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.
Delinquencies on commercial mortgage backed securities soared $10 billion in June, hitting a 12-month high of almost $29 billion, according to Realpoint Research.
California led the nation with the highest amount of delinquent loans, closely followed by Texas and Florida.
Late loans across the country are up an “astounding” 585 percent from a year ago when just $4 billion were delinquent, reported the Horsham, Pa.-based research firm. The low point for delinquency was March 2007 when $2 billion was delinquent.
The point is often made that one of the trickiest elements of health care reform to navigate is that a majority of Americans routinely tell pollsters that they’re actually satisfied with their care, and don’t want it taken away in the name of helping the uninsured.
A new poll, though, pokes a hole claim, suggesting that beneath the surface of that satisfaction is deep insecurity about the existing system, and a fear that satisfactory health care won’t come through in a crisis.
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!
July 28, 2009
Silver Spring, MD
AFL-CIO Executive Council statement
The legacy of the Bush Administration has been a perfect storm of economic devastation — in finance, housing and jobs. The challenge of fixing this economic mess is enormous – and urgent. Creating good jobs that cannot be outsourced is central to the solution.
Despite much-touted “green shoots,” the prognosis for the U.S. economy keeps getting worse. The official unemployment rate hit 9.5 percent in June and is likely to exceed 10 percent by later this year and remain high throughout 2010 – when mid-term elections will take place. We have lost an extraordinary 6.5 million jobs since the onset of the recession, and we are 8.8 million jobs short of where we should be, taking into account the growing working age population.
Economic Recovery: Take Two
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 