Senator Grassley says he cares about a bipartisan solution to health insurance reform. Working Iowans trusted that Senator Grassley was doing his best to produce bipartisan reform, as one of the heads of the influential Senate Finance Committee.

But while while Senator Grassley was holding town hall meetings across the state to sell Iowans on his effort to produce bipartisan health care reform, he was attacking health care reform to take in cash from fiercely partisan campaign donors.

Click here to write a letter to the editor urging Senator Grassley to support reform

This shameless attempt to profit from his anti-health care reform agenda was uncovered by Washington Post writer Ezra Klein You can download Senator Grassley's actual fundraising letter here: grassleyfundraising.pdf

Grassley writes in this letter: "I ask your immediate support in helping me defeat 'Obama-care.'" Far from being bipartisan, this letter pandering to the concerns and fears of right wing extremists paints Senator Grassley's position as clearly against reform. In Senator Grassley's own words, "The simple truth is that I am and always have been opposed to the Obama Administration's plans to nationalize health care. Period."

After assaulting the health insurance reform many of his Iowan constituents support, Grassley ends the letter: "Your contribution of $100 or more today will help me continue to build a campaign war chest and launch my re-election effort on a sound footing."

Click here to write a letter to the editor - send a message to Senator Grassley that Iowans expect better of him: http://action.seiu.org/page/speakout/nomorepolitics

With the average family premium in Iowa predicted to rise to a total of over $21,000 by 2019 without reform, 310,000 uninsured Iowans, and more medical bankruptcies every day, the people of Iowa deserve better than empty promises. While Senator Grassley continues to block reform to fund his own political ambitions, Iowa's families slip deeper into debt. Every day that health insurance reform is delayed means more money, more sickness, and more people's lives.

Write a letter and tell Senator Grassley to stop obstructing reform today

Today, in a meeting to convene a diverse group of labor, advocacy, faith and business leaders, SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina met with Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to discuss immigration reform.

As an added bonus, President Barack Obama made an unscheduled visit to the meeting and reiterated his support of pushing through a comprehensive immigration package this Congress.

The Hill reports that:

"Obama urged leaders to work together in order to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Advocates took the presidential visit as a sign of the administration's commitment to the issue."

In the first of its kind meeting -- to convene a diverse group of advocates to begin sketching a framework for reform-- Vice President Medina issued the following statement:

"Today's White House meeting with Secretary Napolitano and a diverse group of labor, faith, and business leaders is an important step towards shaping smart, comprehensive immigration reform legislation in the comings months. As the leader of the Department that has for far too long been tasked with the impossible job of enforcing broken, outdated laws, Secretary Napolitano knows first-hand how critical it is that we pass sweeping immigration reforms that are smart, enforceable and strengthen our economy for the long term.

"In coming months as the immigration debate heats up, Secretary Napolitano will play a central role in promoting real progress on the issue. In order to achieve the smart policy solution that the American public wants, we urge Secretary Napolitano to stand up publicly, light the fire and become an outspoken champion of comprehensive reform.

"Enforcement without reform has been tried for decades with dismal results. Instead of solving problems, it wastes taxpayer dollars, marginalizes immigrant communities and degrades the quality of life for all workers. In particular, expansion of employment verification programs like E-Verify is like painting the roof when the house is on fire; it's the wrong solution at the wrong time.

"For every day we delay on passing a solution to our broken immigration system, we impede our nation's economic recovery, create unnecessary divisions in our workforce, and cost taxpayers billions of wasted dollars.

"It is unacceptable to live in a country where millions of workers are living in shadows. The only way to ensure that every job in this country is filled by a legal permanent resident is to get undocumented immigrants out of the underground economy, into the system and under the rule of law. Diverse groups are aligned on the need for a comprehensive solution. Now we need the Administration and Congress to take bold steps, roll up their sleeves and pass smart reforms once and for all.

Shortly after the meeting, Secretary Napolitano issued a statement on the meeting saying:

"Today's meeting on comprehensive immigration reform was an important opportunity to hear from stakeholders and build on the significant time I've spent on the Hill meeting with members of Congress on this critical subject. I look forward to working with President Obama, my colleagues in Congress and representatives from law enforcement, business, labor organizations, the interfaith community, advocacy groups and others as we work on this important issue."

For months, we've highlighted repeated attempts by some Republicans to drive wrenches into the movement to fix health care.  Amidst an outbreak of H1N1 virus, they delayed Gov. Sebelius's confirmation as HHS Secretary. And when Frank Luntz's talking points were leaked to the press, it was clear that the GOP strategy on health care was only to confuse, conflate, and scare the beejeezus out the American public. Time and time again, Republicans have chosen partisan politicking over the hard work of crafting substantive policies that work for the American people.

For the most part, Republicans in Congress have left the dirty work of killing health care to pundits and Fox News anchors. Instead, they've pledged to be working in good faith with Democrats, despite their nonstop battering ram of rhetoric (re: "socialized medicine," "rationing of care" and blaming Canada). 

But now, there's been a slip-up. And not just by any Republican - but by a very prominent Republican leader, Senator Jim Demint, who exposed the Republican plan for what it really is--a plot to block health care reform at all costs in search of a desperately needed political victory. Sen. Jim Demint, on a recent conservative group conference call, said:

"If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

Make no mistake about it, this is not principled objection to legislation, but cheap, partisan politicking.  President Obama wasted no time in responding directly to Sen. Demint's comments:

OBAMA: Just the other day, one Republican Senator said, and I'm quoting him now, "if we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." Think about that. This isn't about me. This isn't about politics. It is about a health care system that is breaking American families, breaking America's businesses and breaking America's economy.

Below is the audio version of the quote:

It'll be interesting to watch Republicans explain away Sen. Demint's comments this week. Don't be surprised if you see some members of Congress talking out the of side of their mouth about "bipartisanship" and their so-called support for reform. Demint is only the latest to confirm what we've known all along - that some in Congress intend to kill health care reform strictly for political gain. We can't let them win.

All eyes will be on health care in the next couple of weeks, as language is expected from the Senate Finance Committee and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Across the country SEIU members and Change that Works activists worked at a feverish pace to spotlight the value of reforming our broken healthcare system.

• In Nebraska, organizers earned coverage across the state from Lincoln to Grand Island with 24 stories in 24 hours.
  
• Change that Works teamed with Democracy for America this week to promote a public health insurance option. In the Buckeye State, Change that Works Iowa teamed with SEIU Local 199 and state Senator Joe Bolkcom to encourage Senator Charles Grassley to support a public health insurance option.
  
• Pennsylvanians for Healthcare released a video profile of an advocate for healthcare reform and encouraged residents to "share their story" with elected officials.
  
• Change that Works Montana attended Senator Max Baucus' "Listening Tour" across Montana and encouraged him to remain a strong advocate for a public health insurance option.
  
• In Ohio, SEIU 1199WKO members delivered a book of Healthcare Worker Stories to Representative Marcia Fudge.
  
• Change that Works Tennessee delivered over 500 petition signatures urging Representative Gordon to support a public health insurance option.
  
• Wednesday at First Unitarian Church in downtown Denver, Colorado, former Governor Howard Dean discussed the need for a public option with more than 350 town hall attendees. On Friday, Governor Dean co-hosted a town hall of nearly 100 participants in Wilmington, DE, with SEIU Change that Works.

At this very moment, the halls of Congress are crawling with Big Bank lobbyists. They're doing all they can to defeat a bill that would stop the abuses of the credit card industry.

President Obama said he wants to sign a bill that protects credit card holders, but Big Banks are twisting the arms of your senators to get them to oppose even the most basic reforms.

Make the call now: tell your senators to support the Dodd-Shelby amendment to the Credit Cardholder Bill of Rights.

Call toll-free: 1-866-311-3405

Something remarkable happened yesterday. A majority of Bank of America's shareholders voted to oust Ken Lewis as Chairman of the company's board.

This is huge.

Shareholders cast an unprecedented vote of no confidence on Ken Lewis' leadership at Bank of America. It's the first step to real accountability at the financial giant.

Watch this video about yesterday's news and what we did around the country this week in support of accountability at Bank of America.

After weeks of advocating for major reforms at Bank of America we delivered more than 90,000 signed "taxpayer proxy cards" to the shareholder meeting yesterday. Allies like MoveOn.org, Brave New Films, True Majority, and many others were instrumental in the success of our actions.

Let's be clear: what happened yesterday is just the first step towards holding Bank of America accountable. Shareholders delivered a major vote of no confidence, but there's much more to be done.

While Ken Lewis is out as chairman of the board, he still remains the CEO of Bank of America. That's why we're calling on CEO Ken Lewis and new BofA Chairman Walter E. Massey to immediately implement these changes:

1. Commit to real financial reform
2. Stop consumer abuses and predatory lending practices that hurt communities
3. Provide bank workers access to affordable healthcare
4. Stop lobbying against pro-worker legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act to ensure bank workers have a voice on the job to protect consumers.

But for today, take a moment to watch this video about your efforts and what we've accomplished in the last several days. Click here to watch and tell your friends:

http://action.seiu.org/page/invite/hugenewsbofa

Thanks for all you've done to reform Bank of America. Our work is just beginning. We're glad to have you on board.

As a part of the nationwide anger over bonuses and corporate excess, more than 100 people demonstrated in front of the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Denver on Thursday, March 19, calling on Congress to pass health care for all, the Employee Free Choice Act, and strong banking reform.

Speakers included:

-- State Sen. Morgan Carroll, who represents an economically-disadvantaged district in Aurora (the state's third-largest city), and is a tireless advocate for working families in the State Senate.

-- Mick Velez, an electrician who's been looking for work and has been unable to find any, despite years of experience

-- Terri Monley, a small business woman who talked about her struggle to receive and provide health care benefits as a small businesswoman

-- Leonard McWilliams, a disabled veteran who, despite serving his country & living his life by the rules, is facing eviction from his house, and spoke movingly about the difficult challenges facing him.

One of the things that really struck me was the amount of media attention at the action. All the major network affiliates were there, and a number of radio stations were there as well, interviewing the speakers, and making sure that viewers & listeners who were unable to attend the action got our message -- America has had enough with corporate excess, and it's time we build an economy that works for everyone.

For example, Denver's Channel 7 interviewed Ben Hanna, who said

"Everyone knows someone who has been affected," said Ben Hannah. "I think there are going to be a lot more events like this and people are going to be calling their Congress people."

You can see Ben's comments here.

People expressed their anger and were upbeat. I've been active in public service, in one way, shape or form for the last decade. One of the reasons I decided to become active with this campaign was that I felt that it was past time that people who work hard and live their lives by what we consider to be the rules had a fair shot at the pursuit of happiness.

That pursuit includes having a free choice in how I have a voice on the job, negotiating good wages, and affordable, quality health care.

Each of the stories we heard pointed the way forward towards a future in which the words "pursuit of happiness" went from being words written on fragile parchment to being a reality attainable by all.

On Thursday, working families across New Hampshire protested at a dozen Bank of America offices across the state as part of a national day of action. They were among the 10,000 people that turned out at big banks coast-to-coast to express growing frustration with an economy weakened by years of corporate excess at the expense of broader prosperity.

Protesters challenged Congress to take immediate steps to rebuild an economy that works for everyone by passing:

• The Employee Free Choice Act so workers have the freedom to form unions for a voice to share in the economic progress they help create.


• President Obama's budget to invent in making quality, affordable health care for all a reality.


• Strong banking reform to make sure the financial services industry can never again bring our economy down by prioritizing huge profits and executive pay over responsible lending, or by preying on consumers, gambling with families' hard-earned money, and hiding their dealings.

See photos from the protest here

Watch news coverage here and here

The reports are coming back from your health care meetings, and we couldn't be more impressed. From everything you've said, it looks like your meetings were substantive, full of ideas and expertise, and were a rousing success.

We thought we'd share a small sampling of the ideas that you've submitted to us from your group discussions.

In Nashville, TN, Jane Fleishman and her health care discussion group came away with many diagnoses and solutions for our nation's health care problems. Here's what she reported, in the form of five ideas (out of many submitted - thanks, Jane!):

"Lack of access to good food is a major problem impacting people's health. The system doesn't do a good job of focusing on health. There is a lack of emphasis on diet, exercise and other preventive methods. The system does not seem to have prevention and health as a goal. It seems to be about something else entirely."

"Obesity is epidemic, especially in the South. People who keep their weight down and do things like get regular exercise should be able to get lower insurance premiums or some other incentive for doing the right thing in taking care of themselves."

"Remove the stigma and lack of equity for mental health care. Also, seeking mental health treatment should not make a person uninsurable. Currently, it is very likely that a person will be denied insurance if they have used mental health services, even for problems that are situational (i.e., dealing with grief). "

"Incentives for health care practitioners should be improved (i.e., they get paid when they keep people well as opposed to when their patients get sick)."

"Institute home visiting programs for pregnant women so babies and families get off to a healthy start and we lower our shameful infant mortality rate. In particular, we need to deal with the racial disparity evident in infant mortality rates in the U.S.."

Out of the great state of Washington, this comes from our friend "Astarab":

"It's my observation from 35 years experience in nursing and preventative care that innovative complementary care both in nursing and medicine can save a lot of lives and money. Nurse practitioners is a profession that should be encouraged to grow as it gives excellent first line of care with more emphasis on education, counseling, and practical low cost methods of care."

And from Missouri come a few more ideas:

• Tuition assistance / grants to train healthcare staff (RN, LPN, CNA, Social Workers, etc.) and the education and salaries of the faculty of the training facilities that provide it. Pay for it through a combination of national, state, local and facility/hospital funding.
• Nationally compatible, user friendly, medical record keeping and charting software to allow for efficient and dependable medical record keeping.
• Increases in staffing of support personnel to aid nursing staff in the care of patients
• Encourage development of patient room design and equipment placement that emphasize hygiene, efficiency and ergonomics in the care of hospitalized patients.

If you've recently held your meeting and have yet to report back to us, please do so here: http://www.seiu.org/host.

There's a great opinion piece in last Sunday's Washington Post that dispels 5 myths about America's health care system. Written by Shannon Brownlee and Ezekiel Emanuel (incidentally, the brother of incoming Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel), the article debunks some of the common misconceptions being pushed by opponents of health care reform.

The myths, in no particular order:

1. America has the best health care in the world.

Anybody who's spent any time actually working in the health care system knows this one doesn't smell quite right. And Brownlee and Emanuel have the facts to prove it. Most expensive system? Yes. Best? Nope. Any way you slice it, we aren't getting much bang for our buck. In fact, "we lag behind many developed countries on virtually every health statistic you can name."

2. Somebody else is paying for your health insurance.

People who receive coverage through their employers usually feel indebted to them for it. To some extent, they should - but they should also remember that health benefits come at the expense of lower wages. In fact, according to the Post article, health care costs are a large reason wages have flat-lined in recent decades.

 Since the 1980's everybody's been struggling to keep up with health care costs - premiums have been rising at more than double the rate of business income and four times the rate of wages.

If your employer doesn't offer coverage, good luck trying to afford it on your own; according to Families USA, 17.8 million Americans are in families that will spend more than 25 percent of their pre-tax income on health care costs in 2008 - and that number is on track to rise dramatically in the coming years.

3. We would save a lot if we could cut the administrative waste of private insurance.

It's true that there are savings to be found deep in the bureaucracies of the insurance giants. But, at the end of the day, it's only enough to make a dent in the enormous financial drain from our health care system.

Health care is an expensive business with lots of costly technology - and the system we have to fund it now just doesn't make sense. It takes more than trimming a little fat to fix this crisis - it takes comprehensive reform.

4. Health care reform is going to cost a bundle.

Government health care. Universal health care. Socialized medicine. Opponents have done a great job of making affordable health care sound massive and terrifying. Real health care reform isn't just about covering the uninsured - it's about making the whole system run better and cheaper. According to the article:

Even moderate reform of the delivery system would improve care and save money. The Lewin Group's analysis shows that a bill proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, calling for a more comprehensive overhaul of the health-care system than either McCain's plan or Obama's could actually insure everyone and save $1.4 trillion over 10 years. More reform is cheaper.

5. Americans aren't ready for a major overhaul of the health care system.

Boloney. I can't remember the last time health care was actually a hot button issue in a presidential election. Or when the President-elect has made it such a clear priority of his incoming administration.

More to the point - ready or not, American's can't afford another 15 years (or months) without solving this crisis. We need transformational change now.

You can hear the jaws dropping as people read James Pethokoukis' latest piece on health care in U.S. News' Capital Commerce blog. Pethokoukis takes partisan politics to a new level by urging Republicans to block any efforts by Obama (or any other Democrat) to fix health care. Why? Because doing so would boost the Democrats' popularity and further hurt Republicans' chances of winning future elections.

Amidst the usual scary phrases like "government takeover," "Marxist," and "Obamacare" (what does that even mean?), Pethokoukis comes clean about his real problem with health care reform - people will like it and they'll like Obama for making it happen. Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute agrees. His message to Republican lawmakers: Blocking Obama's Health Plan Is Key to the GOP's Survival.

Don't be too shocked, though - health care opponents have long been putting the survival of their political power before the survival of uninsured Americans. As Steve Benen points out on the Washington Monthly's website, Bill Kristol issued an almost identical decree in 1993. He urged Republican lawmakers to "kill" President Clinton's proposal to fix health care in order to improve their chances of winning future elections. Benen speculates that 2009 could look similar:

Remember, for Kristol then and Pethokoukis/Cannon now, it's not about the quality of the policy -- it's about political survival. If Democrats deliver, they'll be positioned to win over a generation of voters. Blocking (or "killing") a reform effort may undermine the public's needs, but it would also block Democrats from winning a historic victory. With that in mind, the right will likely aggressively resist healthcare reform because, as a matter of electoral strategy, conservatives probably don't have a choice.

We do have one major advantage that we didn't have in 1993: you. Ezra Klein argues that 2009 will be the year to finally solve the health care crisis - largely because we're finally organized around this issue. From Klein's post:

"One of the big problems with moving health care," says Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org, "is that there haven't been health-care constituency organizations in the way there are on the environment, civil liberties, and so forth."

We've already started building the largest grassroots effort to fix health care. You can get involved right now by writing a letter to your local editor and telling everyone about our movement: http://www.seiu.org/healthcareletters.

Don't wait - Help take our movement public now.