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Medicare-for-All Doctors Arrested Outside Obama-GOP MeetingJoin PDA's Healthcare for All Issue Organizing Team (IOT); learn more here.
Published by Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare.The Labor Campaign for Single Payer [has] joined the growing number of nurses, doctors and other healthcare advocates who have responded to President Obama's State of the Union challenge to "let him know" if there is a better approach that "will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare, and stop insurance company abuses." [more]
NPR Finds Right-Wing Crank to Spit on Howard Zinn's Grave'There is a better health plan, Mr. President'
Published by Physicians for a National Health Program.
Rising to President Obama's challenge in his State of the Union address that others come up with a better approach to health care reform than his own, two Maryland physicians who advocate for a single-payer program stood on the sidewalk this morning outside the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel, where the president was meeting with House Republicans, and held a large banner reading, “Letting you know: Medicare for all.” [more]
Obama's "Eager to See" Better Approach on Health Reform? O.K.David Horowitz in ATC obituary with substance-free attack
Published by FAIR.
When progressive historian Howard Zinn died on January 27, NPR's All Things Considered (1/28/10) marked his passing with something you don't often see in an obituary: a rebuttal. [more]
Fill Dodd's Dance CardPublished by The Nation.
President Obama renewed his call for health-care reform in his first State of the Union address but, as has been the case from the start of the current debate over how to get more medical care at less cost, he provided little in the way of leadership.
Rather, he suggested that, even at this late stage in the wrangling over reform, he is open to suggestions for how to achieve it. [more]
RNs Urge Congress to Overturn Court Ruling-"Disastrous Decision for American Workers, Democracy"Take Action: Sign this petition!
Major newspapers are reporting that banking reform is in dire straights in the Senate due to pressure from Wall Street and its allies. The Wall Street bankers who drove our economy off a cliff are lobbying as hard as ever against financial reform. The fight now moves to the Senate where Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd is in charge. Bank lobbyists think that Dodd will "dance with the special interests." Tell Dodd to make protecting Main Street his legacy--not dancing with Wall Street!Check out this new video from the Center for Media and Democracy and sign the new petition to Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd urging him not to cave in to efforts by the Big Banks and the right-wing to weaken his proposed bank reform bill. [more]
Grijalva Objects to Supreme Court Ruling Granting Unprecedented Electoral Powers to Corporate InterestsPublished by CNA/NNU.
The nation’s largest nurses union [on Friday] urged Congress to act quickly to reverse the Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited corporate spending in political campaigns, calling it a “disastrous ruling for American workers and American democracy.”
“The healthcare debate of the last year has provided a sobering reminder of the already pervasive influence of giant pharmaceutical and insurance corporations. The last thing our democracy and political system needs is even more spending and political sway by the wealthiest interests in this country,” said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, the 150,000-member organization formed late last year through the unification of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, United American Nurses, and Massachusetts Nurses Association. [more]
PNHP leaders send letter to CPC urging state single-payer languageRep. Raśl M. Grijalva today released the following statement on the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United V. FEC:
“In today’s case of Citizens United V. FEC, the Supreme Court went far beyond precedent, far beyond the original intent of the Constitution, and far beyond anything the Founders meant when they protected freedom of speech for individuals. James Madison never intended for the First Amendment to apply to corporations; he meant free speech to be for the people. [more]
I Will Continue To Fight For Single-PayerThe following letter was sent to the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) on January 13, 2010:
Dear Ms. Woolsey and Mr. Grijalva,
Physicians for a National Health Program respectfully requests that you urge all members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to work for passage of legislation that would allow individual states to adopt single-payer financing programs on the state level in the near term, should those states want to do so. [more]
Grijalva Seeks Best Path Forward on Health Reform, Remains Committed to Affordable and Accessible Care For AllClick here to view video.
Forty-seven million Americans are without health insurance. Why? Because they can't afford it.
And what's Washington's solution? Require people to buy private insurance with the government providing a subsidy to the health insurance companies. [more]
Public Interest Groups Condemn Supreme Court's Ruling on Corporate Money in Elections: Call for Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Court DecisionRep. Raśl M. Grijalva, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, released the following statement yesterday on the status of the health care reform effort:
“Millions of Americans are watching Congress very closely today to see how health care reform will proceed. The vast majority of House and Senate lawmakers agree that we need to increase health care access as much as possible, bring costs down and institute common-sense insurance industry reform. The question is how to go about doing that. [more]
House Progressive Won't Back Senate Healthcare BillJoin PDA and our many partners in the Campaign to Legalize Democracy--Click here and sign the motion.
"Free Speech Rights Are For People, Not Corporations"A coalition of public interest organizations strongly condemned today's ruling by the US Supreme Court allowing unlimited corporate money in US elections and announced that it is launching a campaign to amend the United States Constitution to overturn the ruling. The groups, Voter Action, Public Citizen, the Center for Corporate Policy, and the American Independent Business Alliance, say the Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC poses a serious and direct threat to democracy. They aim, through their constitutional amendment campaign, to correct the judiciary's creation of corporate rights under the First Amendment over the past three decades. Immediately following the Court's ruling, the groups unveiled a new website–http://www.freespeechforpeople.org–devoted to this campaign. [more]
How to Help Haiti? Send in the NursesPublished by Salon.
The co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus says he won't support a plan to have the House pass the Senate healthcare bill, then change the legislation through budget reconciliation.
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ). "Rather than retreat and go hide under the covers, I think what's important for Democrats--particularly in the House--is to push the envelope," Grijalva said. "It's time for some good old-time religion. And start talking to the base--we need the base. If they stay home, we're in trouble." [more]
Machinists Remain Opposed to Health Care Excise TaxPublished by The Nation.
If Haitians are ever going to recover from the crisis caused by the massive earthquake that very nearly leveled the capital city of Port-au-Prince, they are going to need nurses.
Lots and lots and lots of nurses.
Haiti's health-care infrastructure has crumbled. Many health-care providers were killed in the earthquake, that has killed tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Haitians. The local doctors and nurses who survived are, themselves, injured and in shock. And hospitals and clinics that were maintained by United Nations agencies and relief organizations are either destroyed, shuttered or overrun. [more]
Nearly 7,500 RNs Ready to Deploy to HaitiPublished by IAM News.
Despite the so-called agreement announced today by various labor organizations, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) reiterated its opposition to any health care reform legislation that is funded by taxing the value of workers’ existing health care benefits.
“The IAM opposes the excise tax, period. We believe it is unfair to our current members and particularly unfair to those members we hope to organize in the future,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger. “If a temporary exemption is the best this Congress can offer the American people after the promises of the last election, they will have earned the wrath of voters in the next election." [more]
Released by the California Nurses Assn./National Nurses Organizing Committee.
NNU Working to Place Nurses on Haiti Relief Mission
Probably the largest RN volunteer response in U.S. history
Nearly 7,500 registered nurses have now signed up to volunteer for Haiti disaster relief, believed to be the largest outpouring of RN volunteers in U.S. history, reports National Nurses United which is coordinating the effort, and working around the clock to find locations for the nurses to deploy on the ground in Haiti. Nurses from other countries are signing up through the NNU program as well. [more]
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