Rockefeller nails Republicans on healthcare

by: Carnacki

Fri Jun 26, 2009 at 08:58:56 AM EDT

"There is a very small chance any Republicans will vote for this health-care plan. They were against Medicare and Medicaid [created in the 1960s]. They voted against children's health insurance.

"We have a moral choice. This is a classic case of the good guys versus the bad guys. I know it is not political for me to say that," Rockefeller added.

"But do you want to be non-partisan and get nothing? Or do you want to be partisan and end up with a good health- care plan? That is the choice."

The healthcare rally organized by West Virginia's advocates were a success.

200 people West Virginians attended the rally.

Charleston Gazette:

Gary Zuckett, director of the West Virginia Citizen Action Group, said everyone gathered in a park beside the Everett Dirksen Senate Office Building, near the national Capitol.

Howard Dean, a physician and former Vermont governor who unsuccessfully ran for president in the 2004 Democratic primary, spoke to the crowd.

"We then met with Senator Rockefeller," Zuckett said. "We had a lot of union people with us.

snip

Sam Hickman, director of the West Virginia chapter of the National Association of Social Workers; and Rick Wilson, a state leader of the American Friends Service Committee and Economic Justice Project, also traveled by bus from Charleston to Washington.

Hickman said, "Rockefeller is very strongly in favor of a public option for health care and is really sticking to that position ...

"So many people were vilifying that public option, it was almost off the table. Rockefeller brought it back as a viable alternative," Hickman said.