes many good points about the need for reform, but she completely misses the mark on the health care issue. She raises the same old tired red herring about the relatively few Canadians seeking care in the US. Has she considered the fact that those Canadians are only WEALTHY Canadians? The Canadian system is not perfect, but it provides coverage FOR EVERYONE, (and at far less cost per person than the US currently spends on healthcare) not just those who can afford to jump the line and jet off to the States! What sort of compassionate person can possibly be against universal health care coverage? Does she really think health care is a priviledge? She mistakenly equates universal coverage with government-run coverage.

And she's painfully unaware of the costs of our current system. We already have the world's most expensive health care system, on a per person basis, and it provides unequitable and inadequate care. The US is outranked by other industrialized countries in many measures of health.

And finally, how about the fact that many corporations, maybe including some of her own members, are realizing that the health care issue in the US puts them at a competitive disadvantage. Toyota chose to locate a huge new North American plant in Ontario rather than the United States, in part because of the health care cost differential.

It must be nice, Sandy, to not have to worry about your own health care costs. Maybe you should get out of your State Street office sometime and talk to people who do.

Scott Fisher said on Mar. 27, 2009 at 9:07pm

Ms. Parker says that she "... would look at Medicaid benefits because the benefits people receive in New York State are the Cadillac of all benefit programs." I receive Medicaid benefits because I am disabled. They're pretty good, but they're not the Cadillac of benefits. Using the word "Cadillac" to describe Medicaid benefits evokes images of Ronald Reagan's "Welfare Cadillac" demagoguery. If I'm riding in a Cadillac, then Ms. Parker must be riding in a goldplated Mercedes. Would you like a ride in my Cadillac, Ms. Parker?

AJ Mann said on Mar. 28, 2009 at 11:37pm

Sandy Parker is absolutely right on every point she made. This woman knows NYS and it's shortcomings and she knows her business. Albany Pols are cowered by long pampered public unions that are choking the life out of NYS just as the auto unions in Detroit are killing the ability for American Auto Companies to compete. If Gov. Paterson doesn't start fighting many superfluous state workers, NYS will lose so many more businesses & people, the'll be no one here to pay taxes but the old &poor that can't leave. Those with infinite life options/choices, Wealthy people, that create companies & jobs will be the first to leave NYS! The wealthy built your hospitals,Universities,Museums, & finance Medical Research! NYS will become Arkansas.

Will Condo said on Mar. 30, 2009 at 11:47am

AGAIN,WHAT HAS MS.PARKER ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED TO BENEFIT WORKERS IN THE ROCHESTER REGION?

Ed Stuart said on Mar. 31, 2009 at 1:21pm

The key to New York's budget woes, and subsequently, the citizen's tax woes is Medicaid. Medicaid. Medicaid. Medicaid. This program accounts for $48B of our state budget and an equally shocking share of our county budget. It is the primary reason our property taxes are so high. We cannot afford this system. Medicaid must be reformed if we have any hope of lowering the tax burden in New York State.

Don Upton said on Mar. 31, 2009 at 8:53pm

About the Sandy Parker interview. She was commenting on the tool and die industry and bemoaning the fact that young people shy away from it and that the jobs go begging.She then goes on to say that "these are good paying jobs that start at $40,000 to $60,000 a year". I wonder what part of her anatomy she pulled those figures from.
Sandy Parker, the Rochester Tooling and Machining Association, (or for that matter anyone with a vested interest in sucking people into this albotross of an occupation), quotes those same figures constantly. It never ceases to amuse me.
Look. I've been in the machine tool industry since Jesus wore shorts. Due to shop closings, downsizing, fluctuations in the economy, etc. , I've worked in more shops than I've got fingers and toes to count, and I'm here to tell you that only the top supervision pulls down anything even close to those figures. And then only after many years of service. Entry level people could do better pulling rickshaw in New Delhi.
Maybe Sandy Parker could get hold of me and tip me off to where these lucrative machine jobs are.
Thanx
Don Upton

Keith Goldstein said on Apr. 01, 2009 at 11:57am

You have to be kidding me! Someone pro business wants to keep the status quo when it comes to healthcare in this country. Give me a break! Here are my thoughts on healthcare in the country via an essay from long ago:

Healthcare!

Yeah, I know a lot has been said and written about the state of healthcare in this country, but you know, not much has been done, because no one has any new ideas. Well now I’d like to submit a few new ideas!

First of all healthcare has to change in this country, from an industry to a system. There has to be healthcare for all! Yes, I said, all American citizens. But who is going to pay for it? The answer is same people who pay for the entire healthcare now. The consumer!

If you buy a car, part of the cost of the car goes to pay the healthcare of the people who made the car. You have someone fix a broken window in your home, the healthcare costs of the repair crew are built into the cost to fix the broken window. A town employee plows your street, your taxes pay the town employee’s healthcare. The cost of any company’s goods and services, include the cost of the company’s paid healthcare of their employees. Government supplied healthcare, whether it be in the form of Medicare, Medicaid or VA healthcare, is still paid for by the people of this country, via taxes. Plain and simple!

So the simplest and fairest way to pay for a national healthcare plan is through a national sales tax. Here are just a few reasons as to why it will work:

1.The taxes will be paid on most all goods and services. Even the millions of tourists who visit this country will also pay it. Most of everything that they purchase will be taxed.
2.Every person who works “under the table” will pay for healthcare when they make a purchase with their untaxed income.
3.Even the 400,000 people who make a living off of ebay, (as per Dick Cheney) will pay for healthcare.
4.Everyone who has a weekly garage sale will pay for healthcare when they spend the profits of their weekend endeavors.
5.Even the kid who makes $20 baby-sitting and then buys a CD with the money will pay for healthcare.

The above is just one idea, but other things have to change. First being the VA’s system of healthcare. Where is the logic behind the idea that veterans have to travel to a special VA hospital for care? Close all the VA hospitals, incorporate the VA hospital staff into the existing healthcare, sell off the assets, and just give every veteran a card with their fingerprint on it so that they can go to any doctor or any hospital for the care they need! Make it simple for all of the veterans!

No more prescription advertising. Think about this. Who do you think pays for the plethora of prescription advertisements that you see on television? We do! The cost for a four-week supply of Enbrel was $1167. Now I see that it has been approved for other medical uses, and advertised for that, but the cost now has gone up to over $1210 for a 4-week supply. Wouldn’t logic dictate that the more people that can use a drug, the cost should go down, but it didn’t! Let the drug companies reps tell the doctors about new drugs and save the money on television advertisements or better yet have the drug companies email you information that you might find useful and then talk to your doctor about it. Treat the drug companies like public utilities when it comes to profit.

Limit medical insurance coverage to treatments that have empirical evidence behind them. If someone wants an alternative form of care, well then there has to be accepted scientific evidence that the care works, not just anecdotal evidence. Too much money is waste on bad medical treatment.

Just think of the positive effects of what would happen, if the citizens of this country paid for their own healthcare:
1.Hospital emergency rooms would become emergency rooms again and not doctors offices for the uninsured.
2.All business would be on an even playing field. You wouldn’t have business trying to hire a certain type of employee just to avoid paying health insurance. Over the long-term industry’s cost should come down when one of their largest expenses is gone.
3.Healthcare would no longer be a bargaining item in union contract talks.
4.Industry wouldn’t have to move out of the country to avoid supplying healthcare insurance to its employees.
5.Employees wouldn’t have to stay at a crappy job just because the employer supplies healthcare to its employees. After enough of its employees quit, then the company would change for the better.
6.And if we complain about the high cost for taxes/insurance, well we have no one to blame but ourselves!
7.Doctor visit and drug co-pays would be determined on your income level. The more you earn, the more your co-pay is.
8.Certain medical test would be required to maintain your healthcare. Mammograms, colonoscapies, pap smears, regular eye exams and so on. Earlier detection results in a better chance of a cure.
9.The burden of state/county Medicaid expense would be considerably lightened when we all pay the cost of healthcare
10.Most importantly it is cheaper to keep people healthy than to cure them when they are sick.

Do I have the answers to America’s healthcare problem? No! Do I have some new ideas that smarter people than myself should look into? The answer is, “Yes”. I know that this may seem drastic, but something has to be done. All Americans deserve a comprehensive healthcare and prescription benefit plan that is logical in its implementation and the costs are incurred by all of us. We, as Americans, are going to have to pay for our healthcare one way or another.

No one said that the success of a national single payer healthcare plan would be easy. But the consequences of our political “leaders” to talk about “new plans” and not do anything will guarantee the success of failure to resolve this ever-growing national problem.

Jane said on Apr. 01, 2009 at 2:00pm

It was well put on the news last night. Everybody wants to solve this, but nobody wants to give anything up. And by give something up, I mean "make less money." Get serious people. We can't have change without compromise. When will we see doctors, insurance companies, patients and politicians realize that compromise is how this country was founded. It's also how it needs to be run.

Emmanuel Winner said on Apr. 06, 2009 at 10:52am

2 big problems here:
"I also think we are resilient. When you think of the downsizing that Kodak went through over the last 10 years, it wasn't pleasant, but we've survived it where a lot of other places wouldn't have done as well." The area around Kodak looks like a ghost town, 25% of our buildings stand vacant, we got through his how?

"The people who live here want to stay here. Even when people lose their jobs, they often hang on as long as they can because they really would like to stay here. They don't want to leave." They're SUPPOSED to leave, that's part of the "creative destruction of capitalism" businesspeople like Parker foster - you're supposed to go where the money is and make more money.

Parker understands all this, she's just giving us a pep-talk. And there's nothing I hate worse than phony pep-talks.

Jeffrey R. Lewis M.A. said on Apr. 10, 2009 at 6:47pm

I am writing to announce my support for H.R. 676, the Expand Medicare for All Act. Canadians live a better quality of life than we do. I don't like the idea of making a profit off of human suffering. I think it is despicable that the pharmaceutical companies advertise medication on Television. I also dislike the concept of having to pay co-pays for medications. and having to deal with with insurance bureaucrats who really care nothing about the oatient.

Respond on Your Blog

If you have a City Account you can not only post comments, but you can also respond to articles in your own City Blog. It's just another way to make your voice heard.