“AS I SEE IT”
Opinion, by Stephen F. Kislock III
November 3, 2009
Blue Dog Democrats, New Democrats Coalition! What the Hell happens to the Old Democrats?
This article is based on “New Democrats’ Rx for Health Reform (*)”, with Blue Dog Congressman Altmire as co-chair.
Progressives Democrats have no place at this table, WHY?
The “Party of No”, Blue Dogs and New Democrats are one and the same. How can Blue Dogs and New Democrats, use the term Democrat?
NAACP CALLS ON CONGRESS TO ACT SWIFTLY TO REPAIR AND IMPROVE BROKEN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
NAACP DISPELS DECEPTIVE AND MISLEADING MYTHS AROUND HEALTH CARE REFORM WHILE SUPPORTING A STRONG PUBLIC OPTION
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THE ISSUE:
Americans today are too often struggling and straining under the burden of three related trends: shrinking health care coverage, rising health care costs or no health care insurance at all. Over the last decade, millions of Americans have found themselves uninsured, and millions more have become underinsured as the value of their coverage has declined. In the years 2008 – 2010, it is estimated that approximately 6,000 people a day, or almost 7 million Americans total, will lose their health insurance. Today, more than 46 million Americans do not have any health care insurance at all. At the same time, health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs have risen steadily, and the number of families who are facing unmanageably high health care costs continues to grow. In fact, nearly one in four non-elderly Americans are in families that will spend more than 10% of their pre-tax dollars on health care in 2009, and the vast majority of them (more than 82%) have health care insurance. Furthermore, in the United States today the color of your skin, your ethnic background and where you live can not only influence your health care access and quality; they can determine them. And while medical science has made a lot of advances over the last 10 years, the gains made by the discovery of new drugs and treatments have not passed on to all segments of our population.
Continue reading NAACP Calls for a “Strong Public Option” in Healthcare Reform
Take Action: Tell Speaker Pelosi “Reinsert the Kucinich amendment”
Published by The Hill.
An amendment to implement a single-payer health system could get between 100 and 200 votes, one of its sponsors claimed Friday.
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), one of the liberal lawmakers to have led the push for such an amendment, predicted votes in the “mid-100s” on a provision for a single-payer system in the House–if such a vote is even allowed.
Continue reading Ask Cong. Altmire to Vote YES on Single Payer Amendments
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?”
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
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.
If politics were tag team wrestling, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan would get in the ring against Democratic Rep. Jason Altmire in the 4th Congressional District race next fall, taking up the fight where Melissa Hart, another conservative supporter of George W. Bush, left off. And like tag team wrestling, it would be sort of fun for those of us in the cheap seats.
Continue reading Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Altmire Voting with Insurance Lobbyists
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Saturday Oct. 17th 1:00 pm
Beaver County Courthouse
———————————————– Continue reading Oct 17: Beaver Rally for Medicare for All – End the Wars
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 