Healthcare NOT Warfare

[Simplepleasures]

http://pdamerica.org/articles/news/2008-03-05-12-05-43-news.phpPDA Launches the "Healthcare Not Warfare" Campaign By Norman Solomon, PDA Advisory Board member

March 5, 2008

Sign the petition!

For several years now, the news media have identified healthcare and the war in Iraq as key issues in American politics. But very little of the reporting or the punditry goes beneath the buzz-word surfaces to the human realities that span from local hospitals to a faraway war.

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift,” Martin Luther King Jr. said 40 years ago, “is approaching spiritual death.” Today, nearly one in six Americans has no health insurance, and tens of millions of others are woefully under-insured--while the war in Iraq continues to further skew the U.S. government's budget priorities.

By launching the national “Healthcare Not Warfare” campaign, Progressive Democrats of America is moving ahead with a grassroots opportunity to turn from warfare to healthcare for all. While growing ever since it came into existence four years ago, PDA has been working with--and, more often, pushing--Democrats in Congress to end the occupation of Iraq. And, integral to its progressive program, PDA has been mobilizing support behind H.R. 676, the bill to create a universal single payer system to guarantee healthcare for all.

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/79368/

Warfare and Health Care

By Norman Solomon, AlterNet. Posted March 11, 2008.

Here's an obvious solution to the health care crisis: why not cut the Pentagon's massive budget to fund health care for all?

It's kind of logical. In a pathological way.

A country that devotes a vast array of resources to killing capabilities will steadily undermine its potential for healing. For social justice. For health care as a human right.

If a society keeps approaching spiritual death, it's apt to arrive. Here's an indicator: Nearly one in six Americans has no health insurance, and tens of millions of others are badly under-insured. Here's another: The United States, the world's preeminent warfare state, now spends about $2 billion per day on military pursuits.

On Capitol Hill, lobbyists for the corporate profiteers are determined to block H.R. 676, the bill to create a universal single-payer system to implement health care as a human right.

Assessing the current presidential race, the Times reported: "The Democrats do not say, in any detail, how they would slow the growth of Medicare and Medicaid or what they think about the main policy options: rationing care, raising taxes, cutting payments to providers or requiring beneficiaries to pay more."

There are other "policy options" -- including drastic cuts in the Pentagon budget. And health care for all.

[sharona97, BSN, RN]

http://pdamerica.org/articles/news/2008-03-05-12-05-43-news.phpPDA Launches the "Healthcare Not Warfare" Campaign By Norman Solomon, PDA Advisory Board member

March 5, 2008

Sign the petition!

For several years now, the news media have identified healthcare and the war in Iraq as key issues in American politics. But very little of the reporting or the punditry goes beneath the buzz-word surfaces to the human realities that span from local hospitals to a faraway war.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift," Martin Luther King Jr. said 40 years ago, "is approaching spiritual death." Today, nearly one in six Americans has no health insurance, and tens of millions of others are woefully under-insured--while the war in Iraq continues to further skew the U.S. government's budget priorities.

By launching the national "Healthcare Not Warfare" campaign, Progressive Democrats of America is moving ahead with a grassroots opportunity to turn from warfare to healthcare for all. While growing ever since it came into existence four years ago, PDA has been working with--and, more often, pushing--Democrats in Congress to end the occupation of Iraq. And, integral to its progressive program, PDA has been mobilizing support behind H.R. 676, the bill to create a universal single payer system to guarantee healthcare for all.

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/79368/

Warfare and Health Care

By Norman Solomon, AlterNet. Posted March 11, 2008.

Here's an obvious solution to the health care crisis: why not cut the Pentagon's massive budget to fund health care for all?

It's kind of logical. In a pathological way.

A country that devotes a vast array of resources to killing capabilities will steadily undermine its potential for healing. For social justice. For health care as a human right.

If a society keeps approaching spiritual death, it's apt to arrive. Here's an indicator: Nearly one in six Americans has no health insurance, and tens of millions of others are badly under-insured. Here's another: The United States, the world's preeminent warfare state, now spends about $2 billion per day on military pursuits.

On Capitol Hill, lobbyists for the corporate profiteers are determined to block H.R. 676, the bill to create a universal single-payer system to implement health care as a human right.

Assessing the current presidential race, the Times reported: "The Democrats do not say, in any detail, how they would slow the growth of Medicare and Medicaid or what they think about the main policy options: rationing care, raising taxes, cutting payments to providers or requiring beneficiaries to pay more."

There are other "policy options" -- including drastic cuts in the Pentagon budget. And health care for all.

You go girl!

I loved the MTV interviews and when Hilary pointed out that with every American soldier we return home 10-14 million dollars follow them back home! And we can take better care of not only our wounded, vets, but our country and the folks here at home, IMO.