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For Immediate Release
November, 05 2012, 12:26pm EDT
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
"Is Occupy Wall Street Outperforming the Red Cross in Hurricane Relief?"
Slate just published the piece "Is Occupy Wall Street Outperforming the Red Cross in Hurricane Relief?"
See #OccupySandy
WASHINGTON
Slate just published the piece "Is Occupy Wall Street Outperforming the Red Cross in Hurricane Relief?"
See #OccupySandy
LAURA GOTTESDIENER [email]
Gottesdiener is author of A Dream Foreclosed: The Fight for a Place to Call Home forthcoming from Zuccotti Park Press. She just wrote the piece "After Sandy, Communities Mobilize a New Kind of Disaster Relief."
MICHAEL PREMO [email]
Featured on Democracy Now this morning, Premo is an organizer with Occupy Sandy.
NATHAN SCHNEIDER, [in NYC], [email]
Schneider is editor of the website Waging Nonviolence.
SARAH JAFFE [email]
Jaffe just wrote the piece "Power to the People."
PETER RUGH [email]
Rugh has been writing for Waging Nonviolence. He said today: "Since the storm, thousands of volunteers have stepped up to provide food, water, blankets, medicine, medical treatment, housing and comfort to New Yorkers where basic social infrastructure has collapsed. Many of those hardest hit by Sandy are those who have already been hit by the financial crisis and the crisis of poverty, racism and unemployment inherent in the system itself. Occupy Sandy's emergency relief efforts are just that, attempts to ease the suffering of those in an emergency that has been inflicted upon by a system that values profit over planet and people. To end the crisis that is the rule of the 1%, the Sandy of everyday life, a social and economic transformation that democratically enables the 99% is necessary. Occupy Sandy exemplifies the highest virtue of the Occupy Wall Street movement; solidarity."
Rugh wrote the piece "Building an Environmental Movement as Radical as Reality Itself"
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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Sinema High-Fives Manchin Over Filibuster Support While 'Schmoozing With CEOs' at Davos
"Sinema has always been and will always be all about Sinema," said the head of one political advoacy group. "She doesn't care who her policies hurt. She doesn't care that she stood in the way of voting rights and abortion rights, as long as she got the headlines she wanted."
Jan 17, 2023
Independent U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia took heat Tuesday for high-fiving over their shared support of the filibuster while "rubbing elbows with Wall Street CEOs and celebrities in the lap of luxury" at the World Economic Forum's annual summit in Davos, Switzerland.
Sinema—who left the Democratic Party last month—and Manchin sat on a panel with Democrats including Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Rep. Mike Sherill (D-N.J.), and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a multibillionaire. Also on the panel were Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Rep. Mária Salazar (R-Fla.).
At one point during the panel discussion, Manchin asked Sinema, "We still don't agree on getting rid of the filibuster, correct?"
"That's correct," the former far-left antiwar activist replied. The two senators then proceeded to high-five.
\u201cAt the World Economic Forum in Davos, surrounded by the super rich, Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin agree that they won\u2019t end the filibuster. Then they high-five.\n\nBoth have used their position to hurt working people, and the planet, and make their rich friends richer.\u201d— More Perfect Union (@More Perfect Union) 1673981616
"Sinema has always been and will always be all about Sinema. She doesn't care who her policies hurt. She doesn't care that she stood in the way of voting rights and abortion rights, as long as she got the headlines she wanted," Sacha Haworth, spokesperson for the Replace Sinema campaign, said in a statement. "Now, she's on stage in Switzerland, in front of an audience of billionaires and Wall Street CEOs, bragging about her obstruction and giving high-fives. It's no wonder she's so unpopular among Arizonans of every political stripe."
The Replace Sinema campaign is a Change for Arizona 2024 PAC project focused on "defeating her in a potential three-way general election and replacing her with a real Democrat."
Defending her support for the archaic Senate rule historically used to uphold white supremacy and, more recently, to stymie key Biden administration agenda items, Sinema said that "we had free and fair elections all across the country, so one could posit that the push by one political party to eliminate an important guardrail and an institution in our country may have been premature or overreaching in order to get the short-term victories they wanted."
\u201cShe has terrible taste in friends.\u201d— Replace Sinema (@Replace Sinema) 1673969300
Replace Sinema noted that the senator is "schmoozing with CEOs, securing more dark money, [and] ignoring her constituents" while "rubbing elbows with major players who ran well-funded campaigns to defeat any tax increases for billionaire corporations and Wall Street." These include members of the Business Roundtable, "including JPMorgan Chase's CEO, the head of Blackrock, the CEO of Hewlett Packard, and an executive at Bain & Company."
Center Forward, a dark money group funded by the Business Roundtable, ran ads in Arizona supporting Sinema’s opposition to the tax and drug pricing reforms on President Joe Biden's agenda.
"Where's Kyrsten Sinema today? Is she doing her job in Arizona or in Washington?" Replace Sinema asked in a statement. "Nope. She's in Switzerland, of course. At the famous Davos World Economic Forum, where billionaires and Wall Street execs can sidle up to global leaders and hang out with celebrities in the elitist, most rarefied of settings. As far away from her constituents as possible, and in the lap of luxury. Just as Sinema likes it."
"And of course," the group added, "Sinema will get to spend time with her Wall Street allies who have lobbied for many of the same special tax breaks and loopholes for corporations and billionaires that Sinema has championed."
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'We Need Medicare for All': Record Number in US Postponed Healthcare in 2022
"After health insurance companies raised prices 24% last year and made nearly $12 billion in profits last quarter, 38% of Americans now report they or a family member put off needed medical care because it was too expensive," said Sen. Bernie Sanders. "We must end this corporate greed."
Jan 17, 2023
Nearly 40% of people in the United States said they or a family member delayed medical care last year due to the prohibitively high cost of treatment under the nation's for-profit healthcare model, according to a Gallup survey published Tuesday.
As U.S. residents faced soaring prices for private insurance, the percentage of them forgoing medical services as a result of the costs climbed 12 points in one year, from 26% in 2021 to 38% in 2022. Of those who reported postponing treatment last year, 27% said they or a family member did so "for a very or somewhat serious condition," up nine points from the previous year.
"After health insurance companies raised prices 24% last year and made nearly $12 billion in profits last quarter, 38% of Americans now report they or a family member put off needed medical care because it was too expensive," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted in response to the new findings. "We must end this corporate greed. We need Medicare for All."
Gallup has been collecting self-reported data on this issue since 2001. The firm's latest annual healthcare poll, conducted from November 9 to December 2, found the highest level of cost-related delays in seeking medical care on record, topping the previous high of 33% (2019 and 2014) by five points and marking the sharpest annual increase to date. The proportion of people who said they or a family member postponed treatment for a serious condition in 2022 (27%) also surpassed the previous all-time high of 25% (2019).
\u201cThe number was up 12 points from 2021.\n\n27% said the delayed medical treatment "was for a very or somewhat serious condition."\n\nhttps://t.co/tlcR97pdbe\u201d— More Perfect Union (@More Perfect Union) 1673977118
Lower-income households, young adults, and women in the U.S. are especially likely to have postponed medical care due to high costs.
According to Gallup:
In 2022, Americans with an annual household income under $40,000 were nearly twice as likely as those with an income of $100,000 or more to say someone in their family delayed medical care for a serious condition (34% vs. 18%, respectively). Those with an income between $40,000 and less than $100,000 were similar to those in the lowest income group when it comes to postponing care, with 29% doing so.
Reports of putting off care for a serious condition are up 12 points among lower-income U.S. adults, up 11 points among those in the middle-income group, and up seven points among those with a higher income. The latest readings for the middle- and upper-income groups are the highest on record or tied with the highest.
Another recent survey found that just 12% of Americans think healthcare in the U.S. is handled "extremely" or "very" well. Such data provides further evidence of the unpopularity of a profit-maximizing system that has left 43 million people inadequately insured, kicked millions off of their employer-based plans when the coronavirus caused a spike in unemployment, and contributed to the country's startling decline in life expectancy.
Last week, prior to the publication of Gallup's poll, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) wrote on social media: "If you don’t believe corporate greed has deadly consequences, take a look at the decline in American life expectancy. We need Medicare for All, and we must raise the minimum wage."
\u201cIf you don\u2019t believe corporate greed has deadly consequences, take a look at the decline in American life expectancy. We need #MedicareForAll, and we must raise the minimum wage.\u201d— Ro Khanna (@Ro Khanna) 1673449140
While the current, profit-driven U.S. healthcare system—which forces millions to skip treatments to avoid financial ruin and allows the pharmaceutical and insurance industries to rake in massive profits—is deeply inefficient and unpopular, polling has consistently shown that voters want the federal government to play a more active role in healthcare provision, with a majority expressing support for a publicly run insurance plan.
Recent research shows that a single-payer system of the kind proposed in Medicare for All legislation introduced by Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) could have prevented hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. over the past two and a half years.
Not only would a single-payer insurance program guarantee coverage for every person in the country, but it would also reduce overall healthcare spending nationwide by an estimated $650 billion per year.
"Millions of Americans across this country are avoiding seeking lifesaving medical care because they're afraid it will bankrupt them," Khanna, a universal healthcare advocate, tweeted last week. "In many cases, their fears are well-founded. We need Medicare for All."
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WATCH LIVE: Bernie Sanders Speech on 'State of the Working Class'
"Now is the time for Congress—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents—to have the courage to take on the lobbyists and powerful special interests," said the incoming Senate HELP Committee chair.
Jan 17, 2023
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday evening is set to deliver a speech in Washington, D.C. about "the state of the working class" and how to address the urgent and overlapping crises it now faces.
Sanders (I-Vt.) is the incoming chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee—a development that has healthcare industry lobbyists worried, particularly given his support for Medicare for All and recent remarks about corporate greed, union-busting, high prescription drugs prices, and the use of subpoena power.
The speech, delivered from the Capitol Visitor Center, is scheduled to start at 7:00 pm ET and is set to be livestreamed on Sanders' Facebook and Twitter pages.
"Before we can effectively go forward in terms of economic policy, it's necessary to know where we are at," Sanders said in a statement promoting the event. "And for working families in this country, the situation is not good."
"Now is the time for Congress—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents—to have the courage to take on the lobbyists and powerful special interests," he added, "and show the American people that our government can work for them, and not just the 1%."
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