April 28, 2009
Bernie Sanders on the Need for a Single Payer Health Care System
(Clip courtesy of Video Cafe)
Bernie Sanders: ... We can guarantee every man, woman and child health care
with a single payer system.
Ed Schultz: Senator, that is what just boggles my mind. We have, right now,
a political moment in this country. The president has high approval ratings;
you have the people out there; town hall after town hall I hear it, they
want single payer; you're close to the super majority depending on how...
Sanders: Ed, what are you forgetting in that equation?
Schultz: Well, I'm forgetting the filibuster I guess.
Sanders: And you're forgetting the power of the insurance companies...
Schultz: Yes. Right.
Sanders: The huge amounts of money they spend; the power of the drug
companies, and if you think that every member of the Democratic caucus is
prepared to stand up to those guys, you're mistaken.
****
Sanders: But the bottom line here, Ed, is, you're absolutely right; we have
a Democratic president, a strong majority in the House, sixty votes in the
Senate. If we can't deliver on energy, on health care, on workers' rights,
then what's the sense of it all. The answer is people have got to put
pressure on Congress to have the guts to stand up to the insurance
companies, the drug companies, the banks, the military-industrial complex.
Schultz: Well, who's going to put pressure on them?
Sanders: We're going to need a strong grassroots movement to make that
happen.
Schultz: So you think the people can be heard on this.
Sanders: Absolutely. Absolutely they can.
****
Schultz: I think this is a real moment for the president. What if the
president comes out tomorrow night at the press conference... I would love
to hear President Obama come out and say, "Look, I don't have all the
answers, but everything is on the table." And this idea that single payer is
not politically achievable, Mr. President, respectfully, I think you're
wrong on that. I think it is politically achievable, because the people want
it.
Video clip (7 minutes, 41 seconds):
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/ed-show-bernie-sanders-need-single-payer-health
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