Michael Moore's message for President Obama
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clptYXMUx6k]
Filmmaker Michael Moore gave an impassioned plea for single-payer health coverage at a press conference today at our offices in Washington, D.C. His message for President Obama and members of Congress was rather simple: Give us single-payer, universal health coverage now, or feel the wrath of the voters come election time.
If President Obama would support a single-payer plan, tens of millions of Americans would flood the streets to support him, Moore said. “We will be there with you, every step of the way,” Moore said. “We have got your back.” It’s time to start over with a plan that includes single-payer, Medicare-for-All, he said. “Just hit the reset button and go back to the drawing board.” (Moore outlined what is missing from current health care proposals in a Huffington Post article.)
Public Citizen President Robert Weissman, who introduced Moore, said it’s time to end the current, broken system:
It is appropriate that filmmaker Michael Moore returns us to first principles, because the big picture of health care reform has been so badly obscured during the political theater of the past many months. Those first principles are: Health care is a right, and the private health insurance industry must be replaced. It is too cruel, too inhumane, too arbitrary, too bureaucratic and too inefficient.
Moore delivered some of his harshest criticism, not for Republicans, but for the so-called blue dog Democrats. From Jared Allen’s article in The Hill:
Moore, who aligns himself with the most liberal elements of the Democratic Party, told reporters and activists gathered at the liberal nonprofit Public Citizen that his threat to campaign actively against Democrats should not be considered idle.
“We will organize. And we will remove you from office. Make no mistake about it,” Moore said at an event designed to put pressure on congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama to back a healthcare reform plan with a public option.
The ardent Democrat from Flint, Mich., said that if he can’t find more liberal Democrats to defeat the centrist congressional Democrats in primary elections, he will actively campaign for Republicans in the 2010 general elections.
“You think we’re behind you just because you’re Democrats?” Moore said to cheers from the few dozen supporters packed into the second floor of Public Citizen’s downtown Washington office. “We’ll find Republicans who are smart enough to realize that the majority of Americans want universal healthcare.”