Health Care ’09: America Won’t Wait

More than 10,000 people came to Washington, D.C. last week with a simple demand to Congress: Pass quality, affordable health care for all, do it this year and include a public health insurance option.

It was the nation’s largest-ever lobby day in favor of quality, affordable health care for all. And USAction affiliates played an indispensible role in making the Health Care for America Now event a success. Consider some statistics:

USAction affiliates brought in more than 1,600 people from 22 states. We accounted for 60 visits to members’ offices on Capitol Hill. We led, or played an integral role in organizing, nine Town Hall meetings, out of 13 total. We organized 31 buses that brought activists to D.C.

USAction helped launch HCAN and helps lead the organization – along with important coalition allies that also effectively turned out their members, including ACORN, Center for Community Change, AFSCME, Communications Workers of America, the National Education Association and SEIU.

The day featured Town Halls, visits to Congressional offices – and a star-studded rally that was closed in spectacular fashion by USAction President William McNary.  (You can watch William’s speech on YouTube)

Other outstanding speakers at the rally included the moderator, actress Edie Falco; Gov. Howard Dean, SEIU’s Anna Berger (a USAction founder), and a number of members of the U.S. House and Senate.

But the most important people at Health Care ’09: America Can’t Wait were ordinary Americans from all walks of life: Doctors, nurses, small business owners, restaurant workers, coal miners, brick layers, school teachers, the uninsured and the insured.

They included Maureen Kurtek of Minersville, Pennsylvania, who told the crowd how she lost six fingertips and half of her foot after her insurance company balked at covering an expensive therapy she needs to fight lupus. By the time her insurance company approved her needed treatment 53 days later, she had almost died.

And they included Mayela Hernandez, who brought her family of six from Charlotte, North Carolina, and explained how a public health insurance option would help her and her family. Hernendez, who makes $280 a week working in a pen factory, has no health insurance. “It’s too expensive,” she says.

Throughout a day of emotional stories, USAction leaders were on the health care scene. McNary, in addition to closing the rally, appeared live on the popular Montel Williams radio show and later spoke at a Town Hall meeting on the need for health care equities. USAction Executive Director Jeff Blum addressed a crowded, boisterous Town Hall of more than 800 activists from Pennsylvania. And USAction Development Director Marti Rosenberg emceed a Town Hall hosted by supporters from her home state of Rhode Island. 

Some highlights (and victories!) from the day’s events:

• At the Pennsylvania Town Hall, where USAction leader Jeff Garis led activists in chanting, “Stand with us and fight! Health care is a right!” U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, perhaps eyeing more than 800 potential voters in next year’s pivotal Senate race, for the first time committed himself to supporting a public health insurance option.
  
  
• U.S. Sen. Roland Burris and U.S. Reps. Dan Lipinksi and Bobby Rush, all of Illinois, for the first time committed to support the HCAN principles, including a public health insurance option.
  
  
• The entire congressional delegation of Rhode Island was represented at Ocean State’s Town Hall – and a CNN news crew tagged along.

Through “Online/Offline” Organizing, TrueMajority Fights the F-22

What’s fishy about this scenario?

The Pentagon, the Air Force, the Secretary of Defense and President Obama all oppose production of new F-22 fighter jets – the increasingly obsolete warplane first built to fight the Cold War but never deployed in actual combat.

And yet, both House and Senate committees that deal with military budgets have approved production of new F-22s. Why? Military contractors – plus the fact that parts of the airplanes are built in nearly every state in the country.

Problem is, that’s hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to pay for true security – investments like health care and education that would do more to make Americans prosperous and secure.

Enter USAction’s online project, TrueMajority.org, which is teaming up with key coalition partners to lead an online and on-the-ground lobbying blitz to convince Congress to stop funding for the F-22 fighter. Joining TrueMajority.org are VoteVets, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Common Cause, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Women’s Action for New Directions and others.

“It seems like everyone except Congress understands that these planes are a waste of our taxes,” said Matt Holland, Director of TrueMajority.org. “USAction/TrueMajority.org is organizing against this boondoggle because we’ve always understood that money wasted in the Pentagon is not available to help Americans who are struggling; Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities just hates to see money wasted on non-essential projects, period. Taxpayers for Common Sense is opposing out of desire for fiscal responsibility, Common Cause doesn't like to see lobbyists have this much power; Alliance for Nuclear Accountability knows how much we need that money back in the nuclear cleanup fund; even Physicians for Social Responsibility and the New York Times are against these warplanes. And of course groups like Women's Action for New Directions have been working to stop wasteful weapons programs for many years. There are a hundred reasons not to put these unneeded planes into the budget, but only one reason in favor – pork-barrel spending to make defense contractors happy.”

TrueMajority.org has recruited its membership to phone bank other TM members and get them to call Congress to oppose this spending. In addition, TM members participated in a lobby day in June in which they personally made visits to members’ offices to speak out against the boondoggle. And later this month, TrueMajority.org will release a report that highlights the connection between campaign contributions and wasteful earmarks in defense spending.