The following letter was sent to George Washington University Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley in late November:
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November 24, 2009
Jonathan Turley, Esq
Dear Mr. Turley,
I am a physician in Largo, Florida, a small town in the Tampa/ St. Petersburg area. I am a family practitioner with two brothers, both attorneys. I have seldom “won” an argument involving either of them, however, I have come to observe how attorneys are apparently taught to reason. In addition, in my youth, I studied the Talmud with my grandfather. Talmudic law, while often religious in nature, bears a strong resemblance to American law, both in its application of logic and equity as well as its arbitrary violation of both concepts.
As students of Talmud, we occasionally encountered instances in which an obviously equitable, undeniably correct principle or argument was overturned by Caveat. In these instances the Rabbi would call on a “higher power” to vouch for his opinions and would exclaim: “Tuh shmah!” – literally: hear from this! i.e. “even though your legal opinion is correct, we are rejecting it by Caveat.” The initials for “Tuh shmah!” are the Hebrew letters for “T” and “S” and even at our tender ages (10 or 11 years) we would all put our thumbs in the air and exclaim: “Tough Shit!!” Even our learned Rabbi and teacher would laugh, despite himself.
As a physician, I have spent more than twenty five years arguing, vehemently, not with attorneys, but mostly my own colleagues. I have admonished them countless times, warning them that begging before politicians and throwing relatively modest sums of money at them can, at best, keep us from losing ground. To improve both the physician’s and the patient’s lot, we physicians must act as advocates for our patients. We must work with our patients to achieve both patients’ and physicians’ rights.
To those ends, I have submitted many papers and proposals to my organization, the A.O.A. (American Osteopathic Association) and its state and county chapters. These efforts have been consistently stonewalled at the legal levels of each organization. I have argued for tort reform, of course, and more importantly, “equal protection” for seniors.
Ever since Congressmen Stark of California and Dingell of Michigan signed up as employees of major laboratories like National Health, Smith Klein & Damon, and began raping the Medicare system, I have ranted and raved against the lack of competitive bidding in Medicare. At every turn, I was rebuffed by our own lawyers. No, even though every other agency of the government is allowed to use its members as leverage to negotiate prices, Medicare’s seniors are forbidden this right. They are denied due process, denied equal protection of due process promised in the 14th Amendment. Why is this? I am told and have confirmed in the literature, that the Bar Association and the Supreme Court do not know and cannot define what the amendment means by “due process.” My question is: do these august bodies know the meaning of “equal protection?” It seems very odd that my four year old grand niece has no trouble defining the term for me.
In 2005, after accepting huge “campaign” donations from Pharma, Billy Tauzin and Tom Delay actually wrote into the Medicare Part D legislation that it is illegal for the government to use the 43 million Medicare patients to negotiate fair prices for pharmaceuticals. The VA, using its 4 million patients as leverage, pays about 40% of the Medicare prices for the same drugs. Unlike the equally treacherous Democrats, Republicans are so proud to violate their constituents’ rights that they put it in writing! Worse yet, Mr. Tauzin, in the true tradition of Judas, retires and takes a multi-million dollar job as President of Pharma, the actual authors of his bill.
Now, as President Obama and a meager few Congressmen and Senators try to pass meaningful health care reform, attorneys are conspicuously silent. Never mind tort reform. Is there not something illegal about Medicare spending 4400 dollars for an 1100 dollar motorized scooter, 2700 dollars a year for 1000 dollars of oxygen, 500 dollars for 100 dollars worth of laboratory tests or 200 dollars for a 75 dollar medication?
There seems to be an inadvertent contempt that the legal profession holds for the average citizen and for equity and fairness. I have little doubt that the Bar Association or the Supreme Court are stating truthfully that they do not know what “due process” is. The fact that neither organization plans to ever find out the meaning, is a disgusting commentary on their intention to not protect citizens’ rights.
Meanwhile, to most informed citizens’ dismay, a series of effete Attorneys General, including Janet Reno and for however short a time, Eric Holder, then Ashcroft and Gonzalez, has been followed again by Eric Holder. Try as I might, I cannot find any accomplishments or achievements for Mr. Holder qualifying him for his post. In fact, his history of ignoring almost all relevant legal issues and joining a law firm representing the deepest corruption of our legal system and most dangerous threat to the Constitution since its inception, can only be described as shocking!
I must admit that my right wing medical colleagues are not likely to save Medicare or champion Seniors’ rights any time soon. I would hope that you have more success motivating your legal colleagues to save and, somehow, enforce the Constitution and especially the 14th Amendment. I fear that not only is this the only way to save “healthcare,” but also the elusive “due process.”
In utter frustration, a few years ago, I began to write articles for my blog site. I have enclosed a few of my, admittedly, “simple minded” articles dealing with legal matters. Whether you agree with them or not, I believe you will find a few of them quite interesting. Thank you for your attention. You seem to me to exhibit a natural demeanor on television and you give the impression of a psychological counselor as must as legal one.
With your indulgence, I am sending a copy of this letter to Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman Anthony Weiner. I realize that all of you are involved in what is to become a heroic struggle with the forces of ignorance and indifference that exist in both parties.
Yours truly,
Allen Finkelstein, D.O.
cc: Hon. Anthony Weiner
cc: Sen. Bernie Sanders