by Randy Shannon

November 22, 2009

A group of twenty-seven Democratic Party activists met on Saturday morning at the Shaler Township library to discuss their shared disappointment with 4^th CD Blue Dog Congressman Jason Altmire. Activists attended the November 21st meeting from Sewickley, Murrysville, Avalon, Ohio Township, Indiana Township, Fox Chapel, Hampton, Ross, Westview, Shaler, McCandless, Franklin Park, and Plum.

Ms. Terry Hartnett of Avalon Borough, and a Democratic Committee member, started the meeting with a welcome and briefly described a smaller previous meeting at which activists discussed the possibility of running a progressive against Altmire in the upcoming primary election.

Continue reading Disappointed Altmire Supporters Meet to Discuss Alternatives →

Grijalva Emphasizes Health Care With Triggers, Opt-Out or Reproductive Restrictions Will Not Pass House
November 22, 2009

Washington, DC

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva [Friday] announced his continuing support for health care reform with a strong public option available as soon as possible to all Americans, emphasizing that a final bill containing triggers, state opt-out language or excessive restrictions on reproductive rights will be defeated in the House.

“The American people have made clear their support for an effective public option throughout this process, and now it’s time to give them one,” Grijalva said. “Further watering down an already weakened public insurance program, either out of misplaced political calculation or a misunderstanding of policy, would be a profound mistake. Voters, including political independents, continue to back a public option by a wide margin, and anyone standing in the way will be held accountable.”

Continue reading Congressional Progressive Caucus will not support a weaker healthcare bill – Cong. Grijalva →

Recession causes more families to go without food
Tony Pugh | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: November 17, 2009 10:58:56 AM

WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. households that are struggling to feed their members jumped by 4 million to 17 million last year, as recession-fueled job losses and increased poverty and unemployment fueled a surge in hunger, a government survey reported Monday.

These “food-insecure” households represent about 49 million people and make up 14.6 percent, or more than one in seven, of all U.S. households. That’s the highest rate since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began monitoring the issue in 1995.

Additionally, more than one-third of these struggling families — some 6.7 million households, or 17.2 million people last year — had “very low food security,” in which food intake was reduced and eating patterns were disrupted for some family members because of a lack of food.

Continue reading Recession causes more families to go without food →

by Randy Shannon

Employer health care drops faster in PA

Employer-based health coverage is disappearing faster in Pennsylvania than it is in any other state except Michigan, according to a study released by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center and the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute. Since the turn of the century, there are 694,471 fewer people who receive their coverage from their employers across the state. The survey compared 2000 and 2001 to 2007 and 2008. Also, 201,425 fewer children are on their parents’ benefits packages than there were seven years earlier, the study found.

In light of these facts here are the thoughts of two concerned people in the PA 4th CD whose seat in the House is occupied by former corporate lobbyist Jason Altmire. The first is an email communication from Joel Brown of Espyville that tells about the suffering of our people who do not have access to healthcare. The second is an open letter to Cong. Altmire from Dr. Joe Talarico of Zelienople in response to his vote against healthcare reform.

Continue reading Employer-based health coverage is disappearing in PA →

On the House Bill on Healthcare

Statement by Rose Ann DeMoro,  Executive Director

California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Of all the torrent of words that followed House passage of its version of healthcare reform legislation in early November, perhaps the most misleading were those comparing it to enactment of Social Security and Medicare. 

Sadly no. Social Security and Medicare were both federal programs guaranteeing respectively pensions and health care for our nation’s seniors, paid for and administered by the federal government with public oversight and public accountability.  

While the House bill, and its Senate counterpart, do have several important reform components, along with many weaknesses, neither one comes close to the guarantees and the expansion of health and income security provided by Social Security or Medicare. 

By contrast, if the central premise of Social Security and Medicare was a federal guarantee of health and retirement security, the main provision of the bills in Congress is a mandate requiring most Americans without health coverage to buy private insurance.  

In other words, the principle beneficiary is not Americans’ health, but the bottom line of the insurance industry which stands to harvest tens of billions of dollars in additional profits ordered by the federal government. Or as Rep. Eric Massa of New York put it on the eve of the House vote, “at the highest level, this bill will enshrine in law the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry, period.” 

Continue reading Balanced Analysis of the House-Passed Healthcare Bill →