People Before Profit blog

Health care access movement grows

Fri, 20 Jun 2003 03:16:00 +0000

Every Democratic Party presidential candidate is putting forward his or her ideas for national health care. Each one is calculated to look like a universal, fully accessible health care proposal. But each is also calculated to be able to withstand the assault from the Republican Party, the medical-industrial complex, and their politicians and media advocates.

Each plan tries to avoid being too advanced, lest the price tag appear to be too expensive. At this point none of these proposals are worthy of unqualified support. Nonetheless, it is a good sign that the candidates are at least joining the debate.

Two significant legislative bills are in the hopper. Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), and James McDermott (D-Wash.), along with more than 20 others, are co-sponsoring HR-676, “Medicare for All.” A single-payer plan, it is probably the most inclusive of the insurance-based programs.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) is reintroducing her National Health Service bill (the new number has not been set as yet). In the tradition of former Rep. Ron Dellums’ bill, it is the most comprehensive of all proposals and is a good yardstick for judging other plans.

Below the radar

But in some ways an even more important development is taking place. It is just under the congressional pundit radar. It is not a fully worked out legislative proposal. But it is beginning to commit a large number of elected officials to the true definition of the term “universal.”

It started in the House when Rep. John Conyers introduced the “Health Care Access Resolution,” House Concurrent Resolution 99 (HCR-99). Now supported by well over 125 House members, it directs Congress to guarantee universal access to affordable health care.

HCR-99 came about in response to health activists who wanted to bring the broadest number of politicians to pay attention to the issue of national health care. The American Public Health Association, the Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN) and many other groups have signed on to the proposal. Labor has also joined in. According to the UHCAN there are over 450 national, state, and local organizations on board.

This session’s HCR-99 was introduced in the House on March 18. The next step was to gain Senate sponsors. That has happened.

Senate moves

Now, for the first time since the collapse of health care reform in the early 1990s, the U.S. Senate is showing some positive movement. Key liberal senators have just signed on to this Health Care Access Resolution movement. They are Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), and Jon Corzine (D-N.J.). Their leadership in the Senate will be critical if the movement is to succeed. The formal title of this proposal is Senate Concurrent Resolution 41, and it was introduced on April 30. This was good news for the over 70 million people who over the last year did not have health insurance at any given time and the over 45 million who haven’t had health insurance for the full calendar year.

Given the apparent fear by members of Congress to put forward a serious major piece of comprehensive health legislation – fear of its powerful corporate and political enemies – this kind of proposal, in UHCAN’s view, is an important effort to educate the American public about the need for affordable access to comprehensive health care for all, and to mobilize them to take action toward that goal. The Health Care Access Resolution is seen an essential first step to enacting health care reform that provides health coverage for everyone.

Labor and local action needed

Momentum is building for some legislative relief of the health care crisis. In many cases this will involve lobbying for HR-676 or the Lee bill. But everyone should be on the phone and organizing delegations to meet with their U.S. senators to get them to sign on to SCR-41, and House members should be urged to support HCR-99. Local, national and international labor union leaders and members should sign on. Grassroots movements like these can light the fires of struggle that can galvanize a movement to enact the kind of legislation needed to seriously address our health care crisis.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Uninsured, overcharged

Fri, 20 Jun 2003 03:06:00 +0000

CHICAGO – The Advocate hospital chain is the leading private provider of hospital services to the uninsured who live in Chicago and its Cook County suburbs. It also has the highest charges of any hospital group and overcharges the uninsured more than any other health care system in Cook County, according to “Uninsured and Overcharged,” a recent study by the Hospital Accountability Project of the Service Employees Union (SEIU).

In 2001 Advocate provided inpatient care to some 7,200 Cook County residents, only slightly less than the 7,300 patients served by the area’s 17 other private hospitals. According to SEIU, Advocate HealthCare charged the average uninsured patient $13,854 in 2001, higher than any other group and 30 percent higher than the next largest chain. “It is hard to imagine a health care policy that is more irrational, morally upside down and fundamentally wrong than the discriminatory pricing of health care,” Joseph Geevarghese, who wrote the report, told a Health Care Justice Town Hall Meeting on June 14. He said the practice is a deliberate strategy of “charging the most to those who have the least at a moment in their lives when they are the most vulnerable.”

Other speakers included Tim Leahy, secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor; Quentin Young, national coordinator, Physicians for a National Health Program; and Tom Balanoff, president of the SEIU Illinois State Council. Cliff Kelly, a well-know, African American radio personality, was emcee.

Following the meeting, participants picketed Advocate’s Illinois Masonic Hospital.

Jeniffer Farfan told how she was charged with more than $15,000 for one night in the hospital after being run over by a hit-and-run driver. “There was no surgery, no broken bones, just a one-night stay. If I had health insurance, with the discount the insurance company would have gotten, the bill would have been about $4,700,” she said, adding that so far Advocate has refused to make any adjustment in her bill.

Luis Martinez’s wife spent three days in the hospital and Martinez said he confidently expected his insurance company to pay the $14,611 bill. “After all we held a policy issued by a subsidiary of Advocate. The hospital refused to make any adjustment or payment arrangements. When I filled out an application for charity care, it was refused.”

Martinez’s story eventually made the pages of the Chicago Tribune. Three days later, Advocate’s lawyer called, saying they wanted the case to go away and reduced the amount owed by 80 percent. “But not everyone is so fortunate,” Martinez said.

Farfan and Martinez were among several victims who were denied entrance to the hospital when they attempted to deliver a letter to Advocate officials demanding they stop discriminatory pricing. “We didn’t make it this time,” Balanoff said. “But we will win. Our slogan, ‘One size fits all’ will win the day.”

The author can be reached at fgab708@aol.com

Too much government spending?

Fri, 20 Jun 2003 02:56:00 +0000

The Bush administration and Republican Congress want to strangle government spending. One purpose of the tax cuts (in addition to giving themselves and their wealthy supporters another break) is to starve the government and force further spending reductions. Grover Norquist, a powerful, right-wing Washington insider, once said, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

Of course, they don’t want to cut spending for military adventures or prisons or lucrative contracts for their favored corporate crooks. They want to cut any program that helps ordinary people deal with basic or emergency needs for health care, childcare, education and economic security.

The success of the Republican plan can be seen in a report by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. With the new tax cuts, federal receipts as a share of the national economy will fall to their lowest level since 1959. It is likely they will fall even further next year. The resulting deficits will surely be used as an excuse for further spending cuts, with Social Security and Medicare the long-range targets.

Their biggest tool is the myth that the government spends too much. It is common for politicians and right-wing ideologues to use the phrase, “bloated government bureaucracy” any chance they get. Newspapers print commentaries with headlines like, “Washington Still in the Grip of Big Spenders” and “Big Spenders Dominate Capitol Hill.” The message is clear: federal spending is out of control.

Is government spending really a big and growing burden?

First, let’s look at that “bloated federal bureaucracy.” In 1960, the national government employed 3.7 percent of all workers, but by 2000, only 2 percent of all workers were employed by the feds. In fact, the 2.7 million federal workers in 2000 was fewer than the 2.9 million in 1970, despite the growth in the U.S. population and labor force over thirty years. Of every hundred dollars that flows through the national economy, only $1.35 goes to pay federal workers – less than half what it was in 1970.

What about total federal spending? The best measure is in comparison with the gross domestic product (GDP) – the total value of all economic activity. In 1983, federal spending reached a high of 23.5 percent of GDP. Starting in 1992, it started a steady decline, and by 2000, federal spending was down to 18.4 percent of GDP – lower than at any time since the late 1960s.

To measure the size of government, it makes sense to exclude federal trust funds (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) from the federal budget. These expenditures have been rising because of an older population and escalating health care costs. Their increasing expense does not represent any new needs being met, but rather the growing costs of providing existing services. By this measure, the federal budget has dropped under 10 percent of GDP, far lower than the 14.5 percent level of 1970, or even the 14 percent of 1960.

When right-wing politicians complain that the government is “too big,” they are lying. By any reasonable measure, the federal role in U.S. economic life has been shrinking. And that is unfortunate, because the need for government involvement is growing.

In 1960, an eighth grade education was enough for a manufacturing job that provided an adequate standard of living. Today, a college education is usually required for even a chance at a comparable job. Education, childcare, health care, environmental protection – these are all areas that demand much greater government involvement today compared with forty years ago. The physical infrastructure of our country – the water supplies and treatment facilities, mass transit and bridges, housing and recreation facilities – needs urgent attention.

By failing to meet these growing needs, the federal government has failed in its responsibility. State and local governments do not have the resources, and many have been driven to the brink of bankruptcy in their efforts to pick up the slack.

A simple program: (1) Reallocate federal spending from military and corporate subsidies to meet human needs; (2) Increase federal spending to reflect the growing social needs of our society; (3) Restore uniform, loophole-free taxes on high-income individuals and corporations to meet these needs.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Angela Davis urges unity against repression

Fri, 20 Jun 2003 02:44:00 +0000

CHICAGO – The Chicago chapter of the National Alliance Against Racial and Political Repression (NAARPR) observed the organization’s 30th anniversary by holding a banquet that highlighted the urgent need for “regime change” here in the U.S. and called for ending the death penalty and stopping the criminalization and militarization of youth.

The event, which included a dinner, awards, and a keynote speech by Angela Davis, was attended by more than 400 people.

Davis focused on the need to ally the “de-carceration movement” with the struggle against the death penalty. Furthermore, what is needed, she said, “is solidarity between workers in prison and workers in the free world.” She argued that the incarceration, detention, and custodianship of millions of potentially free workers is detrimental to the interests of all workers. Prisoners become “slaves of the state” and are forced into compulsory work programs. There they are a source of subsidized labor for the same corporations that lay-off workers in droves.

Davis also touched on the connection between the military and the prison-industrial-complex. Young people, she said, are “forced into the war apparatus in order to avoid a path that leads to prison.”

The NAARPR was formed more than 30 years ago in the wake of the successful international campaign to free Davis, who had been arrested and charged in a politically-motivated frame-up case. Davis, who was a Communist Party member, could herself have faced the death penalty. She is now a tenured professor at University of California at Santa Cruz, and continues to be a leader in the movement to dismantle the ever growing prison-industrial-complex.

The question of the night was how to unite the various arms of the people’s movement. “The same forces that attack labor are oppressing poor people,” said speaker Charlene Mitchell, a national co-chair of the NAARPR. The U.S., she said, represents only 5 percent of the world’s population but incarcerates 25 percent of the world’s prison population.

All speakers emphasized the importance of reclaiming the victories of past struggles and passing the knowledge of history on to our youth. Davis gave a pointed example: in North Carolina, 65 percent of all people charged with lynching are Black. She noted that the term “lynching” had become so co-opted that “Black children now believe that lynching is a fist fight.” Davis demonstrated her ability as a professor as she detailed the history of capital punishment and its relationship to the criminal justice system.

The night’s awardees included Aaron Patterson, who was released from death row after a long campaign led to his exoneration. Patterson spoke eloquently about the urgency of keeping up the fight for all the innocents who remain incarcerated.

The author can be reached at bkishner@pww.org

Dont forget to vote June 24!

Fri, 20 Jun 2003 02:12:00 +0000

MoveOn.org, the online grassroots advocacy group, will conduct a web-based presidential primary election next week. Voting will begin at midnight EDT on June 24 and continue for 48 hours.

MoveOn said it would endorse, organize volunteers and raise money for whoever is able to win at least 50 percent of the total vote. If none of the candidates reaches that threshold – and it may be difficult, given the size of the field – the group will put off announcing its endorsement until this summer.

An earlier straw poll showed former Vermont governor Howard Dean, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) holding the top three positions, with none having a majority. The contest, where the names of all nine candidates seeking the Democratic nomination will appear on the ballot, could have a significant impact in the selection of the candidate if he or she is able to win the group’s endorsement.

A memo posted on the MoveOn web site says that in most primary contests “pundits, pollsters and wealthy donors determine the outcome long before the actual primaries. By the time the rest of us cast our ballots, the nomination is typically a done deal. The MoveOn.org PAC Primary will allow hundreds of thousands of voters to speak out now, adding their weight to the campaigns of their choice.”

MoveOn counts 1.4 million members nationwide. The votes will be based, in part, on the candidates’ responses to seven questions. Among the questions are whether they would seek repeal of the USA Patriot Act, if they support progressive environmental policies and how they would stand up to the “unhealthy” policies of the Bush administration. The responses to the questions were posted on Moveon.org late this week.

Michael Cornfield, a political scientist at George Washington University, said the group’s endorsement could be a boon for the Democratic Party’s more liberal candidates. He estimated the group raised $2.4 million during the 2000 election, when its membership was about one-third its current size. He said the group now might raise more than $10 million in 2004 and could put Dean or Kucinich even with other candidates like Edwards “in one fell swoop.”

Founded in 1998 as a vehicle for urging Congress to “move on” from the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, MoveOn has consolidated its reputation as a premier online organizer with its opposition to George W. Bush’s drive to war with Iraq. It is now working with others to demand that Congress establish an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate possible Bush administration distortions of the truth in building public support for the war.

Readers wishing to participate in the MoveOn primary by going to the MoveOn web site (www.moveon.org) and requesting a ballot. Deadline for requests is the afternoon of June 26.

Civil Liberties Union: Make U.S. safe and free

Fri, 20 Jun 2003 02:04:00 +0000

WASHINGTON – About 1,500 members of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) applauded June 11 as ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero vowed a fightback against the Bush administration’s “far-reaching assault on our Constitutional rights, using the war on terrorism as a convenient smokescreen.”

Romero spoke at the ACLU’s first membership conference in its 83-year history, a four-day gathering at the Omni-Shoreham Hotel and on Capitol Hill where, on June 12, delegates visited their senators and representatives to demand that they protect the Bill of Rights.

Romero recalled the ACLU’s role in fighting the infamous Palmer Raids at the end of World War I when thousands of innocent immigrants were deported, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the “Red Scare” of the 1950s followed by the Watergate scandal and Richard Nixon’s infamous enemies list.

Now, Romero warned, “Our freedoms are under attack as never before and we have to fight back as never before ... Today we are battling against an insatiable appetite for power on the part of [Attorney General John] Ashcroft and others in the administration. At the same time we are also battling against the timidity, the reticence, the complicity, of many Democrats who sit quietly as our fundamental freedoms are eroded.”

He assailed George W. Bush and Ashcroft for whipping up religious and national chauvinism against people of color and for seeking to roll back affirmative action in a case against the University of Michigan now before the Supreme Court.

Romero cited a report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General which accuses Ashcroft of misuse of power in detaining 762 immigrants. “Many people with no connection to terrorism were made to languish in jail for months … The Justice Department, in other words, turned the war on terror into a war on immigrants.”

The crowd listened politely when FBI Director Robert Mueller III told them that protecting civil liberties is the “core mission” of the FBI and Justice Department. But they peppered Mueller with questions about the Bush administration’s witchhunt. Summing up the reaction, Romero said, “At the end of the day, none of our key concerns were assuaged.”

Dana Textoris, Ohio ACLU education director, led a delegation of 40 Ohio high school youth lobbying against Patriot Acts I and II. “These acts are a travesty,” she told the World during an interview in the House Longworth Building. “Arab Americans have been subjected to racial profiling and unjust detentions. Right now, we are in the same climate we were in when the ACLU was founded in the 1920s. It is time for the American people to reaffirm their commitment to the Bill of Rights. Every candidate in the 2004 election must be challenged to stand up for these principles that are the foundation of our country.”

Patrice Webb is an ACLU “9/11” organizer responsible for a dozen states including Florida. Last year, she worked for a woman who ran for a House seat against Republican Katherine Harris in the Sunshine State. “It was a conflict of interest for Katherine Harris to be Florida Secretary of State and a candidate for Congress at the same time,” Webb said. “But then it was a conflict of interest for her to be chairperson of George W. Bush’s Florida campaign while she was in that position. Her grandfather owned the Tropicana orange juice company. Maybe that explains it. She made the decision not to recount the votes in the 2000 presidential election. It shows just how far they will go to deny us our voting rights. That right is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment but we must still fight to preserve it.”

The conference high point was the awarding of the first ACLU Muhammad Ali Champion of Liberty Award to the heavyweight champion. “This award honors Muhammad Ali for what may have been the toughest fight of his career: being stripped of the World Heavyweight Title and prosecuted for draft evasion in 1967 after refusing on religious grounds to fight in the Vietnam War,” said Romero.

The Supreme Court in 1971 reversed Ali’s conviction for draft evasion. His title was restored.

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Bush has the corporations, but the Communist Party needs YOU!

Fri, 20 Jun 2003 01:56:00 +0000

While corporate executives are lining up this week to give money to Bush for a second try at election fraud, the Communist Party is hitting crunch time in the final weeks of its annual fund drive. The Communist Party can’t match the Bush administration efforts, but the working families who squeeze out a contribution from their budgets know that it will take the country a few steps closer to ending the corporate domination of our country.

The drive has reached 50 percent of completion, but there are only two weeks left to complete the $65,000 goal by July 4.

The Communist Party fund drive committee is urging members and supporters to make calls and visits with the message: “Your contribution can help organize a bigger political party that not only opposes capitalism, but has a vision for the future.” Readers of the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo have been asked to contribute and help raise funds.

People know where the Communist Party stands. In today’s political struggles it’s known for being part of, supporting and helping to lead coalition efforts to turn back the ultra-right and defend democracy. But it takes money to organize.

Party organizations and supporters in Wisconsin, New Mexico, Maine and Virginia finished their goals, with Arizona, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Texas all at or above the 75 percent mark. In Florida, they are optimistic about reaching their $10,000 goal. The Missouri/Kansas CP expects to turn in its $1,000 soon. Maryland has a gathering scheduled with Jarvis Tyner, CPUSA executive vice chair. And New York is organizing a phone-a-thon to its supporters.

In Illinois, supporters are donating a day’s pay to the drive. “We will complete our drive,” said John Bachtell, district organizer for Illinois, “even if we have to go a little beyond the deadline.”

Pam Saffer, CPUSA fundraising coordinator, knows all too well the challenge of raising $65,000, which covers a fraction of the operating costs of this political party. “Our members and supporters know their money is well spent. Full time organizers are gearing up to criss-cross the country to help in the 2004 election battles.”

To show your support for the work of the CPUSA, and help defeat Bush and the right wing, make out a check to Communist Party USA or Esther Moroze, treasurer, and mail to 235 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 10011.

Seniors disrupt Medicare hearing: No to privatization

Fri, 20 Jun 2003 01:40:00 +0000

Dozens of angry senior citizens, protesting a prescription drug bill they say will undermine the entire Medicare program, were ejected from a House Ways and Means Committee hearing, June 17. Meanwhile, a few miles across town at the White House, President Bush was brushing off his tuxedo for the next day’s gala fundraiser where drug giant GlaxoSmithKline would make a quarter million dollar donation to his re-election campaign.

“Don’t privatize Medicare!” the activists from the Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA) chanted. They claim that prescription drug proposals in both houses of Congress move to privatize the popular 40-year-old program that provides health care to 41 million Americans.

Because benefits don’t kick in until 2006, passage of the bills would allow President Bush and the Republican Congress to coast through the 2004 election campaign before its defects are exposed, appearing to have fulfilled their promise of a Medicare prescription drug program, critics say.

The bills are a sham, opponents say. Besides opening the door to Medicare’s demise and putting seniors at the mercy of private insurers, they do nothing to slow down the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs, are impossibly complex, and, perhaps most damning, offer no help at all to the majority of seniors.

Pedro Ramos and his wife Gloria are healthy, active seniors, but the bill for the prescription drugs that help keep them that way could make you sick. The Ramoses, who live in the Irondale neighborhood on Chicago’s southeast side, desperately want prescription drug coverage to be added to the Medicare they depend on. The $200 to $300 a month the couple together spends on drugs for common conditions like high blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as a back injury Mr. Ramos suffered at work years ago, eats up a big chunk of their modest income.

“I have to be really careful with the budget because of medicine and gas for heating,” said the retired switchman from the now-closed Wisconsin Steel Works. Under the Senate plan, they would have to pay nearly $500 a year each to a private insurance company, and fulfill a $275 deductible every year before becoming eligible for 50 percent of the cost of medicines up to $4,500. Beneficiaries get no coverage for expenditures between $4,500 and $5,950. After that, they are covered for 90 percent of their bills.

Sitting on the sofa in their sunny living room, the Ramoses did the math with this reporter and a pocket calculator. “Something’s wrong somewhere,” said Mrs. Ramos, disappointed to find out that they would still be shelling out the same $200 to $300 a month. “They won’t leave you nothing to live on,” her husband added, grimly. The Ramos family, like more than half of all Medicare recipients, would not benefit from buying into the proposed prescription drug program. Drug costs that are big enough to put a substantial dent in most retirees’ budgets aren’t big enough to qualify for any meaningful benefit.

The Ramoses say they like the way the Medicare system has worked for them. Critics warn that both the House and Senate drug bills abandon the single-payer style under which Medicare directly reimburses the medical provider. It introduces a third party – private insurance companies – which would receive government subsidies. Attacking Medicare head-on, the House bill would allow private HMOs to skim off the healthier recipients while raising the premiums for older and sicker patients who stay with the traditional plan.

Predicting that employers would be encouraged to drop existing retiree prescription drug coverage, the AFL-CIO calls the Senate plan a “sham proposal that puts benefits at risk” for the one in three Medicare beneficiaries who now have retiree prescription drug coverage sponsored by an employer. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 37 percent of retired employees with employer-sponsored coverage would lose it under the bill.

ARA Executive Director Ed Coyle charges the White House and Republican leadership are rushing through “a very complicated bill because they don’t want public debate.” Neither bill, he says, addresses the underlying issue of cost containment. “Eighteen percent of the pharmaceutical companies’ income went to profit,” says Coyle, “more than the next nine Fortune 500 companies combined.” The drug industry is worried that a plan to make the drug benefit part of Medicare could lower its profits.

The GOP took in $30 million at its June 19 Washington fundraiser. Donations came from Pfizer, Bayer AG, Eli Lilly and Merck & Co. PhRMA, a drug industry trade group that is helping pay for a TV ad campaign promoting the Republican prescription drug plan, gave Bush an additional $250,000.

The ARA plans a rally in Washington, D.C., on June 25 to demand that Congress not privatize Medicare. The Ramoses, who have already traveled to Springfield, their state capital, to demand prescription drug relief, say this time they might be going to Washington.

Barbara Russum contributed to this story. The author can be reached at rwood@pww.org

National Clips

Thu, 19 Jun 2003 09:41:00 +0000

BOSTON, Mass.: Boston marches for gay rights, peace

Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.), the mayors of Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, State Sen. Jarrett Barrios, State Rep. Byron Rushing and Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo led 100,000 marchers, including a contingent from the Communist Party of Massachusetts, through the heart of the city demanding equal rights for Gay, Lesbian Bi-sexual and Transgendered (GBLT) people, June 14. “Healthcare Not Warfare” banners and signs dotted the crowd. “End Racism and Homophobia” placards were everywhere. Marchers demanded an end to violence in their communities. It was a political celebration and the largest in New England.

The AFL-CIO’s affiliate organization, Pride at Work, mobilized trade unionists as well as the locally-based Gay and Lesbian Labor Activist Network.

NEW YORK, N.Y.: General Electric heeds footsteps

Over 24,000 union workers at General Electric (GE) plants across the nation were prepared to turn out the lights when the company reached a tentative agreement with the unions on June 16. The main issues are health care, pensions and job security.

The unions argued that GE can absorb the rising costs of health care and improve pensions. GE made $15 billion in profits in 2002. Profits soared by 20 percent this year with most of divisions posting double-digit increases. GE owns NBC, aircraft engine plants, appliance factories, financial systems for businesses and medical systems.

No details of the tentative contract were available at the time of this writing. Officers from the two largest unions at GE, the International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE) and the United Electrical Workers (UE), are recommending acceptance of the new four-year agreement. “IUE-CWA has met its goals of safeguarding affordable health insurance and substantially increasing pensions for our members,” said IUE president Ed Fire. Steve Tormey of UE said he expects union leaders and members to accept the proposed contract.

At least one local union president has expressed reservations. Randy Payton, president of IUE Local 761 representing 3,000 workers at GE’s appliance plant in Louisville, Ky., says that if the agreement does not include enhancements in the early retirement package, then he may vote against it.

FARMVILLE, Va.: After 44 years, a diploma

Over 400 African Americans received honorary high school diplomas from the Prince Edward County school district June 15 because in 1954 it shut down rather than obey the Supreme Court Brown vs. Board of Education school desegregation order. Prince Edward was the only county in the country that closed for five years rather than desegregate its schools in 1959.

Dorothy Holcomb proudly walked across the stage to receive her diploma. She is now a member of the Prince Edward Board of Education, but in 1959 she was a Prince Edward student tossed out on the street. Her father rented a ramshackle home in another county where she could go to school. “This is where I should have been in 1967,” said Holcomb.

CLIFTON, N.J.: Registered immigrants face deportation

Zeinhom Ayoub Ramadan, 33, thought he was living in a free country where he could fulfill his dream of work, family and peace. But since the post-Sept. 11 crackdown by Attorney General Ashcroft on immigrants, mainly those from Middle Eastern and Asian countries, Ramadan and more than 13,000 other immigrants are facing deportation.

Ramadan readily complied with an order from the Justice Department to register with the government. “I was working hard, living in a free country,” he said. “Everything was right. The people here were great. I respected everything here and everyone respected me. Why should I be afraid?” Ramadan and 144,513 other young men lined up and registered. Of that group, 13,434 are facing deportation proceedings, 2,783 were detained, and 99 are still in jail as of June 1.

Under the new laws, Ramadan could be on a plane back to Egypt before there is even a hearing on his case.

PORTLAND, Ore.: Company pays homeless with pizza

Pizza Schmizza is a 26-restaurant chain corporation in Oregon and Washington. It has begun hiring homeless men to hold up a sign reading, “Pizza Schmizza paid me to hold this sign instead of asking for money.” Only instead of wages for advertising, the corporation gave the men pizza, pop and a few dollars.

“The signs were meant to be humorous,” said Pizza Schmizza owner Andre Jehan.

Gary Ruskin, director of an advertising watchdog group founded by Ralph Nader, said homeless people should be paid the minimum wage, or else they are being exploited.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com). Gary Dotterman (via pww@pww.org) contributed to this week’s stories.

Kucinich message rings true in Wisconsin

Thu, 19 Jun 2003 09:32:00 +0000

MADISON, Wis. – Over 1,000 people turned out here on May 31 to hear Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and other activists speak at a “Rally for Peace and Prosperity.” Kucinich received a warm welcome from labor and antiwar activists. David Newby, president of the Wisconsin Federation of Labor, lauded Kucinich’s strong stand in Congress for working people’s issues. Ed Garvey, a former candidate for governor, described Kucinich as “the progressive candidate in the tradition of Sen. Paul Wellstone.”

Kucinich got cheers when he challenged the Bush administration on the intelligence “lies” that were a pretext for the invasion of Iraq. He characterized his job as one of “breaking the spell of fear and doom being used by the Bush administration to consolidate power and push through a right-wing agenda.” He called for substantial cuts in the Pentagon’s budget in order to fund social needs such as a jobs program modeled on FDR’s Works Progress Administration, and a universal single-payer health plan.

Kucinich, who also appeared at Radfest, an annual forum held at Aurora University, has been spending a lot of time in Wisconsin, aiming to tap into the state’s tradition of progressive politics. Last year he spoke at the “Fighting Bob Fest,” a gathering of Wisconsin progressives inspired by Sen. Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, a critic of World War I who ran a campaign for president on the Progressive Party ticket in 1924.

Identifying with LaFollette, Kucinich told the Capital Times, “I still believe that the progressive message is a winning one, and that’s why I’m working so hard to get it into the Democratic campaign.”

Sue Holmes, an organizer of the May 31 rally, noted that it only took a small group to “mobilize over 1,000 people to come out on a Saturday night with one week’s notice. Imagine what could be done around the country!”

Joe Rody, a local activist, said that Kucinich inspired him to “get out there and make waves,” because “he talked from the heart on everything that concerns the average working man. He said that we need to spend money on schools instead of an over-bloated military, that we need to tend to the concerns of older people and pass a single-payer health care system.” Rody plans to attend the Wisconsin Democratic Convention June 13-14 and participate in a caucus for Kucinich.

Kucinich may be stirring up the grassroots, but according to an article by John Nichols in the Capital Times, “Kucinich draws a crowd, but no media.” Nichols points out, however, that neither Carter nor McGovern received much media attention early on and they both went on to receive the Democratic Party’s nomination.

The author can be reached at babette37@juno.com. John Gilman assisted in gathering some of the research for this article.

Conyers and ACLU slam new Ashcroft power grab

Fri, 13 Jun 2003 02:32:00 +0000

WASHINGTON – Civil liberties activists, led by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), denounced Attorney General John Ashcroft’s demand that Congress grant him wider police-state powers by passing the so-called “Patriot Act II.”

The condemnation comes on the heels of a report by Glenn Fine, Inspector General of the Justice Department, which revealed widespread abuses in the detention of 762 immigrants, mostly Arab and Asian, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Conyers, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said the report shows that the Justice Department “deprived detainees of fundamental constitutional rights and has employed shocking and un-American tactics of torture and abuse.” Said Conyers, “This report confirms my worst fears about the unaccountable Ashcroft Justice Department, that its war on terrorism is just a war on the Constitution and basic human dignities.”

Conyers was responding to Ashcroft’s complaint in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on June 5 that the USA Patriot Act contains “several weaknesses which terrorists could exploit.”

That legislation was rammed through Congress, mostly unread, a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack. Patriot Act II would widen the Attorney General’s powers to criminalize “material support” of groups designated as “terrorist” and empower the federal government to strip U.S. citizenship even from native-born citizens.

ACLU Washington Director Laura Murphy pointed out that Patriot Act II would dangerously expand the federal death penalty and “turn our justice system on its head” by requiring defendants “to prove their innocence before they even come to trial.” She also cited the Fine report, which charged that detainees were held an average of 80 days without criminal charges. The report said, “The FBI should have expended more effort attempting to distinguish between aliens who it actually suspected of having a connection to terrorism from those aliens … who had no connection to terrorism.” The report charged that the detainees suffered “a pattern of physical and verbal abuse” by officers at the MDC (federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn) and suffered “unduly harsh” conditions such as having two lights on in their cells 24 hours a day. Eighty-four detainees were kept in “lock down” 23 hours each day. Escort procedures included a “four-man hold with handcuffs, leg-irons and heavy chains anytime the detainees were moved outside their cells.” One detainee complained that MDC officers “repeatedly slammed him against walls while twisting his arms behind his back.” The Inspector General interviewed three other detainees who also reported that they were slammed against walls and “verbally abused … with racial slurs and threats like, ‘You will feel pain’ and ‘Someone thinks you have something to do with the World Trade Center so don’t expect to be treated well.’”

Murphy made it clear that the struggle is not over on Capitol Hill. “We will continue to work with Members (of Congress) from both sides of the aisle and with groups across the political spectrum to ensure that Patriot Act II remains nothing more than a gleam in Mr. Ashcroft’s eyes,” she said.

Conyers has led the charge in Congress on “Texas-gate,” the revelation that the Department of Homeland Security helped in tracking down 53 Texas legislators who slipped across the Oklahoma border successfully thwarting a redistricting scheme by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). It would have added as many as seven Republicans to the U.S. House.

Conyers and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) wrote a joint letter to the Committee on Government Reform demanding an investigation of this diversion of federal funds intended to track down “terrorists” for “partisan political purposes.”

The ACLU opened its first-ever nationwide membership conference here this week to mount a fightback against these attacks on democratic rights. ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said, “It couldn’t have come at a more critical time as the government has resorted to detentions, deportations, and other tactics reminiscent of the Palmer Raids period which led to the ACLU’s founding 83 years ago.”

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Drive launched to reverse FCC vote

Fri, 13 Jun 2003 02:24:00 +0000

The Stop Media Monopoly Petition, a campaign to reverse the FCC’s decision to allow further monopolization of the media, already has nearly 200,000 signers, evidence that Americans don’t want a few big companies controlling their access to news and entertainment.

On June 2, disregarding a great public outcry, the Federal Communication Commission voted 3 to 2 to ease restrictions on media consolidation and control. The three Republican commissioners voted for the rule changes, while the two Democrats voted against the changes and spoke out strongly against them. The Communication Workers of America (CWA) issued a press release criticizing the FCC’s decision, saying it will have serious repercussions for democracy and the free press and free speech valued by Americans. “Fewer companies controlling the newspapers, radio stations and TV stations in a single community means fewer voices and fewer points of view will be heard,” the CWA said.

The CWA is particularly concerned about the rule change that allows a single company to own both a newspaper and a TV station in one community. “It is disgraceful that the Republican majority on the FCC bowed to corporate interests so completely,” said CWA President Morton Bahr. “They held only one public hearing, and that under pressure, yet commissioners met repeatedly with … the large media corporations who stand to make billions of dollars in the buying and selling of companies made possible by the June 2 vote.” Bahr also noted that the same companies that own the broadcast channels, radio stations and newspapers also own the top internet and cable channels. “That’s not diversity, that’s monopoly,” said Bahr. CWA represents 700,000 workers including 50,000 newspaper, wire service and broadcast employees.

Many groups, including MoveOn.org and Common Cause, organized millions of e-mails, letters and other protests against the rule changes before the FCC voted. So many people called and e-mailed the FCC on May 30 that the FCC voicemail system and web site went down. MoveOn, Common Cause and Free Press raised over $180,000 to pay for print and TV ads. Representatives of these groups were invited to debate the issue on cable news shows.

At the June 6 Take Back America Conference in Washington, D.C., in a workshop titled “Reversing the Right’s Hold On Media,” participants discussed how to fight back against the FCC decision. They noted the ruling would permit ultra-right media mogul Rupert Murdoch and radio conglomerate Clear Channel to increase their stronghold on all forms of the mass communications media. Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said, “We are going to change these decisions. The FCC is creating a new structure giving cable companies and telephone companies control of the internet. The first thing we have to do is fight back.”

Chester announced that the Senate Commerce Committee will convene a hearing on June 19 to review the FCC decision, providing an opportunity to reverse it. Before the FCC vote, 100 House members and 20 senators had asked the FCC not to change the rules. Congress has the power to overturn the rule changes. John Moyers, editor of TomPaine.com, told the Take Back America gathering the challenge is to involve the majority of people and not “preach to the choir.” Farai Chideya, founder of Popandpolitics.com, emphasized reaching out to people of color. “Millions of people must be motivated to contact their congressional representatives and make their voices heard,” she said.

The author can be reached at phillyrose1@hotmail.com

Protesters denounce Bush Medicare plan

Fri, 13 Jun 2003 02:13:00 +0000

CHICAGO – A spirited crowd of several hundred people braved the early morning chill June 11, to protest as President Bush arrived here to push what they charge is a phony Medicare prescription drug plan.

“We’ve got to move and move fast if we are going to derail Bush and his supporters in Congress,” William McNary, chair of USAction, told participants. “Bush wants a plan by July 4 and the Senate leadership has promised to deliver.”

McNary warned that the plan being put together by a bipartisan coalition of moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats in the Senate falls far short of what is necessary to provide a universal drug benefit for the 39 million people covered by Medicare.

As presently written, the Senate plan, with a monthly premium of $35, has an annual deductible of $275 and will cover only half of out-of-pocket drug costs up to $3,450 annually. After that there will be no reimbursement for prescription drugs until a beneficiary has spent $5,300 on drugs in a given year. At that point the plan will pay 90 percent of prescription costs.

According to an analysis of similar plans by the Congressional Budget Office, the proposal could prompt employers to drop coverage for 3 million retirees who use it to fill in gaps in Medicare. HMOs have already dropped more than 2 million Medicare beneficiaries.

Although Medicare beneficiaries will not be required to buy into an HMO or Preferred Provider Plan in order to be eligible for prescription drugs, they will be required to buy a stand-alone policy from a private insurance company if they want drug coverage.

Mimi Gilpin, a retired member of the United Auto Workers (UAW), said she had come for two reasons: “Number one, we have to defend Medicare from the privatizers. But these rallies serve a second purpose: they are opportunities to mobilize people to take back our government in 2004. I shudder to think of what America will be like if Bush gets a second term in the White House.”

Gilpin, now in her 70s, considers herself lucky when it comes to prescription drugs. “There’s a $2 co-pay for prescriptions under the UAW plan,” she told the World. “That shows what a decent plan could and should do.”

Neither Ann Baneck, a retired Teamster, nor Adela Robles, a Needle Trades (UNITE) retiree, are as lucky. Each pays more than $100 weekly for prescription drugs and often has to choose between medicine and food. Robles, still feisty at 87, says she needs the medicines to stay alive. “The high price of prescription drugs is a death sentence for many seniors,” she told the World.

Labor leaders and health care advocates have joined the nationwide chorus denouncing the Senate bill introduced by Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

George Kourpias, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, called the Senate bill a “quick fix and a bad bill for personal political gain at the expense of America’s seniors.”

AFL-CIO President John Sweeny said, “This proposal will not provide seniors with the predictable and affordable drug coverage they need and deserve. And it discriminates against good union and employer retiree plans. Congress must provide enough funding to treat retirees equitably and to fill the gap in coverage.”

Dianne Lardie, policy director for the Universal Health Care Action Network, ridiculed Bush’s call for “competition” in providing prescription drugs under Medicare. “Seniors are not looking for large numbers of plans from which to choose,” she said. “They want to choose their doctors and get quality care at an affordable price. Indeed the health conditions of seniors (sight, hearing, cognitive deficiencies) make ‘competition’ among plans frustrating, not helpful.”

People are being urged to immediately contact their senators by calling the toll-free number: (877) 331-1224.

The author can be reached at fgab708@aol.com

D.C. rally targets 2004 elections: Take back America

Fri, 13 Jun 2003 01:55:00 +0000

WASHINGTON – Wearing plastic top hats and chanting, “Who needs Medicare? I’m a millionaire!” over 1,000 mock-capitalists marched to Vice President Dick Cheney’s residence, June 6, to thank him for pushing through another trillion dollar tax cut for the rich while slashing Medicaid and education.

Josh Williams, president of the Washington Metro AFL-CIO, his top hat at a rakish angle, told a rally, “Fellow millionaires, Republicans, corruption knows no bounds! Let’s raise a toast to our leaders, George and Dick!” The crowd chanted, “Leave no millionaire behind!”

Co-sponsored by U.S. Action and the Campaign for America’s Future (CAF), the march was a highpoint of CAF’s three day “Take Back America” conference that brought together 1,500 labor, civil rights, women’s equality, environmental and peace activists at the Omni-Shoreham hotel to strategize on defeating George W. Bush and ending Republican control of the House and Senate in the 2004 elections.

Maxine Durst, a retired American Airlines worker came with her sister from Fort Worth, Texas. “Bush was a bad governor and now he’s the worst president ever,” Durst said as she marched. “I think he is Machiavellian.”

John Campbell, an organizer for United Steelworkers (USWA) Local 310 in Des Moines said, “This conference was long overdue. We’ve been too divided and our message too convoluted. We are developing a strategy of united action for the 2004 elections.”

In his conference speech, USWA President Leo Gerard decried the 2.3 million manufacturing jobs lost since Bush took office. “Sisters and brothers, we will make clear we are the progressive majority that will take back America,” Gerard said. “No one will make it to the White House in 2004 unless they come through us. The once disunited majority is now united.”

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) blasted House Republicans for killing an amendment to their $350 billion tax cut that would give a few crumbs to the working poor. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) agreed to reopen the tax bill, she said, “only if we agreed to give more tax cuts for the rich and make them permanent.”

Schakowsky denounced the tax giveaways as “a weapon of mass destruction” aimed at her state, which is swimming in red ink.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney cited DeLay for calling unions a “clear and present danger” while Bush brands unions a “threat to homeland defense.” Sweeney called it a “tidal wave of worker-bashing and union busting.” He introduced Carol Farel of Cintas, the uniform company, and Stephen White a worker at the cable monopoly, ComCast, who are fighting their employers as they attempt to unionize their low wage, no benefit jobs.

The workers received a standing ovation.

Tom Andrews, national director of Win Without War, cautioned that Bush will be defeated only if his pose as a defender of national security is deflated. He called on the movement to address the trauma inflicted on the people by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, asking,”Are we safer today than we were four years ago?” He added, “Bush has made the U.S. not only the world policeman but a global dictator answerable only to itself. We have to mobilize a huge pool of persuadable voters who have grave doubts about the occupation of Iraq and the policy of preemptive war.”

CAF Co-director Robert Borosage was elated by the gathering, the fourth sponsored by his group. “The difference is that our coalition partners brought hundreds of grassroots activists to this conference,” he told the World. “It meant that if you are a presidential candidate, you had to come here and present your program. It had a sobering effect on them. I think it reflects the mobilized reaction to the extreme policies of the Bush administration.”

Of the seven Democratic presidential candidates who spoke, the clear favorites were those who blasted the Bush doctrine. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said he has introduced House Resolution 260 to require Bush to explain the lies he fabricated about Iraq. He expressed pride that he was one of 206 House members who voted against the Iraq war resolution. “This war was wrong, fraudulent,” Kucinich said. The real “weapons of mass destruction” are poverty, homelessness, and lack of health care for 41 million people. “I say this health care system is broken and the only way to fix it is Medicare for all. As President, I’ll take the money from the Pentagon and give it to health care and education.”

Another candidate, the Rev. Al Sharpton demanded, “Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Everything Bush has gone after he can’t find. I should not be surprised because I can’t find the votes in Florida that put him in the White House. What they did in Florida in 2000, must be answered at the polls in 2004.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said the “road to victory” in 2004 runs through states that Bush won narrowly in 2000, including the “once solidly Democratic South that is now solidly Republican. We can break that grip – 600,000 African Americans are unregistered in Georgia. We must redeem the South and rescue the nation. We can beat George W. Bush. Again.”

Tim Wheeler can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

U.S. agents grill Oakland high-school students

Thu, 12 Jun 2003 08:49:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. – Parents, teachers, students and civil libertarians are still in an uproar over an incident on April 23 when U.S. Secret Service agents swooped down on Oakland High School and interrogated two male 16-year-olds about their comments critical of the Iraq War and an alleged threat they made against President George W. Bush.

The pair’s English teacher, Sandy Whitney, had called the Secret Service after she heard them make comments that she interpreted as a threat to the president.

According to reports published in the Contra Costa Times and the Oakland Tribune, the two students, both U.S. citizens of Southeast Asian ancestry, were pulled out of class, interrogated for about an hour each by the agents, and threatened with deportation and the deportation of their families if they did not cooperate. Their parents were not notified about the interrogation, and the students were denied access to lawyers.

The students’ current lawyer, Gen Fujioka, has categorically denied that the pair made any threats about the president, and no charges were ever filed against the students.

Civil rights lawyers, other teachers, and parents have denounced the action, calling it “a new McCarthyism,” “way out of line,” and “ridiculous.”

The East Bay Educators for Justice Network, the Bay Area Police Watch, the National Lawyers Guild and the Asian Law Caucus are preparing legal action to address what they have described as a violation of the students’ civil rights. Expressions of concern can be phoned into the office of Oakland Unified School District Superintendent, (510) 879-8200.

National Clips

Thu, 12 Jun 2003 08:39:00 +0000

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.: Prison labor is back

With a rising prison population and a state budget crisis, Alabama has been contracting-out people in jail to a furniture maker and a telemarketer. Prison labor, once outlawed, is back with a vengeance.

U.S. Disadvantaged Industries, Inc. (USDI) employs three disabled workers and more than 50 women from Tutwiler Prison, paying them between $6.50 and $8 dollars an hour. The state takes 40 percent of the prisoners’ wages. The three disabled workers package products, like pot holders and ironing board covers, made by blind people in Pennsylvania. The women from Tutwiler sell the products over the phone via telemarketing.

Taffenee Frazier was on work release from Tutwiler to USDI and worked as a telemarketer for three months. She blew the whistle on USDI when she discovered that they were targeting senior citizens and selling a mop and broom set for $53, an ironing board cover for $30, and a U.S. flag for $40. The estimated mark-up was 1000 percent. “It was older people. C’mon, have a heart sometime,” Frazier said. She was fired and sent back to prison. She served the rest of her sentence for drug possession and now works at Waffle House. At USDI and Tutwiler prison, however, it’s still business as usual.

DETROIT, Mich.: Millionaires and unemployment

Home to the Big Three auto corporations, K-Mart and oodles of auto parts companies, Detroit now reports that the average corporate executive’s pay in manufacturing and retail skyrocketed 17 percent in 2002. The Detroit Free Press released a study of the top 50 executives and found that the average take-home pay for a top executive in that state was $5.4 million in 2002 alone. Reported earnings of these 50 men, not enough for a professional football roster, totaled $269.4 million. The average auto worker would have to work on the line for 100 years without missing a day, starting when the first Model T rolled off, to make that much money.

Richard E. Dauch, CEO at American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings, topped out the list, stuffing a cool $27,594,886 into his pocket in 2002.

Chuck Conway led K-Mart for two years. The company declared bankruptcy in January 2002. Conway walked away with a total of $25 million, $7.6 million of that paid after the corporation went into Chapter 11. How’s that for “merit pay”?

Meanwhile, Michigan is slashing and burning human services to make up deepening budget deficits. Currently, unemployment is officially 6.2 percent. Since 2001, 151,700 Michigan workers have lost their jobs and 47,600 have exhausted unemployment benefits. Thirteen percent of all Michigan children are living in poverty.

BUFFALO, N.Y.: When empowerment means exploitation

In the 1980s, with distressed communities popping up throughout the “Rust Bowl” from Birmingham to Duluth, then Buffalo Republican Congressman Jack Kemp came up with an idea to re-vitalize former industrial areas with state investment and tax breaks in so-called “empowerment zones.” Since 1986, when Buffalo broke the ice, about 40 states adopted the scheme.

A recent exposé by the Buffalo News has now revealed the reality of empowerment zones in the place where it all got started.

There are 500 companies in Buffalo receiving subsidies. Of that group 66 percent failed to hire the stated number of workers and 33 percent actually laid-off workers. The jobs were supposed to pay $10 an hour, nearly $3 an hour below the region’s median wage. Minority-owned firms account for just 5 percent of the companies despite the fact that 46 percent of the city’s population is minority. The tax breaks to these companies cost New York State $200 million a year in lost revenue. According to the business people involved in the enterprise zone project, the zones did nothing to hire economically disadvantaged workers. Instead of rebuilding manufacturing (Buffalo was a big steel town), law firms signed up in droves. Twenty-two law firms are in the program, including eight of the 14 largest in the state.

Another example is the redevelopment of a former department store into 29 apartments and offices. For that $240,000 tax break, two Buffalo residents will work there as security guards at $6.50 an hour.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner-Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com)

Texas Homeland Security scandal brews

Thu, 12 Jun 2003 08:15:00 +0000

AUSTIN, Texas – A scandal is brewing in Texas related to the use of the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement resources to advance the partisan political agenda of the right-wing extremists who control the state and federal governments.

State Rep. Kevin Bailey (D-Houston) recently said that the state’s Homeland Security point person, Assistant Attorney General Jay Kimbrough, contacted the FBI office in Ardmore, Okla., presumably to ask for the bureau’s assistance in finding the 51 Texas legislators who walked out of the legislature in May. The lawmakers had left Texas to deny a quorum to the assembly so as to block a redistricting bill that would have carved up the state’s congressional districts in such a way that five to seven new right-wing extremist Republicans would be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Furthermore, on June 7 the Washington Post reported that “at least three federal agencies had been pressed, under murky circumstances, into helping track down [Rep. Pete] Laney’s plane.” Laney is the former speaker of the Texas House from Hale Center who flew his private plane to Ardmore to join the others. According to the Post, federal and state officials have also acknowledged that the air interdiction center, a section of the Homeland Security Dept. based in Riverside, Calif., responsible for tracking down terrorists and drug traffickers, was asked by state officials to track down Laney’s plane and that they did so.

The Post also reported that FBI agent David Troutman was asked by state officials to help find the missing legislators and provided help on May 12 and 13. Troutman did in fact call state Rep. Juan Escobar (D-Kingsville), who was in Ardmore along with the other Democrats, on his cell phone to find out where he was.

President George W. Bush and his advisor, Karl Rove, may have been involved as well. The Post reported on June 8 that Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) said that White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told him in a telephone conversation that U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas had talked with Bush and Rove about the matter. Lieberman subsequently sent a follow-up letter to Card asking for more details on the conversation to determine the extent of White House involvement.

The hint of scandal may have caused Republicans to back down temporarily from their redistricting power grab. Gov. Rick Perry was set to announce on June 9 a special redistricting session of the legislature, possibly for July. In anticipation of the session, House Speaker Tommy Craddick (R-Amarillo) had scheduled redistricting hearings. It now appears that Craddick has canceled or postponed these hearings until further notice.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

These cuts wont heal

Fri, 06 Jun 2003 03:10:00 +0000

The Medical-Industrial complex targets Medicare and Medicaid(see related story below)

The Medical-Industrial complex has set its sights not only on reaping massive profits from the medical insurance, durable equipment, bio-med technology (the ooh ah bells and whistles part of health care we all love and believe makes us the “best in the world”), and pharmaceutical components of the U.S. health care non-system, it is also hell bent on extracting even more wealth from the social benefit programs of Medicare and Medicaid.

Their instruments are our so-called democratic institutions: the White House, Congress, state legislatures, and our ever-compliant corporate media that let us know that Medicare is in “crisis. It’s going broke and must be reformed.” They provide the endless sound bites that hammer out the message that there is no money to pay for the out-of-control costs of Medicaid. Besides, who are all these people “benefiting” from this tax supported largesse? We read that providing “free” health care for our elders, the disabled, the working poor, and our children is no longer an acceptable option in these times of economic crisis and national peril.

And, besides, if you are one of the recently-reported 60 million persons who don’t have access to health insurance and, therefore, health care, at some time during the year, well, it’s just your own damn fault! Laziness, sloth, moral turpitude. It’s not the job of the “guvmint” to provide for the “general welfare,” even if that decree is part of our Constitution. If we can forget the Bill of Rights, we can certainly forget that.

The federal government sort of applies various cost containment strategies that control no cost (read profit). Instead, we suffer through voluminous and convoluted regulations and caveats that bury those of us struggling to provide health care under a tidal wave of paperwork, while taking health care dollars away from actual patient care.

Doctors and nurses spend thousands of hours monitoring everything we do because of fear of being accused of fraud, while real and massive fraud continues unchecked in the boardrooms of the Medical-Industrial complex. The doctor from Healthcare Corporation of America, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), is here to help you. Sure he is.

Endless hours and dollars are wasted in an elusive hunt for “Quality of Care,” code for more cost containment measures minimizing resources and preventing the delivery of services.

But even with 14.1 percent of the GDP spent on health care in the U.S., the World Health Organization ranks the United States 37th among the world’s nations in provision and quality of care.

We do not care for our elders, our children – the most needful. The remaining tatters of the safety net – Medicare and Medicaid – are about to go up in flames.

Medicare

Medicare is the healthcare plan for older Americans. It is the primary health insurance for 99 percent of people 65 years and older and more than 5 million disabled persons. It is the way older Americans pay for hospital, skilled nursing facility, rehab, and hospice care, as well as doctor bills, a little home health care, and limited outpatient costs. Medicare is currently guaranteed and lifelong.

Medicare isn’t perfect. It has many problems. The premium cost has increased since its inception in 1965; seniors now pay a greater percentage out of pocket than they directly paid for healthcare in 1964. There is the gap in Part B, the difference between what Medicare pays in doctor fees and what is actually owed, that the patient must make up.

This has created a whole new class of profit windfall for insurance companies that provide MEDIGAP insurance. In recent years, restrictions on reimbursement and time limits on services have compromised access to care.

Congressionally mandated cuts in physician payments, which are going to increase in magnitude over the next few years, are leading to a concomitant increase in the number of physicians refusing to take care of Medicare patients. I know of whole communities in this country where there are no doctors that will take on these patients.

Medicare does not provide dental care. Good dental care is essential to good health. Serious conditions, such as heart disease, may be caused or exacerbated by diseases of the mouth such as gum disease. Good nutrition may be dependent on obtaining a good fitting pair of dentures. We are all very much aware of the real crisis in prescription drugs.

The Medicare “intermediaries,” the corporations that actually handle the billing, accounting, and pay out the funds, are insurance companies such as Blue Cross of North Dakota. These entities often have their own rules, do not coordinate coverage even with each other, and place an unnecessary and complex burden on patients and providers alike.

The major problem with Medicare lies in its success. Beneficiaries are healthier and live longer. It is a national public health program with low administrative costs.

But it sits atop a pot of money that the medical industrial complex, Wall Street, and the current occupant of the White House want.

These special interests want to “reform” Medicare. They want to “privatize” Medicare by forcing the elderly and disabled into large managed care programs (or, to be honest, managed profit plans). All this without apparently noticing that:

• There are NO efficiencies in HMO;

• There are NO improvement in quality of care in HMOs;

• Medicare HMOs are dumping patients by the millions because they can’t make any money off them!

The right-wing privatization scheme is a radical and fundamental altering of Medicare. It is also ideological. The goal is the destruction of a guaranteed benefit available to all seniors through a reliable and successful program – transforming it into a plan where some types of care will be available some of the time for some people by private insurance companies, generating tremendous profit. And if you want and can afford more complete care, you can buy more. Thus generating even more profit at the expense of the health of not only the elderly, but of the nation.

The Bush Medicare Prescription Drug program would present a $400 billion gift to the pharmaceutical industry with little benefit for seniors.

The proposed GOP budget slashes Medicare by $214 billion. The real plan for Medicare is to starve it. Then shape the corpse until it fits the corporate mold.

Medicaid

Medicaid is the core of the nations safety net. The right-wing Bush administration attack against Medicaid is nothing short of evil.

The always underfunded Medicaid is the federal and state health insurance program that covers 47 million low income and disabled U.S. residents.

Medicaid is in trouble. It is a victim of state budget shortfalls and a surge in need. State budget shortfalls have come about because of falling tax revenues, cuts in federal revenue sharing, and imprudent tax-cut programs – a combination of the current economic crisis and right wing ideology. The surge in need, also generated by the economic crisis, is fueled by continuing mass layoffs, cutbacks, record unemployment and underemployment, and astronomical increases in insurance premiums.

The greatest threat to Medicaid is the proposed budget process change made by the Bush administration. Currently, Medicaid is funded by 1:1 or 1:3 federal matching grants. The kind of grant depends on state size and number of patients covered. The Bush proposal would change the mechanism to one of ever-shrinking block grants. This has created an unprecedented crisis.

States are slashing programs. These cuts affect the most vulnerable: Nursing home patients; life saving medications for people with HIV/Aids; nutrition programs for women and children; immunization programs for kids; TB surveillance programs; and prescription drugs.

Other proposals are cutting payments for hospitals and skilled nursing facilities; closing hospitals; eliminating payments for dental, vision, hospice and mental health programs.

Some states are charging elderly patients fees for doctor visits, non-emergency ER visits, transportation to places like dialysis centers and doctors’ offices, and ambulatory surgery services.

States are also looking to save money by changing eligibility requirements. Some states, like Arizona, fought for years to raise the eligibility ceiling for Medicaid from 37 percent of poverty to 100 percent of poverty. That gain is now threatened. Many of the proposed restrictions are tinged with racist and anti-immigrant provisions.

The block grant proposal would result in a 1/2 trillion dollar loss in public health funds over the next ten years.

Also on the chopping block is the State Children’s Insurance Program or SCHIP. Developed by the Clinton administration in 1997, SCHIP provides healthcare for the children of working parents who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but who do not get insurance through their jobs or cannot afford to purchase health insurance.

All in all, in 2004, Medicaid and SCHIP funding is threatened to be cut by $8 billion or 3 percent. This type of cut would strip 84,000 children in Missouri, alone, of healthcare coverage.

By 2009, the cuts will total $49 billion. And by 2013 – ten short years – cuts would total $105 billion or 16 percent. Almost 7.5 million people would loose coverage: 3.9 million kids. And George Bush says he will leave no child behind; 1.2 million disabled; 690,000 seniors; 1.7 million other adults.

There needs to be an organized and robust fight back to the anti-people attacks on our health care safety net. Already involved are labor, retiree organizations, and children advocacy groups. We must all be involved. We must all join this fight as if our very lives depend on it. They do.

The author is a health care worker and activist and can be reached at

• Medicare is the primary health insurance for 99 percent of people 65 years and older.

• Medicare covers more than 5 million disabled persons.

• Medicaid covers 47 million low-income and disabled U.S. residents every year.

• 60 million people are going without health insurance every year.

• Americans spend 14.1 percent of the gross domestic product on healthcare.

• The World Health Organization ranks the U.S. 37th among the world’s nations in provision and quality of care.

• A 3 percent reduction in Medicaid and SCHIP can leave 84,000 children without health coverage.

* * * * * *

The next big battle looms – privatization of Medicare

The next big legislative battle will begin the week of June 8 when Congress takes up the question of prescription drugs under Medicare. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has announced his intention to wind things up before the Fourth of July.

The supporters of privatization see Frist, a cardiologist who never voted until he was nearly 40, as a key player in the up-coming battle. And well they should. He is a member of the family that founded – and still operates – Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), which merged with the Columbia hospital chain in the ’90s to become the nation’s largest hospital chain. Columbia/HCA has paid $1.7 billion in fines for defrauding Medicare.

Dianne Lardie, policy director of the Universal Health Care Action Network, said the obvious in a recent article: “Frist’s family would have a vested interest in privatizing Medicare.”

In her article “No to privatizing Medicare,” Lardie makes a number of important points:

• Because of Medicare, almost no one over 65 is without health insurance.

• Medicare serves 40,000,000 vulnerable Americans including 5,000,000 persons with chronic disabilities under age 65.

• Medicare is the most important element in reducing poverty among the elderly.

• Medicare+Choice (HMOs) plans offer unreliable coverage. From 1999 to 2003 these plans dropped 2.4 million Medicare beneficiaries.

• For-profit insurers withdrew from Medicare at two-and-a-half times the rate of non-profit plans.

• Medicare spends less that 3 percent on administrative costs compared to an average of 15 percent by HMOs.

• Private insurers that offer Medigap policies spend an average of 20 percent on non-health items such as marketing.

Lardie questions the need to “reform” Medicare which she says is “so obviously successful.” However, she suggest the need for strengthening the program: “New treatments and the aging of the population mean higher costs … Covered benefits need to be expanded to include prescription drugs. It is the how of expanding benefits and keeping Medicare affordable that will be the subject of much debate … [T]he administration and many in the for-profit insurance industry are chanting their usual “the private sector is more efficient, etc.” Buzz words like “consumer-driven,” “choice,” “competition” are being dangled to persuade the public that private plans offer more. Lardie says that “certain principles were agreed upon” when Medicare was enacted in 1965:

First, insurance is the mechanism best suited to having a large pool of people share risk. Second, redistribution of income through taxes was the way to make insurance affordable and universal. Third, administration should be through the federal government to ensure universality and avoid discrimination.

“These principles are worth upholding,” Lardie said, adding: “‘Reforming’ or restructuring Medicare threatens its universal and non-discriminatory features especially.”

Lardie went on to say, “Health care is not a product … to be bought and sold in a market context. It does not belong in the private sector for entrepreneurs to invest and make profits.” She said health care is a service that can only be guaranteed by the public sector “and that means government.”

“Medicare guarantees benefits, does not discriminate, holds costs down and provides social insurance that deters poverty. Any strengthening mechanisms must honor its status as a public program that acknowledges universality and community,” Lardie concluded.

– Fred Gaboury fgab708@aol.com

Little Maine: the dragon slayer

Fri, 06 Jun 2003 02:56:00 +0000

When two British publications – The Economist magazine and The Financial Times – pay tribute, of sorts, to the actions of a single state in the USA, you can be sure that history has been made. And in fact it has: The innovative Maine Rx program, aimed at curbing the cost of prescription drugs, passed an important legal hurdle last month when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed it to move forward.

While many people can take credit for this victory over the drug monopolies, special tribute is due to a solitary woman activist who would not allow the naysayers to hold her back. Chellie Pingree made the control of drug prices her main issue when she headed up the state of Maine’s Senate. And it was her issue when she ran for the U.S. Senate.

While Pingree has not won an election since she left state government (she has since become executive director of Common Cause), her influence has not decreased. She helped wield the sword that slayed the dragon – the big pharmaceutical companies – in the state of Maine.

What happened?

A few years ago, the people of Maine and other Canadian border states began marching with their feet. They refused to be held hostage by the drug monopolies when their physicians prescribed expensive drug medications. They simply got in their cars and traveled across the border to Canada and received their drugs at far less cost. The same happened in states that border on Mexico. Now this practice has become routine.

When Ms. Pingree proposed legislation to make prescription drugs affordable and eliminate the trip across the borders, she was literally laughed at. Constitutional attorneys smirked confidently that individual states could not enact laws that would infringe upon corporations to conduct business across state lines.

PHARMA, the powerful trade association for all of the drug monopolies, used that argument in their case before the Supreme Court. But PHARMA lost the decision by a 6 to 3 margin.

A lot of wise-guy legislators and pundits had to eat crow. You could see through their forced smiling faces their worry about the tens of thousands of dollars in payoffs that might dry up.

Interestingly, the drug companies have always taken Pingree seriously. They know how much they are hated.

Dire consequences predicted – but for whom?

The Wall Street Journal predicted that if the Maine program survived the Supreme Court challenge, the industry would lose up to $43 billion in lost 2005 sales – between 10 percent to 20 percent of the industry total – assuming that all other states in the U.S. copy the Maine bill. That, in fact, is what’s happening. Many other states either have or are about to follow suit.

The Economist put the argument very clearly, “The [Supreme Court], cheered by old and sick all around the country, heartened states with the same idea, and infuriated big PHARMA, for which Lehman Brothers predicted net income losses of between 1.5 percent and 3.5 percent if discounting becomes general.”

One monopoly’s loss is the people’s gain. Loss of this revenue might even begin to force the drug companies to cut back on their political payoffs to legislators.

State actions can influence Congress

Every state should undertake actions similar to Maine’s. State actions such as these are important from the standpoint of forcing Congress to act. Congressional and the presidential elections in 2004 should be predicated on slaying the Drug Dragon. By doing that we will get closer to a national health program.

So remember: Don’t ever take lightly the efforts of individuals, especially those of a strong woman, and especially when the actions are tied to organized labor and the people’s movements.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Urgent campaign to save San Pedro River

Fri, 06 Jun 2003 02:49:00 +0000

Tucson, Ariz. – The continued existence of the Southwest’s ecologically vital San Pedro River is under severe threat, environmental activists say, because of a rider to the FY 2004 Defense Authorization Act. The proposed new clause, the so-called “Renzi Rider,” would remove this vital wetland from federal protection and open the way for an explosion of military-industrial development in the San Pedro watershed. Unless decisive action is taken now, organizers say, North America stands to lose one of its most precious jewels.

The San Pedro is only about 140 miles long, originating just south of the U.S./Mexico border, near Cananea. It is one of just four rivers in North America that runs south to north.

Aside from this distinction, however, the San Pedro is of vital ecological importance to the entire continent. It is the last remaining wild, free-flowing river in the desert U.S. Its role as a wildlife corridor, particularly for bird migrations, cannot be overstated. Almost two-thirds of the bird diversity in the U.S. is supported by this river valley.

Around 100 species of birds breed in or near the San Pedro River, which provides a migratory and winter range corridor for an additional 250 species, annually hosting as many as 4 million migrating birds each year.

This little river is also home to more than 80 species of mammals, including the rare and elusive jaguar and coatimundi. It supports more than 65 species of reptiles and amphibians, and contains several fishes on the endangered list, including the spikedace and loach minnow.

The Renzi Rider to the FY 2004 Defense Authorization Act, named after Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), would effectively kill the San Pedro by removing the river from federal protection. The rider would also absolve the Fort Huachuca Army Base (located near Sierra Vista, Ariz.) of its current responsibility to limit all military-related water use of the San Pedro watershed to an agreed-upon maximum of 54 percent.

The rider has already passed the House, and the Defense Authorization Act is now being studied by the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, where differences between the two chambers’ appropriations bills are being worked out.

James Jordan can be reached at turnwind_az@yahoo.com