BY FRANK P. BELCASTRO

Barack Obama is making it increasingly clear that right from his start as president, he wanted health insurance reform that received the approval of the giant drug and health insurance industries.

Earlier this year he started inviting top bosses of these companies for intimate confabs in the White House.

By stark contrast, President Obama has never invited to the White House the leading consumer-patient champions in this country who favor full Medicare and free choice of physician and hospital-often called “a single payer” system.

Further indication of Obama’s corporate dealings is that he never identified himself with a specific bill with a House and Senate number that he could rally the people around.

“Make me do it” was the advice of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to reformers when faced with legislation he desired but did not have the votes for in Congress. It is up to the people of our country to “make him do it” – whether this year or next.

A mere one million immediate calls to members of Congress by one million assertive citizens will start sobering up these legislators who think they can get away with another sale of our public trust.

The Congressional switchboard is 202.224.3121. The full Medicare, single-payer bill [backed by nearly 90 legislators] is HR 676. The go-to citizen group for your sustained engagement is singlepayeraction.org.

The rest is up to you, the majority, who want to put the people first.

– Frank P. Belcastro lives in Dubuque, IA and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer