{"id":3801,"date":"2017-01-06T11:42:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T19:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=3801"},"modified":"2017-01-06T11:42:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-06T19:42:00","slug":"sanders-will-lead-democratic-drive-organize-rallies-every-state-medicaremedicaid-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/01\/06\/sanders-will-lead-democratic-drive-organize-rallies-every-state-medicaremedicaid-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanders will lead Democratic drive to organize rallies in every state against Medicare\/Medicaid cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bernie Sanders doing the Democratic Party job of persuading congressional colleagues to help organize nationwide pre-inaugural protest rallies over potential cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, as well as other health matters Republicans are likely to take up in Congress come January.<\/em><\/p>\n

By\u00a0Meteor Blades (dailykos.com)<\/p>\n

In what Tim Fernholz at Quartz calls<\/a>\u00a0the Democrats\u2019 \u201cfirst major gesture of opposition\u201d to the incoming Trump regime, Senator Chuck Schumer, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Bernie Sanders have put their signatures on a letter to congressional colleagues Wednesday that might have come as a surprise to many of them. It encourages them to join with Sanders to help organize pre-inaugural rallies in their states to rouse\u00a0opposition to a Republican-driven budget bill \u201cthat will severely undermine the health needs of the American people.\u201d Leftover money from the Sanders campaign will fund the organizing effort.<\/p>\n

The expected budget bill provisions, as you see in the full letter below, are\u00a0a direct attack on Medicare and Medicaid, the three say, and will likely include hikes in prescription drug prices and a threat to nursing home care for millions of Americans.<\/p>\n

Called \u201cOur First Stand: Save Health Care,\u201d the resistance rallies are slated for Sunday, Jan. 15. Here\u2019s Fernholz:<\/p>\n

Sanders, whose run for the Democratic presidential nomination this year emboldened the left wing of the Democratic party, has seen his cachet rise in a party looking for leadership following Hillary Clinton\u2019s defeat in November. Amidst the recriminations and a messy race to head up the party\u2019s national committee, it hasn\u2019t been clear who would be the face of Democratic opposition to Trump. Now, we have an answer.<\/p>\n

While Sanders\u2019 harsh critique of the millionaire and billionaire class turned off professional Democrats who benefit from the global economy during his primary run, the election results have convinced party leaders that they need to better articulate how their economic policies will lead to broadly shared prosperity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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These rallies can perform several purposes, the obvious ones\u00a0being to stir up resistance before the regime takes office\u00a0and a chance for elected Democrats to unify people around a crucial common objective\u2014fighting against further destruction of the New Deal\/Great Society legacy of social welfare programs. But the rallies can\u00a0also give citizens a chance to let their\u00a0representatives know that they had better show some spine against the Republican agenda. There should be no pretending that, just because all the ceremonial trappings of democracy are present, we should normalize what\u2019s going on. We shouldn\u2019t. And our representatives shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

In that light, a Sanders\u2019 spokesman repeated what\u2019s been heard before from the senator and others about being willing to\u00a0cooperate\u00a0with Trump and Republicans \u201cwhere they can find agreement.\u201d In normal times, this would sound like plain old common sense.\u00a0It would be encouraging to live in such\u00a0times, when\u00a0bipartisanship thrives.\u00a0But we haven\u2019t been there for quite some while. And the line-up of cabinet appointments indicates it\u2019s soon going to be far worse. Too many Democrats have harmed the interests of their constituents by behaving as if most Republicans believe that cooperation is a two-way street. They obviously do not. And they need\u00a0to be treated like they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Here’s the two-page letter<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Bernie Sanders doing the Democratic Party job of persuading congressional colleagues to help organize nationwide pre-inaugural protest rallies over potential cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, as well as other health matters Republicans are likely to take up in Congress come January. By\u00a0Meteor Blades (dailykos.com) In what Tim Fernholz at Quartz… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3803,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801\/revisions\/3803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}