Working Families

from Bob Master, WFP Co-Chair:

The battle lines have been drawn in the historic battle for universal, affordable health care for every American.

Every day we see the reports:  lobbyist-backed front groups like “Americans for Prosperity” and “Freedom Works” orchestrating disruption of town hall meetings on health care being sponsored by Democratic members of Congress; police being called in to protect members of Congress, like Suffolk’s Tim Bishop in the 1^st CD, from rowdy mobs of screaming protesters; an epic campaign of disinformation seeking to discredit the most important social reform initiative in 40 years.

The Republican, corporate strategy for the August recess and after is clear:  raise doubts, sow fear, force delays, kill reform.

They understand that if President Obama and the Democrats enact an effective universal health care bill, it will be an achievement on the magnitude of Social Security and Medicare.  It will signal that the era of uncontrolled greed and market fundamentalism has truly come to an end, replaced by the possibility of a more just and democratic America, in which the government once again can step in to support those-like the 47 million without health insurance and tens of millions more who struggle with inadequate coverage-who have fallen through the cracks of dysfunctional markets.

And worst of all for the Republicans, a defeat on health care will condemn them to decades in the political minority.

This fight is complicated because the Democrats, unsurprisingly, are hardly of a single mind.  A group of six “centrist” Democrats and Republicans, led by Montana Senator Max Baucus (and collectively representing 2.74% of the American population-roughly the population of NYC!) are vainly seeking a “bi-partisan compromise.”  Such a deal would sacrifice critical elements of a high-quality health care overhaul-a robust “public health insurance option,” progressive financing, a requirement that every employer contribute to the cost of covering their employees.  Such a “compromise” would be a disaster.

In the House, “Blue Dogs”, “New Dems”, and nervous freshmen, including in New York, have all raised objections to aspects of HR 3200, the House bill passed by three Congressional committees and headed for a floor vote in September.  We believe that while HR 3200 is not perfect, it is very, very good-and deserves our support.

Which makes our task here in New York very clear.

We need to fight back against the right-wing mobs and work like hell in the next several weeks to ensure that 100% of the NYS Congressional delegation returns to Washington committed to voting for HR 3200 (or a closely related version produced by Speaker Pelosi and the House leadership). Yes, we’ve been concerned in recent weeks by signs of cracks in the delegation-questions about the impact of reform on small business or doubts about tax surcharges on the wealthiest to pay for expanded coverage.

But what’s become crystal clear to us as the House recess has begun is that the main fault line in this debate is between the hard right-and everyone else.  And our job is to build counter-pressure from the grassroots that encourages every member of the New York delegation to stand up forcefully in support of real health care reform.

In the aftermath of our initial e-mails on health care reform, which inspired 7,000 of you to sign petitions demanding that our members of Congress resist right wing pressure, we are actually cautiously optimistic that it will be possible to unite all 26 House Democrats from New York – each of whom ran with backing from the WFP – into a united force for universal health care.

So we need to keep the campaign rolling.  We need to let our Congressional delegation know that New Yorkers are united for real health care reform.  Please sign and forward this petition if you haven’t already done so.  We want every member of the New York delegation-whether they are a single-payer stalwart or a “blue dog” sympathizer-to know that we are counting on them.

Over in the Senate, we want to let Senators Schumer and Gillibrand know that we need them to fight against “bi-partisan” compromises that sacrifice critical elements of reform.  Senator Schumer has already been one of the clearest Senate voices on the limits of bi-partisanship, telling the Wall Street Journal:  “We want to get a bi-partisan agreement, but if we don’t, it’s not going to stop us from moving forward with health care.” (8/3/09)  He’s also fighting to make September 15^th a hard deadline for an agreement with the Republicans.  “If we cannot produce a bipartisan solution by then, you have to wonder if the Republicans would ever being willing to agree to anything,” he said.  Senator Schumer has been one of the strongest voices on the Senate Finance Committee advocating for a strong public health insurance option and against taxation of benefits.

Tell Senators Schumer and Gillibrand:  Keep resisting the siren song of bipartisanship.  Keep fighting for real health care reform, not reform that is doomed to fail by compromises designed to mollify special interests like the insurance companies.  Keep fighting for the 47 million Americans who desperately need real health care reform.

All of us need to join this historic fight.  We cannot let the right-wing, lobbyist sponsored, anti-government fanatics take over the health care debate, in hopes of reprising 1994, when the defeat of President Clinton’s health care reform paved the way for the Gingrich landslide and the consolidation of right-wing control of Congress for 12 years.

Ask yourself-what are you going to do today, so that years from now you can tell your children and your grandchildren, how you added your name into the fight in the summer of 2009 to make this country a more decent and humane place to live?

Sign our petition, attend a town meeting, write a letter-do something, today!