Where is the left on health care reform?

Let me give an example of how the left has shirked its responsibility in becoming a catalyst for real health care reform.


The current issue of "In These Times" does not even have one single article on the health care issue even though the health care issue is front and center on the minds of everyone.


In this same issue there is a list of names of over 4,000 donors to the publication.

Wouldn't we be having a national discussion on the need for a National Public Health Care System if each and everyone of these 4,000 contributors took the time to write a Letter to the Editor of their local newspapers?


The question we need to be asking is why wouldn't a publication like "In These Times" which claims to be a socialist publication be using its resources to spark such a movement?


And what about the dozens of other left publications?


In fact, "In These Times" refused to publish a letter I wrote to them suggesting just such an initiative.


Sixteen pages listing all of its financial contributors and thanking them... but not one single word about the need for these contributors and its readers to build a movement for real health care reform while the entire country is focused on health care. How can this be? Would Eugene Debs have shirked such a responsibility to be the voice for a National Public Health Care System while the entire nation is focused on health care?


Once again we see where intellectuals can not relate to the problems of the working class in seeking out and advocating real solutions.


I am not picking on "In These Times;" I just happened to be reading it after having received it in the mail yesterday.


Are these "intellectuals" really so far out of touch with reality that they would evade the central issue of the here and now?


Or are these "intellectuals" who miss no opportunity telling us how we should think and how we must vote just accommodating the Democrats by trying to keep people out of this debate and out the struggle for real health care reform?


This is mind-boggling.

One In Five Doctors Say: “No New Medicare Patients”

Either Paul Ryan is full of it or he has no idea what he's talking about

Paul Ryan Explains The GOP Health Care Plan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7nk9_KT3LU


Does anyone really believe any of this?

The joke is on voters who trusted Trump’s healthcare promises

I need to ask this question:


Is it our goal to make everyone buy health insurance or is it our goal to make sure everyone gets the health care they need?


An observation:

Fixating on making sure everyone buys health insurance is actually depriving people of health care.

A comment:


Having health insurance is no guarantee one will get the health care they need.


Several obstacles are involved with the delivery of health care through health insurance companies:


1. High premiums.


2. High co-pays.


3. High deductibles.


Another question:


Why has the government allowed doctors to refuse to accept Medicare and Medicaid? Allowing this is sabotaging these programs.


Another question:


How come the government can force everyone to have health insurance but can't force doctors to accept Medicaid and Medicare?


Another question:


How can the government force everyone to buy health insurance but can't dictate to pharmaceutical companies the price they charge for medications?


Comment:


The private for-profit health care system has failed the American people... the time is now for a National Public Health Care System... there is no other alternative that works to provide everyone with health care.

American Health Care Act: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

A must listen and share:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifi9M7DRazI

Health Bill Would Add 24 Million Uninsured but Save $337 Billion, Report Says

Cut 24 million people from health care in the name of reform to "save" $337 billion dollars so the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction have more money to spend on militarism and wars from which they will reap fabulous profits.

It never ceases to amaze me how the left refuses to carry out its responsibility to help the American people sort through the confusion on this health care mess intentionally sown by the Democrats and Republicans whose strings are pulled by their Wall Street puppeteers.

If you believe you will never get old, never get sick, or these worthless politicians bribed by Wall Street insurance and pharmaceutical companies and the American Medical Association have your best interests in mind, I want whatever you are smoking.

The left is missing the best opportunity it has had in decades by not taking a stand in support of a National Public Health Care System and falling for being "led" by the Democrats in supporting Obamacare claiming down the road a stand will be taken for single-payer universal health care system when we have all seen how the main proponents of single-payer have bailed out of this struggle time and time again only to bring it out as an excuse for inaction on health care reform.

Advocating for a National Public Health Care System is the working class alternative to Ryan-care and the rapidly failing Obamacare.

The left is paying a very heavy price for allowing a bunch of well-heeled, muddle-headed, upper middle class intellectuals, millionaire labor leaders and the heads of the foundation-funded outfits manipulate and control this health care debate in favor of the Democrats to the detriment of the health of working class families.

I have been attacked by these outfits for "advocating socialized health care that is too controversial to win the support of the American people" when, in fact, every single time a National Public Health Care System is patiently explained alongside Ryan-care, Obamacare and single-payer universal health care, the majority of the people will always support a National Public Health Care System based on the model of public education: publicly funded, publicly administered and publicly delivered--- nothing any more controversial than public education which works very well when properly financed and properly administered free from the profiteers trying to feed at the public trough like they do with militarism and wars.

Why this hesitancy to take up the struggle for a National Public Health Care System?

We know the Republicans are opposed. And we know the Democrats will use every single devious, dishonest and undemocratic means including the lie that they want to get to this but first we need to take "baby steps" over many years of "incremental reforms."

We have been hearing this lie from Democrats ever since Democrats forced Franklin Roosevelt to withdraw National Public Health Care from the New Deal Reforms.

Well, let us be very blunt: When working class families are sick they need health care right there and then not twenty, forty sixty years down the road... in fact, Democrats after forcing Roosevelt to take it off the table promised to deliver it "later." Well, how long must we wait? It has been almost 80 years since these Democrats took National Public Health Care off the table. How many people have gone without health care since? How many people have been driven into poverty as a result? How many people have lost their homes to pay for health care? How many working class families have gone through medical bankruptcies since? How many working class families have been driven into poverty as a result of horrendous health care bills?

Enough of the "promises" that are nothing but "lies" perpetrated to get votes. Every single election we hear from the Democrats they are going to provide health care reforms and all they have done is gone along with Republicans chipping and chopping away at Medicaid and Medicare.

All of these well-heeled, muddle-headed, upper middle class intellectuals controlling and manipulating the left into silence when it comes to a National Public Health Care System are wealthy enough to afford insurance premiums and co-pays... they don't have any empathy or understanding of what it means not to have access to health care because you can't afford it.

If any of the people who claim they are for single-payer were really going to take up this struggle they would be doing so now... instead they are out trying to drum up support for Obamacare.

And they claim a National Public Health Care System can't be won in the current political climate--- another lie; people united in struggle can win anything. The fact is, these people always find an excuse not to fight and struggle for anything and this is why these worthless Democrats have been able to work with Republicans to chip away and chop away at Medicaid and Medicare... they trust politicians like Obama and Hillary Clinton to take care of them when the fact is, it was Obama who appointed the thorough reactionary Wall Street servant, Alan Simpson, to head up the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to open the attack on Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Now is the time for the real left to open up a struggle for a National Public Health Care System--- sitting on the sidelines or advocating for the defense of Obamacare is nothing short of working class betrayal. We can't win if we don't struggle... dare to struggle; dare to win.

Fund a National Public Health Care System not militarism and wars and over 800 U.S. military bases dotting the globe preparing for more wars when we should be learning to live in peace with the rest of the world so we can reap a Peace Dividend and beat swords into plowshares...

This is a program for real change... the Republicans will fight us, the Democrats will try to undermine our struggles; both serve the tiny greedy Wall Street minority of millionaires and billionaires not the American people...

Campaign for a “21^st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”

We are fed up with politicians campaigning on promises of “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” and then failing to make themselves legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment.

We are fed up with our tax dollars being squandered on militarism and wars instead of being used to create jobs by solving the problems of the people and defending our living environment… its time to beat swords into plowshares. Put people to work solving the problems of the people.

A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million new jobs paying real living wages providing people with free health care---  general medical, eyes, ears, dental, family planning and mental health--- through a network of neighborhood and community health care centers; this is a better use of our tax-dollars than wasting our human and financial resources on a far flung empire of over 800 U.S. military bases around the world. Or, it could be financed the same way Social Security is financed. Or paid for with  a tax on Wall Street transactions. Or financed with a combination of these methods. Public funding. Public administration. Public delivery… nothing controversial; just like public education.

A National Public Child Care System would create over three-million new jobs providing working class families with free child care.

We need to restore the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (C.E.T.A.), Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

“At Will Employment” legislation in states across the country needs to be rescinded and repealed to expand democracy in the workplace and provide workers with the right to freely participate in the communities where they live.

All attacks on immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, need to end.

Planned Parenthood needs to be defended and programs expanded.

We insist Congress and the president enact full employment legislation which makes them legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment; assure everyone who wants a job employment at real living wages in line with the actual cost-of-living.

Full employment would provide stability for Social Security; everyone paying in; everyone getting something out. A Basic Income for All must be guaranteed. Pensions must be honored and protected. The Wall Street swindle of pension funds must end; restore the Glass-Steagall Act.

Turn Habitat for Humanity into a massive public works project to create jobs and assure everyone has a decent home.

Unemployment and lack of a National Public Health Care System is the price we pay for militarism and wars. We are entitled to a Peace Dividend……... Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.

The Global Wealth Report

From Credit Suisse...


Something to think about:

Class inequality is constantly expanding at a global level.

The unequal distribution of the world's wealth was further intensified after the international synchronized capitalist crisis. According to the annual research on global wealth (carried out by Credit Suisse), 90% of the population possesses about 10% of the wealth, while the poorest 75% possess less than 3% of the wealth. Indeed, of the 10% of the population that possesses 90% of the wealth, 1% alone possesses almost 50% of the wealth. At the same time, 71% of the world's population lives with less than the equivalent of 8 dollars per day.

The results of these class inequalities are also reflected in the lack of access of 780 million people to clean water, the lack of access of 2.5 billion people to health facilities and 1.3 billion people's lack of access to electricity.

Almost 3 billion people gather wood and biomass residues in order to cook, a practice that is connected to 3.5 million premature deaths due to poor indoor air quality.

Finally, almost 800 million people are recorded as being chronically malnourished, while 3.5 million people die from hunger every year.

http://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/index.cfm?fileid=AD783798-ED07-E8C2-4405996B5B02A32E

But poverty doesn't seem to bother Credit Suisse as they will get rid of over 900 jobs over the next year.

Here's the secret payoff to health insurance CEOs buried in the GOP Obamacare repeal bill

Check it out:

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-obamacare-ceos-20170307-story.html

Paul Ryan lies about health care just like everything else.

Republican Paul Ryan is running the biggest scam about health care I have ever heard. I don't think we have ever been subjected to more lies and misinformation.


Paul Ryan claims we only have two options:


1. Do nothing. Stay with Obamacare.

2. Repeal Obamacare and go with the Republican scam.


There is an alternative: a National Public Health Care System, the only way to fix this mess.

More lies and slanders against North Korea coming from Nikki Haley

I post this, what U.S. Ambassador to the United Nation's, Nikki Haley, said about the leader of North Korea because it shows how these Wall Street imperialists attribute bad things to others which could easily be said about someone like Trump, which would be more accurate in making such a statement; not that truth has ever mattered in carrying out Wall Street's imperialist agenda.

Here is what Nikki Haley said about the leader of North Korea:

"We are not dealing with a rational person,"

"It is an unbelievable, irresponsible arrogance that we are seeing coming out at this time (the testing of missiles- A.L.M.)."

Donald Trump is the real nut job.

The fact of the matter is, North Korea, even with its missile tests, poses no threat to anyone; while Donald Trump and the U.S. government pose a threat to everyone including ourselves.

North Korea has never attacked anyone.

North Korea has 24 ballistic missiles and has conducted two nuclear weapons tests; compare this to what the United States has done and continues to do.

Let us be very clear about Korea, North and South.

If the people were left to decide their own destiny without U.S. interference, there would be one Korea and it would be a socialist Korea by democratic choice.

The United States oversaw and directed a massive slaughter of Communists in southern Korea at the end of World War II on a scale of the barbaric slaughter and savagery the CIA carried out in Indonesia.

The United States has isolated North Korea and imposed a succession of thoroughly corrupt and politically repressive governments on the people of South Korea.

In my opinion, it is foolish for North Korea to be wasting its limited resources on weapons and it should not be testing nuclear weapons because this is harming themselves without providing any real defense. On the other hand, anyone who thinks North Korea has no right to be testing these weapons should be among those doing everything possible to stop the Wall Street imperialist agenda which intends to try to bring an end to socialism and prevent the re-unification Korea.

After all, whose Navy is going to be using the new JeJu Naval base; and for what purpose?

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/781812.html

The United States has refused to negotiate nuclear non-proliferation treaties and nuclear disarmament. Israel has nuclear weapons no one wants to talk about.

It is time for an international peace movement to muster the strength to force all countries to end the nuclear arms race and insist on beating swords into plowshares. It is time for the peace majority to be heard from.

I challenge anyone to dispute what I have said here.

An alternative to Trump's Wall Street agenda

Campaign for a “21^st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”

We are fed up with politicians campaigning on promises of “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” and then failing to make themselves legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment.

We are fed up with our tax dollars being squandered on militarism and wars instead of being used to create jobs by solving the problems of the people and defending our living environment… its time to beat swords into plowshares. Put people to work solving the problems of the people.

A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million new jobs paying real living wages providing people with free health care---  general medical, eyes, ears, dental, family planning and mental health--- through a network of neighborhood and community health care centers dispensing free health care which is a basic and fundamental human right; this is a better use of our tax-dollars than wasting our human and financial resources on a far flung empire of over 800 U.S. military bases around the world. Or, it could be financed the same way Social Security is financed with a modest pay-roll tax. Or paid for with  a tax on Wall Street transactions. Why not a wealth tax on the rich? Or financed with a combination of these methods. A National Public Health Care System is not controversial; it is just like public education. Public funding. Public administration. Public delivery.

A National Public Child Care System would create over three-million new jobs providing working class families with free child care.

We need to restore the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (C.E.T.A.), Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) and Civilian Conservation Corps (C.C.C.).

“At Will Employment” legislation in states across the country needs to be rescinded and repealed to expand democracy in the workplace and provide workers with the right to freely participate in the communities where they live.

All attacks on immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, need to end.

Planned Parenthood needs to be defended and programs expanded.

We insist Congress and the president enact full employment legislation which makes them legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment; assure everyone who wants a job employment at real living wages in line with the actual cost-of-living.

Full employment would provide stability for Social Security; everyone paying in; everyone getting something out. A Basic Income for All must be guaranteed. Pensions must be honored and protected. The Wall Street swindle of pension funds must end; restore the Glass-Steagall Act.

Turn Habitat for Humanity into a massive public works project to create jobs and assure everyone has a decent home.

Unemployment and lack of a National Public Health Care System is the price we pay for militarism and wars. We are entitled to a Peace Dividend……... Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.

Name                                 Address                               City                                   State                    E-mail

1.

2.

3.

4.

Liberals

I have a lot of liberal friends but the thing with liberals is they seem to be easily co-opted to the point where they won't move beyond their intellectualism to action and actually do something.

From the files of Lyndon Baines Johnson obtained from the LBJ Library... a most disgraceful part of labor's history.

As a FaceBook friend pointed out:

"What a nefarious and blatant attempt to destroy a union and to terrorize immigrants and anti-communist hatred. Solid research and primary document of the Red Scare in US and Texas."

Note: Click on the pages to enlarge them to make reading easier.

Can we learn from history if we are denied historical facts?

Lyndon B. Johnson claimed he learned a lesson from his father being driven out of the Texas Legislature. What he learned was probably not what his populist left wing father would have wanted him to learn... nor his mother, who drove home and imparted a message of high morals and principles to her children.


LBJ's father was driven out of the Texas Legislature by a cabal of right wingers from the oil, gas and power-generating industries along with big land-owners and big-ranchers.


Shortly before leaving office, his father had voted to approve funding a road building project near the Johnson family home and after he was driven from office ended up as a laborer working on building the road he had voted to fund. LBJ observed his father hard at work building the road. LBJ viewed this as a "senseless loss of power." If only his father would have capitulated and acquiesced to the rich and powerful, just a little.


The lesson LBJ learned was to acquiesce and capitulate for self-serving political expediency as a pragmatic matter in order to try to gain a few reforms for the people here and there and put off the battle for social and economic justice until another day.


When becoming President LBJ felt he had risen in power to the point where he could recoup his setbacks and losses and go full steam ahead with major reform initiatives calling his project, "The Great Society."


But LBJ ran up against the huge and powerful Military-Industrial Complex which insisted he support the Vietnam War instead of "The Great Society;" and, once again, LBJ capitulated, instead of standing and fighting like his principled father would have done... and LBJ lost his power anyways as the people he really wanted to help ended up fighting against his dirty Vietnam War.


To his credit, after he left office, LBJ ended up supporting and endorsing George McGovern for president who he admired for having the principled courage and strength of his father... but, his abandonment of the Great Society for a senseless war in Vietnam haunted him into an early grave and likely contributed to his death... having been completely deserted by the "friends" he acquired in quest of a "politics of pragmatism" which in the end, in spite of having great power, ended up being worthless as far as creating the kind of socially just society he believed in.


There has to be some kind of moral here for us today as many great liberals have suffered similar fates for the same reason.


All of what I have written here can be verified through research and interviews.


What amazes me is the length so many "biographers" and "political analysts," "journalists" and pundits will go to in order to distort these historical facts.


One must ask how it can be, that one of the biggest political battles ever waged in this country was over the "Full Employment Act of 1945" and it has been made just about impossible to find the complete story. It is not by accident LBJ's vote, press clippings, speeches, etc. on this important piece of legislation authored by his close friend, fellow New Dealer and political ally, Congressman Wright Patman, can't be found in the LBJ Library.


Just as the LBJ Library refuses to make available the notes and audio recording of the meeting that took place at LBJ's ranch in Texas Hill Country under an old oak tree overlooking the Perdernales River with LBJ, the progressive George McGovern and Sargent Shriver, McGovern's liberal running mate, at which time Lyndon B. Johnson pledged his support and gave his whole-hearted endorsement to George McGovern who had opposed his war in Vietnam but supported all of his efforts to achieve "The Great Society."

I have been fighting the LBJ Library staff for two years trying to get them to release these tapes and notes on the LBJ, McGovern/Shriver meeting and in this struggle, not one single researcher, writer, journalist or professor will join me. The "establishment" does not want us to understand and know actual history because they fear someone will come along with LBJ's tenacity and George McGovern's principles and run for president... perhaps a Democrat like Henry Wallace with friends like Elmer Benson, Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Du Bois who would take up the struggle alongside the people outside of the Wall Street imposed constrictions of the Democratic Party--- which is where great movements and their leaders go to die.

The American people have a right to have a say in what kind of health care we have in this country... democracy requires no less

Why should we let Trump or the Democrats dominate the discussion on health care?

Obamacare is a complete failure without any support from the majority of the American people.

Trump hasn't even eliminated the penalty for not buying into it which means he intends to penalize anyone who doesn't carry private insurance. How dishonest and deceitful can the Republicans get?


Even John Boehner has admitted the Republicans only intend to modify Obamacare even if they call it something else.

We need a National dialog in our neighborhoods and communities about health care. I hope this will be shared and discussed widely because whenever people are provided with all options, most people will choose National Public Health Care.

Let me explain what National Public Health Care is in relation to other forms of health care...

The best way to explain a National Public Health Care System is to explain it the way our public schools work... it would be based on the model of public education which works very well as intended when properly funded and properly administered:

Public funding.

Public administration.

Public delivery.

There would be neighborhood and in small cities and rural areas community health care centers that would include everything from general health to vision, hearing, dental care, dietitians, preventive health care education, family planning and mental health.

Instead of doctors and other health care professionals, nurses and workers being on private payrolls they would be public employees just like public school teachers and college professors and instructors.

Same thing for hospitals.

This would include everything in the way people need for health care... pre-natal through burial.

Everyone in; nobody out.

We could pay for this in a couple ways or a combination:

1. With a Peace Dividend. Cut military spending drastically and end these wars and shut down all the military bases on foreign soil.

2. With a payroll tax on employers and employees; just like with Social Security (this is the way Frances Perkins proposed paying for it.)

3. A tax on Wall Street transactions and/or a tax on the wealthy.

Everyone would just be able to walk into a health care center and get the care they need without long waits or waiting periods.

There could be satellite centers in schools and places of employment, in shopping malls.

There would also be an emphasis on preventive health care because it is much cheaper to stay healthy.

A National Public Health Care System is the most cost effective way to deliver health care.

What is important is that the American people be drawn into this conversation in the way democracy is intended with all the types of health care being honestly explained... the options are:

1. We continue with health care remaining private, for-profit health care managed by insurance companies with the American Medical Association establishing fees for procedures even for Medicaid and Medicare which is what both Obama-care, Romney-care and what the Republicans are proposing is. This is the reactionary, neo-liberal and conservative approach to health care.

2. Single-payer universal health care like they have in Canada with the government collecting taxes, including a pay-roll tax, quasi governmental administration where administration is shared by the public and private sectors, with private delivery. Doctors establish fees charged with government approval and some push back in an attempt to keep fees charged a little lower.

3. A National Public Health Care System as I have described.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the world and the American people are entitled to a world-class National Public Health Care System.

Wouldn't it be nice if the politicians, Physicians for a National Health Program, American Medical Association and the party hacks and over-paid media pundits were as honest as I am in putting all the options before the American people?

I challenge anyone and everyone to challenge anything I have said.

I will debate anyone, anytime, anyplace on the health care issue.

It is time for the American people to be able to discuss health care free from any restrictions.

Health care reform should be an issue that brings us all together because we all need, and are entitled to, health care. The right to health care is a very basic and fundamental human right which should not be rationed to only those who can afford it.

By advocating for National Public Health Care we become an obstacle to Trump's thoroughly reactionary agenda and we lay the ground-work for a new working class based political party by establishing an alternative agenda which places human need before profit and we advance the cause of peace and social justice while laying the basis for the socialist alternative to capitalism as we challenge the Wall Street crowd for political and economic power using an issue which clearly explains why the private, for-profit "free enterprise" system doesn't work.

Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor envisioned a National Public Health Care System as part of the New Deal package of reforms and Franklin Roosevelt removed it under pressure from the American Medical Association, the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers and the rest of the Wall Street crowd in the same way they ganged up on and defeated the Full Employment Act of 1945 put forward by liberal populist Texas Congressman Wright Patman and progressive Henry Wallace.

The time has come to stand up to this Wall Street crowd when it comes to health care.

After all, a National Public Health Care Program would create over twelve-million good-paying, real living wage jobs putting us closer to our objective of full employment by putting people to work providing the American people with free health care. Don’t expect this government to provide working people with the kind of health care reform we need without a struggle.

Education. Organization. United Action. This is the key to winning any reform.

What you can do:

* Write a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper, your union newsletter, community publication, etc.

* Get your union, senior group, political party to pass a resolution.

* Talk to family, friends, neighbors, fellow workers. Here is a sample petition like the one I am circulating:

Campaign for a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”

We are fed up with politicians campaigning on promises of “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” and then failing to make themselves legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment.

We are fed up with our tax dollars being squandered on militarism and wars instead of being used to create jobs by solving the problems of the people and defending our living environment… its time to beat swords into plowshares. Put people to work solving the problems of the people.

A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million new jobs paying real living wages providing people with free health care--- general medical, eyes, ears, dental, family planning and mental health--- through a network of neighborhood and community health care centers; this is a better use of our tax-dollars than wasting our human and financial resources on a far flung empire of over 800 U.S. military bases around the world. Or, it could be financed the same way Social Security is financed. Public funding. Public administration. Public delivery… nothing controversial; just like public education.

A National Public Child Care System would create over three-million new jobs providing working class families with free child care.

We need to restore C.E.T.A., WPA and CCC.

“At Will Employment” legislation in states across the country needs to be rescinded to expand democracy in the workplace and provide workers with the right to freely participate in the communities where they live.

All attacks on immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, need to end.

Planned Parenthood needs to be defended and programs expanded.

We insist Congress and the president enact full employment legislation which makes them legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment; assure everyone who wants a job employment at real living wages in line with the actual cost-of-living.

Full employment would provide stability for Social Security; everyone paying in; everyone getting something out. Pensions must be honored and protected. The Wall Street swindle of pension funds must end. Restore the Glass-Steagall Act.

We are entitled to a Peace Dividend.

Name Address City State E-mail

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.
Contact info:

Here is a sample Letter to the Editor like the one I wrote to the Austin American-Statesman which was published:


National Public Health Care System Needed


Re: Feb. 9 article, “Trump looks to stabilize health insurance market”

So, the “health” — read: profits — of the health insurance industry supersedes the human right of access to health care?

Left out of the discussion is the real solution to this health care mess, which would eliminate the health insurance industry: national public health care based on the public education model. Publicly financed. Publicly administered. Publicly delivered.

It makes more sense to finance a network of publicly funded neighborhood and community health care centers across the country dispensing free health care for everyone instead of squandering the precious wealth of our nation maintaining over 800 military bases dotting the globe protecting Wall Street’s interests and wasting trillions of dollars on these dirty wars from which only the Wall Street merchants profit.

ALAN MAKI, LAKEWAY

Fake News

I can't remember the Wall Street owned Main Stream Media ever having dealt with the problems of working people.

There is an old saying...

When dealing with politicians always bring a crowd.

Can we talk about the problems with single-payer universal health care?

I believe PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program) has been dishonest about health care reform because they haven't included a National Public Health Care System as an option. I have broached this with numerous leaders and members of the organization and it boils down to this:

Doctors would desert PNHP because they want to continue to profit from health care and they are thinking that if the insurance companies are cut out and the pharmaceutical industry is held at bay they will have a bigger pool from which to further enrich themselves.

I don't know why this health care debate should CENTER on "saving."

What we should be concerned about is what health care system best delivers health care for everyone.

And, it just so happens, a National Public Health Care System provides us with the best health care at the cheapest price but also creates the most jobs.

Why would an organization like PNHP argue against a National Public Health Care System based on the same model as public education?

In fact, most of the leaders of the PNHP will tell you in private a National Public Health Care System--- socialized health care--- is the best of all options. Unfortunately, they will also tell you their members would disappear.

We know from looking at countries having single-payer, like in Canada, that at best single-payer universal health care is only a short-term band aid type "fix."

The great socialist leader, Tommy Douglas, told Canadians they needed to keep pushing for nothing less than socialized health care.

For many years, I pushed for single-payer universal health care as a step towards a National Public Health Care System. I testified at Congressional and State hearings, wrote letters, circulated leaflets and petitions, etc.

But, for me, the final straw was when leaders of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) joined with members of PNHP and joined the corporate Democrats in inserting the word "affordable" in the best resolution of any political party voted for by grassroots members of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party to make it fit in with support for Obamacare.

I won't spend my time working for anything other than a National Public Health Care System from now on.

I won't work against those like PNHP and PDA and others pushing single-payer universal health care or gimmicks like HR 676 intended to get get votes at election time knowing Democrats will never enact it after Election Day. But, I will state my concern and opinions from a working class point of view.

We will never get the Democrats (and certainly not the Republicans) to give us real health care reform... but, with a powerful movement we can wrest health care reform, including a National Public Health Care System, from these politicians... but, like everything beneficial to the working class, it will take one heck of a struggle to win. We will win because once people have a chance to weigh all the options they will choose a National Public Health Care System:

Publicly funded.

Publicly administered.

Publicly delivered.

Just like public education.

There is a reason the overwhelming majority of the American people joined the struggle for public education instead of all the private for-profit schemes advanced at the time over 150 years ago... and, the struggle for real education reform was a huge battle not many politicians will talk about today.

The private, for-profit health care industry is dominated by Wall Street and supported by the American Medical Association... doctors are thrilled with both Romney-care and Obama-care, just like the Democrats, these doctors pretend that what they support is good for the American people when they are only protecting their off-shore bank accounts.

It isn't coincidental that most doctors come from affluent families; a National Public Health Care System will require we educate doctors from the ranks of the working class while strictly and stridently enforcing Affirmative Action so working class people of color and women have a chance to advance while providing health care to people who have had no, or very limited access, to health care.

Martin Luther King declared health care to be a human right... and it is.

Obama-care and Romney-care are both very reactionary neo-liberal approaches to health care "reform" which leave parasitical doctors and Wall Street feeding at the public trough and enriching themselves at our expense.

In fact, these neo-liberals see single-payer universal health care as a release valve which will release public pressure if they are forced to in order to work their way back towards complete privatization of health care--- this has been underway in Canada for the last twenty years as can be seen by the way the free dental program in Manitoba elementary schools instituted by the New Democratic Party was taken away and by the way the Canadian Liberals have joined with the Conservatives to chip away at the Canada Health Act under the guise of "reform."

Here in this country, HR 676 is nothing but a scheme to keep people trapped in the Democratic Party and even the Greens buy into this scheme instead of supporting a National Public Health Care System thereby slitting their own throats. Let us be very clear and up front about single-payer. Single-payer is:


Publicly financed in as much as the government taxes workers.


A combination of private and public administration... the public part mostly makes sure the for-profit interests get paid.


And it is exclusively privately delivered health care which means the American Medical Association and its members will dictate how health care is delivered and to whom.


If anyone disagrees with me let them come forward and state their views. I invite the leaders of PNHP who read my posts and often respond through private messages to state their views right here.


And I invite all of those in the Green Party still pushing single-payer to explain their reasoning here. Let’s have a real discussion about health care reform.

Truth

I agree with Trump... the media hasn't done a good job with him.

Had the media been telling us the truth about Trump and his connections to organized crime he wouldn't be president today.

In fact, we can't rely on the corporate owned Main Stream Media to tell us the truth about anything.

If anyone is getting a raw deal from the Wall Street owned media it is us, the American people.

Team Perez and Ellison

Tom Perez and Keith Ellison are our new "resistance leaders."

If you are going to rely on them to stop Trump from wrecking what remains of the New Deal reforms, the destruction of public education and our planet and prevent nuclear war---

I suggest you take this action right now...

Bend over...

Put your head between your legs...

And kiss your ass "good-bye."

Can “Letters to the Editor” be catalysts for movement building?

In my opinion, this is the way to build movements provided we are also sharing these letters and our ideas with family, friends, neighbors and fellow workers.

If you are only writing the letters to politicians and not sharing them publicly they do no good at all... they end up in the "circular file."

But even the most reactionary politicians can be convinced to support progressive, pro-worker legislation.

Let me give you an example.

A long time ago I met with Gerald Ford to discuss extending unemployment benefits when he was still a Congressman and House Minority Leader.

We agreed to meet a second time with a larger group of people.

Gerald Ford had never supported any pro-worker legislation of any kind.

During our second meeting I showed him the petition we had begun circulating. He asked how many signatures we had. I told him a couple hundred and he laughed. But, he said, come back with ten thousand signatures on your petition in a month and I will support this legislation to extend unemployment benefits. Obviously he thought we couldn't get the signatures.

I met with the president of the local labor council and told him what Ford said. He didn't believe Ford would go along.

So, I called a press conference at the unemployment office and said what Ford told us. The media went back to Ford and asked him. He acknowledged he told us that.

So, we started a massive letter writing campaign, turned the published letters into leaflets and tabled using these leaflets at the unemployment office, supper markets, public parks, at plant gates and on college campuses.

We held small street corner demonstrations at busy pedestrian crossings.

We collected over 25,000 signatures in less than a month... Ford kept his promise and got a slew of Republicans to support the legislation that even many Democrats had opposed until Ford announced he was voting for it.

Because of our "little" campaign supporting extending unemployment benefits workers today get extended benefits when unemployment goes above a certain level.

By the way... Gerald Ford later told me he would never again make such an agreement with me.

It is possible to build movements capable of winning using methods like this even when dealing with the most reactionary politicians if we work in the right way.

We have prevented foreclosures using such methods and won welfare benefits for people, too.

I was very involved working with U.S. Senators Phil Hart and Gaylord Nelson and we forced Nixon to agree to very progressive environmental legislation.

I was also very involved in the national movement that won free school lunches for children from poor families... we used very similar methods. This movement started with about a dozen people sitting around in a living room talking about the problem.

Just ask the Liberal Party in Canada what kind of movement they came up against when they tried to deport me and my family using similar methods.

When the movement against the Vietnam War first started we worked in the same way.

And the movement to free Angela Davis began in the same way.

I don't buy the non-struggle position that it does no good to write letters and circulate petitions, sign onto statements, and have personal meetings with even the most reactionary politicians...

But, if people are not going to work together in an agreed upon way towards a common objective...


You are right, writing letters, etc. will do no good.

So, if I am the only one writing such letters, the politicians will just laugh at me. What I have found is that once a few people start initiating a struggle in this way it starts to spread. People like to see everyone working together and it encourages them to get involved.

The idea is to think of letter writing as part of movement building.

We all need health care, don't we? What better reform to build a movement around?

And one of the most important things is for these politicians to see movements growing. They can't stand it when they can't stop a movement with phony promises.

You know, when it comes to health care reform it really can't hurt to write a letter to the editor similar to the one I wrote... try it; and try using the letter after it gets published and meet with your members of the U.S. Senate and member of Congress--- show them your published letter and let them know you are talking to everyone you can.

Politicians understand a very simple rule of advertising... when people are happy they don't say much; but, when people aren't happy and they start talking to everyone there is a problem that could end up destroying what it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to create goodwill with buyers.

Maybe your letter won't do any good; but, can it do any harm?

I called U.S. Senator Ted Cruz after my letter was published and told him to check out my letter to the editor. I told Cruz I want to meet with him. I doubt he wants to meet with me but I am willing to bet before I am done he is going to meet with me to discuss health care reform.

I am sure I am going to hear from a bunch of people who will say I'm full of shit. That we can't ever hope to get anything from these politicians.

But, here is the thing... if we want to win this kind of reform right now we are going to have to force these politicians to sit down and talk. They are, unfortunately, what we have for the moment.