Rep. Jared Polis,
Haider Khan discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan at
PDA's May 30 Town Hall meeting
Rep. Jared Polis discussed U.S. foreign policy
toward Pakistan and Afghanistan and related foreign-policy
issues at a Town Hall Meeting hosted by Progressive Democrats
of America (PDA) Sat., May 30, at
Boulder County Democratic Party headquarters in Boulder.
Rep.
Polis, Democratic Party first-term Congressman from Colorado
CD-2, drew from his experience as a freshman Congressman, as
well as his recent trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, to address
current foreign policy issues. The
Town Hall Meeting, organized by the PDA Chapter serving Colorado's
2nd Congressional District, was free and open to the public.
(View his 15-minute introductory remarks
by clicking on Rep. Polis photo at left below.)
As a lead-in to Rep. Polis's remarks, Dr.
Haider Khan, Professor
of Economics at DU's Joseph Korbel School of International
Studies, presented enlightening comments on Afghanistan and
Pakistan focusing on their recent recent colonial histories
and the role of ethnicity in their politics.
(View two videos from the
Question-and-Answer panel with Rep. Polis and Dr. Khan by
clicking on pictures at center and right below. Questioners
are Carolyn Bninsky of Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center
and Evi Klett of PDA CD-1, Denver.)
The meeting's
agenda also included a brief presentation by Kyle Todd (e-mail
link) of Service
Employees International Union (SEIU)
about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a pending legislative
measure promoting union membership, followed by letter-writing
to members of Congress about the issue. (To write your own
letter to Congress members about EFCA, here are some sample
letters.)
This was PDA second successful Town Hall Meeting
featuring Rep. Polis. The first, focusing on Health Care,
drew about 200 attendees to Lafayette Public Library February
14.
OLDER NEWS...
DEMOCRACY IN ACTION: State Rep.
John Kefalas of Ft. Collins (seated before panel) introduces
single-payer health care bill (House Bill 1273) to Colo.
House Business Affairs and Labor Committee March 18.
(Bob Wells photo)
Consideration
of innovative health care bill
By Colorado Legislature
now delayed until July
This word came from our allies at
Health Care for All Colorado on Sept. 18:
House Bill 09-1273 is "Laid Over"
Representative John Kefalas of Fort Collins,
the visionary house sponsor of the Colorado Guaranteed
Health Care Act, did a final tally of House members on
Wednesday morning, April 15th, and concluded that the count
was one vote short of the 33 needed to pass the bill. He
decided to request that the bill be "laid over" until
July 5, 2009, avoiding a defeat of the bill while also
excluding any further action during the current session.
This is a temporary setback for our single payer health
care effort, although HCAC is already working on improvements
for our next legislative proposal and is developing plans
to broaden our grassroots outreach so that we are even
more effective.
Thanks to your strong support, our Colorado single payer movement
has garnered more visibility and strength than ever before
by focusing on a specific bill that would lead to real health
care reform. House Bill 09-1273 would have made Colorado a
leader in the nation by creating a single payer system that
would open up health care access to all while providing improved
professional oversight, and providing cost savings to small
businesses and to all Coloradans. In this legislative process
we have extended our outreach to hundreds of new single payer
supporters, we have improved our message framing and we secured
the support of 32 members of the Colorado House of Representatives
and numerous state senators.
Preparations for 2010
Our movement has gained a lot of momentum and we will not let
up until everyone in our state has quality health care. We
expect to be more successful in the next legislative session
by applying what we have learned.
Our focus will be on these improvements:
A legislative proposal that is more detailed and refined
A clarified vision of how an effective single payer system
will serve Coloradans
A detailed financial analysis that shows clear business and
economic benefits
A more effective grass roots outreach that empowers strong
citizen lobbying
A strong outreach to form coalitions and partnerships
We can only achieve our goal with your help. Here are some
things you can do:
Join and donate to Health Care for All Colorado
(Click
here)
Get active in your local HCAC chapter
Create an HCAC chapter in your community
Health care
bill has cleared the next hurdle
Tuesday, April 7 2009 -- Excerpt
from
today's Denver
Post: "House Bill 1273 would create an authority
that would study implementing a so-called single-payer system
in Colorado and would report its recommendations by 2011. The
state House of Representatives passed the bill on an unrecorded
voice vote Monday. The bill faces a tougher, recorded vote
as early as today." Read
rest of article.
Single-payer health care bill passes
first hurdle
by 5-4 vote in House subcommittee March 18
REPORTED BY STEVE WANGH PDA CO CD-2
Two of us attended (the first 1½ hours of) the Colorado House
Business Affairs and Labor committee hearing on HB 1273 on
Wednesday. The room was packed, and many people had signed
up to testify. Our sense, from talking to others around us,
was that the majority of people were there to support the bill.
As we entered, we heard a rumor that Governor Ritter had sent
one of his people to testify against.
Rep Jefalas before the hearing
The proceedings began with
the bill’s chief sponsor, John Kefalas presenting the bill
and explaining his reasons for doing so. He made a big point
of saying that this bill was only to set up a commission
which would work out how a single-payer system would work,
but that the legislature would have to pass enabling legislation
before such a system would be put into action.
He was vigorously questioned by
Amy Stephens of Monument who suggested that a single-payer
system would drive doctors out of Colorado, and who said
that single-payer systems in Canada and Great Britain had
led to “rationing” of health care.
Kefalas then offered 3 expert witnesses in
favor of the bill. The first speaker was, Barry Keene, of
Lafayette, an engineer and small businessman. He was spectacular!
He presented a report that showed how single-payer would
save money, and he spoke articulately about the dangers of
not changing our healthcare system. For me, the most striking
moment was when Stephens spoke to ask Keene a question, she
began by expressing how impressed she had been with his testimony.
Then
Dr. Irene Aguilar spoke, giving a moving personal account
of the effect the current insurance-based system has on her
GP practice. She said she would be able to see 5 more patients
every day if she didn’t have to spend so much time on paperwork.
We Ieft there feeling: “Maybe democracy
really works.” And the upshot was that the committee passed
the bill – along party lines.
Rep. Polis fields a question at PDA's standing-room "Town
Hall Meeting" Feb. 14 (video below).
Message at "Town Hall Meeting" on health
care:
There's hope for meaningful change in Colorado
Feb 14 2008 -- A message that change is
possible rang through the two-hour meeting, co-hosted by PDA-CD2,
"Health Care in a Time of Crisis: A Town Hall Meeting with
Rep. Jared Polis," at the Lafayette Public Library Saturday,
Jan. 14. A standing-room audience of 160 attended the event,
also co-hosted by two prominent local activist groups, Health
Care for All Colorado (HCAC) and Physicians for a National
Health Program (PNHP).
Opening the meeting, Elinor Christiansen and
Irene Aguilar of HCAC gave brief, fact-filled presentations
on the state of health care reform nationally and in Colorado.
Rep. Polis then addressed health care reform efforts in the
U.S. Congress and Colorado, also commenting in some detail
on the stimulus package, which he had voted for in the House
of Representatives just the day before.
Elinor
Christensen of HCAC (5:35) Also viewable on Youtube.
Irene
Aguilar of HCAC (6:48) Also viewable on Youtube.
Audio
of Q&As
with Rep. Polis (40 minutes, 23MB
MP3). (A video of Rep. Polis's opening remarks will be
available on this website shortly.)
Jay Marvin hosts Prof. Tom
Russell for revealing interview about health care reform
in Colorado
Tom Russell of HCAC
Feb. 12, 2008 -- Jay
Marvin of 760AM Progressive
Talk radio hosted Tom
Russell, University of Denver
Law School Professor and Vice President of Health
Care for All Colorado (HCAC), on his morning radio
program for an excellent overview of health care reform
in Colorado: the problems, the pending legislations,
etc. An audio file of the interview is available here:
(MP3,
38 min.)
By the way, you can see an annotated list of all Jay's
Mon-Fri morning programs listing topics and guests and selectively
download them (or set up automatic daily
podcast downloads). See Jay's
page.
Thank you, Tom, for this lucid overview and thank you, Jay
and producer John Turk, for making the program possible.
State Legislature considering new bill considered stepping
stone to universal health care
Feb. 8, 2008 -- A bill called the Colorado
Guaranteed Health Care Act (HB09-1273) was introduced into
both houses of the Colorado Legislature Jan. 27, 2009, by
Rep. John Kefalas & Sen.
Joyce Foster. The bill is receiving strong backing from Health
Care for All Colorado (HCAC), a co-sponsor with PDA-CD2 of
next Saturday's
"Town Hall Meeting" (see below). Opinions vary about
the bill's chances of adoption.
PDA CD-2 Chapter co-hosts citizens' hearing
on
economic
stimulus package in Boulder Feb. 1
About 15 invited speakers and members of
the public testified at a "Citizens'
Hearing on the Economic Stimulus Package" co-hosted by
our PDA Chapter at the University of Colorado Feb. 1. About
100 people were in attendance, including Congressman Jared
Polis (CD-2 Colorado), State Rep. Claire Levy and other elected
officials and representatives of area nonprofits. Primary organizer
of the event was the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center.
The economic stimulus package, formally known as the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is currently being debated in
Congress. Thr also was testimony
by Jim Scarritt of PDA CD-2 and Dr. Howie Wolf, of Health
Care for All Colorado (HCAC). HCAC is one of the three groups
co-sponsoring our Feb. 14 town meeting on health care policy
(see above).
Mimi Kennedy of PDA addresses Aug 24 opening-night
at Progressive Central event hosted by PDA in Denver during
the Democratic National Convention (Bob Wells photo)
Steering Committee majority
urges Cindy Carlisle vote A majority of the Steering Committee of PDA's CD-2 Chapter
(that's us) has written to three local papers urging support
for Cindy Carlisle in the Colorado Senate rate. See letter
on this linked page. (Posted
July 25, 2008)
PDA events planned for
Dem Convention days
Evi Klett reports on a full schedule of events that national
and local PDAers have planned in connection with the late-August
DNC in Denver. See details on this
linked page. (Posted July 25, 2008)
Candidates answer PDA's
questionnaire
The Colorado 2nd CD PDA Steering Committee sent out a questionnaire
to all Democratic Party incumbents or candidates whose districts
include part of the 2nd CD. We invite our members to review
the answers for your legislators/candidates on this
linked page. (Posted July 10, 2008)
Fitz-Gerald rebuts charges
about oil-industry ties
Our PDA Chapter has become aware of some attacks on Joan Fitz-Gerald
regarding her alleged ties to the oil and gas industry. As
far as we've been able to research the matter, those attacks
seem poorly founded. For further information, see Fitz-Gerald's
website. (Posted July 2, 2008)
About 120
people heard three Democratic Congressional primary election
candidates at our Oct. 15 Forum
DVD
of Candidates Forum available NOW!
The DVD video of our Oct. 15 Congressional Candidates Forum held
in Boulder is available now for $15 a copy. You can order
now. (12-14-07)
You
can now view Forum videos online
You can now view short streaming videos of the candidates'
short "stump speeches" and
their answers to our questions online
on this site.
We
speak out
See op-ed piece by PDA CD-2 Steering Committee member Wendy
Rochman,
"What's a Teacher to Do?" on our
new blog
Fuel
for our flight
We’re gathering steam for this election year. Despite all our
enthusiasm, one thing that's been notably lacking is a stash
of MONEY. You can help by donating
generously on this page of the website.
There's a new PayPal “Donate” button - you can use a PalPal
account or major credit card - and an address where you can
send checks. (1-18-08)
Rep.
Jared Polis (15:25) Also viewable on 
