So What Do YOU Say? The Senate LAUGHS About How Many Police It Takes To Silence The American People On Single Payer Health Care.
Friday, May 8, 2009 1:54 AM
From:

"The Pen" <activist.thepen@gmail.com>

How many police does it take to silence the voice of the people?

That's a question a despot might ask in a totalitarian police state.
But this week the Senate Finance Committee thought it was a hilarious
joke as they ejected one brave activist after another, for protesting
that not even one spokesperson for single payer health care was being
allowed to sit at the hearing table. Yes, Senator Max Baucus (MT),
who had preemptively declared that consideration of a single payer
option was off the table, actually joked "We need more police <1:58 [br />on video]." And the rest of the Senate panel just laughed their heads
off.

Senator Chuck Grassley (IA), the ranking Republican, not to be
outdone in his contempt for the people, then asked if there was
"somewhere they can watch it on television <2:05 on video>," which
elicted additional hearty guffaws. Yes, what a wonderful entertaining
show that would be, the spectacle of the will of the people being
excluded while corporate special interests, like butchers, carve up
our pocketbooks and our bodies.

Single Payer Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum982.php

On the action page is an extended video where you can hear for
yourself those Senators laughing at us, and you'll be just at
outraged as we are. It's time for the U.S. Senate to get the message
that we the people are not just a joke to be laughed off. Why is it
that not ONE senator on that committee has the integrity to stand up
for a even handed debate of health care issues? Why should any of
them be elected to public office ever again?

So let's see a show of hands. How many of you would like to sign up
now for a commie Marxist national health care system ... like in
Canada, England and other pinko Bolshevik countries like that? How
stupid do they think we are, to try to reduce the terms of the debate
to such an ignorant level? Meet the new mass media scare label,
"socialized" medicine. As opposed to like what ... the ANTI-social
corporate medical insurance industry we have now, where patients have
no role except to be cash cows, by design never to be actually cured?

If you or anyone in your family has ever been seriously ill, and as
we ALL will be someday, you know the medical industry will pick your
bones clean of every dime you ever earned in your life, just in time
to drop you into the cheapest possible pine box.

Single Payer Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum982.php

Why are members of Congress fighting so hard to keep single payer
health care out of the public debate? Because there are no fat
profits in it for their special interest corporate campaign
contributers, who maximize their profits the sicker we are. They
cannot compete with a low overhead efficiently run government
program, just like we have NOW with the existing proven Medicare
system.

Instead, they will line up a bunch of corporate lobbyists and stooges
to tell bald faced lies. Just like Senator Jim Bunning himself who
asserted that Canada and England had tax rate of at LEAST 60% to
support single payer. But they don't even want anyone around to even
have a chance to call them out on their willful and malicious lies.

Yes, all those who love to preach to the rest of us about the free
market and competition are shown to be only interested in a rigged
market and a rigged debate. Baucus may put on a face of being
slightly chastened, but he STILL will not allow any honest testimony
on single payer.

But we can beat them.

This is the pivotal moment. We have been speaking out for HR 676
(Medicare for all) for YEARS. And now 8 incredibly brave activists
have been hauled away because they would not remain silent. But in
doing so, in putting their own bodies on the line, they have shown up
the current "debate" for the total sham that it is.

We are not asking you to put your body on the line. All we are asking
you to do is submit a one click action page that we have specially
configured to send your message to the Senate Finance Committee as a
hard copy pdf that they can't just laugh off, because it will be part
of the permanent record. Plus your message will go to all your
regular members of Congress, plus your nearest daily local newspaper
as well if that option is selected.

Single Payer Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum982.php

At 3:20 of the video posted on the action page above you will hear a
woman loudly ask, "I wonder how many there are?" Let's show them.
Let's show them there are millions and millions of us out here who
will no longer be ignored, who will no longer be laughed off. Because
they KNOW we can stop them if and only if large numbers of us will
raise our voices now.

Let's just do it.

And here is a list of all Senators on the Finance Committee,
including at least a couple who you might have considered to be
"liberals". Where are their voices? Is there not a single one of them
who will stand up and say, "No wait a minute, we need to hear what
the single payer advocates have to say." So especially if one of
these is one of YOUR personal Senator, they especially need to hear
from you now.

Max BAUCUS, MT, John D. ROCKEFELLER IV, WV, Kent CONRAD, ND, Jeff
BINGAMAN, NM, John F. KERRY, MA, Blance L. LINCOLN, AR, Ron WYDEN,
OR, Charles E. SCHUMER, NY, Debbie STABENOW, MI, Maria CANTWELL, WA,
Bill NELSON, FL, Robert MENENDEZ, NJ, Thomas CARPER, DE, Chuck
GRASSLEY, IA, Orrin G. HATCH, UT, Olympia J. SNOWE, ME, Jon KYL, AZ,
Jim BUNNING, KY, Mike CRAPO, ID, Pat ROBERTS, KS, John ENSIGN, NV,
Mike ENZI, WY, John CORNYN, TX,

No, we don't need more police. We need fewer Senators with plugs in
their ears like Max Baucus. And he and the rest of them need to hear
that.

And yes, you can also respond to this action through the new Twitter
gateway. Just send the following Twitter reply, and add any personal
comment you like.

@cxs #p982

And if you want a step by step explanation of how to set up the
Twitter thing here is the link for that.

Twitter Activism Step-By-Step: http://tcxs.net/step_by_step.php

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.peaceteam.net/in.htm

Single Payer Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum982.php

THey have the best health care in the country why would they care if I can't get any for my family.

Of course, American Idol will probably pre-empt any of those notions.

Single Payer On The Table
Single Payer Now!

To these BOUGHT AND PAID FOR PIeCES OF CRAP... from BOTH Parties!

WWHO the HELL do they think they are?

www.johnrussellforcongress.com click on HEALTH CARE!

John Russell would call these corporate HACKS out right on the floor if he was up there!

And the look of surprise on their faces as their heads roll from the guillotine will be a Kodak moment.

hopefully, there WILL be a reckoning for the ruling class; in our lifetimes, too.

It's a simple law of nature called gravity that makes the Guillotine so appropriate. When one falls from the publics trust, the blade falls right behind them. Not Lethal Injections, No electricty, no toxic gas. Just the law of gravity to separate their greedy, apathetic souls from this realm.

Of course, a hangmans rope is just as simple and effective, but it doesn't always work...

This is the third time I have emailed these government officials including my Representatives and Senators. They better start listening - especially if enough people get involved. Kick and Recommend. Thanks for posting the info.

managed to throw in a Marie Antoinette reference & called 'em all parasites, because that is what they truly are.

dg

That was my takeaway, too. :grr:

with members of this committee!!

Legislators who oppose single payer health insurance should be aware that their record of taking money for reelection from private insurance companies will be noted and publicized and suitable opponents will be run against them in the primaries. Max Baucus and his contemptuous attitude toward people asking for single payer health insurance is just one example of a legislator who should be voted out.

Perhaps we should have our candidates go on Ebay and have people and corporations bid against each other for their legislative services. We might get a government more reflective of the will of the people.

The healthcare for profit racket that is killing Americans, killing our business competitiveness and causing the public to pay excess amounts for very shoddy, incomplete coverage must come to an end. Single payer insurance for all will lower costs and insure better health care. In spite of spending more than all other countries in the world per capita for health care, the US is ranked only 37th in the effectiveness of its care. This is a criminal disgrace. The human cost is almost beyond reckoning.

If single payer, which allows patients free choice of physicians and has the government pick up the payment (paid for by taxes) is socialism, than I have to say, just call me a socialist.

great comments

an excellent warning to legislators, and it's not an empty one!

He spoke with Ed Schultz on his show last week after this event. He did express support of single payer advocates and listening to them personally, but I think he stopped short of criticizing Baucus on Ed's show though.

I think we need to find some way to get Baucus to feel the heat, as he is the real culprit that needs to be given the heavy pressure on this.

fear us.

they don't import them from France. I think they should be made here by out of work American craftsmen!

But I'm sure some itinerent blacksmith could whip up some mortise chisels from an old leaf spring.

It is very discouraging.

or the Daily Show. Widespread watching is the thing that will bite these asses in suits.

Plus whoever is running against Grassley and Baucus need to have clips for their campaign.

And last, a press member needs to ask for our President's reaction to our Senators laughing at citizens trying to have a voice.

:kick:

How many votes does it take to replace those laughing senators.

The fact of the matter is that they were disrupting a hearing. If you have watched many hearings, you would have seen Senators chairing hearings caution people not to applaud - even when they are the ones being applauded. A level of decorum is needed.

Now, the people who protested did it knowing that they would be thrown out and wanting that to happen. In the committee, there are at least 2 Senators who are likely to bring up the public option. Wyden as noted by someone above and John Kerry, who the Nation said would read some letters sent by people at Dean's request into the hearing record.

Having a public option, as Dean and others want, is likely the best result that can pass. The fact is that we are speaking of legislation that will be the biggest expansion of government healthcare insurance since LBJ. It also will have provisions that will greatly help those who most need it as it bans rejection based on previously existing conditions.

But, if you want a straight answer:
1) Not all Senators are up for re-election in 2010, some are in 2012 and 2014.

2) The hearing in total does not look as bad as the clip. Would you have preferred anger or frustration? Watch the entire thing - it's on the Finance Committee's web site. The real issue here would be the individual Senator's position - if it is out of line with his state.

3) Many of these Senators have considerable seniority and are well liked in their states. Which ones do you want to defeat? Is it worth it if we then lose the state to the Republicans?

4) Do you think that we can find a Democrat who could beat Max Baucus in a primary?

shut out of the democratic process, isn't protest a right? What the protesters did was civil disobedience. It's when our elected representatives refuse to acknowledge who put them into office, we need to show them civil disobedience. The protesters were medical professionals like doctors and nurses. The health care being discussed has nothing to do with what LBJ did. Single payer for everyone is what LBJ stood for but he could only get it for seniors with his Medicare plan. I think there are a lot of Democrats who could beat DINO Max Baucus. Montanans need to show the will. The travesty of the Libby lawsuit defeat against W. R. Grace company should be getting a lot of the little people incensed. You wait and see.

The days of Decorum are fucking over, and if you don't believe it, you haven't woken up yet.

We are close to the tipping point, and we cannot allow these idiots to steamroll us off a cliff.

was on the panel discussion. That omission is indicative of our reps' attitude toward the American people, and, to my mind, it is comparable to Cheney not inviting the environmentalists to his energy confabs. We know why he didn't, and we know how that turned out. Regardless of your attitude about the protest, if you want single payer or even a public option, you had better be getting in touch with Baucus et al and encouraging your friends to do the same.

How did you want them to react? They did not react with anger. After the committee was continually disrupted, every time they started - it had to become frustrating - and that rather than anything else was likely behind there laughing - which to me seemed to be at the absurdity of their committee stopping every few minutes.

The fact is that There are NO co-sponsors to Sanders single payer legislation. No major candidate ran on single payer - not Obama, not Clinton, not Edwards, not Biden, not Dodd, not Richardson. (If you want more - not any major candidate in 2004 or 2000. It is really not going to happen - that does not mean I don't want it.

But, the things that will change are a BIG significant improvement. It seems to me that where we MIGHT be able to make a difference is to really push on the public option or some other device that can transition to single payer. That is what Dean is doing - and I assume that on that committee Wyden (per the comment upthread on his comments) and Kerry (per the comment in the Nation) are for that. Getting the public option might be difficult, but it is still in the realm of possibility.

Not angry, not laughing - just should have been composed. One laugh was shortly after one protester listed over 20,000 dead due to lack of health care - it sounded terrible to me.

I do agree though that a public plan that isn't watered down can be a first step. :hi:

A lot of it is a cacophony of noise - where I have difficulty making out what people are saying. That does some horrible. The problem was that they were there for the hearing and they were juggling multiple hearings for the committees they are on.

of protestors. It made them look like the out of touch corrupt politicians that they are.

needing more police - so they can have their meeting - makes them corrupt. You can use OTHER reasons for some of them, but this is silly.

Corruption is rampant through the ranks. If you can't see it then I'm sorry for you. You will go through life living in a delusion. What happened at that meeting was a result of our representatives and senators doing government for special interests and the hell with the rest of us.

Representatives has 76 co-signers to date. If the Senate doesn't get off it's stodgy ass to pay attention to what Bernie Sanders is proposing, look for more pitchforks to be rising and soon.

industry in this country.

And that's the problem. It's viewed as an industry--which means it's all about producing profits.

:banghead:

and that's where the problem lies.

Maybe we should start talking about the Congress purchasing private health care like we do instead of receiving the benefits of government run health care. Now that's a talking point.

People are dying to get health care - literally dying.

If the American people clearly want something, vote for it, stand up for it, rally for it, risk arrest for it ----- they WILL NOT GET IT. The snickering PTBs get all giggly and silly at us, then go back to their imperial games. And in a few days, we all settle down too - don't we? Here's some recent examples of policy positions that fly in the face of wide-spread citizen polls.

Out of Iraq
No Iraq War Funding without Timeline
No Bailout for Wall Street
Save Auto Industry Jobs
Impeach Bush/Cheney
Prosecute Bush/Cheney
Legalize Marijuana
Mortgage Holder Relief
Bankruptcy

I'd bet that even the elites expected more resistance. But they knew they never had a thing to worry about.
Soon, we'll be inundated with threads about how necessary it is to "support the party" for 2010.
And you're being generous in your claim of a "few days". Most people can't remember yesterday, apparently.

In the last days of this empire, at least the overseers are consistent.
How any serious analyst can buy the (R) vs. (D) theme anymore is way beyond me. It's the elites vs. the proles, again.

Orwell nailed it so perfectly it appears sometimes that 1984 is being used as a training manual, not a warning:

"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing."

"Until they (proles) become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious"

And the bombing continues...presumably until morale improves

I think I am one of a few that has a memory for the past, and it's frightening to see so many irrational loyalists conned into believing their respective party lines, and falling for the continuous stream of lies regurgitated over and over again.

Of course, the PTB will allow a modest wave of popular dissent to let the citizenry blow off a little steam, knowing full well that they will just contract back into normal conformity like all the other times in history.

So much atavism. We truly have thugs lobbying the Congress still. And our Congress is gleefully prostituting itself to them, and urinating upon our votes.

Enough to make one barf if you check their voting records.

K&R!

Enough to make one barf if you check their voting records. Maybe three decent ones there. They can't do much.

K&R!

Max BAUCUS, MT, John D. ROCKEFELLER IV, WV, Kent CONRAD, ND, Jeff
BINGAMAN, NM, John F. KERRY, MA, Blance L. LINCOLN, AR, Ron WYDEN,
OR, Charles E. SCHUMER, NY, Debbie STABENOW, MI, Maria CANTWELL, WA,
Bill NELSON, FL, Robert MENENDEZ, NJ, Thomas CARPER, DE, Chuck
GRASSLEY, IA, Orrin G. HATCH, UT, Olympia J. SNOWE, ME, Jon KYL, AZ,
Jim BUNNING, KY, Mike CRAPO, ID, Pat ROBERTS, KS, John ENSIGN, NV,
Mike ENZI, WY, John CORNYN, TX,

The data are clear: A single payer national health care system would not only save billions of dollars each year but would also provide higher quality care. I do not want my tax dollars going to subsidize those who can't pay for private insurance but I would be willing to have my taxes raised by $5,000-$8,000 per year for a single payer system (and would still save thousands of dollars a year over my current private plan). The only reason to deny a single-payer plan is that the money (bribes) from the "health care" vested interest groups speaks louder than what is best for the country, the people, and the economy. The irony is that the arguments against a single payer are sheer lies: The UK, with a comprehensive single-payer system, for example, has a tax structure very similar to our own. Most people would actually see a net savings under a single payer plan. Also, rather than insurance companies standing between us and our doctors, we would have no one standing between us and our doctors, just as there is under Medicare. Lies, lies, and more lies while Americans needlessly suffer and die. What kind of elected representatives do we have that would line their own pockets on the suffering of their constituents?

Our millionaire senators laughing about blocking the mortgage cram-down leg., laughing at letting us get raped by the buddies in the health care biz. Is it fascism yet? Why do we close our eyes to these domestic enemies, these traitorous scum, laughing as we starve while they get 1st-class suckelage of the federal government teat: automatic raises, unlimited state administered health care, defined benefit pensions with generous COLAs, etc ad nauseum. Swine flu indeed.

Kind of a Children of Men scenario is not to far out of the realm of possibility, whatever the trigger may be.

The fact that the carrying capacity of the Earth is nearly here in terms of Human population, the complete lack of a rational approach to our dwindling resources, unsustainable way of living, such as flushing our shit down the tubes with potable water, only to poison it with chemicals, and then use more chemicals to "Treat" the water. How about treating water with respect int he first place, instead of mixing it with shit!

If you live in an Urban area, just take a monet to think how your household would cope without running water for a week. If that doesn't put the fear of God into someone, then they are most likely already dead.

The reason that people don't see the criminals running the country for what they are, is due to the fact that Americans have been trained to respect the benevolent authority figure and compulsively believe everything they are told. There are a small percentage of people that have woken up, and have seen the fraud with their own eyes, but they are the minority. The labels of Tin Foil hat are thrown around a lot, but one has to ask oneself, why would that prevent anyone from investigating claims that if true, would seriously affect their lives?

This almost religioua allegience to the talking heads on TV is the path to insanity, and the world has had many warnings throughout history. It is the irrationality caused by fear of powerlessness that drives people to blindly conform to the social structure.

The family unit was destroyed utterly by womens lib, which granted women the right to enter the work place, earn less, pay taxes and hand more money over to the government. In return, Kids get sent to school sooner, to be indoctrinated in the obedient ways of every other little conformist, taught identical things, with slight modifications to suit the needs of Corporate industry. Family -- hah hah hah.

We no longer have student fluent in Liberal Arts or critical thoughts. We have College Republicans that fight like kids using every dirty little trick in the book to grant them and edge, because God chose them to rule.

Well, when they are done with school, they graduate to the next authority figure, the state, which they obey compulsively.

Got to fill that empty hole with something.

....Nelson, Max Baucus, Chuck Schumer, Arlen Specter, even Ron Wyden, and every other Democrat who genuflexes before corporate power, has betrayed Democratic values.


We now have the fight of our lives to keep the public option from being stripped out of health reform.


But we must prevail.


That may mean DEFEATING a pseudo-"reform" bill that may attempt to pass corporate welfare in the guise of healthcare reform.


But any bill that lacks a public option MUST BE DEFEATED!!!!!!!






Thanks for posting........ K&R (Rec #81)

:grr:

how many of them are only looking out for their pockets by having insurance industry and big pharma pay family and spouses 100's of thousands each year to lobby congress?

No, we don't need more police. We need fewer Senators with plugs in
their ears like Max Baucus. And he and the rest of them need to hear
that.

Action taken (again).

to keep single payer healthcare off the table. It doesn't matter that single payer healthcare would be cheaper for everyone; it doesn't matter that single payer healthcare would FINALLY offer decent healthcare to ALL AMERICANS; it doesn't matter that single payer healthcare makes the most common sense. No, all that matters is that healthcare-for-profit is a tremendously profitable racket, one that the parasites are not going to let go of easily.

The United States had the opportunity to more toward a fairer, more inclusive healthcare system forty years ago, but the rethuglican high command and their corporate overlords discovered they could make money off of every medical action and transaction in this country. It did not matter that they added NOTHING to the experience. All that mattered is that by inserting themselves in the process, they could skim part of the monies into their own coffers.

I will say again:

for profit healthcare = money-grubbing parasites.

We must keep discussions like this at the forefront and involve as many as possible. Knowledge IS power!

"Change?" I don't see any REAL "Change".

Thanks for posting this.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5628104&mesg_id=5628104




K & R

to click on the link and let these thieves in the Senate know how we feel.

easy to use....so let's use it!!! www.1payer.net

than the torture stuff. That video of that smug bastard smoothly saying, "We need more police." and everybody laughing --- all those fat cats with conflicts of interest. How corrupt. What psychopaths. If there's a hell they will go there --- after they make sure to collect their $200.00.



All my Canadian friends are appalled and worried for you. Looks like you aren't going to get decent health care in America because your politicians, Democrats included, are so damned corrupt.

I feel sick about it. You can't imagine --- well maybe you can -- how wonderful it is not to have to worry about paying for your health care. And, sure Canada's health care isn't perfect but it's 100% better than what you have. SICKO spoke true.

Best of luck in your fight!

who swore cigarettes were not harmful.

I hope the tape of that bastard laughing about the activists and saying "We need more police." becomes as infamous as the rotten lying tobacco executives and he is preserved for all time being an asshole.

FIGHT FOR SINGLE PAYER!

The cost of health care is a major contributor in lower living standards for most Americans. We spend more per capita on health care than any other nation, and the dollars spent don't produce the best health care for the majority.
For profit health care costs far more to administer than Medicare. The layers of management in the private sector soak the consumer for more than they deliver.
Health care costs have driven business off shore to locations where there is government mandated health care. Ask Toyota why they located an assembly plant in Canada as opposed to the United States.
I understand that political campaigns rely on contributions from interests like big pharma and private health care.
Sometimes it becomes necessary to what is morally right instead of that which is expedient. This is one of those times.
The American people deserve to have the choice as to whether they want to buy into Medicare or have insurance company health care coverage. This option for choice is at the root of American ideology.
As a disabled veteran who worked to get you elected, it is my sincere hope that you will do the right thing and pass health care reform that gives the citizens the choice of buying into Medicare.

:thumbsup:

that has bought them off.

Just like Nascar racers have logos for sponsors.

"MEDUSA Controls Crowds By Talking Inside Their Heads" (Technovelgy.com article by Bill Christensen)
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1744

Call, please.