Many HR 676 Resolutions submitted to AFL-CIO Convention
From South Carolina to Alaska and California to Vermont over 40 labor organizations have sent in resolutions calling on the AFL-CIO Convention to endorse HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).
The AFL-CIO convention will meet in Pittsburgh September 13-17th. The deadline for resolutions to be received is August 14.
On a warm breezy August Sunday afternoon over seventy-five retired steelworkers and their families enjoyed their annual picnic in Hopewell Community Park near Aliquippa, PA. The menu included corn-on-the-cob, kielbasa and kraut, roasted chicken with potatoes, salad, desert, and beverages. The event was sponsored by the Aliquippa chapter of SOAR, the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees.
As the empty plates were cleaned away and the buzz died down, Marion Prasjner, Chapter 20-20 Chairman, welcomed the crowd and introduced the guests. Prasjner is also a leader of the PA 4th CD Chapter of Progressive Democrats of America. He introduced Marie Malagreca, the first national chairperson of SOAR, Jean Friday National Board member of SOAR, and Mickey Bolt PA coordinator for AAM.
Jim Centner, the National SOAR director reminded people to sign up for the bus to the upcoming Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh. Denise Edwards a SOAR board member thanked the members for the enthusiastic turnout.
Tony Rainaldi, an Aliquippa Chapter SOAR member, and former District 20 Director of the USWA spoke to the gathering. In a strong 85 year old voice he lambasted the Beaver County Times for its recent attack on local union leaders. He excoriated the television media for lying about the Democratic Party, President Obama, and the fight for healthcare.
He shouted: “Don’t listen to this bullshit you hear about socialism on TV. Unionization, pension protection, healthcare – if that’s socialism then we need as much socialism as we can get. I’m a socialist. The day I graduated from high school my Dad handed me a union card to sign and took me down to the mill.” This statement drew long and loud applause.
I write to urge your support for the Weiner Single-Payer Amendment to HR 3200, which will receive a floor vote in September.
The Weiner amendment would replace Division A of HR 3200 with the text of HR 676, the “U.S. National Health Care Act,” sponsored by Rep. John Conyers. This would effectively transform HR 3200 into single-payer legislation.
Single-payer is a superior reform to HR 3200 in many ways:
* Single payer would provide universal and comprehensive coverage for all medically necessary services. Unamended, HR 3200 would leave millions uninsured or with skimpy coverage.
* Single payer allows patients free choice of doctor and hospital. Under HR 3200, insurance companies would continue to deny care and restrict access to services.
* Single payer pays for itself by eliminating $400 billion in insurance company administrative waste and redirecting it to care. HR 3200 requires $1 trillion in new revenue in the next decade.
* Single payer establishes proven and effective cost-containing mechanisms to ensure that benefits are sustainable over the long run. HR 3200 lacks effective cost controls.
The Weiner amendment presents an historic opportunity for Members to register their support for single-payer national health insurance as the best way to solve the U.S. healthcare crisis. It additionally will provide a vote that Members can stand by when approached by constituents.
While we recognize the political imperative to pass healthcare reform, it is important to remember that the purpose of reform is to ease the burden for all Americans. Only single-payer healthcare meets that goal—both medically and economically. The Weiner Amendment deserves your vote.
Right-Wing Turncoat Gives the Inside Scoop on Why Conservatives Are Rampaging Town Halls
By Frank Schaeffer
The Republican Old Guard are in the fix an atheist would be in if Jesus showed up and raised his mother from the dead: Their world view has just been shattered. Obama’s election has driven them over the edge.
Consider Former Congressman Dick Armey. Several far right foundations and the multitrillion dollar health-insurance industry have teamed up with him to organize the far right foot soldiers of the Republican Party to intimidate people speaking on behalf of health-care reform.
They are using my old shock troops – given many of these folks were first energized by the Evangelical pro-life movement that my late father and I started in the 1970s. What we did to clinics they are now doing to congressmen and others speaking out for health care reform.
There’s a famous Norman Rockwell painting titled “Freedom of Speech,” depicting an idealized American town meeting. The painting, part of a series illustrating F.D.R.’s “Four Freedoms,” shows an ordinary citizen expressing an unpopular opinion. His neighbors obviously don’t like what he’s saying, but they’re letting him speak his mind.
That’s a far cry from what has been happening at recent town halls, where angry protesters — some of them, with no apparent sense of irony, shouting “This is America!” — have been drowning out, and in some cases threatening, members of Congress trying to talk about health reform.
Some commentators have tried to play down the mob aspect of these scenes, likening the campaign against health reform to the campaign against Social Security privatization back in 2005. But there’s no comparison.
Let’s get down to the meat of the issue: Single payer is the only way to go. Sorry, corrupt insurance industry, you’ll have to find another way to rip people off — not by manipulating those most in need.
“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)
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 