by

Action Alert: Weiner Amendment Back On + David Swanson: We are being played for suckers!

Bookmark and Share

Dandelion Salad

From an email from HealthJustice
Nov. 4, 2009

Greetings!

Breaking news from PNHP.  The Weiner amendment ‘could’ come to a floor vote on Friday or Saturday with maybe a 20 minute debate allowed.  Your calls and faxes were instrumental in making this happen.

Now is the time to push hard on your congressperson to vote for the Weiner amendment.  Even if it fails, it is very important to show that it has support.  If the entire health reform bill fails, as it very well may, then Medicare For All has a real shot at enactment when Congress realizes it MUST address health care.

So send this fax right now to your Congressperson.

You can also send a fax with your own words by clicking here.

There are numerous other faxes that support the Medicare For All idea.  Take your pick.

Then call your Congressperson.  You can get the phone number here. And call the Congressional bigwigs also.  Here are the numbers:

Call Speaker Pelosi: (202) 225-4965
Call Bill Floor Manager Rep. George Miller: (202) 225-2095
Call Bill Floor Manager Rep. Henry Waxman: (202) 225-3976

***

This Week’s Healthcare Votes Do Not Mean What We’re Told

davidcnswanson
November 04, 2009

David Swanson speaking on Nov. 4, 2009, in Pennsylvania on the Weiner Amendment, the Kucinich Amendment, the Public Option, the upcoming votes, and how we are being played for suckers.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “This Week’s Healthcare Votes Do Not M…“, posted with vodpod

***

Weiner Amendment Vote on Friday Will Fail and Serve as a Cover for Removing Kucinich Amendment

by David Swanson
AfterDowningStreet.org
Nov. 4, 2009

Word is that the full House will vote on national single-payer Medicare for All on Friday. This vote is a cover for the removal of an amendment that was in the House “healthcare” bill until Pelosi stripped it out. That amendment would have made it easier for states to enact single-payer, and still would if a conference committee is persuaded to reinstate it.

Of course we want to see a vote on a real national healthcare plan like Medicare for All. of course we want it to pass or to come as close as possible. But this vote is not more a real effort than John Conyers’ pseudo-impeachment hearing last July was a real effort to hold Bush accountable. This is a game and we are being played. There has been no debate, no discussion, no mark-up, no amendments. It’s a throw-away vote.

And perhaps that hurts nothing. Perhaps a good showing advances the debate in round two. But that’s if there is a round two. We have 57 Democrats who committed in a letter to Pelosi last July to not supporting a bill as lousy as the current one. If even 40 of them keep their word, the bill dies. If some Blue Dogs also vote no, then not even 30 are needed. But what if those members can go home to their constituents and brag about how they voted for single-payer before voting for the insurance corporation bailout? Not a bad deal, eh?

Meanwhile the best shot at real healthcare reform, at really saving lives in the near future, sits stewing in state capitals. Some advocates think they can get around restrictions in federal law without the Kucinich Amendment, some don’t. Few have any doubt that insurance companies will sue to prevent any state from providing its residents with healthcare.

Canada created a civilized healthcare system in one province first. If California or Ohio or Pennsylvania takes the lead, the United States will follow. The insurance companies know that and fear it and have fought it. The president has fought it on their behalf. The “leadership” in Congress has fought it. Congressman Kucinich and a handful of courageous representatives have pushed back. But we have not had their backs. We need to have their backs right now. Right now. Call your congress member and tell them to tell the leadership to put the Kucinich Amendment back in.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

Rep. Alan Grayson on the Number of Dead from Lack of Health Care

Kucinich: The Insurance Companies are the Problem not the Solution

Kucinich: Protect Rights of Consumers Free From the Economic Death Grip of Insurance Companies!

***

3 thoughts on “Action Alert: Weiner Amendment Back On + David Swanson: We are being played for suckers!”

  1. Pingback: Kucinich Raises Questions about Stand Alone Vote on National Single Payer « Dandelion Salad

  3. It’s pretty obvious that health care reform is now dead. Itis better dead than turning over everything to the isurance companies. The 2010 election will be the decidig factor. If the public can’t get their act together and returns Congress men and women to Washington who don’t support real healthcare reform, then the fault lies with the electorate, ot corporae lobbyists as things now stand.

Comments are closed.