| Support Green Mass Group! |
|
|
Towards a just & healthy democracy in the Commonwealth... and beyond!
|
Wed Jul 07, 2010 at 23:21:13 PM EDT
|
( - promoted by michael horan)
Updated on July 20 with the following good news from Scott Laugenour, candidate for State Legislature from the Berkshire Fourth District--visit his web site for more information:
I am pleased to report that my campaign collected enough signatures for a single payer question - drafted by Mass Care - to be placed on the November ballot. The signatures were sent to Mass Care on July 16. Here is the campaign statement [originally published on GMG on July 7]:
The 4th Berkshire District is on track to have a health care reform question on November's ballot, specifically promoting a comprehensive public health insurance system similar to what most other democracies in the world have.
Scott's campaign took the lead in giving voters in the 4th Berkshire District an opportunity to weigh in on the issue. |
| scott_laugenour :: Single Payer Question on 4th Berkshire Ballot--UPDATE! |
| Scott turned in the last sheets of signatures to the Town Clerk of Lenox this afternoon at 4:00 pm. Today was the last day that Town and City Clerks can accept the petitions. Certification and submission of the signatures to the Elections Division are due by July 28 and August 4 respectively.
"When I learned a few months ago that advocates were mobilizing to get this question on the ballot, I immediately offered the support of my campaign for the 4th Berkshire District. Voters know that too much public and private money is being spent on insurance schemes, premiums, deductibles, and co-payments, while delivering neither quality care nor protection from health care costs that too often cause personal financial ruin. While incorporating the signature drive for this petition to my own campaign canvassing, I clearly heard from the voters in the 4th Berkshire District that they are eager for the opportunity to cast a vote of no-confidence in the current system. On this issue, and in their quest for industry cash, both the Republican and Democratic parties have sold out the public interest. There are thirty-six superior forms of health care delivery among nations around the world, which are variations on a non-profit insurance model. In all cases, these nations spend much less than we do while outperforming us. It is time this country joined them, and we'll start in Massachusetts."
The campaign reported support for the health care petition from all political persuasions, despite the polarizing manner in which the single payer debate is usually presented in the U.S. media. "Conservatives in other parts of the world have come to understand that a publicly administered health insurance system produces the best results at a lower price. The burden of our system on businesses, towns, and people is too great," Scott noted, adding that David Cameron's recently elected conservative government campaigned on strengthening Britain's public insurance system. "No politician in any other democracy - to the right or to the left - would attempt to peddle to his/her people the system what our political leaders arrogantly tell us we have to settle for. The voters in the 4th Berkshire District are ready for the real debate that this ballot question will initiate."
The question that will be on the ballot was drafted by MassCare (http://www.masscare.org), a Boston-based promoter for a statewide Single Payer Health Care system. Efforts have been underway in over 40 other house legislative districts to collect the 200 certified signatures necessary to place the non-binding referendum on the November ballot, which reads:
"Shall the representative from this district be instructed to support legislation that would establish health care as a human right regardless of age, state of health or employment status, by creating a single payer health insurance system like Medicare that is comprehensive, cost effective, and publicly provided to all residents of Massachusetts?"
Single payer health care is firmly promoted in Scott's election campaign, in other Green-Rainbow campaigns, in the platform of the state Green-Rainbow Party, and in the platform of the national Green Party of the US. No insurance industry contributions are accepted at any level of the green political movement.
My town hall meetings on this issue will be nothing like those of other legislators and candidates. I invite the incumbent representative and people of conservative, centrist, and progressive persuasions to participate in the public debate with me when this issue is presented to voters in the 4th Berkshire District. It's time for new dialogue that transcends the tired paradigms, in which the establishment and those profiting from the status quo desire to keep us trapped. Voters will have the opportunity to demand better in November, both by electing me and by casting a YES vote on this question." |
|
| About |
|
Green Mass Group is an online forum for Green thought and collective action in Massachusetts. It is a community forum for justice, sustainability, democracy and health in the Commonwealth and beyond.
Read more
|
| Quotes |
"Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required - on entitlement reform and tax reform - right now, rather than through a special congressional committee process. But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year. Most importantly, it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America."
--President Barack Obama on the debt ceiling "deal"
"Despite Democratic control over the White House, despite Democratic control over the Senate, despite overwhelming opposition from the American people, a small minority of the members of the Republican-controlled House have successfully pushed an extreme right-wing agenda onto the American political landscape. It is an ideology which believes that despite the fact that the rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking, and poverty is increasing, all - all of the burden for deficit reduction should rest on working people."
--Independent Senator Bernie Sanders on the debt ceiling "deal"
|
|
Then and Now
|
Then...
"Last year Evergreen, a Massachusetts company, agreed to establish their first-ever United States based manufacturing facility here in Massachusetts. They did so, or are doing so, at Devens. They have now agreed and chosen to triple their size at Devens. Their next phase of expansion, right here in Massachusetts, a signature company in a signature sector, and we congratulate all of the folks at Evergreen and look forward to continuing to work with you...
We made a personal commitment to Evergreen for the sake of Evergreen, but also because we wanted to show that there are ways in which state government, in working together with private industry and with the utility companies, could begin to create a different kind of environment, a different kind of business climate here, to grow that sector, and it is happening. It's happening. Evergreen is one of the most prominent examples, but there are a whole host of examples."
--Governor Deval Patrick, April 7, 2008, boasting about state investment in Evergreen.
and Now...
"Evergreen Solar Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, completing a stunning reversal of fortune for a high-flying alternative-energy company that once seemed to herald a new era for the Massachusetts economy... At its peak, Evergreen employed roughly 900 people locally and attracted more than $50 million in state support, as its stock price soared above $100 a share.
Yesterday, Evergreen's stock closed at 18 cents. The company shuttered its manufacturing plant in Devens earlier this year and now has only 85 employees left. Massachusetts is one of its top creditors, owed $1.5 million in rent."
--Erin Ailworth, Boston Globe, August 16, 2011
|
|
