Iowa: Republican

Learning from the 1999 Vote on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Part 3

by Daryl Kimball

This article is re-printed with permission of the author.

Opposition Tinged With Regret

Even as they prepared to vote against the CTBT, many Republicans were clearly disturbed by the politically charged nature of the debate and frustrated with the situation presented to them by the leadership.

As Hagel observed on the opening morning of the Senate floor debate, “We are trapped in a political swamp as we attempt to compress a very important debate on a very important issue. My goodness, is that any way to responsibly deal with what may, in fact, be the most critical and important vote any of us in this chamber ever make? It is not.

Health Care Reform Update: Medicare Reform – Rationality versus Rationing

by Alta Price, M.D.

The private insurance industry and their supporters, like our own Senator Chuck “pull the plug on grandma” Grassley, are doing their best to scare the elderly into believing that health care reform threatens Medicare. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth – health care reform is going to save Medicare! It is partly because of increases in Medicare payments to doctors that the American Medical Association endorsed HR 3200. The private insurance industry and their Republican allies in Congress opposed the creation of Medicare in the first place, and have been trying to privatize Medicare or otherwise destroy it ever since.

Health Care Reform Update: Help Keep Kevin on the Air in Iowa!

Democracy for America

Meet Kevin Shilling from Iowa. Kevin has voted for Reagan, Nixon, George W. Bush and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. Kevin also supports the choice of a public option.

Our new ad, with our partners at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, is called "Main Street Bipartisanship." It features Kevin and sends a clear message to senators working to kill reform: When 76% of Americans want something done in Washington Senators, like Chuck Grassley in Iowa, better listen if they want to be reelected in 2010.

Chuck Grassley, the main Senate Republican negotiator, has taken over $2.9 million from health and insurance interests that oppose reform.

Howard Dean Attempts to Spread Truth About Health Care Reform

Here are some highlights from the Esquire interview of Howard Dean.  BFIA would like to recommend taking the time to check out the entire interview at Esquire.  Dean, apparently not knowing the secret handshake, tells it exactly how it is.

"The Republicans just make things up out of whole cloth. Nothing they say about health care is true. "   Howard Dean, M.D.

by John H. Richardson

 ~ As a doctor married to a doctor, Howard Dean made health care a priority of his administration, putting strict regulations on health insurance profiteering and figuring out a way to extend insurance to every child in the state.