Mon Aug 03, 2009 at 08:34:49 AM PDT
Progressive Democrats of America marked their 5th anniversary with a rally, and 2 birthday parties. Activists from Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Penn., Mass., New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, D.C. and more met with Representatives John Conyers and Jim McGovern, lobbied Congress, and helped theLeadership Conference for Guaranteed Healthcare deliver cupcakes to Congress, celebrating Medicare's 44th birthday.
Then, PDA's National Director Tim Carpenter and Healthcare Not Warfare co-chair Donna Smith joined Sen. Bernie Sanders, John Conyers, Katie Robbins (Healthcare NOW), Terry O'Neill (National Organization for Women), Dr. Margaret Flowers, MD (PNHP), Medea Benjamin (Code Pink) and many more rallying for single payer.
Act now! Click here: to contact your Representative and Senators and tell them to support Single Payer health care/expanded and improved Medicare for all.
I helped publicize and set up for the rally, worked the crowd passing out signs, and helped distribute "lobby kits" with materials activists brought to meetings with members of Congress. I can attest that the rally was a huge success, with an estimated 1,200 attendees fired up to keep working for expanded, improved Medicare for all.
Rally report, sights and sounds: Watch video clips | See pictures | Read report
As reported by Labor Notes:
In blazing midday heat in Upper Senate Park, a small but vocal crowd of about 1,000 sweated it out Thursday for single-payer health care. The rally was organized by Healthcare NOW to celebrate the 44th birthday of Medicare, the federally administered system of health insurance for the elderly.
President Obama’s longtime physician, David Scheiner, urged his former patient to support single payer, saying that "A single-payer program could be implemented comparatively easily, without disruption, as was the case with traditional Medicare."
Senator Bernie Sanders called it "immoral" that the United States "spends twice as much as any other nation and still leaves 46 million without health care."
Sanders brought the crowd to its feet when he called health insurance "the greatest civil rights issue of our time," pointing out that 18,000 people die every year because they lack access to health care.
Jacqueline Silver, a social worker at Temple University hospital, said she came to the rally because she’s frightened by the number of people in her hospital who have lost health insurance after losing a job, and can’t afford stopgap insurance.
"We’ve got the best health care in the world—if you can pay for it," said Silver, who’s the president of the hospital’s technical and professional workers, part of the PASNAP union. "Nothing could be more inefficient and expensive than what we have right now."
PDA's efforts continued after the rally, as activists joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus at a press conference demanding a robust public option or else the 80+ member CPC would oppose health reform legislation. PDA activists also supported Rep. Dennis Kucinich at his event calling for an ERISA waiver for states seeking to implement their own single payer healthcare plans.
These and other ongoing efforts are making a difference: "Liberals Will Get Single-payer Vote on House Floor" according to The Hill.
After marking Medicare's 44th anniversary in and around the Halls of Congress, PDAers gathered at Andy Shallal's Busboys and Poets restaurant to celebrate PDA's 5th birthday. Tim Carpenter served as the Master of Ceremonies, kicking off the event with a call from PDA's National Chair, accomplished actress and activist Mimi Kennedy. Tim then turned to Rep. Conyers who made news by warning that President Obama is making a huge mistake by not backing expanded, improved Medicare for all--a mistake that could make him a one-term president.
As David Swanson reported for AfterDowningStreet.org:
Congressman John Conyers spoke to a crowd of activists from around the country at Busboys and Poets restaurant in Washington, D.C., Thursday evening at a fifth birthday party for Progressive Democrats of America. Conyers opened by remarking:
"There is no one more disappointed than I am in Barack Obama."
This comment sank in hard for some of the activists in the room who had been told by Conyers last year that electing Obama took precedence over impeaching Dick Cheney. But Thursday was about healthcare, and Conyers is the undisputed progressive champion on that issue.
"Buddy," said Conyers, referring to President Obama, "you are wrong on healthcare and it's going to cost you big time."
Conyers suggested that it was very likely Congress would not pass any healthcare bill this year. The Blue Dogs and Republicans don't want anything, he said, and the Progressives are "saying this is a piece of crap and we're not voting for it." If you add up all the Blue Dogs and Republicans and Progressives, Conyers said, you get "more than 218 to sink this bill!"
Or, Congressman Conyers continued, "suppose we happen to pass it? Big deal. That's what Rahm Emanuel wants--pass anything just to say we did." A weak plan, Conyers said, would not help things: "It's going to fail."
In either case, Conyers concluded, whether we get no bill or a weak bill, "they'll blame Barack Obama. Heads he loses, tails he loses." So, Conyers said, "we've got to tell Obama now, or he'll be a one term president."
Also reported by David Swanson:
Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey spoke to a crowd of activists from around the country at Busboys and Poets restaurant in Washington, D.C., Thursday evening at a fifth year birthday party for Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). Woolsey opened by remarking that the Out of Iraq Caucus, following the August recess, would "get on top of Afghanistan."
We were outraged by the Iraq War, Woolsey said, but now, as war is escalated in Afghanistan "because it's our president we act as if it's OK. This is NOT OK! And it's going to come back and bite him in the butt."
[...]
Congresswoman Woolsey also brought up the amendment introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich and passed by the Education and Labor Committee that would allow states to create single-payer. She did not say that she would vote No on any bill that did not include it. But she did say that she would demand a floor vote on it as a stand-alone amendment if it were stripped out of the bill.
Rep. Donna Edwards energized the crowd with a rousing speech focused on the injustice and immorality of our current health care situation. She contrasted the $1.1 Billion golden parachute enjoyed by a former insurance company CEO against her sister, facing an operation and financial uncertainty. Edwards' voice rang out with a call for basic fairness in health, demanding that no one should have to worry about how to pay for healthcare while a few insiders exploit the rest of us. She took her case to CSPAN's Washington Journal program the next day. Watch the video here.
PDA launched in the shadow of the 2004 Democratic convention, and implemented an "inside/outside" strategy to organize for needed change. Chaired by Mimi Kennedy (see her in the BBC thriller "In the Loop") and Vice Chair Progressive Businessman Stephen Shaff, PDA's national advisory board includes members of Congress John Conyers, Lynn Woolsey, Raul Grijalva, Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Jim McGovern, and newest member Donna Edwards.
Also serving on the National Advisory Board are outspoken activists and leaders from the peace and social justice movements including restaurateur Andy Shallal, Code Pink co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, iconic peace activist Tom Hayden, authors, broadcasters, and bloggers Thom Hartmann, Jim Hightower, Jay Winter Nightwolf, Norman Solomon, Cindy Asner, Lila Garrett and David Swanson; and policy experts Joel Segal, John Bonifaz, and Steve Cobble. For more information about PDA, please see: http://pdamerica.org/
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