The Republican alternative health care reform bill would be funny if it weren’t so cruel.

For months now, the nation has been engaged in a serious health care debate. The GOP stood on the sidelines jeering, saying it had the real solution, but keeping it a secret from the American...

After Joe Wilson's famous "You lie" interruption of the president's address to Congress on health care, there was a rush by some to include costly and onerous verification procedures to exclude immigrants from the health care system. Some were advocating spending millions of dollars to catch just a handful of...

So far the only color that has mattered in the health care reform debate has been green, as in the color of money. The Capitol is awash in green. The health care lobbyists have been flooding key congressional members with millions of dollars. Just the three Democratic Senators who voted...

The lie that health care reform would hurt rural communities has been one to which progressives and moderates have been slow to respond, perhaps because there have been so many myths and distortions to keep us busy. The extreme right clearly believes that the only way they can win the...

Two hundred people led by Take Action Minnesota marched to the front doors of the UnitedHealth Group headquarters on Tuesday, one of the largest private insurance companies in the country. The marchers, who like health care reform advocates at 150 similar events across the country that day, came with one...

Today, September 17th is Citizenship Day. And boy, do some of our citizens need a refresher on civics.

If the health care debate has been a test of American citizenship, then, we have failed that test. We've failed not only by not living up to minimal standards of civility and...

Co-operatives: A Failure on all Fronts

Trial balloons are part and parcel of politics in America. President Obama recently floated one by calling the government-run public health insurance option a mere "sliver," and other White House officials spoke openly about accepting a compromise solution: health insurance co-operatives. It's a...

Americans overwhelmingly voted for change in the November election. Seems a few of us didn't get the memo, but it's not too late to get on board the train in the debate for realizing true health care reform that puts people before profits and checks special interests at the on...

The "No We Can't Coalition" Wants President Obama to Fail

During its first six months, the Obama administration has worked hard to enact progressive measures that both respond to our immediate economic crisis and provide a foundation for moving the economy forward for all Americans. However, the administration can't make...

Debt. It is crushing America's soul, and slowly robbing it of its leadership position in the world.

And what are our elected leaders doing to help the average family or small business owner drowning in debt and exorbitant interest rates? Nothing. The "Do Nothing Coalition" has turned its back...

Finally, the country seems serious about reforming health care. But with discussions about a public option, cost control and competition raging, one aspect of achieving true universal coverage is being left out: what to do about immigrants who lack coverage?

All of the plans getting serious consideration in Congress...

The private insurance industry's latest talking point against the only way of ensuring affordable health care coverage for everyone, a robust public health insurance choice, is to accuse the government of trying to be a "player and a referee in the same game."

It's telling that the private insurance lobbyists...

We have a storied history in this country of not talking about issues of race and ethnicity. The health care reform debate is proceeding no differently. In the midst of the broadest and weightiest debate that the nation has had on health care in many years, there is little attention...

It's mind boggling. Mere months after a historic election in which Americans demanded real change - the forces for business as usual have returned with a vengeance. We knew Republicans would try to scuttle health care reform by protecting private health insurance companies from having to compete with a public...

This week, all around the nation, the Reform Immigration FOR America campaign is being launched. The goal is to fix our broken immigration system. The campaign brings together labor, faith, civil rights, pro-immigrant, business and law enforcement communities in an unprecedented alliance to win the legislative battle expected to...

Americans Deserve a Public Health Insurance Option.

Most Americans fear private health insurance companies won't be there for them when they get sick. As the debate heats up, it's really clear that a strong public health insurance plan must be a no-compromise element of any health care reform package. According...