“Hello, My name is Robert Grace, and as your constituent, I urge the Representative to vote YES on Representative Anthony Weiner’s HR 676 amendment to the Energy and Commerce Committee’s healthcare bill.”
If Altmire voted on July 17 to deny PA and other states the right to establish statewide single-payer healthcare programs because he needs the financial support of the giant health insurers for his future congressional plans, then all is lost.
Ideals must be placed above personal gain if we are EVER to awake from the sickening nightmare of healthcare that haunts each and every one of us Americans.
Today, I called the three offices of Jason Altmire. Aliquippa said he wasn’t sure if he would vote for reform, and other two gave the impression he was leaning away from health care reform. Altmire is a Blue Dog Democrat, meaning he works along with conservatives, and even advertises himself as a Centrist. He voted against the public option bill and has taken nearly 337,000 dollars from health care lobbyists who do not want reform.
We need to organize a massive phone campaign and hold Altmire accountable for reform. Here are the following office numbers. Remember, if the constituents raise hell, then he will be accountable to your votes. We need to come together on this. Too many poor people and working class people don’t have insurance. Here are the numbers:
Aliquippa Office
2110 McLean Street
Aliquippa, PA 15001
724-378-0928
724-378-6171 (fax)
Natrona Heights Office
2124 Freeport Road
Natrona Heights, PA 15065
724-226-1304
724-226-1308 (fax)
Washington, D.C. Office
332 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-2565
202-226-2274(fax)
by Bob Schmetzer, IBEW retiree and PA 4th CD Chapter of PDA member
The air was charged with excitement as the crowd gathered in the park facing the Capitol. The weather was beautiful, the Park manicured, the old growth trees gave shade, and blooming flowers graced the grounds under a blue and white clouded sky. Friendship abounded among the many different groups that gathered for a common cause.
On the stage, ” The Singing Grannies”, gave song about our plight and our dreams of a more secure future for our health care. It was a beautiful day to be alive and sharing this experience. Congressman John Conyers from Michigan came to the stage. I spoke with him about who I was and thanked him for his efforts and concern for introducing HB 676, Single Payer Bill. He spoke briefly to the crowds still gathering about what has happened since the bill’s introduction.
Why Single Payer Advocacy Matters Now More Than Ever
By John Nichols
The Nation
August 4, 2009
How should serious supporters of healthcare reform spend the month of August?
Not by getting trapped in the narrow “debate” between “party of no” Republicans who favor no reform at all, and Blue Dog Democrats, whose “reform” is to make a bad system worse.
And not by campaigning for “buzz words – “public option,” “employer mandates” – or whatever President Obama or Speaker Pelosi happen to favor this week. There will be plenty of advertising and organizing to that end, including a $15 million expenditure by the AFL-CIO.
Americans who want to tip the debate in the most progressive direction should take advantage an opening provided at the last minute during negotiations to get a bill approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
And they should do so by advocating even more aggressively for single-payer health care.
The U.S. House of Representatives has committed to bringing single-payer healthcare to a vote following summer recess. Stranger things have happened, greater obstacles have been overcome, than what would be involved in winning that vote, winning in the Senate, and compelling the president to sign the bill. We have a moral responsibility to put everything we have into trying; and even a near-victory will advance the cause.
But it is important to recognize exactly how that promise of a floor vote on single-payer came to be, what else is at stake, and what we are up against. Being properly informed, I think, will not diminish by one iota the ferocity of our campaign for justice, but it will alter our strategy by adding a secondary demand to it. I think one can best campaign for justice if one knows exactly what one is up against but doesn’t give a damn how grim that picture appears.
The insurance company lapdogs in Congress that told us single payer national healthcare was off the table are now eating their words!
Those who have told us that HR 676 – The National Healthcare Act would not come up for a vote this year and that only a watered down ineffective version of healthcare reform is politically viable have been proven wrong!
The trade union leaders who mistakenly believed worthwhile concessions could be won from the insurance companies while discounting the demands of rank and file workers now have cause to reconsider.
Today, the progressive Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Congressman Weiner of NY, withdrew their motion to substitute HR 676 for HR 3200 after being promised by Speaker Nancy Pelosi that HR 676 would be introduced, debated, and voted by the full House in September!
The 66th Quadrennial Convention of IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees became the twenty-first international union to endorse HR 676, national single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).
On July 29, 2009, over 800 delegates, representing more than 100,000 members nationwide, voted unanimously to endorse H.R. 676. Since a
campaign to endorse HR 676 began within IATSE last January, over seventy-five individual IATSE locals have endorsed HR 676.
International President Matthew D. Loeb stated from the podium after the vote that HR 676 is the “right thing to do.” The Convention resolution
will now be submitted to the AFL-CIO Convention to take place in Pittsburgh Sept. 13-17th.
Robert Score, Recording Corresponding Secretary of IATSE Local One in New York City, led the six month campaign.
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 