Friday, July 19, 2019

Sign our petition to 2020 Democrats: reject money from the insurance and drug industries, including donations over $200 from PACs, lobbyists or executives of health insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders<info@berniesanders.com>
To  alfred johnson  

Alfred -
I am proud to have led the fight for Medicare for All for many years, and I am thrilled that many in the Democratic Party have come around to supporting Medicare for All – including several candidates now running for president. But I will be the first to admit to you that ultimately passing legislation to create a Medicare for All system will not be easy.
When it comes to health care, the insurance and drug industries have been able to control the political process by flooding money into our elections. In the last 20 years, insurance and pharmaceutical company PACs have delivered more than $330 million worth of campaign contributions to candidates for federal office. And that doesn’t include what they spend on super PACs, dark money groups and lobbying.
So I am going to propose something that will be portrayed as “radical” by Washington pundits, the political establishment and the corporate media — even though it is something that should be common sense.
I am calling on every Democratic candidate in this election to reject money from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. That means not accepting donations over $200 from PACs, lobbyists, or executives of health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and it means the Democratic Party apparatus does the same. We cannot allow this industry to continue buying Washington’s complicity in the health care crisis.
Our campaign is funded by small donors, and it is focused on grassroots organizing so that we can not merely defeat Trump, but create a political revolution to pass real, transformative change like Medicare for All.
In our campaign, we are rejecting the old formula — we are rejecting big money, we are rejecting PAC donations, and we are rejecting super PACs. That is what sets us apart from other candidates who collect big checks from the billionaire class.
These armies of greed and corruption in Washington are right that our grassroots campaign is an "existential threat" to a billionaire class that wants to continue fleecing and bankrupting American workers and families when they get sick. And because they know we are an existential threat to their immoral schemes, they will viciously attack us and criticize us.
But in the great Democratic Party tradition of President Roosevelt, our response must be a forceful and proud declaration that we welcome their hatred.
I believe that begins with rejecting money from the health insurance and drug industries.
It is time for health care to be guaranteed as a human right in this country. That will only be possible by rejecting money from those who profit off of denying us care.
Thank you for your support.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders






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