Green Party U.S. Senate Candidate Urges Nationwide Adoption of a Single-Payer “Medicare-for-all” Health Care System

For Immediate Release
October 31, 2010
Contact: info@voteforduane.org

ANAHEIM, Calif – Duane Roberts, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, urges nationwide adoption of a “single-payer ‘Medicare-for-all’ health care system”, arguing it will save $4 trillion over the next decade and ensure that everybody receives health care. Roberts says “Obamacare” is a “$500 billion taxpayer bailout of the private health insurance industry”:

“As one of 46 million people in this country who doesn’t have any health insurance, I strongly urge that the United States consider adopting a single-payer ‘Medicare-for-all’ health care system. By doing that, taxpayers and consumers would save $4 trillion over the next decade and part of that money can be used to guarantee everybody has access to high quality health care.

“The so-called ‘health care reform’ bill signed into law by Democratic President Barack Obama earlier this year was in reality a thinly-disguised scheme to bailout Wall Street billionaires who made huge investments in private health insurance companies that lately had been experiencing a decline in revenues as a result of a rapidly shrinking customer base.

“Since 2000, private health insurers have lost more than nine million customers and Democratic Party politicians on their payroll came to their rescue with this scam to prop them up by forcing millions of people to purchase their defective, over-priced policies and subsidize their obscene profit margins with upwards of $500 billion in taxpayer funds.

“The irony about the ‘health care reform’ bill is major parts of it were modeled on legislation first brought forth by Republican Party politicians in the early 1990s. Back then, their proposals were widely condemned by liberals as being a giveaway to private health insurers. But because Obama adopted them as his own, they now laud it as ‘progressive social policy’.

“Equally laughable is when Republicans claim ‘Obamacare’ is ‘socialized medicine’. Besides the fact the law is based–sometimes almost word for word–on legislation introduced by their predecessors, it leaves the private health insurance industry wholly intact and imposes few restrictions on their ability to maximize profits by raising premium rates.

“Despite their rhetoric, Republicans aren’t always opposed to ‘socialized medicine’. They rarely criticize the Veterans Health Administration, a government-run network of 1,400 hospitals, clinics and nursing homes employing 14,800 physicians and 61,000 nurses. Studies show it outperforms the private sector in delivering high quality health care to patients.

“Unlike the VHA, a single-payer ‘Medicare-for-all’ system does not require the government to own and operate hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes; nor hire physicians and nurses. It merely eliminates the ‘middlemen’–private health insurance companies–and pays health care providers from a single fund that pools tax revenues collected from individuals and businesses.

“If the U.S. were to adopt a single-payer system, it is estimated that taxpayers and consumers would save $400 billion a year that the 1,500 private health insurers in this country waste on bureaucratic duplication, marketing costs, CEO salaries, and profiteering; even further savings would result as physicians and hospitals eliminated itemized billing procedures.

“Under a single-payer system, there would be far fewer personal bankruptcies due to medical bills. People would be free to go to any physician and hospital they wanted and not be limited to those a private health insurer handpicked for them in advance. And many would no longer be tied down to a job they might be unhappy with because it offers health insurance.

“But most importantly, every man, woman, and child in the U.S.–including millions of people who have no health insurance–would be guaranteed access to high quality health care. No longer would private health insurers be in a position to ration care by telling physicians and hospitals what types of medical treatments and services they can offer to patients.

“Eventually President Obama’s $500 billion taxpayer bailout of the private health insurance industry will be repealed and replaced with a single-payer system. But for that to occur, millions of people will have to organize from below and demand that it happen. The Democrats–like the Republicans–are too corrupt to bring this about on their own initiative.

“Single-payer now!”

www.voteforduane.org

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Green Party U.S. Senate Candidate Calls for Ending All U.S. Military and Economic Aid to Israel

For Immediate Release
October 19, 2010
Contact: info@voteforduane.org

ANAHEIM, Calif — Duane Roberts, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, calls for “ending all U.S. military and economic aid to Israel” arguing that it is “morally wrong for taxpayers to continue financing this nation’s acts of state-sponsored terrorism against the Palestinian people”. Roberts points out “most Israeli leaders” would be “tried as war criminals” in a “just world”:

“I call for ending all U.S. military and economic aid to Israel because I believe it to be morally wrong for taxpayers to continue financing this nation’s acts of state-sponsored terrorism against the Palestinian people. The $3 billion we give to this country each year would be better spent dealing with serious problems we face here at home, such as growing unemployment.

“For decades, human rights organizations have accumulated thousands of pages of evidence documenting that Israel has committed numerous crimes against Palestinians living in the territories it occupies, engaging in countless home demolitions, land confiscations, arbitrary arrests, torture–even resorting to deadly force to subdue peaceful and non-violent demonstrations.

“In addition, Israel has treated Palestinians as virtual ‘second-class citizens’ in their own homelands, not only forcing them to go through humiliating checkpoints and roadblocks to move about from one location to another, but routinely denying them access to the basic necessities of life, such as clean running water, electricity, and adequate sewage disposal facilities.

“In a just world, most Israeli leaders would be hauled before an international court of law to be tried as war criminals for their brutal and inhumane treatment of Palestinians who inhabit the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and other occupied territories. The problem is the United States shields them from prosecution because it uses Israel as a proxy to do its dirty work around the globe.

“Cutting off U.S. aid to Israel would be a step in bringing about peace in the Middle East. If that were done, Israeli leaders no longer could act with impunity in their dealings with the Palestinians. The latter would be able to negotiate a settlement on equal footing knowing that ‘Uncle Sam’ was no longer supplying Israel with weapons to kill them, their families, and their children.

“Free Palestine!”

www.voteforduane.org

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Green Party U.S. Senate Candidate Condemns U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for Opposing Marijuana Legalization

For Immediate Release
October 15, 2010
Contact: info@voteforduane.org

ANAHEIM, Calif – Duane Roberts, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, condemns U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for opposing marijuana legalization and calls upon Californians to send him and the Democrats a ”strong message” on election day by voting for every Green on their ballot:

“I strongly condemn U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s widely publicized vow to deny Californians the right to experiment with a model of marijuana legalization should they pass Proposition 19, the statewide initiative that would tax, regulate, and control cannabis in this state.

“I call upon the millions of Californians who, like myself, support ending the war on pot and are deeply offended by Mr. Holder’s comments to send him and other Democratic Party politicians a strong message on election day: vote for every Green Party candidate they see on their ballot.

“For example, Senator Barbara Boxer made it perfectly clear earlier this year that she opposes any efforts to legalize marijuana and industrial hemp in the State of California. So why throw away your vote on a candidate like her who supports the exact opposite of what you want? 

“And why waste it on a Democratic Party politician like Jerry Brown who as State Attorney General has turned a blind eye to the fact law enforcement agencies under his watch increasingly spend more of their time harassing young men of color who smoke pot than going after violent criminals?

“As the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, one of the major themes of my campaign since day one has been to fully repeal all federal laws prohibiting people from growing, distributing, and using marijuana and hemp for medicinal, recreational, and industrial purposes.

“I think we all agree it is about time for this one hundred year old witch hunt being waged against persons who grow, distribute, and use pot to come to an end. But this stupidity is not going to stop until millions of people start to rebel against the system. One place to begin right now is at the ballot box.

“So don’t get mad, get even! On Tuesday, November 2nd, vote Green, not the machine. Send Mr. Holder and other Democratic Party politicians–including President Barack Obama–a strong message that they will never, ever are going to forget. Tell them they aren’t going to take advantage of you anymore.

“Seize the moment!”

www.voteforduane.org

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Green Party U.S. Senate Candidate Calls for Ending Overseas Wars to Pay for Tuition-Free Higher Education for All

For Immediate Release
October 7, 2010
Contact: info@voteforduane.org

ANAHEIM, Calif – Duane Roberts, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, calls for “immediately withdrawing” all U.S. military forces from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and using the cost savings to guarantee “every high school graduate” is eligible to receive a “tuition-free education at a public college, university, or technical trade school”:

“If elected to the U.S. Senate, I will introduce legislation to establish a nationwide program to fully guarantee that every high school graduate living within the United States–regardless of immigration status–is eligible to receive a tuition-free education at a public college, university, or technical trade school of their choosing.

“We can pay for this program by immediately withdrawing all U.S. troops, private mercenaries, and independent contractors from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. About $200 billion in taxpayer funds is wasted yearly on these bloody colonial wars and I believe this money would be better spent on providing tuition-free higher education for all.

“The billionaires on Wall Street reap enormous profits from these overseas wars as both Democratic and Republican Party politicians continue pouring money into the Military-Industrial Complex to build jets, drones, missiles, and bombs that will be used to kill thousands of innocent men, women, and children throughout the Middle East.

“Meanwhile a college degree has become an unaffordable reality for millions of young people as politicians from these same political parties use the current fiscal crisis as an excuse to dismantle systems of public higher education across the land: they slash university budgets, fire professors, cut classes, and raise tuition fees to astronomical levels.

“There is something deeply rotten with the political leadership of this country when they believe spending $200 billion a year to keep thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq and dropping bombs on peasant villages in Afghanistan is a much greater priority than ensuring every high school graduate here at home is given an opportunity to go to college.

“The truth is, we can put an end to these overseas wars and use the money squandered on them to pay for tuition-free higher education for all. But people have to stand up and fight for it. As Frederick Douglass, the great African-American abolitionist, once pointed out: ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.’

“U.S. out of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan now!”

www.voteforduane.org

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Green Party U.S. Senate Candidate Backs “Immediate Amnesty” for Millions of Undocumented Workers

For Immediate Release
September 27, 2010
Contact: info@voteforduane.org

ANAHEIM, Calif – Duane Roberts, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, backs “immediate amnesty” for “millions of undocumented workers” living within the United States. Roberts points out that “so-called ‘illegal immigration’” is caused by “uneven capitalist development between nations” and that politicians don’t address this problem:

“As a longtime defender of immigrant rights, I strongly back the idea of granting immediate amnesty for the millions of undocumented workers currently living within the United States. An overwhelming majority of them work incredibly hard, are law abiding, and make invaluable contributions to the wealth of this country.

“I don’t believe a ‘pathway to citizenship’ should be a long and confusing process; nor need it require any form of indentured servitude, like the McCain/Kennedy bill did. Undocumented workers who have established residency, haven’t committed any violent crimes, and/or are raising families should be allowed to become citizens.

“By legalizing the estimated 12 million undocumented workers living in the U.S., many would no longer fear the threat of being deported by their employers for participating in union organizing drives, strikes, and other actions to improve their wages and working conditions. This would reduce their vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.

“But most importantly, legalization would strengthen the bargaining position of the entire U.S. working class as employers would no longer have at their disposal a compliant pool of ‘immigrant labor’ they could take advantage of to keep wages permanently depressed. The wages of all workers would rise as more began to assert their rights.

“In addition to this, as wages rose, federal and state governments would experience an increase in tax revenues. And undocumented workers who had been previously hired ‘off the books’ would start paying Social Security, Medicare, and income taxes that weren’t being collected before because employers just pocketed them.

“I personally think it is ridiculous to call undocumented workers ‘immigrants’ especially since their ancestors had been living on this continent thousands of years before Christopher Columbus arrived and set off a European invasion of the Americas that eventually caused the deaths of upwards of 100 million indigenous peoples.

“Nevertheless the migration of human beings from one locale to another is a real phenomena and is primarily caused by uneven capitalist development between nations. People usually don’t abruptly pack up their personal belongings and resettle elsewhere unless they are forced to do so by compelling economic reasons.

“One major cause of so-called ‘illegal immigration’ to the U.S. during the past fifteen years has been the North American Free Trade Agreement, championed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, which allowed big agribusiness consortiums like ConAgra, ADM, and Cargill to literally flood the Mexican market with cheap corn.

“Since NAFTA was enacted, 2 million people have been displaced from Mexico’s agricultural sector. Many small farmers were driven off the land because they couldn’t compete with corn imported from the U.S. by agribusiness consortiums who sold it at a price below cost of production–thanks to billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies.

“Facing bleak prospects, many abandoned the rural communities they grew up in. Some relocated to cities in Northern Mexico to work in maquiladoras owned by U.S. and foreign multinational companies; but others decided it was worth the risk to cross the U.S./Mexico border with the hope they would find employment in the U.S.

“Instead of addressing the reasons why this is happening, politicians resort to blaming the victim. They scapegoat undocumented workers and pass cruel measures to punish them for trying to come here: double-layered fences are built along the border; and prison-like detention centers are built to warehouse those who are caught.

“This diverts attention away from the fact the policies these politicians put into motion are causing this massive migration of human beings into the U.S. and that agribusiness consortiums who finance their political campaigns are profiting from the destruction of Mexico’s agricultural sector, which brings poverty and misery to millions.

“In reality, we don’t have an ‘illegal immigration problem’, but a ‘capitalism problem’. And as long as we fail to recognize that this is the problem, then people will continue to suffer. The real solution is for us to begin laying the groundwork to create a more just and equitable economic system that will benefit the many and not just the few.

“Otro mundo es posible!”

www.voteforduane.org

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Green Party U.S. Senate Candidate Warns Immigrant Rights Supporters to “Beware of the Democrats”

For Immediate Release
September 22, 2010
Contact: info@voteforduane.org

 

ANAHEIM, Calif – Duane Roberts, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, warns immigrant rights supporters to “beware of the Democrats”, pointing out politicians from that party have “been far more aggressive” in criminalizing undocumented workers than their counterparts. Roberts says some “anti-immigrant initiatives” pushed by Republicans started with Democrats:

 

“During the past week, Democrats in the U.S. Senate have been introducing legislation they know won’t pass like the DREAM Act in an cynical attempt to dupe supporters of immigrant rights into thinking that meaningful “immigration reform” is around the corner if they just keep voting this party back into power. But beware of the Democrats. They are not what they portray themselves to be.

  

“The reason why Democrats back the DREAM Act is not because they are ‘pro-immigrant’, but because the Obama administration is rapidly expanding U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan and is preparing to launch an attack against Iran. It wants undocumented workers to enlist in the armed forces to become cannon fodder in these wars to avoid drafting ‘citizens’.

 

“The Democratic Party works incredibly hard to maintain this rather elaborate–but completely phony–facade of being welcoming of all newcomers to this country. But the harsh reality is that its politicians have historically been far more aggressive than their Republican Party counterparts in pushing for laws and policies criminalizing undocumented workers.

  

“In 1993, Alfred Alquist, a Democratic State Senator, introduced S.B. 976, the bill that stripped undocumented workers of the right to obtain a driver’s license in the state of California. The only reason why then-Republican Governor Pete Wilson was able to sign it into law is because the Democrats which controlled both houses of the State Legislature put it on his desk.

  

“In 1997, Loretta Sanchez, a Democratic Congresswoman, asked the Clinton administration to continue funding a ‘pilot program’ at the Anaheim City jail where immigration agents were used to screen detainees taken into custody. This program caused the deportation of numerous undocumented workers with no prior criminal records for minor offenses and traffic violations.

 

“Last year, President Obama appointed Janet Napolitano to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. When Napolitano was Democratic Governor of Arizona, she was a close ally of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and lobbied the Bush administration on his behalf to give his army of deputies the power to arrest undocumented workers under provisions of 287(g).

 

“Not too long ago, Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer voted in favor of an unsuccessful amendment to a defense spending bill that authorized $250 million in funds to deploy 6,000 National Guardsmen to patrol the U.S./Mexico border. She, along with her colleague, Senator Dianne Feinstein, another Democrat, have been avid cheerleaders for militarizing the border since the 1990s.

  

“If you scrutinize anti-immigrant initiatives peddled by opportunistic Republican Party politicians, in most circumstances you’ll discover they’ve modeled them on laws and policies originally crafted by Democratic Party politicians. The ultimate irony in this is that the Republicans are called racists for advancing initiatives that were first introduced by the Democrats.

 

“Take for example Alan Mansoor, the Republican Mayor of Costa Mesa. Almost every anti-immigrant initiative he has proposed on the council dais during his term were based on laws and policies put into motion by President Bill Clinton, Senator Boxer, Senator Feinstein, Congresswoman Sanchez, and lately Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano–all Democrats.

 

“The reason Mayor Mansoor was able to get immigration agents stationed full-time in the Costa Mesa City jail was because Congresswoman Sanchez helped keep the original ‘pilot program’ alive at Anaheim City jail over a decade ago. Back then, the federal government wanted it shut down because they didn’t want their immigration agents wasting time deporting low-level offenders.

 

“Eugene Debs, the five-time Socialist Party candidate for President, once said there was ‘not a dime’s worth of difference’ between the two major capitalist political parties. That’s not entirely correct: When the Republicans kick undocumented workers in the teeth, they do it with an ugly frown on their face; when the Democrats do the same thing, they do it with a friendly smile.

 

“Beware of the Democrats”.

 

www.voteforduane.org

 

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Green Party U.S. Senate Candidate Calls for the Repeal of Federal Laws Criminalizing Marijuana

For Immediate Release

September 9, 2010

Contact: info@voteforduane.org

 

ANAHEIM, Calif – Duane Roberts, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, calls for repealing federal laws prohibiting marijuana from being used for “medicinal, recreational and industrial purposes.” Roberts urges passage of Prop 19 saying it will send a message to the political establishment:

 

“As I officially kick off my campaign for the U.S. Senate today, one of the first declarations I make is to call for the repeal of all federal laws on the books which make it a criminal act for people to grow, sell, and use marijuana for medicinal, recreational, and industrial purposes.

 

“According to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 800,000 people are arrested each year in this country for using a plant of which the evidence suggests is far less dangerous to consume than alcohol, tobacco, and some well-known prescription pharmaceuticals.

 

“This is a tremendous waste of taxpayer money. Not only does this clog the court systems and fill up the jails and prisons with non-violent offenders, but it diverts the limited resources of police, prosecutors, and judges away from pursuing individuals who engage in violent crimes against others.

 

“Repealing federal laws criminalizing marijuana will save the U.S. government billions of dollars it spends trying to eradicate this plant and give the people of each state an opportunity to experiment with different models of legalization, as California is doing with Prop 19.

 

“Recent polls suggest a majority of Californians support Prop 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010. If this initiative passes, it will be for the first time since 1913 that it will be legal under state law for people to possess marijuana for personal consumption.

 

“Despite some flaws in the way it is written, I strongly urge all Californians to vote ‘yes’ on Prop 19. Don’t make perfect enemy of the good. Its passage will create huge shock waves throughout the entire political establishment — everywhere from Sacramento to Washington, D.C.

 

“By casting your ballot in favor of Prop 19, you’ll be sending a strong message to politicians across the nation that the one hundred year old witch hunt they’ve been waging against persons who grow or use marijuana — fueled by racism, fear, paranoia, and utter stupidity — is over with.”

 

www.voteforduane.org

 

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