Guaranteed Healthcare

This is a good day for single payer.

Two champions, Kathy Dahlkemper from the 3rd CD in Pennsylvania and Eric Massa from the 29th CD in New York, won seats in the 111th Congress.

I think it's fair to say that we hope and expect Kathy and Eric will become co-sponsors of HR 676 as soon as they are sworn into office.

During the pre-election bus tour of Northeast swing states in which I was privileged to participate, we swung through the Massa and Dahlkemper districts.

Ms. Dahlkemper scored a huge upset  against the incumbent Representative Phil English in the socially conservative and traditionally Repuglican northwestern corner of Pennsylvania.

Mr. English, a lifelong resident of Erie, has held the Third District seat since 1995 and is a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Good bye  Good riddance Phil English. Go find yourself a job on K Street.

Ms. Dahlkemper, a co-owner of a family landscaping business, boasted that she was “not a career politician,” and she tied Mr. English to President Bush’s economic policies. Welcome to the movement for guaranteed and affordable healthcare.  We hope you will stand shoulder to shoulder with John Conyers on HR 676.

The bus tour also took us the the 29th Congressional district in New York. It was a good night for Eric Massa, another single payer supporter,  another co-sponsor of HR 676, a veteran and war hero, who took down Randy Kuhl. 

So the American people finally took control.  We sent  the loudest possible message to politicians across the land that we have had enough. Enough! Yesterday, as we waited on long lines to cast one small vote to which each of us is entitled,  the people voted overwhelmingly to overhaul the U.S. Congress.

The 110th Congress has proven its members are unfit to serve. Since we now know that the 111th Congress will be composed of incumbents' challengers, each will arrive in Washington with a clear mandate from an American electorate dedicated to taking this country back and making it work for the people not the special interests.

And on a personal note, the Democrats also won a majority in the  New York State Senate, which has been controlled by Republicans since 1962.

The Repuglican state senate in New York has been very successful for many long bleak years in blocking progressive state legislation.

This is a great day for America and a great day for the working people of New York.