You know how frustrated you are with the Republican determination to cut god things out the state budget. This weekend you can do something about it. Volunteer to help Anne Scheuring win Tuesday’s special Senate election in the 24th district by contacting her campaign at info@dsscc.org or info@annescheuring.com Continue reading
Patco open houses on Delaware waterfront transit lines. About time! http://ping.fm/taJ8k # If no one likes your bipartisan bill, you have to go back to your party. Good! http://ping.fm/EaaKc # Baucus brings us together with a bipartisan bill that no one likes! # Continue reading
Originally published in the Philadelphia Daily News, August 5, 2009 http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/52498012.html IN THE SEARCH for how to pay for health care reform, pundits and some senators keep talking about taxing employer-based health care benefits despite the fact such a tax would fall not on the wealthy – whose incomes shot up while their taxes were being sliced by the Bush administration – but on the middle class. Taxing employer-based health care makes sense in theory – when things are cheaper we buy more of them. If everything but medical care is taxed, perhaps we do buy more of it than we need. But I’m a community organizer as well as an academic, and I like to make the case for abstract ideas by telling personal stories. It struck me that among the hundreds of stories I’ve collected this year about people and their health care, I’ve heard none that support… Continue reading
I know you are all have been working hard for health care reform. But I need you to do a bit more. Because the debate about health care in Washington has come down to this: If the insurance companies win, we lose. HCAN and our partners are doing rallies all over the country to make the fundamental choice crystal clear. You can help by coming out to fight for quality affordable health care at one of our rallies across the state: Big Insurance: Sick of It Rallies for Health Insurance Reform Tuesday, September 22 Click more for locations and to RSVP for events in Pittsburgh, Williamsport, Wilkes-Barre, Erie, and Philadelphia Continue reading
Here is your opportunity. All over the country, on Tuesday, September 22, Health Care For American Now, MoveOn, the AFL-CIO, SEIU and other groups are holding Big Insurance: Sick of It rallies. One of three national flagship events is in Philadelphia at 4:45 PM Dilworth Plaza, at the northwest corner of City Hall. Our target is Cigna insurance, whose world headquarters is in Philadelphia Wendell Potter, the former Cigna executive who has been speaking out about the awful practice of insurances companies will speak. So will Arlene Holt Baker, the Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO. The eyes of the country will be on us, so we need a HUGE TURNOUT for this event. So please, RSVP for the event here, right now. And please invite your friends to this event today. Continue reading
Cool RT @SenArlenSpecter $28 million in new funding for a high speed Maglev train from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. http://tinyurl.com/r5me7c # Home run!!! RT @tomfitzgerald 2/3 of 427 adults who watched speech support O propoals, insta-CNN poll says. # petition @CongJoeWilson to apologize for yelling “YOU LIE” in Obama speech, and lying about #hcr http://act.ly/iq RT to sign #p2 # Continue reading
The “Get It Done” health care rally at the Lions Park in Bristol Borough, PA, on Saturday, September 5th, 2009, drew a crowd of 300 people. The rally was one of hundreds taking across the country as part of the Health Care for America Now! campaign. The “Part 1” video features speeches given by several Bucks residents; Parts 2 and 3 have Congressman Patrick Murphy’s passionate speech in defense of health care reform. Continue reading
Created with flickr slideshow. Created with flickr slideshow.The 2009 Labor Day parade was all about change that would make life better for working people. And a key to that, as President Pat Eiding said in his impassioned speech is to reform health care in 2009. Thousands of working people attended the parade and representatives of almost every union that took part carried posters or wore stickers in support of health care reform. Here are pictures of some of them. Continue reading
This is a long post, about 7000 words. It might be easier to download and print out the pdf version. Introduction One of the last times I walked on the grounds of the hotel my family owned—Stier’s Hotel—was about twenty years ago when I took my wife and some cousins to see it. That was also about fifteen years after we sold the hotel. At the time, our hotel still functioned as a hotel, although much had changed and it was owned by Hasidic Jews. They day we showed up was Shabbos and I was reluctant to walk onto the grounds. So we just stood at one of the gates and looked in. Soon a young boy, probably no more than 12 or 13, came up to us and asked who we are. I told him who I was and he… Continue reading
Join Health Care For America Now and SEIU as we thank Senator Arlen Specter for his support of health care reform and the public health insurance plan and encourage him to get health care reform done as he heads back to Washington on Tuesday September 8 We will be joined by Senator Specter as he leaves for Washington on the 29th street side of 30th Street Station on Tuesday afternoon at 2:15 pm. RSVVP at http://healthcareforamericanow.org/page/event/detail/letsgetitdone/4jr7l Continue reading