Negotiated Public Option vs. Medicare Plus 5% Public Option May Be a Disaster

Will the public plan have higher premiums than private insurance?

By Ezra Klein  |  October 30, 2009; 10:07 AM ET

I’ve been saying that a public option with negotiated rates probably won’t post much of a price advantage against private insurers. But according to the Congressional Budget Office (pdf), that’s was overoptimistic. The public option’s premiums, they say, will actually be more expensive than private insurance.

Continue reading Negotiated Public Option vs. Medicare Plus 5% Public Option May Be a Disaster

Congressional Progressive Caucus Continues Fight for Affordable Quality Universal Healthcare

Grijalva Perseveres

October 30, 2009, Washington , DC

 

Grijalva Expresses Disappointment With House Bill, Vows Robust Amendment

Congressman Grijalva announced his deep disappointment, yesterday, that a robust public option was not included in the House version of health care reform legislation released on Thursday. He said he would fight for a floor vote on including a robust plan in the bill, which will require approval by leadership and the Rules Committee.  
 

Continue reading Congressional Progressive Caucus Continues Fight for Affordable Quality Universal Healthcare

Cong. Kucinich: Moment of Truth for Democratic Party – For the people’s health or insurance company profits?

Will We Stand for the People or the Insurance Companies?

By Dennis Kucinich
October 29, 2009, Washington, DC

October 28, 2009–Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement about the health care debate in America:
 
“Providing health care to all Americans is the moral responsibility of our government, consistent with the Preamble in the Constitution. Yet we are being told that it is not possible to have the kind of single payer health system which every industrialized democracy in the world has.

“We compromised on single payer by backing a public option, and now we are being asked to compromise the public option with negotiated rates. In conference, we will likely be asked to compromise negotiated rates with a trigger.  In each and every step of the health care debate, the insurance companies have won. If they get hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxpayer subsidies, they get to raise their premiums, and increase their co pays and deductibles, while the public is forced to pay for private insurance, then the insurance companies win big.
 
“If this is the best we can do, then it is time to ask ourselves whether the two-party system is truly capable of representing the American people or whether the system has been so compromised by special interests that we can’t even protect the health of our own people. This is a moment of truth for the Democratic Party.  Will we stand for the people or the insurance companies?”

AFL-CIO Pres. Rich Trumka To Testify in Congress Against Phony Bank Reform Bill

RichTrumka
AFL-CIO Pres. Rich Trumka

by Mike Elk

 

Campaign for America’s Future

Posted: October 29, 2009 03:07 AM

After leading the dramatic three day Showdown in Chicago at the American Bankers Association (ABA) Convention in Chicago, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will head to the House Financial Service Committee today to testify against proposed reform legislation that actually gives the banks more power. In a twist of irony, he literally sit down the table from American Bankers Association Ed Yingling as he testifies against the banksters.

After weakening current law on derivatives., the committee has once again weakened law in the banker’s favor. The drafted legislation concerning banks “too big to fail” which would actually lead to more bailouts over the long run.

Continue reading AFL-CIO Pres. Rich Trumka To Testify in Congress Against Phony Bank Reform Bill

USW Forms Alliance with World’s Largest Cooperative

Mondragon1
Mondragon Co-op

For More Information:  Rob Witherell, 412-562-4333, rwitherell@usw.org

Steelworkers Form Collaboration with MONDRAGON, the World’s Largest Worker-Owned Cooperative

Pittsburgh (Oct. 27, 2009) – The United Steelworkers (USW) and MONDRAGON Internacional, S.A. today announced a framework agreement for collaboration in establishing MONDRAGON cooperatives in the manufacturing sector within the United States and Canada.  The USW and MONDRAGON will work to establish manufacturing cooperatives that adapt collective bargaining principles to the MONDRAGON worker ownership model of “one worker, one vote.”

Continue reading USW Forms Alliance with World’s Largest Cooperative

Vote on Tuesday November 3rd for Democratic candidates for PA Supreme Court, Superior Court, and Commonwealth Court

Please vote on November 3rd and call your family and friends and ask them to vote for the Democratic candidates for judge.

After the 2010 census, Pennsylvania’s congressional districts will be redrawn. Your vote for Judge Jack Panella for Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice is critical to Pennsylvania’s Democratic delegation to Congress.

Most of us will never stand in front of a judge in a courtroom. But it’s important that people in that situation should be facing an ethical judge who respects working people, not just powerful corporations. We’ve seen that in these trying economic times, judges around the country have acted as a last defense for working families.

Now, it’s time for Pennsylvanians to elect judges to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Superior Court and Commonwealth Court.

Working America is supporting Judge Jack Panella for Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Jack Panella has a strong record of siding with working families on the court. We know we can trust him because he has made ethics central to his career, having overseen judicial discipline and conduct in the state.

We are supporting the following candidates:

SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Elect:

 Judge Jack Panella

SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA
Elect:
Judge Robert Colville
Judge Anne E. Lazarus
Kevin McCarthy
Judge Teresa Sarmina

Vote Yes:
For Retention of Judge Kate Ford Elliott

COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA
Elect:
Barbara B. Ernsberger
Linda Judson

Vote Yes:
For Retention of Judge Dan Pellegrini

How you vote is a personal decision, but Working America
believes these are the candidates we can count on to be there
for working families and ensure working people have a voice on
the job.

We hope you’ll get out and vote for Judge Panella and the rest
of our endorsed candidates.

Sincerely,
Working America

Mass Protest at American Bankers Association Festivities in Chicago – Sen. Dick Durbin Addresses Union Protesters

SEIU: “Our demand is simple: stop taking our tax dollars and squandering them away on billion dollar bonuses and massive lobbying campaigns against financial reform.”
http://www.seiu.org/2009/10/you-werent-on-the-guest-list.php

Continue reading Mass Protest at American Bankers Association Festivities in Chicago – Sen. Dick Durbin Addresses Union Protesters

Details of the Wall Street Coup D’Etat

“The finance industry has effectively captured our government…”

former IMF Chief Economist and current MIT Professor Simon Johnson in the May, 2009 issue of The Atlantic

By David DeGraw
AmpedStatus Report, 10/13 – 10/16

The past few days have been very revealing when it comes to the financial coup that has occurred here in the US. When we say financial coup, we’re not giving you hyperbole. We’re telling you the technical term for what has occurred.

Don’t take our word for it, investigate it for yourself. Here’s a special report we have compiled which features the most recent information available concerning the takeover:

Continue reading Details of the Wall Street Coup D’Etat

PA AFL-CIO Pres. Bill George to Cong. Jason Altmire – Vote right on healthcare or don’t come back

 
PA AFL-CIO Pres. Bill George
PA AFL-CIO Pres. Bill George

by Randy Shannon 

October 23, 2009

Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Bill George, a former USW Local 1211 officer and an open hearth worker at Aliquippa’s former Jones &Laughlin  Steel, accepted the Beaver-Lawrence Labor Council’s honor of induction into the Labor Council Hall of Fame.

Labor Council Legislative Liason Charlie Hamilton also received a Labor Hall of Fame Award. Mr. Hamilton is a retired but dues paying member of the NALC Branch 84 and a former worker at Babcock and Wilcox. Mr. Hamilton talked about the union history of several generations of his family, and union activism as a way of life. 

Continue reading PA AFL-CIO Pres. Bill George to Cong. Jason Altmire – Vote right on healthcare or don’t come back