[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE Greens: Dems' town hall meetings & phony health reform deserve civil protest

Wed Aug 12 12:51:49 PDT 2009

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Greens: Democrats' town meetings on health care reform deserve debate
and civil protest, not disruption and mob violence

• Serving the health insurance lobby, both Republicans and Democrats
have tried to shut down open discussion on single-payer, promote phony
reform, and spread disinformation; whether Democrats or Republicans win
the health care debate, Americans will lose, say Greens

• Greens urge Americans who support real health reform to contact
Congress members in support of single-payer (HR 676)

• Greens mourn the deaths of two single-payer heroes: Marilyn Clement
and Nick Skala

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders spoke out today against the
violent disruptions taking place throughout the US at town hall meetings
on health care reform.

But Greens said that both Democratic and Republican leaders deserve
blame for obstructing the public debate on health care reform.  Greens
pointed to various attempts to silence discussion of single-payer
national health care in public forums and the media, as well as spread
misinformation about single-payer and the Canadian health-care system.

The Green Party is urging supporters of real universal health care to
lobby their US Representatives in advance of a promised vote on the
single-payer bill (http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/08/05-8).
Greens have called for a nationally televised debate on the merits of
single-payer and for GAO and Congressional Budget Office studies on
single-payer.  Analyses from these offices in the 1990s showed that
single-payer will reduce health care spending by billions
(http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=226).

• Candace Caveny, Michigan Green candidate for the US House, 10th
district (http://www.candacecaveny.org): "While storm troops egged on by
Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and other shills for the insurance industry
are disrupting town hall meetings, the Democrats running these events
are also squashing open debate on health care.  Democrats in Congress
have blocked discussion of the single-payer plan, keeping it 'off the
table,' to use Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus's words.  Both
the disruptors in the audience and the Democrats and certain union
leaders on stage are defending the right of insurance companies to
maintain their profits and control over health care, while hundreds of
thousands of Americans are going into financial ruin because of illness
and injury.  The only real solution is the single-payer plan,
represented by John Conyers' House bill 676 and supported in Michigan by
UAW Local 599 and the Steelworkers Union, as well as the Green
  Party."

• Lisa Green, Green candidate for the California State Assembly, 53rd
District, in the 2010 election (http://www.votelisagreen.net): "In May,
physicians, nurses, Greens, and other single-payer advocates were
arrested after peacefully standing up to protest the exclusion of
single-payer experts during Senate Finance Committee roundtables on
health care reform.  If fearmongering Republican leaders, front groups,
and public personalities like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn
Beck are urging mobs of their supporters to break up town hall meetings,
they should be investigated and prosecuted, just as the nonviolent
single-payer protesters were arrested."
(Leaked memo on disruption from insurance industry front groups
Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/31/recess-harassment-memo/)

• Alfred Molison, Green candidate for Houston City Council, District C
(http://www.votealfred.com): "Americans are receiving mountains of
disinformation about health care reform from Democratic and Republican
leaders alike, as well as from TV, radio, and the Internet.  Democrats
keep telling us that single-payer is not possible or desirable, despite
polls showing majority support for guaranteed national health care.
Republicans, media shills, and groups like Conservatives for Patients'
Rights are equating Obamacare with the Canadian single-payer system --
an outright lie, since the Democrats' reform plan favors the health
insurance industry.  As in 1993, Democratic front groups like Health
Care for America Now! and Citizen Action and many union leaders believe
it's more important to declare victory for the Democrats than to provide
real health care reform."
(Video of Mr. Molison and other Green candidates: press conference at
the Green Party's 2009 National Meeting in Durham, North Carolina, July
24:
http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus/ondemand/flv_8f77dfc8-b911-4950-902c-346c35ca3b90)

• Jody Grage, treasurer of the Green Party of the United States: "Rick
Scott, head of Conservatives for Patients' Rights and an inspirer of the
town hall disruptions, is a welfare cheat.  Mr. Scott was fired from his
position as CEO of Columbia/HCA in 1997 after he was caught trying to
defraud the government for hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars in
false Medicare and Medicaid payments, the largest Medicare-Medicaid
swindle in history (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/22-4).  The
company had to pay back $1.7 billion, but Rick Scott, instead of facing
prosecution, received $10 million in severance pay and $300 million
worth of stock.  In reality, insurance companies have no objection to
health reform or government intervention if it means they'll receive
huge taxpayer-funded subsidies to inflate their profit margins and CEO
salaries.  The enraged mobs storming town hall meetings and the liberals
swallowing the Democrats' 'public option'
  and 'mandate' schemes have all been manipulated in a game played by and
for the health insurance industry.  Whether the Democrats or the
Republicans win the health care debate, the American people will lose."

SIDEBAR... Greens mourn the recent passing of two leaders in the
movement for single-payer universal health care: Marilyn Clement, 74,
founder and national coordinator of Healthcare Now!
(http://www.healthcare-now.org); and Nick Skala, 27, staff member of
Physicians for a National Health Program (http://www.pnhp.org) and a
member of the Green Party in Texas and Illinois.

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
• Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

"Internal RNC Memo: 'Engage In Every Activity' To Slow Down Health Care
Reform"
Huffington Post, July 21, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/21/internal-rnc-memo-engage_n_241940.html

"Top Ten Ways To Tell Your President & His Party Aren't Fighting For
Health Care For Everybody"
By Bruce A. Dixon, Black Agenda Report, July 29, 2009
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/top-ten-ways-tell-your-president-his\-party-arent-fighting-health-care-everybody

"Inside Story on Town Hall Riots: Right-Wing Shock Troops Do Corporate
America's Dirty Work"
By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet, August 10, 2009.
http://www.alternet.org/story/141860

"My 1933 Nightmare"
By David Michael Green, Common Dreams, August 11, 2009
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/11

Single-Payer Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of
the United States
Summer 2009 issue now online
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

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