Photo by David Drexler | CC BY 2.0
The Democrats will not lead the charge for single payer in the United States.
Only the people, from the ground up, will lead.
But wait, you say.
Aren’t there 113 members in the House who have signed on to HR 676, the House single payer bill?
Yes, indeed.
But have they signed on because a) they want single payer to become law in the United States?
Or have they signed on because b) they are being bombarded by citizens back home who are demanding it and the Democrats are just throwing their demanding citizens a bone?
Looks like the right answer is – b for bone.
Frank Kirkwood is a single payer activist in Pittsburgh. Kirkwood volunteers with the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Single Payer Healthcare.
Kirkwood decided to check the websites of the 113 members of Congress who have signed onto HR 676.
Kirkwood checked to see how many of these co-sponsors state their support for HR 676 or for single payer or Medicare for All on the issues pages of their official web site or their campaign websites.
Only eight members did so.
How many of them mentioned their support on both their official and campaign web sites?
Only two – John Conyers (D-Michigan) – the lead sponsor of the bill – and Michael Capuano (D-Massachusetts).
“Congressional Democrats and the national Democratic Party don’t actually want to pass Medicare for All because that would be the end the steady flow of campaign money the party receives from the for-profit…