Winning by a small majority does not give you a mandate. Running candidates that are more conservative than RINO'S doesn't give you a mandate. The Dems are about to over reach and prove conservatism is not dead and Americans want less taxes, less spending.
Universal Health Care the 'Ultimate Prize' for Liberals
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
June 19, 2007
Washington (CNSNews.com) - Universal health care is the primary
focus of the new "progressive" agenda for liberals now back in the
political driver's seat after winning control of Congress, according to
liberal leaders attending the annual Take Back America conference in
Washington this week.
On Monday, leaders from the sponsoring
group, Campaign for America's Future, joined representatives of other
liberal advocacy groups to introduce what they called "bold reforms"
for the political debate.
Propelled by momentum from the
November 2006 elections, liberals are pushing for an end to the war in
Iraq, political action to address climate change and increased power
for the labor movement. But the pursuit of universal health care holds
center stage at Take Back America, even among those whose advocacy
focuses on other issues.
Providing "affordable access to health
care for every American" is the "ultimate prize" for left-wing
activists, Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change,
told a news conference kicking off the three-day conference.
Declaring
that "the conservative era is dead," Woodhouse conceded that change
would be difficult but encouraged liberal activists to remain unified.
Eli
Pariser, executive director of the anti-war MoveOn.org Political
Action, said that as the group begins to broaden its focus, members
"want to see every American covered with health care."
Cecile
Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America,
called universal health coverage the "number one domestic issue" facing
the nation.
"Even insured folks in this country find that health
care in unaffordable," Richards said, calling the GOP's approach to
health care the "biggest failure of the conservative agenda."
Elected
officials appearing at early conference events also stressed
government-run health care as an important goal for the movement.
Rep.
Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) called on conference attendees to "build
political pressure that is so loud, so persistent, that it can't be
ignored."
"We have to win the guarantee that every person in
this country will get affordable, comprehensive and high quality health
care," she said.
Andrea Batista Schlesinger, executive director
of the liberal Drum Major Institute, encouraged conference-goers to
stop dancing around the issue and be proud of the goal.
"Damn
straight it's [social] engineering," she said of policy proposals like
universal health care. "That's the point of government."
Noticeably
off the radar at Take Back America is the issue of immigration reform.
Batista Schlesinger referred to the debate over how to deal with
illegal immigrants only to say they should be offered "legal status."
The
conference will feature one panel discussion on the issue Wednesday
morning. It competes with a speech by filmmaker Michael Moore, who will
preview and discuss his new documentary criticizing the health care
industry.
The health care approach is likely to strike a chord
with Americans, a majority of whom support a government-run national
health insurance program, according to recent polling data.
A
May CNN/Gallup poll found that 64 percent of Americans support a
national health insurance program "even if this would require higher
taxes."
A January NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that 53
percent of Americans "would be willing to pay higher taxes so that
everyone can have health insurance."
The same poll found that
a plurality - 48 percent - think it's a good idea to "require residents
with higher incomes to pay for coverage and state funding that would be
used to help cover residents with lower incomes."
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