Oh healthcare and labour

The Media’s Deficit

Did the UAW come out on top in the restructuring of Chrysler? The media would lead us to believe they did. Dick Durbin’s cram-down bill is defeated with the help of more than 10 democrats. And the Senate, along with the mainstream media, keep single payer advocates on the sidelines.
Tonight on GRITtv our media panel looks at the economic coverage of the past week, the labor movement, and the healthcare battle. Nation writer JoAnn Wypijewski, Robert Johnson former chief economist of the Senate Banking Committee, and Mark Brenner Director of Labor Notes take apart the conventional narrative of what’s happening to our economy. On that note, Wypijewski’s recent piece in Counterpunch, Death at Work in America, sheds some light on just what the media have missed.

Breaking: Eight Heroic Healthcare Activists Arrested at Baucus Hearing

Both AP and Politico are reporting on the events at this morning's Senate Finance Committee, where brave healthcare activists, one after the other, stood up to protest the exclusion of single-payer reforms from the conversation.
Sen. Max Baucus - a favorite recipient of donations from the health insurance industry - has also been the key Democratic attack dog against single-payer healthcare.
He stated it's "off the table," and this morning convened a Senate Finance Committee hearing that included 15 expert witnesses on healthcare--NONE of them in support of a medicare-for-all or single-payer healthcare system.
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Politico's hard-working Carrie Budoff Brown provides more details:

As soon as police escorted one protester out of the room, another would stand up, criticizing the committee for convening a panel of 15 experts and excluding witnesses who support creating a Medicare system for all Americans. About eight were led out of the hearing.

"We need more police," Baucus said.

"Single-payer needs to be on the table," one of the protesters yelled. "This is political theater."

MORE

Republicans come out with talking point against healthcare reform

So Frank Luntz is out with the approved talking points for the Republicans to tank health care reform. It is the usual Orwellian mishmash in which the insurance company whores (er .. Republicans) will threaten people with rationing and long waits, basically telling them that universal health care is going to kill them all in their beds. It's kind of like Islamic terrorism, except without the head scarves.

Here are some suggested arguments for Republicans that Luntz calls “clear winners”:

—“It could lead to the government setting standards of care, instead of doctors who really know what’s best.”

—“It could lead to the government rationing care, making people stand in line and denying treatment like they do in other countries with national healthcare.”

-“President Obama wants to put the Washington bureaucrats in charge of healthcare. I want to put the medical professionals in charge, and I want patients as an equal partner.”

The usual. MORE

Archived cause geocities is going down. Will follow to see where archive next goes up

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