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If there was a perfect moment, for universal single-payer healthcare activists to move from talk to courageous screams for justice, it would be right now. Forget the political calculus…burning issues must always trump the politics of the elites.
When civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were murdered in Mississippi in 1964, folks didn’t wait for Congress and Federal investigations to show their unequivocal commitment (along with tears and shouts) for equal rights…we brought it to the streets, even as teenagers in my hometown of Pittsburgh.
What if the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provided insurance for those denied voting rights, rather than the actual guarantee of voting rights as a human right? What if the Voting Rights Act required the purchase of an outrageous poll tax in order to vote, even if you were considered "eligible" to vote? What would Dr. King have thought about that kind of "compromise?" If you’re honest with yourself, the answers are self-evident.
So who says we need to give up and accept a fundamentally flawed
corporate-written health insurance bailout bill, rather than a clear and principled healthCARE reform bill? We already have the foundations for an equitable and cost effective system in Medicare…let’s improve on Medicare and make it available to everyone!
If we consider "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" to be bedrock principles of our society, it surely follows that healthcare as a HUMAN RIGHT should be included.
From one of the 46 million uninsured,
Ed Bortz
Green Party candidate for Congress
14th District, Pennsylvania
campaign website: Ed Bortz for Congress
12 Comments
This much has been proven. That single payer will NEVER be enacted by the Democratic Party. So the Greens deserve a fresh look. Welcome Mr. Bortz.
The American
Whimps have taken to get on Your knee’s and pray You will get what You want.
Instead of get off Your knee’s and act by making Yourself heard.
This was supposed to be a Government of the People.
Yet we are watching the Government give us what they want to give us, not caring what the people want.
Yes we are watching the American people setting idly by waiting to see what they give us.
The very few on both side speaking out are like tree’s falling in the forest because they are not being heard. Neither side can emass numbers big enough to cause any concern.
In short we have lost control over our Government, and undoubtedly will never be able to recoupe what we lost.
Hi Ed, thanks for posting here.
How is your race against Mike Doyle going? I haven’t heard much from him regarding his planned health care vote. What is he saying?
Mr. Bortz, I hope you are ready for a groundswell of support across America, and the blame for the Dems losing in elections. This time your party will be the Naders. Good luck!
The Republicans have proven they are not the party of limited government, and the Democrats have proven they are not the party of progressive values. We have one corporate statist party that might lean left or might lean right depending on the winds. I am glad to see Mr Bortz calling the Democratic healthcare plan what is really is which is corporate welfare. I hope people such as Mr Bortz can wake up my friends on the left who are living in an unreal world called the Democratic Party cares about the people.
Hello Jane,
Thanks for your reporting on this issue. Not sure how Mike Doyle
will vote…maybe FDL will influence him!
In any event, many volunteers are spreading out across the Pittsburgh area,
petitioning for ballot access for the November election for myself
(14th CD) and for Mel Packer, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. The response of registered voters on the street has been
very encouraging…we’re expanding our totally volunteer staff everyday.
Of course we can always use more help!
The unions are threatening Democrats with third party runs if they vote against health care I see. Would love to hear your comments on that.
Might as well go for the trifecta Ed, make the Republicans blame you for something too.
I’m thinking the whole structure of government needs to change. It is what’s broken. Which is why Republican-lites like Clinton and Obama end up as Democrats. And no progress gets made on citizen issues.
Here in IL, current Governor Pat Quinn is causing many people to sit out the election this November, and I’ll be voting Green.
Quinn is the accidental governor taking over for Blago last year.
Blago had problems before the senate seat issue because he lives in Chicago and was using the state jet to fly home every night, a cost of about $10K/wk.
Quinn also has problems because he wants to raise income taxes (IL has a very high state income tax and a high unemployment rate and already can’t pay its bills). His primary against Dan Hynes was an incredibly low turnout (800k voters). He’s also confused because he thinks he can perform as governor from Chicago.
“….I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.”-
Ben Franklin
Coupla things: Mike Doyle is voting yes for health care reform.
Two: Mike Doyle is an honest politician and yes I use that term lightly and is not the worst person in the Pennsylvania delegation.
Three: For the love of god why isn’t the Green Party making a run against Jason Altmire, who is the worst person in the Pennsylvania congressional delegation.
Four: How much have you raised in your race so far? You need to raise 300 grand to not run as a spoiler….
Philip Shropshire
http://fivetwentyfiveplan.blogspot.com/
For anyone else interested in PA Green candidates, I’m volunteering for the campaign of a viable candidate for state legislature (some say that’s small change, but these third party campaigns have to start somewhere, and this guy might only need about 10,000 votes to win). He’s a union organizer so he knows what he’s doing, and he’s already got one union’s endorsement. Please – volunteer, donate, whatever you can. He is the best the Green Party has to offer, and he is exactly what will build an alternative to the two corporate parties. His name is Hugh Giordano, he’s running for state representative in PA’s 194th district (parts of Philadelphia and Montco) and his website is http://hughgiordano.com