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In Defense of Disruption
What do:
Rush Limbaugh
Barack Obama
Newt Gingrich
Nancy Pelosi
PhRMA
Families USA
America's Health Insurance Plans
AARP
Harry Reid
Mitch McConnell
and Fox News
have in common?
They are all freaked out by single payer.
They have all bought the corporate line:
The market has a central place in health insurance.
In contrast, the majority of doctors.
The majority of nurses.
Aug 10, 2009
What do:
Rush Limbaugh
Newt Gingrich
PhRMA
Families USA
America's Health Insurance Plans
AARP
Harry Reid
and Fox News
have in common?
They are all freaked out by single payer.
They have all bought the corporate line:
The market has a central place in health insurance.
In contrast, the majority of doctors.
The majority of nurses.
And the majority of the American people are not freaked out by single payer.
To the contrary.
They favor single payer.
They all agree -- the market has no place in health insurance.
Single payer would eliminate the 1,300 private payers (insurance companies).
And replace them with one public single payer.
As Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine puts it:
Single payer is not only the best option.
It's the only option that will control costs and cover everyone.
We've been making noise about single payer all year, beginning in May, when we asked Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana)
to invite one single payer advocate to testify at three days of hearings before the Senate Finance Committee.
Senator Baucus refused, ordered us arrested, and charged us with "disruption of Congress."
We've been disrupting ever since -- on Capitol Hill.
And at town hall meetings around the country.
And the right wing has taken a page from our playbook.
They too have started disrupting the Democrats.
Not because the Democrats are in bed with the insurance and pharmaceutical corporations (which they are.)
But because they believe that Obamacare is back door single payer (which it surely isn't -- if it were, why would the insurance industry and pharmaceutical industry be supporting it?)
The right wing has garnered more attention because they have bigger institutional megaphones -- Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the mainstream media.
Today, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, in an article in USA Today, called the right wing protests "un-American."
They are not "un-American" any more than we are "un-American."
The right wing is right to seek to defeat Obamacare -- with non violent civil disobendience, if necessary.
They are seeking to defeat Obamacare for their own right wing reasons (primarily because they fear creeping socialism.)
We seek to defeat Obamacare because it's a bailout of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
And it won't deliver universal health care to the American people.
Time to scrap Obamacare.
And start from scratch.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Russell Mokhiber
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. He is also founder of singlepayeraction.org, and editor of the website Morgan County USA.
What do:
Rush Limbaugh
Newt Gingrich
PhRMA
Families USA
America's Health Insurance Plans
AARP
Harry Reid
and Fox News
have in common?
They are all freaked out by single payer.
They have all bought the corporate line:
The market has a central place in health insurance.
In contrast, the majority of doctors.
The majority of nurses.
And the majority of the American people are not freaked out by single payer.
To the contrary.
They favor single payer.
They all agree -- the market has no place in health insurance.
Single payer would eliminate the 1,300 private payers (insurance companies).
And replace them with one public single payer.
As Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine puts it:
Single payer is not only the best option.
It's the only option that will control costs and cover everyone.
We've been making noise about single payer all year, beginning in May, when we asked Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana)
to invite one single payer advocate to testify at three days of hearings before the Senate Finance Committee.
Senator Baucus refused, ordered us arrested, and charged us with "disruption of Congress."
We've been disrupting ever since -- on Capitol Hill.
And at town hall meetings around the country.
And the right wing has taken a page from our playbook.
They too have started disrupting the Democrats.
Not because the Democrats are in bed with the insurance and pharmaceutical corporations (which they are.)
But because they believe that Obamacare is back door single payer (which it surely isn't -- if it were, why would the insurance industry and pharmaceutical industry be supporting it?)
The right wing has garnered more attention because they have bigger institutional megaphones -- Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the mainstream media.
Today, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, in an article in USA Today, called the right wing protests "un-American."
They are not "un-American" any more than we are "un-American."
The right wing is right to seek to defeat Obamacare -- with non violent civil disobendience, if necessary.
They are seeking to defeat Obamacare for their own right wing reasons (primarily because they fear creeping socialism.)
We seek to defeat Obamacare because it's a bailout of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
And it won't deliver universal health care to the American people.
Time to scrap Obamacare.
And start from scratch.
Russell Mokhiber
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. He is also founder of singlepayeraction.org, and editor of the website Morgan County USA.
What do:
Rush Limbaugh
Newt Gingrich
PhRMA
Families USA
America's Health Insurance Plans
AARP
Harry Reid
and Fox News
have in common?
They are all freaked out by single payer.
They have all bought the corporate line:
The market has a central place in health insurance.
In contrast, the majority of doctors.
The majority of nurses.
And the majority of the American people are not freaked out by single payer.
To the contrary.
They favor single payer.
They all agree -- the market has no place in health insurance.
Single payer would eliminate the 1,300 private payers (insurance companies).
And replace them with one public single payer.
As Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine puts it:
Single payer is not only the best option.
It's the only option that will control costs and cover everyone.
We've been making noise about single payer all year, beginning in May, when we asked Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana)
to invite one single payer advocate to testify at three days of hearings before the Senate Finance Committee.
Senator Baucus refused, ordered us arrested, and charged us with "disruption of Congress."
We've been disrupting ever since -- on Capitol Hill.
And at town hall meetings around the country.
And the right wing has taken a page from our playbook.
They too have started disrupting the Democrats.
Not because the Democrats are in bed with the insurance and pharmaceutical corporations (which they are.)
But because they believe that Obamacare is back door single payer (which it surely isn't -- if it were, why would the insurance industry and pharmaceutical industry be supporting it?)
The right wing has garnered more attention because they have bigger institutional megaphones -- Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the mainstream media.
Today, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, in an article in USA Today, called the right wing protests "un-American."
They are not "un-American" any more than we are "un-American."
The right wing is right to seek to defeat Obamacare -- with non violent civil disobendience, if necessary.
They are seeking to defeat Obamacare for their own right wing reasons (primarily because they fear creeping socialism.)
We seek to defeat Obamacare because it's a bailout of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
And it won't deliver universal health care to the American people.
Time to scrap Obamacare.
And start from scratch.
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