(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)
Americans across the nation demonstrated in favor of guaranteed healthcare and in protest of AHIP — America’s Health Insurance Plans — the insurance industry lobbyists who profit from our pain and folks in Louisville joined in the protest. I put together the video below to give you a flavor of the protest.
It’s sad that John McCain and Senator Mitch McConnell are so out of touch with the needs of the people they are supposed to be representing. It seems that John McCain and Senator Mitch McConnell find it easer to represent the over paid healthcare CEO’s than the folks who were out on the streets protesting today. Click here to view photos of the event.
When Senator Sherrod Brown was running for a seat in the House of Representatives over 10 years ago, he saw something wrong with this. He pledged not to accept his free government health care until everyone in the United States had the same luxury. (He’s still waiting.)
Brown reasoned that politicians should have the same privileges as those they represent. I know a lot of the Democrats running for President understand this principle. Monday night during their YouTube debate, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson all pledged to work for the minimum wage should they be elected president — to show that they’re in touch with the plight of everyday Americans, and to make sure they are personally invested in making sure the minimum wage in this country is a livable one. Good for them.
Now, candidates, how about giving up your health care too? If elected president, you and your family will be entitled to free government health care, courtesy of the fine doctors at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. But nearly 50 million of your constituents will go without any medical care at all — and 18,000 of them will die during your first year in office simply because they lack health insurance. As the head of the government, how can you take advantage of its health care services, but deny it to so many citizens?
