There were 150 rallies today alone for a govt public healthcare option for all. I didnt think msm would report it but reuters did with some heartbreaking personal stories as well. The reporter who wrote the piece went to middle America in Kansas. And found lots of folks mad as hell. These are the stakes. if congress does not follow through the democratic party is in massive trouble.
Some excerpts are below. People are paying attention and are not happy with the Blue Dogs. These folks protesting in KS are scared. Scared that our party will lose the fight again on healthcare. They put their trust in Demcorats to do reforms to the system and let them into a govt plan if they want. So Reid and Schumer-who are still harping on co-ops-Obama and Rahm-Pelosi and the rest beware. We gave money to you. We worked heart and soul to win the 2008 election and did. Now you deliver for us. That is politics. No exucses. The people of America are getting it. And growing enraged. Beware Congress-we are all watching.
Everyday Americans argue for public healthcare option
By Carey Gillam Carey Gillam
Fri Jul 10, 4:18 pm ET
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – Kathy Cook's health insurance premiums of $740 a month are nearly as costly as her mortgage. William McEachen struggles to help his disabled adult daughter get the care and medicines she needs. Business owner Don Phipps is outraged at rapidly rising insurance premiums for himself and his employees.
Stories of personal struggles to find affordable healthcare spilled out across the country this week in street-corner picketing, petition drives and rallies, as supporters of President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul sought to counter what they fear is a weakening in the reform efforts in the U.S. Congress.
"They seem to be backing off on the public option," said David Quinly of Prairie Village, Kansas, who joined a group of about 40 protesters to picket outside the Kansas City office of U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican.
On Thursday alone, more than 150 similar demonstrations were held in communities around the United States, including outside U.S. senators' local offices in Minnesota, Georgia, Texas, Virginia, according to Justin Ruben, executive director of the MoveOn. org, the progressive political action group that organized the activities.
BLUE DOGS
The public option is a key component of Obama's plan, but sharp opposition from the insurance industry and from a group of fiscally conservative House of Representatives Democrats, known as the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, has threatened the viability of that provision.
......
Forty of the 52-member Blue Dog Democrats sent a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressing reservations about public option,...
One alternative may be picking up steam. Acknowledging the opposition to government-run health insurance plan, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, and Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, said this week they are amenable to the creation of a non-government member-owned health cooperative.
But that wasn't sitting well with people like William McEachen, whose 40-year-old disabled daughter has struggled for years to obtain coverage for extensive medical needs. ... "What we want is the same kind of plan Senator Brownback and his family enjoy paid for by the U.S. taxpayer," said Phipps, who said his marketing company's insurance premiums have jumped more than 20 percent in the last year alone.
Cook, who said she is struggling to pay for health insurance and save to put a child through college, said a public option that would counter rising premiums and insure access for all was imperative.
"We can't go on like this," she said.
(Reporting by Carey Gillam, editing by Jackie Frank)
http://news.yahoo.com/...