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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
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.
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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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
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.
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
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.
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.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.