Tag Archives: Single Payer

4/13 News Roundup – Sanders To Progressives: “Ignore Consultants, Follow Your Gut’; Single Payer Continues To Surge & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Bernie Sanders urges liberal candidates to ignore consultants, follow their guts

Speaking to a room packed with progressives running for state and local office, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., advised the first-time candidates to ignore the political establishment and trust their guts.

Crediting the movement catalyzed by his 2016 Democratic presidential campaign, Sanders said the policies of Medicare for all, free college tuition, a $15 dollar minimum wage, criminal justice reform, and legalizing marijuana are now “mainstream” among Democrats.

“What was once considered radical is now mainstream,” Sanders said Thursday to cheers at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington.

Sanders bashed the political establishment and the press repeatedly throughout his speech. The media, Sanders said, plays a “destructive” game by telling the “American people that politics is too complicated, you can’t get involved, you don’t know how to run for office.”

..

The former presidential contender encouraged the candidates, who are in Washington for four days of training, to embrace a progressive agenda even if they’re running in red or purple states.

“Let me give you a warning here: Watch out for consultants,” he said to laughs. “Often their advice is conservative and wrong. Trust your own guts, trust your own instincts.”

The training, put on by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Sanders’ Our Revolution, includes four days of helping candidates craft their public persona, how to pitch reporters, building field operations, do-it-yourself opposition research, and budgeting.

More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments.

11/21 News Roundup – A Dysfunctional ‘PIG’ Is Leading To Environmental Disasters, Single Payer As ‘A Line In The Sand’ Issue & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Will You ‘Promise to Protect’? Coalition Urges New Wave of Resistance to Stop KXL

Shortly following the Nebraska Public Service Commission’s “shortsighted and dangerous” vote to green-light TransCanada’s Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline, a coalition comprised of Indigenous peoples, farmers, and ranchers living along the oil project’s proposed route published a letter on Monday urging the public to join them in protecting sacred land from corporate exploitation.

Endorsed by Native tribes, green groups, and high-profile environmentalists, the “Promise to Protect” call to action argues that making “a concerted stand” against TransCanada’s $8 billion dirty energy project “will make other fossil fuel companies think that much harder about their own expansion plans.”

“Together we’ve stopped them for many years, and we are going to keep stopping them,” the letter reads. “But we need everyone’s help. We need you to take a stand no matter what land you live or work on. The struggle to save Mother Earth begins with you.”

..

The letter goes on to make several requests of those who wish to participate in the “creative resistance” against KXL that is expected to take shape in the coming months, including:

*Commitment to entirely peaceful acts of protest, even in the face of “the pain caused by TransCanada’s aggression”;
*Respect for “the leadership of Indigenous peoples, farmers, and ranchers in the action, and the plans and strategies of the front lines and their allies who have made promises to protect the land, water, and climate”;
*Preparation in advance of the demonstrations, including training sessions with organizers, so that “you’re able to find the place you’re most needed on any given day.”

The fossil fuel industry “believes that with the inauguration of Mr. Trump, the obstacles in their path had disappeared,” the letter concludes. “They are unaware of the rising tide of indigenous unity and the strong alliances with ranchers, farmers and the climate justice movement which grew stronger at Standing Rock. When the president approved the federal permits for KXL last winter, he asked TransCanada executives when construction would start: Our job is to make sure the answer is, no time soon.”

Meanwhile, ‘The Rational National’ covers a potential cause of the uptick in pipeline spills (spoiler: it involves corporate greed & corruption):

More News/video/tweets/etc. in the comments, including:

*Bernie Sanders Is Now Backing Randy Bryce—Which Could Be Very Bad News for Paul Ryan
*Whitefish energy company halts work to restore Puerto Rico’s power over unpaid bill
*De Blasio heads to Iowa in hopes of defining a national role
*The Trump Administration Revokes Legal Status for More Than 50,000 Haitian Immigrants
*Pipeline News, Water Protector Updates & More

Kamala Harris to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’ single-payer health care bill

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Well the ‘inside/outside’ strategy seems to have picked up its first member of insider support:

Kamala Harris to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’ single-payer health care bill

Sen. Kamala Harris is the first Democrat to announce she’ll co-sponsor Sen. Bernie Sanders’ single-payer health care bill when it’s introduced in September.

The California freshman — seen as a rising star in the party and a 2020 presidential prospect — revealed her plans to back Sanders’ legislation at a town hall Wednesday night in Oakland.

“Here, I’ll break some news: I intend to co-sponsor the Medicare-for-all bill, because it’s just the right thing to do,” Harris said. She announced her support for Sanders’ single-payer plan at the end of her town hall and joked that “somebody should tell my staff.”

Her co-sponsorship is another sign that the Democratic Party is increasingly embracing a shift away from the private health insurance market and toward a government-run program. The issue is poised to become a major litmus test for its presidential candidates in 2020.

It comes just 20 months after the party’s last standard-bearer in a presidential election, Hillary Clinton, called Sanders’ single-payer proposal “a theoretical debate about some better idea that will never, ever come to pass.”
“This is about understanding, again, that health care should be a right, not a privilege. And it’s also about being smart,” Harris said. “It is so much better that people have meaningful access to affordable health care at every stage of life, from birth on. Because the alternative is that we as taxpayers otherwise are paying huge amounts of money for them to get their health care in an emergency room. So it’s not only about what is morally and ethically right, it also makes sense from a fiscal standpoint, or if you want to talk about it as a return on investment for taxpayers.”

Bernie gives thanks:

8/29 News Roundup – Sanders On Single Payer As A ‘Litmus Test’, Harvey Continues To Hammer Texas & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Good morning friends! Jumping straight to the comments with the news/video/etc. In todays roundup: *Sanders Discusses the ‘Single Payer Litmus Test’ *Harvey Continues To Cause Chaos *Abdul El-Sayed Talks About His Campaign *Oklahoma Isn’t Working *Pipeline/Water Protector Updates & Lots more Any issues can be sent to the tpwhelpdesk@gmail.com