BY FRANK P. BELCASTRO
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.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, 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,” which elicited 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.
On this action page [http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum982.php] 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.
Why is it that not ONE senator on that committee has the integrity to stand up for an even-handed debate of health care issues? Why should any of them be elected to public office ever again?
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 contributors, 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.
Guess who Grassley is looking out for – the people or the corporations?
– Frank P. Belcastro lives in Dubuque, IA and is a frequent contributor to The Oklahoma Observer
On May 10, I sent this letter to each Democratic
member of the Senate Finance Committee including Chairman Max Baucus:
Dear Senator (name of each Democratic senator):
We were appalled last week when we saw on television that Senator Max Baucus, Chair of your Senate Finance Committee,
* denied medical professionals who advocate for single-payer health care a place at the table during your committee meeting—a table filled with 15 advocates for insurance and drug companies and
*called in the police to have one of the medical professionals arrested because this medical professional spoke up to ask for a place at the table..
I trust that Senator Baucus’ campaign contributions totaling $183,000 from health insurance companies and $229,000 from drug companies had nothing to do with his
abusive and dictatorial behavior.
Also, I trust that YOU will speak up at your next meeting on Tuesday, May 12 to:
*demand that Dr. Marsha Angel be seated to explain that one of our choices for health insurance must be a single-payer system which President Obama supports, and
*expose how insurance company bureaucrats make arbitrary decisions, improperly interfere between the doctor-patient relationship, and greedily put profits ahead
of patient care.
Thank you,
Robert and Wanda Stapleton
Same thing happened at the May 12 meeting.
No place at the table for single payer health care.
Police again called in.