Healthcare Reform

By David Swanson

North Carolina house candidate Marcus Brandon defeated a 30-year incumbent Tuesday night, by 60% to 40%, to become the Democratic nominee in an overwhelmingly Democratic district in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Brandon has pledged to introduce a bill to create single-payer healthcare in North Carolina, and now he'll be able to do it.

Brandon has promised that the first piece of legislation he will introduce will be the "North Carolina Healthcare Act" which will provide universal single-payer healthcare to every citizen of the state.

I spoke with Brandon back in February, and he said that he remains a supporter of national single-payer healthcare and will continue lobbying for passage of HR 676, Congressman John Conyers' bill:

Here's the mp3 of the March 29, 2010, edition of "Connect the Dots".

By David Swanson

Here in Virginia where we're addicted to the practice of killing people in order to teach them not to kill people, there are certain things that must not be said about the moron(s) who cut a gas line to a backyard grill at the home of the brother of a congressman who voted for a health insurance bill.

1. We must not mention that Congressman Tom Perriello sets a strong example for the use of violence. When he doesn't know how to resolve disputes, he bombs people. He drops bombs on them. Since the moment he got into Congress, Perriello has seized every available opportunity to vote for more funding for the military and wars. Later this month or next, he will vote another $33 billion for two illegal wars and assorted illegal drone strikes. This doesn't mean that the teabaggers got the idea of using violence from Perriello, but it does mean that he has set no example of nonviolence from which they might have learned.

After a frequently cantankerous year of deliberations and debate, the Democrats are posed to move forward Sunday by voting on health insurance reform. On this, as well as much other legislation, the Republicans appear ready to continue their year-long legislative obstructionism.

By David Swanson

Let me get this straight.  The Senate will pass a public option if the House will.  And the House will, because it already did.  But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won’t allow it.  So the mortal enemy of public-option backers is . . . Dennis Kucinich. 

Why?  Because when Congressman Kucinich said he'd stand for a public option he stupidly thought he was supposed to mean it.

Let's review a brief history of the disease known as "health insurance reform."

By the way, how would you like to give $5 to RealNews.com without having to, you know, give up $5. In fact you can give somebody else's $5 to the Real News by texting the word 'news' to 85944. Try it!

By David Swanson
http://afterdowningstreet.org/letstatesdoit

The health insurance bill currently under consideration in Congress would forbid states from providing their residents with healthcare. An amendment correcting that problem was passed in committee last July and then quietly removed. A new campaign is asking the Democrats who voted for that amendment to withhold their votes on the bill until it is reinstated.

Facing reality is a tough job but somebody's got to do it. And we foretell for you the events of the future NOT because we want them to happen, but to get you to act to keep them from happening. But to do that you need an action page, so here it is.

Put The Public Option Up For A Vote: www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1038.php

And now we will explain why this action page is so critical. To understand the current political dynamic, first you must understand that the Democrats are PLANNING on losing the next couple election cycles. UNTIL you understand that, the events to unfold in the next couple years (unless you act to derail them) will make no sense to you.

Kathlyn Stone has done what I should have done and collected my recent postings on state level single-payer healthcare on her blog.

The question isn’t if a state will enact true health care reform before Congress, but which state and when.

Forget Congressional action on meaningful health care reform. It’s clear that whatever national health care legislation is passed, its main intent will be the preservation of a for-profit system.