Health Care Reform Backers Out in Force as Support for Public Option Remains High
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While TV news reports continue to focus on the loud, angry and sometimes just plain bizarre antics of health care reform opponents, union members are mobilizing to counter the big lies, at town hall meetings and forums around the country.
Just yesterday, some 100 union members brought their voices to a Clovis, N.M., town hall meeting with Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D) as did another 100 at Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder’s Little Rock, Ark., meeting. More than two dozen union members met AFSCME’s Highway to Health Care tour bus when it pulled into Shreveport, La., yesterday.
Over the weekend, hundreds of people in Rutland, Vt., carrying red placards and wearing T-shirts stating “Healthcare Is a Human Right, took part in a health care town hall, shifting the debate 180 degrees from a similar event less than two months ago. The members of the Vermont Workers’ Center/Jobs with Justice made sure lawmakers at the town hall heard their voices this time, a sharp contrast with the 200-person “Tea Party” event pushed by extremist radio shows weeks before.
AFSCME’s Highway to Health Care Campaign Rolls into Little Rock
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Highway to Health Care, AFSCME’s summer tour of nearly two dozen cities, yesterday rolled into Little Rock, Ark., where more than 250 union, community, senior and health care activists rallied for health care reform, sent messages to their lawmakers and shared a little barbeque.
Speaking in front of the rock & roll inspired tour bus and mobile communications center, Alan Hughes, president of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, said it’s time for the voices for working families to be heard over the screeching, extremist opponents who’ve been grabbing health care headlines, with outrageous lies and aggressive tactics.
(Click here to read how unions are mobilizing to restore real debate in health care town hall meetings.)
Hughes also said health reform must ensure there is competition for the for-profit insurance industry to help bring down costs and provide affordable coverage.
Workers ‘Becoming Backbone’ of Health Care Reform Effort
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The active participation of union members is changing the tone of the health care reform town hall meetings going on now during the August congressional recess. What began as forums for anti-Obama propaganda are now becoming platforms for real debate over what kind of reform is needed.
Much of the credit goes to union members who have mobilized to take back the town halls from the campaign of misinformation being waged by extremist groups, some backed by corporate donors and fueled with talking points from extremist Republicans.
Even the stalwart conservative newspaper, The Washington Times, had to admit that union members are making a difference in the tone of the town halls. In today’s edition, the Times says:
Members of the nation’s labor unions have made up a hefty segment of the audiences that flocked to town halls Mr. Obama held in the past week, and they have played an even larger role in a nationwide campaign for an insurance overhaul. Financially, and with boots on the ground, unions have become the backbone of the president’s effort.
