Bernie Sanders just spoke the truth- It's Up to Us to Rise Up!!!

[styersc]

Bernie was just on Ed Shultz and said that the Specter defection was an opportunity to get Single Payer Health Care, but the problem has never been the GOP, it's always been the strong Insurance Lobby!!!

Bernie is calling for a Grass Roots Movement- that's us.

Time to get involved if you aren't already. Time to step it up if you are!!!!

[polichick]

1. Ed spoke the truth too - some Dems are owned by the insurance companies...

...yep, time to make some calls.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. I agree. I would just like to know the best way to rise up.

I signed Howard Deans petition. What else can we all do, not just to get single payer considered, but to get it PASSED?

[Aragorn]

17. How To RIse Up

Let every congress-person, federal AND state, hear that anything less than single-payer is unacceptable, and anything less then his/her support for same will be met with an independent candidate running on a single issue: single-payer healthcare. This strategy has some history of success. Such candidates typically make it known that they have one primary over-riding reason for running, and that they have no intention of remaining in office after that term.

[DrToast]

3. That's what reconciliation was about...

It wasn't just about preventing Republicans from blocking health care reform.

[midnight]

4. I'm with Bernnie. Is Bernie sure Allen is with single payer?

[DrToast]

6. Specter is a co-sponsoer of the Wyden-Bennett plan. n/t

[Enthusiast]

5. K&R I love Bernie

I have stepped up until I'm blue in the face. If we allow the insurance industry to dictate changes in healthcare we might as well keep what we have.

[pleah]

7. K&R I was watching.

It was great.

[AtomicKitten]

8. Bernie is fired up for single-payer! n/t

[Cali_Democrat]

9. K&R

:thumbsup:

[blaze]

10. Rats! Sorry I missed it. Last I heard

Bernie (on the Thom Hartmann show, I think) didn't think that single-payer had a snowball's chance of getting anywhere.

Does he feel differently now?

[styersc]

12. Sanders point was in reference to the Specter decision..

...about which he said that it is a good opportunity to take advantage of the progressive momentum. With an eventual Franken, we also have numbers. We have to stir the grass roots pot and make sure that we go as far as we can during this unique slice of history.

[blaze]

14. Well I've been stirring the pot...

Emailing my Senators on a pretty regular basis... but I fear my Colorado reps will let me down. :(

[dcsmart]

22. see my video post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x304945

[Fireweed247]

11. Thank you Bernie!

:applause:

[The River]

13. An Uninsured March on Washington

As long as the uninsured are quietly dying it's easy to
overlook them. A few million uninsured Americans
with fists full of unpaid hospital bills surrounding Congress
and closing K Street will bring the problem front and center.

OK...who wants to start organizing this?

[dreamnightwind]

15. that's universal, not single-payer

An uninsured march would relate to universal coverage, not single-payer. Many of us think mandated universal health care using the existing mega insurance industry would be worse than what we have now, and a huge boon to the insurance companies.

I'd rather see a march of people who already have managed care policies who are sick of them and are demanding the end of the health insurance companies. They're the problem, as well as the pharmaceutical lobby.

[MelissaB]

16. K&R

:kick:

[avaistheone1]

18. Kicking it for Bernie.

[radiclib]

19. Love Bernie, but

..does anyone believe Specter will vote any differently because there's a (D) next to his name?

[snowdays]

20. Unions for Single Payer HR676....GET INVOLVED HERE PLEASE..........

this is from and email I received yesterday :

Unions for Single Payer HR676


State Legislators Launch Effort to Push HR 676

A group of state legislators has initiated a nationwide effort to publish
an Appeal to President Obama and members of the 111th Congress to support
HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced in Congress by
Representative John Conyers, Jr. and 75 co-sponsors.

Twenty four state legislators, from 16 states, have sent a copy of the
Appeal to all 7,500 state legislators in the United States asking them to
add their names to The Appeal which will be published in Roll Call, a
widely read Capitol Hill publication.

The legislators, in their letter, cite the growing “economic crisis” and
“badly strained” state budgets as the reason why they are asking “The U.S.
Congress … to heal our hemorrhaging state budgets while bringing
comprehensive quality health care to all our people, by passing HR 676….”

Co-conveners of the campaign are State Senator Jim Ferlo of Pittsburgh and
Assemblyman Richard Gottfried of New York. Senators and representatives
from Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia and
Wisconsin also signed the letter.

Kay Tillow, Coordinator of the All Unions Committee for Single Payer
Health Care—HR 676, welcomed the effort by these state legislators and
urged everyone to contact their own state senator and representative and
ask them to sign the Appeal.

“State legislators,” Tillow said, “are caught in a vice of escalating
healthcare costs, driven largely by the for-profit insurance industry and
declining revenues. Without a national single payer system, state budgets
will continue in crisis and health needs will not be met.”

The ‘Dear Colleague” letter, the ‘Appeal’ and other materials can be found
at:
http://www.healthcare-now.org/campaigns/state-legislators /

#30#

Distributed by:

All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)


1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217
[phone]
Email: [e-mail]
http://unionsforsinglepayerHR676.org
04/28/09

[mvd]

21. Thanks for this!

:hi:

[snowdays]

24. You can help to build this movement by getting the Reps and Senators in your state to sign on.

You are welcome. and this is from the website..........direct to all.


http://www.healthcare-now.org/campaigns/state-legislators /


You can help to build this movement by getting the Reps and Senators in your state to sign on.


NY Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried

Follow-up actions include an appeal to President Obama and Members of the 111th Congress to appear in Roll Call, a widely read Washington, D.C. insider publication, press conferences, and soliciting endorsements from the National Conference of State Legislators, the National Governors Conference and others.

We need your help to make follow-up phone calls and visits to state legislators to make sure they read the mailed materials and follow-up on this appeal. They may have questions – we need local activists on hand to answer them. You can review the three-page mailing that went to every State legislator under "campaign resources" on the top left of this page.

Respond to Healthcare-NOW at [e-mail] or at 1-800-453-1305. Tell us which state legislators you will contact. If you are willing to be a regional or state-wide coordinator in this effort, that would be very helpful. You will find others who have assumed this role under "campaign resources" on the top left of this page.

Thank you for your help.

[dcsmart]

23. see my video post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x304945

[snowdays]

25. thanks I will check it out.

[Jefferson23]

26. K&R, Let us try as hard as we can, can't hurt.

[styersc]

27. Bernie rocks, its up to us to roll.

I live in South Carolina. We have a very tough row to hoe, but if we are willing and focused then I say "YES WE CAN!!!"

[guruoo]

28. The time is right to move 'all hands' on this. n/t