Single Payer Healthcare Rally UPDATE!!
Any TPM'ers who plan to meet up with Gumbun, Ripper McCord and Jason Everett Miller for the Rally in DC today, please take note:
They are meeting up at 12:45 PM EST at the corner of Delaware and Constitution Streets, on the park side.
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More information -- and a map -- can be found here:
http://www.healthcare-now.org/campaigns/single-payer-rally/
Please rec!!
July 30, 2009 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
And for those of you faxing here is a link to CT's fax blog in a google cache:
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:RMrbgcUY-sUJ:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/clearthinker/2009/06/how-to-scream-effectively-at-c.php+How+to+Scream+Effectively+at+Congress+-+Just+the+Fax&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a%94
July 30, 2009 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, Synch!
July 30, 2009 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yay!
July 30, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
LisB and Synch - you two are amazing - keeping everyone up to date and giving info for faxing etc. You both, along with so many others have done such a great job with the rally. Kudos!!!!!
Can't wait for a report from our group in attendance.
July 30, 2009 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Two interesting items of note that I just read.
One, the dems are considering removing Max Baucus as chairman of the finance committee.
Two, Nancy Pelosi has said 'Mabye we will have to start over' and 'the insurance companies are the villians here'.
I see both of these as somewhat positive signs...
July 30, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hate to say it but there's never been any chance for a single- payer option. It's not Obama's position. The best we can hope for is the public option. But support for the single payer plan helps establish a position at the Left in which the public option seems a compromise.
The time for this debate was during the primaries.
My "position" --if I could have what I want --is a complete overthrow of the drug and insurance companies as they presently exist in favor of some government/private structure like the French-German Airbus production. That's as likely as a world peace. It's called socialism because it is socialism. Obama is not looking like much of a socialist to me.
I'm interested in the views of posters here about whether Obama should sign a bill that isn't single payer.
My view is he should only sign a bill with a public option. Without at least that, all of this will have been a joke.
July 30, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I understand your perspective.
I do not accept the 'framing' that getting a single payer system is impossible.
In my opinion the public option is a joke and a farce. It will leave health care as a political football for years to come... just as we see it being treated right now. The intention of opposition is to make sure that it will be a chaotic mess if enacted so that they can keep their profits rolling in.
It is time to take the profit out of health care!
At one time black people were owned as slaves, at one time they were free but black men could not vote, at one time all 'women' could not vote, at one time we did not have medicare and food stamps to help the poor, at one time there were many things that had to be fought for and were worth fighting for.
Single payer/universal health care that will cover all americans and is overall best for our economy is worth fighting for.
July 30, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
And to continue fighting for until we get it. 100 + years of agitation and advocacy to get universal suffrage. We have to be as durable as the insurance guys are, and we need to make ourselves as unendurable as necessary. Someone's going to say yes to us if we promise to go away afterward. (Of course we'll have our fingers crossed and go on to the next good cause).
July 30, 2009 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm trying to be realistic. We are facing a real chance that a bill might not have even a public option. It has to start somewhere. The other tactic is "let it get worse and then we'll have the revolution." That hasn't worked, though the anti-globalists make a good case for it. Meantime people die everyday for lack of health insurance.
I've accepted so many defeats, especially the destruction of the old growth forest and continued chemical pollution of the environment. I'd like to see ONE tiny victory that makes some lives better now. Though part of me is so pissed off I'm beginning to think that only the anti-globalists have it right.
July 31, 2009 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am with you 100% -- fully socialized medicine.
But we can't wave a magic wand, so we have to look at the longer view. If this bill contains a real public option, and particularly if it allows states to adopt true single-payer systems (without penalizing them -- the Kucinich amendment), then it will be a solid step in the right direction.
If it doesn't have those things, then it might be worse than nothing. I was heartened that the progressive caucus took a stand yesterday.
-- ARG
July 31, 2009 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone in the media picking this up? I realize there are more important things, like the beer at the White House, but I would love to see these guys get some publicity out of this!
July 30, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Congressional Progressive Caucus Press Conference on Health Care -Today from C-Span
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2009/07/30/HP/A/21519/Congressional+Progressive+Caucus+Press+Conference+on+Health+Care.aspx
There are citizens with H1N1 without healthcare who can’t get into the hospitals NOW. The spread of disease is a huge threat to our country. We do not have a system to deal with this disaster.
ILLNESS IS SOCIALIZED! SO WHY NOT HEALTHCARE?
The Caucus will vote against any bill that doesn’t have a public option.
The bluedogs want to cut the bill so that the working poor pay for the added costs. The very people who need help the most are shunned.
Healthcare is a Basis Human Right for the families of America.
July 30, 2009 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Healthcare is a BASIC Human Right for the families of America.
I can't find any other media coverage on the rally. Hmmm.
July 30, 2009 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course not, they have better things to talk about like complete wackadoodles who think Obama is a Kenya-churian candidate... or Michael Jackson, can we get some film of his brain on at 5?
July 30, 2009 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is a great rallying cry/poster/t-shirt.
ILLNESS IS SOCIALIZED! SO WHY NOT HEALTHCARE?
What great political theater - a couple hundred people show up at the Capitol Hill offices with face masks and signboards offering to share their H1N1 for free. FLU FOR SWINE!
July 30, 2009 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
TJ - Hahahaha yeah!
Go for it! You or anyone who wants to. I'm way too far left coast of DC (Oregon) but maybe while our "reps" are in their home-states we could activate a little citizen reality for them.
In "bushspeak" even OUR speaker, Nancy Pelosi calls us "patients" or "consumers" and I object. We're Citizens of a Democracy dammit and we know what we want. We can show them (again) what "public" really means.
Civic, unrestricted, open, freely available, shared, known, community,
… and (so far) civil.
:~)
July 30, 2009 10:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, not really. Unfortunately, I think we should have organized the event ourselves. We could have done a much better job!:)
The city of Ft Collins, CO have about 100 people lining every corner of the main intersection of town in support of single payer health care.
This multi-organizational, multi-state rally had about 1000 people in attendance.
July 30, 2009 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I did not see anything about the march on Rachel Maddow's show last night (unfortunately). I missed The NewsHour (PBS), so don't know whether they had anything (but I doubt it).
I'm sure the face-to-face meetings our people had will be more effective than 20 seconds of B-roll on the news, however. Looking forward to hearing how things were on the ground there.
-- ARG
July 31, 2009 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Real Journalism: A Prerequisite for Real Debate on Healthcare
by Isabel Macdonald
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/30-16
A great article about the MSM’s “sick” non-coverage of Single Payer Healthcare
with lots of links to real information
and a petition.
July 30, 2009 6:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
well we've explored how much the insurance companies have spent buying members of congress.
What kind of ownership do they have of the media?
July 30, 2009 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Huh? Big pharma owns the media. Haven't you noticed all those ED commercials?
July 30, 2009 8:55 PM | Reply | Permalink