A SPOT-ON PROGRAM OF ABSOLUTE
NECESSITIES
At a time when
Washington claims that it is politically impossible to implement a single-payer
program -- Medicare for All -- the Greens are backing it one hundred percent. For
years now, polls have shown that a solid majority recognizes that single payer
would be the least costly and most efficient method of delivering quality
health care to all Americans.
During
his first campaign for the presidency, Obama said he supported single-payer,
but we didn't hear a peep out of him when early in 2009, Speaker Nancy Pelosi
announced that single-payer would be "off the table." This comment came at a
time when Democrats had a majority in both the Senate and the House.
Pelosi's
shot across the bow of Obama's ship of state typifies the struggle that goes on
in our nation's capital and in every state between the executive and
legislative branches for control of the agenda. It makes no difference whether
or not the same party is in charge of both branches.
Obama
could have used the huge grassroots organization that put him in office to
pressure recalcitrant Democratic legislators to work with him, warning them if
they did not they would have an opponent in the next election. When he was in
power, Lyndon Johnson knew how "to kick butt." Obama, however, left the field to Congress and assumed the
role of supplicant.
Furthermore, neither
major party candidate has a plan to provide work DIRECTLY to the people who are
currently unemployed.
The Green Party's
presidential nominee, Dr. Jill Stein, stated on Democracy Now (7/13/12), "We
need big solutions, not solutions around the margins. We really need to end
unemployment. We need to put 25 million people back to work with good-paying
jobs."
The Green Party's plan
is similar to FDR's. To be known as the Green New Deal, Stein says, "Funds
would be for direct job creation, jobs that are community-based in small
businesses and worker cooperatives, as well as public services and public
works, that's how you can do it. It's not rocket science."
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