On Sunday, the State Senate came together in an overwhelming bi-partisan vote to expand Medicaid in Pennsylvania under the authority of the Affordable Care Act.  This move would have provided health coverage to over half a million Pennsylvanians, and would have saved the Commonwealth over $250 million per year, while injecting $3 billion in new annual economic activity for the State.

Yesterday, however, the House Rules Committee, chaired by House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, voted along party lines to strip the Medicaid expansion out of the welfare code.

The move to kill Medicaid expansion was supported by all Republican members of the Committee – William Adolph, Matthew Baker, Jim Christiana, Brian Ellis, Mauree Gingrich, Robert Godshall, Seth Grove, Dick Hess, Thomas Killion, Ron Marsico, Tina Pickett, Mike Reese, Stan Saylor, Mario Scavello, Sam Smith, and Katharine Watson.

This expansion would have primarily benefited working families who can’t afford to purchase health insurance and who are not covered by their employers.

Representative DiGirolamo (R-Bucks), led an impassioned effort to undo the actions of Turzai and the Rules Committee, by moving to reject their amendments that removed Medicaid expansion.  After a short floor debate, the effort failed 108-94.  While the entire House Democratic caucus stood with Rep. DiGirolamo, Representative John Taylor was the only other Republican to join his colleague in standing up for Pennsylvania’s citizens.

Idaho AFL-CIO endorses HR 676, National Single Payer Health Care

Rian Van Leuven, President of the Idaho State AFL-CIO, announced that on
June 12, 2013, the delegates to the 55th Annual Idaho State AFL-CIO
Convention passed a resolution to publicly endorse and support H.R. 676,
Single Payer Healthcare.

Further the resolution states “That the Idaho State AFL-CIO will develop
working relationships with community organizations in Idaho which advocate
for single-payer healthcare and Medicaid expansion.”

Louis Schlickman, MD, an Idaho physician who practices in Meridian and is
Co Chair of the Physicians for a National Health Program state chapter,
showed the movie Escape Fire and made a single payer presentation to the
convention prior to the passage of the resolution.

After the resolution for HR 676 was passed by the Idaho State AFL-CIO
Convention, Dr. Schlickman stated that, “Collectively we are all realizing
that unions in general can play a huge role in helping others, not just
union workers, see the merit in a single payer financing system of care.”

Continue reading Idaho AFL-CIO endorses HR 676, Medicare for All →

U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously adopts resolution “Calling for U.S. Leadership in Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and  Redirection of Military Spending to Domestic Needs”

Mayors for Peace congratulates the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) for its unanimous adoption of a bold resolution “Calling for U.S. Leadership in Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and Redirection of Military Spending to Domestic Needs.” The resolution, passed by the Conference on June 24 at its 81^st Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, calls for constructive U.S. engagement in new international disarmament forums and reorientation of U.S. national priorities by reducing military spending and redirecting those funds to meet the needs of cities.

The USCM is the nonpartisan association of American cities with populations over 30,000. As explained by its outgoing President, Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, who chaired the final plenary: “Resolutions, if passed, become the official policy of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.”

The resolution was adopted on the heels of President Obama’s June 19 Berlin speech in which he declared, “so long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe,” and announced his intention to seek
further bilateral nuclear weapons reductions with Russia. The resolution was introduced by Akron Mayor Donald Plusquellic, a former USCM President and Vice President of Mayors for Peace, and had
29 additional sponsors. It highlights several important new multilateral disarmament initiatives not mentioned by Obama in Berlin, and calls on the President and the U.S. government to demonstrate good faith by constructive participation in those initiatives:

·         The first ever High-Level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Nuclear Disarmament, to be held on September 26, 2013 at UN headquarters in New York;

·         A UN working group open to all member states “to develop proposals to take forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations for the achievement and maintenance of a world without nuclear
weapons;” and

·         A follow-on conference to the February 2013 Oslo Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, to be hosted by Mexico in early 2014.

Continue reading US Mayors Call for Elimination of Nuclear Weapons →

Two Hours After The Supreme Court Gutted The Voting Rights Act, Texas AG Suppresses Minority Voters

By Aviva Shen on Jun 25, 2013 at 3:30 pm

(Credit: AP)

Just two hours after the Supreme Court reasoned that discrimination is not rampant enough in Southern states to warrant restrictions under the Voting Rights Act, Texas is already advancing a voter ID law and a redistricting map blocked last year for discriminating against black and Latino residents. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued a statement declaring that both measures may go into effect immediately, now that there is no law stopping them from discriminating against minorities.

In 2012, the Justice Department blocked these measures under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Federal courts agreed that both the strict voter ID law and the redistricting map would disproportionately target the state’s fast-growing minority communities. Still, Texas filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court over the Voting Rights Act case complaining that the DOJ had used “abusive and heavy-handed tactics” to thwart the state’s attempts at voter suppression.

In the case of the new electoral map, a panel of federal judges found that “substantial surgery” was done to predominantly black districts, cutting off representatives’ offices from their strongest fundraising bases. Meanwhile, white Congress members’ districts were either preserved or “redrawn to include particular country clubs and, in one case, the school belonging to the incumbent’s grandchildren.” The new map was also drawn in secret by white Republican representatives, without notifying their black and Latino peers. After the court blocked the map, the legislature approved small changes to appease Democratic lawmakers last week. Now that they are free to use the old maps, however, Gov. Rick Perry (R) could simply veto the new plan and use the more discriminatory maps.

The strict photo ID requirement blocked by the DOJ and a federal court would require Texans to show one of a very narrow list of acceptable photo IDs. Expired gun licenses from other states are considered valid, but Social Security cards and student IDs are not. If voters do not have an ID — as many minorities, seniors, and poor people do not — they must travel at their own expense, produce their birth certificate, and in many cases pay a fee to get an ID.

Continue reading Supreme Court Voids Voting Rights: Texas Attacks Minority Voters →