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Hey Rahm: Twist An Arm in Support of the Public Option, Not Against It
Trumka Scheduled To Meet With Rahm Today To Cut Deal on Public Option
We hoped it wasn't true. We hoped that when Richard Trumka committed to back a public option and threatened to withhold support from Democrats who wouldn't vote for one that it wasn't just pre-convention rhetoric.
But then the big guns came out -- Baucus decided that rather than taxing the rich, he would tax the health care plans that seriously affected AFL-CIO workers who had given up wage hikes in exchange for comprehensive health care coverage over years in contract negotiations. When Gerry McEntee rightly called the Baucus bill "bullshit" from the floor of the convention, Nancy Pelosi was then dispatched to say they were considering the same thing in the House.
I defy anyone to find me one single example of the White House twisting one arm for a public option. Just one. But when Rahm and Trumka meet today, it will be after a month of very serious threats to the AFL-CIO carried out at the highest levels. It's the kind of "arm twisting" that only the executive branch is capable of, and it has been done to crush support for a public option, not opposition.
I wrote recently about the fact that people within the AFL-CIO were getting tremendous pressure from the White House to push Trumka into backing down. And sources familiar with the situation say that since the other unions outside the AFL have already caved and are kicking Rahm's trigger football, Trumka feels he has little support for his position and no choice but to relent.
Contact the AFL-CIO and let them know that you support Richard Trumka and his commitment to the public option. Let him know that staying true to that commitment is extremely important to those of us who strongly support labor.
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16 Comments so far
Show AllTop Ramen Emanuel is the quintessential Clinton/Obama Democrat, a political assassin, a moral and ethical guttersnipe and a little engine of all consumimg power.
"Hey Mordi"
You are being 'very generous to Rahm' and not very truthful. So tell the truth.
He is a hero to at least (according to 'Letto') 13 Million Jews, and their Zionist war criminal racist squatters who defy logic, reason, or any true form of decent expression of humanity.
What else would one expect from the Plutocratic Oligarchy but to have 'muppet' like him, or for the President to 'anoint' him first, before anyone else, as his chief of staff.
Only in America.
"If the USA were another nation the USA would invade the USA to keep the world safe;
and they would be justified."
"If the USA were another nation the USA would invade the USA to keep the world safe;
and they would be justified."
Maybe the USA would invade the other USA, or maybe it would just launch a preemptive all-out nuclear attack.
i fully support richard trumka in his efforts for public option measure in the health care reform legislation. i vehemently denounce the israeli agent in the white house for muzzling the president from fullfilling his campaign promisses on health care. its shamefull to coerce the american public for supporting israel by blackmailing its civic and professional organizations. but it is crime to allow israeli operative rahm emanuel to interfere with american domestic affairs.
The best possible outcome is a complete defeat of ObamaCare.
The coercive individual mandates and the proposed tax on healthcare benefits are regressive and we would be better off with no action from the whores in DC.
You're leaving out any consideration of the Rahm policy-deciding criterion: "Is it good for Israel".
I wonder how any sort of public health insurance (including a "public option") would be bad for the state of Israel?
Rammen Emanuel is also the consummate corporatist.
I did not vote for this son of a terrorist and a foreign agent. And why should he be the one that be the deciding figure for the healthcare?
Why would Rahm twist arms in favor of the public option? His goal is to keep that corporate campaign contributions "pot o' gold" from transferring to the Republicans. Consideration of anything promoting the general welfare stated in the preamble of our constitution is only worthwhile if some corporation profits from it.
The public option as proposed by Obama is so weakened and watered down that it would only prolong the agony, become a dumping ground for the poor and desperate. A Single Payer system or at the very least extremely strong controls on the insurance and pharma corps is the only way to accomplish what the Democrats say they want: universal coverage and cost control.
Hamsher,
Have you lost it? Rahm is on the corporate side! Wake up! He'd rather lose a finger than help the people. The only finger he saves is the middle one for us.
Rahm Emanuel is the biggest corporate shill in Washington, and was pushed on our President by Pelosi and Reid, supported by the Clinton faction of the Democratic Party. It is time to send a message to the President to fire this person and quickly.
Join me in DC on November 3rd or across the nation in a national work strike to send a clear message that the American people have had enough of corporatocracy and we are taking back our government and our voice in this public debate from corrupted politicians of both parties, Clinton/Emanuel control of the White House, and demanding that the President start listening to the People of this nation, not just pollsters and media bigots like Glenn Beck, et al and the hordes of idiots who follow them.
Please go to my website
http://www.letfreedomring.community.officelive.com
and send me a copy of the message to be delivered the first week in November to the President and to Congress, and then either plan on joining me there or organizing an event to coincide with a local/national work stoppage for one day.
Until the corporations and the government understand that those who are trying to destroy our nation are only a very small portion of our population, and the rest of us are the ones who voted them in to office, and we will vote them out just as quickly in one year!
Join me and make America Roar with the sounds of Americans finally united to take back our country!
Hey Rahm: Twist THIS!
· Yr Obd't Servant
Senators Rockefeller, Schumer, Stabenow and Widen of the Senate Finance Committee Sub-committee on Health, did a great job of pointing out that the Medical Industrial Complex's contribution to Health Care Reform, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is $20 BILLION and in return they will get $500 BILLION in TAX-PAYER FUNDED SUBSIDIES. Democratic Senators baucus, conrad, carper, lincoln and nelson voted with the republicans to kill the public option 09-09-29.
Criminally corrupt politicians are the reason the U.S. is ranked near the bottom of every catagory when ranked next to other modern, industrialized nations. Time for publically funded elections.
mcconnell $3.3M, hatch $2.9M, baucus $2.8M, grassley $2.7M,lieberman $2.6M, burr $2.4M, ensign $2.4M, cornyn $2.2M, kyl $2.1M, conrad $2.1M, cantor $1.8M, boehner $1.7M, coburn $1.2M, j wilson 800K were paid by the Medical Industrial Complex to kill Health Care Reform.(Source: OpenSecrets.org)
Co-Author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of a Recent Harvard Study on Annual Deaths of America's Uninsured, says the lack of coverage can be tied to over 47,000 deaths a year, 122 a day, in the United States. The only way to affordably cover all Americans is through a Medicare-for-All, Single-Payer System. A Single-Payer System would generate $300-$400 billion in administrative savings annually, enough to cover all of the uninsured, and to plug the gaps in coverage for Americans with only partial coverage. Obviously, Medicare-for-all is anathema to the insurance industry. What politicians are doing is saving insurance industry profits, by sacrificing American lives.12 Million Americans were denied health care coverage by the Medical Industrial Complex because they had a pre-existing medical condition. 12K Americans are denied insurance coverage everyday by a for-profit Insurance bureaucrat. (Source: WaPo Article 05′ by Harvard Prof. E. Warren)
Medical malpractice lawsuits are a hot topic but, are they? Tort Reform is such a “Red Herring” and is easily disproved. A 2004 report by the Congressional Budget Office said medical malpractice makes up only 2 percent of U.S. health spending. Even “significant reductions” would do little to curb health-care expenses, it concluded.
bush(43) economic speech writer david frum, at least, is willing to admit the idea about selling insurance across state lines is a crock:
New Jersey health policies cost more in large part because New Jersey hospitals and doctors charge more. If I buy a cheaper Kentucky policy that reimburses my providers at Kentucky rates, leaving me to pay the balance, how much good does that do me? And if the Kentucky policy is made to pay New Jersey rates, there vanishes my low Kentucky price.
These are some of the easily refuted arguments bought and paid for by the Medical Industrial Complex to derail any chance of their criminally massive profits being reduced.
Follow the Money: http://hmc-lavadogs.livejournal.com/20128.html
Call Congress and demand, Single-Payer Health Care for All!
(Toll Free # House and Senate)
1-866-338-1015 _____ 1-866-220-0044
1-800-473-6711 _____ 1-866-311-3405
Sign Single-Payer Petitions: http://www.singlepayeraction.org/join.html
http://www.americacantwait.com/TrueMajority
Don’t let the Medical Industrial Complex steal your Health Care from you and your family by donating huge sums of money to Crooked Politicians in order to maintain the Status Quo. Keep up the good fight.
SEMPER FI!
Hmmm
When are people going to learn that when ever Washington talks about the poor, no matter what the topic, the end result will always be either a tax increase, benefit reduction, or some combination there of (for the poor of course!) After all the pie is only so big, and the poor will always be door mats for the rich. I don't think much has changed in the last 2000 years.
Rahm Emmanuel, the big bad dog enforcer. So say, the know it all Media. So, where is he?
I know, somewhere picking his nose or maybe dreaming about his heroics as a member of the unholy Israeli military. You’re fired…get out.