With just 13 days to go until America goes over the fiscal cliff – progressives across America are asking why President Obama chose to put Social Security cuts on the bargaining table. Why is the president letting Republicans hack away at Social Security – instead of presenting progressive solutions that can help us avoid the cliff?
Gerald Friedman (University of Massachusetts, Amherst): A single-payer plan in Maryland would cover everyone, improve outcomes and make business more competitive
National Coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program and newest member of Progressive Democrats of America’s Advisory Board, speaks to PDA IL on the future of single payer and building a strong progressive movement.
As the corporate media covers every move made by Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney and Democratic incumbent Barack Obama, we go to Baltimore to cover the Green Party 2012 National Convention. “We need big solutions, you know, not solutions around the margins. We really need to end unemployment, we need to put 25 million people back to work with good paying jobs,” says presumptive presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein, who is running on a platform called “the Green New Deal” that emphasizes economic justice, tough financial regulation, the repeal of Citizens United and a transition to a “green economy.” The Green Party expects to be on the 2012 ballot in at least 45 states and plans to spend approximately $1 million on its campaign. Stein is the party’s first candidate to independently qualify for federal matching funds, a milestone for this 11-year-old third party.
Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program sees one major flaw in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act: It did not go far enough. The only solution, Flowers argues in this conversation with Laura Flanders, is to push for universal healthcare by expanding medicare so that it covers all Americans.
by Downtowner, posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
So it’s been a long few days. My company lost it’s biggest contract – the one I was assigned to for the balance of this year – last Wednesday. They are a governmental entity who shall remain nameless and their budget was cut by their state legislature. Bad news at casa Downtowner. Happened just as I was about to get on a plane to visit my daughter, son-in-law and 9 month old grand-daughter in Phoenix. So I went.
By the time I got there, one of my grand-daughters back here in Illinois was sick with the flu, and two days into the trip, my Mom (who lives in Florida, but was here in Illinois visiting my brother) was hospitalized with a wide array of symptoms, ranging from a blood infection to problems with her heart. So I’ll admit I was stressed already, but then I got the phone call…
by John Laesch, posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
On the eve of Barack Obama’s healthcare speech on 9/9/09, residents from Illinois’ 14th District took to the streets to encourage the President of the United States to push for comprehensive healthcare reform, Medicare for all.
Thanks to Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice and the Aurora Peace and Justice group, about 50 people showed up from all walks of life to show their support for the expansion of Medicare to all Americans. More people congregated as people got off of work and those that could not stop and join us used their horns to show their support.
The Beacon News covered the event here and an in-district blogger, Bill Baar, covered it here. More photos are available here.
by John Laesch, posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 9:51 am
I am a middle-class worker who has decent health insurance (an 80-20 plan) and recognizes that my recently elevated private insurance premiums are paying for those who don’t have health insurance. In addition to paying for the uninsured, I calculated that I am also paying an extra $4,000-7,000 per year into the pocketbooks of Wall Street profiteers.
Maybe my story about a $110/month increase in health insurance premiums is not significant compared to the many stories of those who lose their homes, businesses and dignity because we continue to embrace the status quo, broken, for-profit healthcare system, but it still needs to be told. (more…)
by n0madic, posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Last Thursday was probably the hottest and most humid day of the summer so far in Washington, DC, and yet several hundred health care reform activists, brought together by the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, stuck it out in the heat to rally and lobby for single-payer. It was the 44th anniversary of the
passage of Medicare and the day began with the delivery of Medicare birthday cupcakes and cards to congressional offices. Later in the day activists met with their representatives to lobby for single-payer. And in between a rally was held in Upper Senate Park, just across the street from the Capitol. The remarks of several of the speakers and photos from the rally follow.
by Downtowner, posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 10:51 am
I received an e-mail this morning from a friend who is a breast-cancer survivor and a person I admire beyond my ability to describe. She requested that I sign a petition to help stop drive-through mastectomy.
The text of the e-mail is copied below – please follow the link and sign the petition. This sort of “cost control” is inhumane – and a prime example of why we – the wealthiest nation on earth – rank 37th in health care, well after much poorer nations like Morocco, Costa Rica, and Columbia and certainly after every single other industrialized nation. And it isn’t me who says so – it’s WHO.