Texans Rally for Reform—and Other Health Care News
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More than 3,000 union members and allies crowded the streets of Austin, Texas, on Saturday to show their support for health care reform.
The demonstrators gathered at the State Capitol to hear from workers, community leaders and lawmakers. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson got the crowd fired up, and leaders and activists from across the union movement encouraged the crowd to stay mobilized.
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who voted for the House’s historic health care reform bill a week ago, thanked those present for their activism and said we need to keep fighting to pass real reform legislation. Said Doggett:
We need an engaged citizenry to say we won’t stand for anything less than genuine reform.
Join Web Briefing on Health Care Town Halls
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Tonight, you can get facts about health care reform, find out what you can do and get the inside story from a U.S. House member who has confronted the disruptive crowds at town halls around the country.
Join a special Web briefing at 9 p.m. EDT with Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Richard Kirsch, national campaign director for Health Care for America Now! (HCAN!), Edie Falco, actor and health care reform advocate, and Dan Heck, a Working America and HCAN! canvasser who talks daily to working families about health care reform.
The call is designed to give you tips on how to get the facts out about health care reform, spread the word and help activists prevent town hall hijackings. Earlier this month, extremist zealots disrupted one of Doggett’s town halls, but he has since held several orderly and peaceful meetings and will share his experiences and lessons.
Union Health Care Activists Counter Screams with Civility
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In the past several days, loud, shouting and rowdy mobs have been disrupting congressional town hall meetings across the country. They’re organized by far-right and corporate backed anti-health care reform and anti-government groups. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka says there’s one main reason for the mob action.
“Major health care reform is closer than ever to passage and it is no secret that special interests want to weaken or block it.”
Trumka notes that the America’s politics are “passionate, heartfelt and often loud.”
But that is not what the corporate-funded mobs are engaging in when they show up to disrupt town halls held by members of Congress….Mob rule is not democracy. People have a democratic right to express themselves and our elected leaders have a right to hear from their constituents—not organized thugs whose sole purpose is to shut down the conversation and attempt to scare our leaders into inaction.
