The Nation: Medicare for All!, Blair Mountain March

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/06/06-2

Hundreds Begin 50 Mile March to Protect Blair Mountain in Southern W.Va.

Marchers call for end to mountaintop removal, protection of Blair Mountain, strengthened labor rights

Hundreds more are expected to join throughout the march.  The march will end with a rally in Blair, W.Va., on June 11, where Emmylou Harris, Kathy Mattea, Ashley Judd, and other artists will perform.  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will speak at the rally, along with acclaimed Appalachian writer Denise Giardina and retired UMWA miner and community leader Chuck Nelson.

Blair Mountain March media@blairmountainmarch.org

Common Dreams: June 7, 2011

MARMET, WV - June 6 - Appalachia Rising: March on Blair Mountain kicked off this morning with a press conference at the Marmet Baseball field.  Hundreds of participants rallied and community members called for the abolition of mountaintop removal, the protection of Blair Mountain, the strengthening of labor rights, and a transition to a sustainable economy in Appalachia.  Hundreds of participants began their peaceful trek to Blair Mountain at approximately 10:15 a.m.

Chuck Keeney, great grandson of famed UMWA leader during the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain spoke at the conference.  Also speaking were Coal Country producer Mari-Lynn Evans; Salt Rock native Brandon Nida,and Wilma Steele, a Mingo county art teacher.  Photos are available upon request at: media@blairmountainmarch.org

“We’re here to build a better future for our kids, for our community,” said Brandon Nida, Salt Rock W.Va. native and doctoral student of archaeology at Berkeley.

Marchers will follow the same route that coal miners took when they marched to Blair Mountain in 1921 in an effort to gain basic human rights and civil liberties.  The ensuing battle between 10,000 coal miners and the coal industry’s hired gunmen is remembered as the largest armed uprising in United States history since the Civil War, and was a landmark event in labor struggles of the early 20th century. In March of 2009, Blair Mountain was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, but coal operator pressure on state agencies led to its de-listing nine months later.

“Mountaintop removal eliminates jobs, not creates jobs,” said retired UMWA miner Joe Stanley, “I’m doing this to preserve the history and culture Blair Mountain represents.  If we allow them to destroy Blair Mountain we’ll forget the actions done by brave men that led to strengthening the labor movement and creating the middle class.”

Hundreds more are expected to join throughout the march.  The march will end with a rally in Blair, W.Va., on June 11, where Emmylou Harris, Kathy Mattea, Ashley Judd, and other artists will perform.  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will speak at the rally, along with acclaimed Appalachian writer Denise Giardina and retired UMWA miner and community leader Chuck Nelson.

Mountaintop removal is an extreme form of coal mining that involves blasting off the tops of mountains in order to extract the seams of coal underneath. Overburden—the industry term for topsoil, trees, and rock containing toxic heavy metals—is dumped in valleys, finding its way into water sources and contaminating the drinking water of those who live nearby. Community members living near mountains permitted for mountaintop removal often choose to vacate their homes rather than endure these adverse conditions, which also include increased flooding and poor air quality.

Mingo County native Wilma Steele said, “King coal owns our land and our politicians, they lead them to ignore mining safety laws and ignore every environmental law in the book.  Our mountains are special and shouldn’t be destroyed for this”

Blair Mountain March

Email: media@blairmountainmarch.org
Phone: (304) 518-0696 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (304) 518-0696    

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http://www.thenation.com/article/161084/medicare-all

 

Medicare for All!

 

“Nearly 80 percent oppose cutting Medicare benefits and two-thirds support raising taxes to continue to fund them. That’s because Medicare works—not perfectly, but compared with private health insurance, it’s far more efficient at keeping down costs while ensuring a baseline of coverage.”

 

Editors, The Nation: in the June 20, 2011 edition

 

The day after Democrat Kathy Hochul scored an upset victory in a special election deep in upstate New York’s Republican territory, former President Bill Clinton was getting real chummy with Congressman Paul Ryan, whose plan to privatize Medicare was widely seen as costing the Republicans the race and imperiling as many as a hundred GOP House seats in next year’s Congressional elections. Backstage at an event on national debt at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Clinton told Ryan, “I hope the Democrats don’t use it [the election] as an excuse to do nothing” on Medicare. Clinton may be right—but not in the way he seemed to mean.

 

The Democrats do need a winning Medicare plan, but they’re not going to find it by meeting Republicans in the middle (as Clinton’s former budget chief Alice Rivlin does with her Ryan-lite voucher proposal). And they’re not going to find it by only running against Republican ideas.

 

Indeed, the main strategy Democrats seem to have adopted in the wake of Hochul’s victory is to force Republicans to double down on Ryan’s agenda and pray that voters, particularly seniors, remain alarmed enough about the right’s shock doctrine tactics to throw the bums out. That might be a winning electoral formula, but how about some leadership and a plan to deal with rising healthcare costs? Where Democrats should look is Medicare itself—Medicare for all.

 

The chief lesson Democrats should take from the backlash to Ryan’s Medicare privatization scheme is that when faced with a choice between a market-based healthcare system and a government-run plan, voters overwhelmingly favor the latter. Nearly 80 percent oppose cutting Medicare benefits and two-thirds support raising taxes to continue to fund them. That’s because Medicare works—not perfectly, but compared with private health insurance, it’s far more efficient at keeping down costs while ensuring a baseline of coverage.

 

Contra Ryan, the problem with Medicare is that it’s not big enough; in countries like France and Canada as well as the United Kingdom, where government plays a much bigger role in financing healthcare and bargaining down prices, healthcare costs are about half what we currently spend, and they have comparable or better health outcomes.

 

Instead of just hoping that Republicans continue to play to their Tea Party base and implode in a general election, Democrats should be taking this moment to lead and to educate, not just on the practical virtues of Medicare for all but on the principle of social solidarity behind it.

 

They have the perfect opportunity now that Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin signed a single-payer healthcare plan on May 26. Vermont’s plan isn’t the single-payer system die-hard advocates want (there’s no funding for it yet, for example)—but it’s a start. If Vermont succeeds in providing its citizens with quality healthcare while keeping costs below market rates, other states may emulate its pioneering plan.

 

But in order to act as a national model, Vermont will need a federal waiver to bypass some of the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010. Obama has said he supports granting such waivers, but under current law he can’t do so until 2017. Vermont Senators Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy and Congressman Peter Welch have proposed legislation that would move the window up to 2014. That’s a bill worth going to the mat for.

 

The Editors