Healthcare Reform Town Hall
Thursday, August 27, 2009
6:30 -- 8:30 PM
1177 West 25th Street
(25th ST and Magnolia AVE)
Los Angeles, CA
Hosts: Ward African Methodist Episcopal Church
Featuring: Congresswoman Diane E. Watson (CA 33)
All are invited to come out and Learn the Truth - Tell Your Story - Kill the Rumors on Thursday, August 27th at 6:30pm. Congresswoman Diane E. Watson and Speaker of the House Karen Bass will highlight how the Healthcare Reform will impact you and me and the State of California.
More Info: 323-965-1422
Scott McLarty, GP media coordinator, summarized the view of most Greens on his Facebook page: "On one side, Dems stage bogus town hall meetings to push a complex high-cost plan with mandates to send millions in taxpayer dollars to for-profit health insurance companies. On the other side: Repubs & rampaging troglodytes think they're heirs to the Boston Tea Party but are really stooges for the same insurance industry. The Dems want phony reform, the GOP wants no reform. Either way, insurance CEOs win and we lose"
Jack Lindblad, our Green Party candidate for the California State Assembly, 32nd District, declares one of his legislative top priorities is to: "guarantee quality universal single payer healthcare for all,"
Lisa Green, our Green Party candidate for the California State Assembly, 53rd District, observed: "In May, physicians, nurses, Greens, and other single-payer advocates were arrested after peacefully standing up to protest the exclusion of single-payer experts during Senate Finance Committee roundtables on health care reform. If fearmongering Republican leaders, front groups, and public personalities like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck are urging mobs of their supporters to break up town hall meetings, they should be investigated and prosecuted, just as the nonviolent single-payer protesters were arrested."
The Green Party has released a statement on our position with respect to these so-called Town Hall meetings:
Greens: Democrats' Town Meetings on Health Care Reform Deserve Debate and Civil Protest, Not Disruption and Mob Violence
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org
WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders spoke out today against the violent disruptions taking place throughout the US at town hall meetings on health care reform.
But Greens said that both Democratic and Republican leaders deserve blame for obstructing the public debate on health care reform. Greens pointed to various attempts to silence discussion of single-payer national health care in public forums and the media, as well as spread misinformation about single-payer and the Canadian health-care system.
The Green Party is urging supporters of real universal health care to lobby their US Representatives in advance of a promised vote on the single-payer bill (http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/08/05-8). Greens have called for a nationally televised debate on the merits of single-payer and for GAO and Congressional Budget Office studies on single-payer. Analyses from these offices in the 1990s showed that single-payer will reduce health care spending by billions (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=226).
Once again, Green Party activism is sorely needed as an alternative to the cynical, corrupted, dysfunctional Republican "conservative" versus Democratic "liberal" debate.
2 comments:
Just follow the money. There are six health care lobbyists for each of the 535 members of Congress. The spending has reached $234 Million in the first half of 2009.
The frustration in all of these dog and pony show town hall meetings is the fact that everyone knows the real power is back in Washington and they are spending money to influence Congress that could be put to much better use in lowering premiums or providing better services.
On last night's news, I saw a sign being carried at a Health Care Town Hall Meeting conducted by San Mateo County Congresswoman, Jackie Spier. The session was in Montara, CA. The sign read something like this:
2002 Got Blue Cross.
2005 Got Cancer.
2008 Got Bankruptcy.
Bet that person would be glad to know how the insurers spend their money.
Regarding Lisa Green's comments - I don't think the solution is to call for a crackdown on disruptive right-wingers. They are doing a fine job making fools of themselves and their party.
A better strategy would be to redouble our efforts to politely disrupt healthcare proceedings before HR 676 comes up for a floor vote in September. It would probably get more press, now that everyone is watching these meetings so closely.
Can Greens do this - organize civil disobedience that will put the spotlight on single-payer?
If so, we should probably call it "Medicare for all" so people know what we're talking about.
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