USAction Update: July 10, 2007
Thanks to tireless organizing efforts by Citizen Action of Wisconsin and Oregon Action, lawmakers in both states passed legislation in June to make good on the promise of quality, affordable health care for all.
In Wisconsin, the USAction affiliate led the organizing force behind the June passage of "Healthy Wisconsin," a plan to provide comprehensive coverage – with no monthly premiums, minimal co-pays and low annual deductibles – to all residents under age 65 who don't qualify for Medicaid. In a Capital Times op-ed, Citizen Action of Wisconsin Program Director Robert Kraig called the victory "a milestone in the movement for health care reform."
Progressive States Center Executive Director Joel Barkin wrote in the Huffington Post: "None of this would have happened without the great work done by Citizen Action of Wisconsin and a coalition of over 30 organizations who are working together to guarantee health care coverage for all Wisconsin residents."
The same week, legislators in Oregon voted almost unanimously to pass the "Healthy Oregon Act," a blueprint to make the state's health care system more affordable, effective and available. Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed the bill a few days later.
Oregon Action, which had made the bill a top priority on its legislative agenda, held three lobby days in support of the bill and took several groups of Oregon Action members to Salem to testify on its behalf.
USAction and Americans Against Escalation in Iraq have trained and deployed 90 field organizers to 15 states for a summer-long effort to pressure 40 GOP lawmakers to bring a responsible end to the war. Modeled on the "Freedom Summer" civil rights campaign of 1964, the multi-million dollar "Iraq Summer" campaign will involve thousands of signs, stickers and events across the country to turn the heat up on nine senators and 31 representatives.
One Iraq Summer organizer, Iowa Citizen Action Network activist Sue Dinsdale, whose son served two tours in Iraq, told the Iowa Independent that she found her antiwar voice as her son's second tour drew to a close. Dinsdale has since spoken at peace rallies in Iowa, at the office of her congressman, Republican Rep. Tom Latham, and even in a private session with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. In her interview with the Independent, she said she had recently met a soldier her son had served with in Iraq. "That soldier came over and hugged me and thanked me for all I was doing," she said.
As The Hill reported on June 15, AAEI's focus on specific lawmakers is designed to leave President Bush isolated in his pursuit of war without end.
A recently released New York Times/CBS poll found that 63 percent of the American public wants a timetable for withdrawal in 2008. By mobilizing thousands of activists, students and workers, Iraq Summer will bring opposition to the war to the doorsteps of members of Congress who refuse to see that it's time to bring the troops home.
USAction affiliates and other members of the Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities continue to fight for full funding for health care, education and other critical human needs.
In May, President Bush threatened to veto any spending bill that elevates funding levels for human-needs programs above his own paltry request. Immediately after that, the right-wing Republican Study Committee in the U.S. House asked lawmakers to sign a pledge of support for such a veto, and ECAP members set to work urging them not to.
After Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, R-Md., joined 146 of his Republican colleagues on the letter, Progressive Maryland held a series of press conferences urging the lawmaker to change his mind. At an event outside Gilchrest's office in Salisbury, Md., the Delmarva Daily Times reported, Progressive Maryland's Matthew Weinstein pointed out that a vote to sustain a veto would deprive Maryland of $31 million in Community Development Block Grants, $6.6 million for home heating assistance and $50.8 million for education, including 20 teachers in Gilchrest's district.
When Gilchrest responded by claiming that his support for the veto was rooted in a desire to "rein in excessive federal spending," Weinstein shot back with a letter to the editor pointing out that the president's agenda includes more "tax cuts for people who clearly don't need them" and irresponsible cuts from health care, education, job training and other investments.
On Independence Day, West Virginia Citizen Action Group Executive Director Gary Zuckett reminded readers of the Charleston Gazette that "Rep. [Shelley Moore] Capito and her colleagues don’t work for President Bush or the Republican Party. They work for us."
In a rapid-response organizing feat reminiscent of USAction's successful 2005 campaign to protect Social Security, United Vision for Idaho surprised Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in June by bringing "more than 100 sign-waving foes of President Bush" to the site of a planned press conference in Boise, forcing Gonzales to flee indoors, the Associated Press reported.
UVI Executive Director Jim Hansen wondered: "Did he think he was going to just get warm fuzzies here in Idaho?"
In 2005, North Dakota Progressive Coalition (now NDPeople.org) kicked off the campaign to protect Social Security with a massive, rapidly organized rally in Fargo to coincide with President Bush's first attempt to sell his privatization scheme to America.
