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| Healthcare reform is a four-letter word
We are all frustrated by the Affordable Health Care for America Act-H.R. 3962–the House’s lamentable healthcare reform bill, if you can call it reform at all. We think of it as tweaking a badly broken system–at best it’s a band-aid on a hemorrhaging system–although, it does appear to be drawing fewer flies than the Senate version. There’s still time to make it better-much better-but not a lot of time. The bill will be finalized by 5:00 PM Monday evening. We need to call the bill’s “managers” on Monday, November 2, and insist that the Kucinich Amendment be reinserted in the bill. Pelosi reneged on her deal with Weiner-she can make up for it by reinserting the Kucinich amendment. The “gang” that holds our future in their hands includes:
It’s crucial for everyone in PDA to make these calls, and to tell others to make these calls. TODAY! Be polite, but let them know you’re angry, and that you vote. So many of us have poured our heart and souls into Medicare for All; our disappointment could lead us to give up. Any right worth having is worth fighting for, so the fight goes on. We’ll do our best to make this bad bill better in the House and in the Senate. Then we’ll take this fight to the states. Susan B. Anthony, William Lloyd Garrison, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King didn’t give up-neither will we. Please, make those calls. In solidarity, Tim Carpenter for PDA P.S. If you haven’t had a chance yet, please read Pelosi’s Not-So-Robust Public Option. |
Vigil for Healthcare not Warfare on Halloween in Beaver, PA
by Randy Shannon
Beaver County Peace Links and the PA 4th CD Chapter of Progressive Democrats of America hold a weekly vigil for Healthcare not Warfare every Saturday at 1pm for over five years.
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.
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
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AFL-CIO Pres. Rich Trumka
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
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Mondragon Co-op
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
AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka Addresses Mass Rally for Bank Reform
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
