Email from Kerry: "Wait 'til you see this" (Kids First Act)

[sabra]

http://www.keepingamericaspromise.com/video/kidsfirstad7009.html

Dear xxxx,

For George Bush and the Republican leaders in Congress, focusing on their power and their reckless agenda is a subject of endless fascination. But, we can't let them totally ignore America's families any longer. We've got to act now to change the subject.

It's time to talk about what matters most to America's families, beginning with the 11 million children in America who live without health insurance. You can help change the conversation by supporting a powerful new TV ad. By acting right now, you can put the compelling message of the Kids First campaign on the air.

We've had enough of Bill Frist, Tom DeLay and their obsession with partisan wrangling, enough of them ignoring America's families while they jump through hoops to meet the demands of their most extreme supporters.

Following last year's elections, I made the Kids First Act of 2005 my top legislative priority. From organizing a Kids First Petition drive that now has over 700,000 signatures to traveling the country promoting our bill, I've poured time and attention into moving Kids First forward. And so have you.

At key moments, you've taken action to provide momentum to our Kids First initiative. We both acted because we know that nothing matters more than helping children living without health care.

Now, it's time to take to the airwaves and carry the Kids First message - and the Kids First cause - even further. The ad I've enclosed is being put on the air by Keeping America's Promise, a political action committee determined to "give voice to our values" in the most critical legislative and electoral contests of 2005 and 2006.

I'm urging each and every member of the johnkerry.com community to get involved in this effort - especially people like you, those who saw the importance of putting Kids First from the very beginning.

With your immediate help, this Kids First ad will run across America, focused where it can do the most good -- in the hometowns of politicians like Bill Frist, Rick Santorum, Tom DeLay and Trent Lott. They are the ones who can either move forward with efforts to help uninsured children and their families or block those efforts.

We're going to insist that they act. Real reform to make sure America's children don't have to live without health care isn't even on the radar screen for Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, George Bush and other Republican leaders.

They're too busy protecting their own power and forcing extreme judges and radical proposals through Congress. Let's use our power to put Kids First.


If you've had it with politicians ignoring what matters most to America's families, now is the time to act. The Kids First ad and the entire Kids First effort have a single goal - to create a groundswell of popular support for this essential legislation -- one that can't be denied by the endless foot-dragging of Republican leaders in Congress.

I urge you to help press forward on this vitally important task. Together, we will give voice to our values - and we won't stop working until we win.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

P.S. We have a lot of work to do in the days ahead. But, no work we do together in the days and weeks ahead will be more important than the challenge before us right now - the challenge of helping 11 million children get the health care they need and deserve.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[geek tragedy]

3. Why didn't he introduce this legislation when he wasn't running for

President?

[sandnsea]

13. Because he introduced the bill that became SCHIP

And worked on the Global AIDS Bill. And the Nurse Reinvestment Act. And the National Housing Trust. And Women & Minority Small Business Legislation. And Domestic Violence Legislation. And on and on...

[blm]

15. He salvaged parts of Hillary's healthcare bill, drafting SCHIP legislation

with Ted Kennedy. You know, the state bill Bush refused to sign as governor and then took credit for when he ran in 2000.

Surely you knew that he and Kennedy worked on SCHIP.

Kerry also said healthcare would be the first thing he'd address as president, and even though he didn't overcome Bush's thievery, he DID put up legislation that he felt he could pressure the GOP into passing by putting into use their own claims about valuing children.

Do you think he shouldn't be doing this? Did you not know about SCHIP?

Did you believe the media spin that Kerry never did anything in the Senate? Did you not know Kerry's unmatched record of investigating and exposing government corruption?

[Goldeneye]

5. He's not being mute now,

he's asking for help airing this ad to get kids health insurance.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[Roxy66]

17. Right on!!!

Thank you for backing up Kerry. There are too many here who criticize our party leaders.......but have not done any community service themselves. Posting on DU everyday doesnt rise to that level. But, it is a start. I'm all for Free Speech....but lets give our leaders a break

[UdoKier]

24. Thank you!

Enough of Kerry dangling little tidbits before us then yanking them away.

Sick of being disappointed by this guy.

[sweetheart]

2. Good to hear from him

I got that email as well, and at first glance was wondering why it was
called the Kids Frist act if John kerry was involved...

Go for it john kerry, it is the good fight and i support you 100%.

[lateo]

4. What ever John.

To quote Holden Caufield...John Kerry is a phoney.

[blm]

16. Yeah. We all know it was someone else who uncovered IranContra, BCCI

and the illegal wars in Central America and advocated for gays in the military and wrote a book about the international institutional funding of terrorism and unrest, and helped to end three wars.

I just can't think of his name right now.

[lateo]

49. What ever happened to those people uncovered in those scandals?

Yep, a lot of them are in this current administration. While it was admirable of JK to do those things, in the end, not a whole lot came out of it.

To quote Janet Jackson, "what have you done for me lately?"

[blm]

50. Where was support for Kerry while he spent 5 years working to expose them?

What were YOU doing? Where were the activists? Where were the other lawmakers?

What Kerry did do was get into the HISTORIC RECORD the biigest crimes against the Constitution of any administration. He had VERY LITTLE HELP. Few Democrats backed him up and the entire DC powerstructure was against him, and any reporter who got too close found himself accidented, suicided, disappeared or fired, so the media attention was negligible. How many lawmakers carry on with those obstacles? Kerry did and BCCI was shut down and, at least in the congressional historic record, those involved are forever branded.

Kerry didn't sit back. He took what he learned about the crooked banking schemes and money laundering techniques of the terrorists and global profiteers and wrote a book called The New War which alerted the nation to the growing problem of international funding of global terrorism. Too few lawmakers read it, and the media didn't even glance at it.

It's easy to attack any politician, but when people do so mindless of the fact that the person they are attacking has done more to investigate and expose government corruption than any lawmaker in modern history, then I question their perception and ask them to name ONE lawmaker who did more to effect this nation's governance positively in the last 35 years than John Kerry.

[lateo]

54. More importantly...

What is Kerry doing NOW. He completely bailed on the vote fraud in 2004.

[blm]

55. If he had the evidence he would have used it.

BushInc really covered their asses by ginning up their popular vote count nationwide. That helped make it near impossible for Kerry to get any traction.

Hey, if you don't want Kerry out there wrking to expand healthcare, grill Bush nominees, push benefits for vets and small business over big business, or speak to Bush's lies on DSM then work to get him thrown out of office. You'd have to be blind, deaf and dumb to complain he hasn't done anything.

[lateo]

57. Links?

[Mass]

6. Great to hear of him

and to see he still cares about bread and butter matters.

[second edition]

8. IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO HEAR FROM JOHN KERRY!

THIS IS A WONDERFUL CAUSE AND I KNOW HE HAS BEEN WORKING ON IT AND TRAVELING AROUND TRYING TO PROMOTE IT. I LIKE THE AD.I ALSO THINK KERRY IS A WONDERFUL PERSON FOR UNDERTAKING AND ADDRESSING THIS NEED. HE SAID IT WAS A PRIORITY AND HE MEANT IT.
FOR ALL THOSE SMALL MINDED PEOPLE WHO WHO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH SUPPORTING A GOOD CAUSE AND A GOOD MAN- SHAME ON YOU! I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHAT YOU OR "YOUR CANDIDATE" HAS DONE LATELY FOR OUR KIDS!

[seabeyond]

9. first so many posts on this thread is just pathetic

like i care about your whining about kerry, he is trying to get healthcare plan going ot take care of a segment in this society that needs it. and what i am hearing is a bunch of really silly whining.

isnt hillary and gingrich coming up with a health care. and then kerry. this could be interesting

someone suggest healthcare will become universal. will have to be. i am seeing this to, being in small business dealing with healthcare. it is like these insurance companies by their greed are going to make it have to happen

[Telly Savalas]

10. The impatience is understandable.

Kerry first proposed this bill back in December and said he was going to introduce it on the floor of the Senate the first day it convened in January. Over 5 months later, we've still seen virtually nothing being done on this. So a few questions naturally arise:

When are we going to start seeing some action on this?
What ever happened to that petition with thousands of signatures in support of this plan?
If a TV ad is a crucial part of the campaign for promoting this measure, then why wait until now to produce it?
Why didn't we see this plan being pushed before Nov. 2, 2004?
Why aren't more Democrats getting on board with this? Wouldn't it be easier to make some noise for this proposal if all prominent Democrats in the Senate and House would talk about this whenever they got the chance?

It's a great proposal, and the logical first step towards getting universal health care. Either the GOP passes it and we've made gains on the policy front, or they don't and look like a bunch of insensitive obstructionist assholes. But until it's brought to the public's attention, it's pointless. Sure they've got an ad, but after months of dicking around, it's not unreasonable to be suspicious that the ad will never air.

[Mass]

11. The bill has been introduced in the Senate in January!!!

Now the Republicans have control on the agenda and are not willing to promote this bill, as you can imagine.

The ad is exactly for that, to bring the bill to public attention, as he has been doing again and again by going through the States.

[Telly Savalas]

42. No shit?

I understand the constraints the Democrats are under by virtue of being the minority party in a nation where the media puts important issues like health care in the backseat in favor of trite bullshit like the MJ case. But still, you'd think they'd be doing a better job of beating the drums for this bill. Why wait 5 months to publicize it? Are there FCC regulations against non-sequiters on talking head shows? (e.g. why not: "The GOP can complain all they want about Chairman Dean's comments, but it's just a distraction from real issues, like the fact that millions of children go without proper health coverage. Our party has a plan to fix this."?)

I don't mean to sound like a negative whiner, because I think Kerry's bill is probably the best thing to come from the Democrats in the last 4 years. (And I say this as a guy who's not a big Kerry fan.) I'm just frustrated by the lack of emphasis on this. If and when the ad hits the air, I'll certainly be in the "hell, yeah" crowd, not the "too little, too late" one.

[blm]

51. heh...Kerry held a press conference on this a few months ago and it went

unreported by any of the broadcast media and supposed news channels.

He has been doing regular town meetings across the country about this in an effort to get the issue heard. They are rarely covered.

[Telly Savalas]

52. So the ad is the next logical step in trying to make some noise. I dig.

But aren't there 43 other people in the Senate that have D's after their names? Surely if there was more of a unified front on this bill, we could have mustered a bit more publicity. Obviously the Democratic caucus isn't going to agree on everything, and that's as it should be. But anyone who is enough of a dick to think that there shouldn't be universal health coverage for children should have no place in the Democratic Party. Even if a Senator doesn't agree with the exact provisions of this bill, they should at least be willing to try to raise awareness on the issue.

[blm]

53. Who controls the media and what issues get heard? There are Dems

supporting this bill but you can't cut through the media with anything important unless you club them repeatedly with it.

This is the press that concentrated on Runaway Bride for FOUR FOCKING DAYS when the DSMinutes story first broke.

[redqueen]

12. This act is bullshit.

It provides some help to low income families to buy insurance, and if they don't, there's a penalty - they lose their child tax credit on their income taxes next year.

We don't need federal subsidizing of insurance, we need a national healthcare plan which is NOT FOR PROFIT.

Get over it, centrists Dems... many of us Dems aren't buying your "do it the corporate way" shit anymore.

[sandnsea]

19. Go join the Greens

Nobody wants government health care. Get over it.

This bill basically implements the waiver programs Vermont and some other states have already implemented. It expands SCHIP to all kids, with a sliding fee premium which is usually $10-$20 a month per family. I would have loved to have had access to this kind of insurance when my kids were little. And a tax credit on top of it. This doesn't hurt anybody and makes sure everybody participates. It's stupid to risk thousands of dollars of EIC when you can insure your kid for $1-200 a year through the state.

[redqueen]

22. I may just... and what's this BS about how nobody want's govt HC?

It is BS, you know.

Most americans DO want just that. Too bad the corporate whores have taken over both parties.

Oh well.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

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[redqueen]

27. Guess what... you're not a dictator.

I'll go when I'm good and ready, thank you very much.

I'm really glad you know what people IN OREGON think. Do you think that correlates directly to the entire US?

[sandnsea]

36. Some state passed single payer?

Funny, I missed it. If it's what everybody wants, you'd think New York or Vermont or Massachusetts would have done it by now.

[redqueen]

38. There are surveys showing a clear majority favor it. n/t

[Name removed]

45. Deleted message

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[redqueen]

46. Thanks for the helpful advice.

You might be shocked, but the legislation is already written, and already sponsored.

If it weren't for the corporate whore sellouts in DC, it would be easy. Unfortunately, battling against the forces of greed is a lot harder than compromising with them.

[sandnsea]

47. So what are you doing about it?

If it's got the support of the whole country, it should be easy to get out there and get people to rise up and demand its passage.

Easier to sit around and blame the rich fat cats then take responsibility for change.

That's why I say GO, join the Green Party. Do something constructive about all this legislation. I'd rather have a strong left than a strong talibornagain right.

[redqueen]

48. lol... "talibornagain"

You're quick with the insults, aren'tcha?

[info being]

56. EXACTLY

[Mass]

14. Great bill approved by most familial and children-related organization

Sure, a single payer system would be better, but it is not going to happen anyday soon.

In the meantime, may be it is time to do something, and it seems that the most liberal Senators (Kennedy, Murray, Lautenberg, Corzine, ...) agree with Kerry on this

[redqueen]

18. This is a funnel to send tax money to private corporations for profit.

Nothing more.

Penalizing parents who don't get insurance under the system... you agree with that?

[Mass]

20. I have kids with long term medical problems

I know what it means when kids cant get care because they dont have insurance (Well, thanks to the fact that I live in Massachusetts, I dont, but if I lived in Tennessee, for example). I cant wait until this country has a decent single-payer healthcare system, sorry.

The names of the people who co-sponsor this bill are enough for me to support this bill. I would love that, but this is NOT going to happen anytime soon.

When something will be done that advances the question, I will continue to fight for what should be the ultimate solution (single payer).

[sandnsea]

21. Maybe they should tie education to child tax credits too

Yes, parents should be responsible if they want to take advantage of thousands of dollars of tax credits. I was thinking it was EIC, but it's not. They'd just lose a few hundred dollars in their child tax credit. If a cheap state program is available, they should be required to take advantage of it. That's how you start driving health care costs down, by showing that everyone having preventive health care is cheaper. Once we prove it with kids, it'll be easier to expand.

[redqueen]

23. I'd love to be able to agree, but having used CHIP, I can't.

Oh well... guess we'll watch another train wreck in action.


Quick question - have you actually used CHIP (or any other of these programs) or talked to anyone who has? And please don't use VT as a model... we all know very well they're not the rule, they're the exception.

[sandnsea]

26. I have

And maybe it's because you don't know what NO insurance is like that you complain. And if you complain about CHIP, then why in the world do you think a full government medical program will be better? There will always be problems in delivering health care to the masses.

[Mass]

28. Because she does not know what it is to have no insurance for her kids

It is obvious.

[redqueen]

30. Yes, I do. What's with you two assuming you know everything about me?

Some people...

[Mass]

31. May be because you are ready to wait for something that is not going to

happen rather than supporting something that may be a little less good, but still solve a big problem.

[redqueen]

32. Sorta like No Child Left Behind... didn't that work out just great?

Unreal...

[Mass]

34. No comparaison between the two...

Unreal...

No Child Left behind was supposed to be the solution to everything and it did not even start to address the problem. Whoever thought that standardized tests could solve the problem of education is simply stupid.

This is a brick to the problem of healthcare. It is not supposed to solve everything, but it is a beginning.

Except of course if you think that tomorrow, we will be able to pass a comprehensive bill on healthcare. I would not hold my breath on that.

[redqueen]

41. Direct comparison:

both programs are designed to improve donors' bottom lines.

[redqueen]

29. Why do you ASSUME I don't know?

Why do I think a full gov't program would be better? Because it wouldn't be required to turn a profit. Yes, there will always be problems... will they always be the result of ensuring the fatcats get their dividend checks? I don't think so.

[sandnsea]

33. "Maybe"

Do you not understand the meaning of the word?

You assume that the best systems in the world are full government systems. Not true. The best system is in France. Public/private. You further assume that a full government system would mean anybody could get the same health care that the fat cats get. Again, not true. Health care will be rationed, a price you pay. The fat cats will simply set up medical care in another country, India, Malaysia, Taiwan.

I support a universal system, streamlining care, eliminating the costs of insurance companies, even defining the amount of profit an insurance company can make. But single payer isn't a panacea. Have you ever been to a military medical facility? I've had that pleasure too. Not fun. Definitely not good health care.

[Mass]

35. I agree with you totally on that.

[redqueen]

39. The meaning depends on the placement in a sentence.

"And maybe it's because you don't know what NO insurance is like that you complain."

The "maybe" in this sentence, due to its placement, would seem to the reader to refer to the likelyhood of the reason that I don't know, not what I do or don't know... the phrase "you don't know" (as opposed to 'may not know' or phrasing the sentiment as a question) also leaves little room for interpretation.

Why do you think I assume the best systems are full-government systems? Or that I think those on such a plan would get the same healthcare the rich get? You make a LOT of assumptions. A LOT.

[redqueen]

40. Oh, and yes. I understand the meaning of that word.

Thanks so much for your concern.

[Telly Savalas]

43. Then I assume we'll see quick and swift passage by the GOP legislature

[redqueen]

44. Most likely not.

It's more of a feather in their cap to defeat it... that way they can blather on about how little gets done (without of course mentioning why).

[SeekerofTruth]

37. I like this add and think it's a good start

to get people to focus on this issue. I agree we need better care, I disagree in total government run program. However, the fully run government programs of Canada and other countries bother me. I hope Hillary and Newt can come up with something that has the best of the American system and the best of the Canadian system combined.

Can someone pinch me to make sure I'm living in this world? Newt and Hillary working together? I'm feeling delusional, must stay focused on reality, where am I......

[second edition]

58. This is such a good cause. The message will run in my area.

I can't wait to see it. It should put my two repub senators to shame. Keep up the good work defending the children and us Senator Kerry. A majority of people appreciates your efforts on behalf of the lower income and middle class! Thank you.