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 [ IMPORTANT READS ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=9)

#  Let the Games Begin … Single Payer Healthcare That Is

TRUMP WATCH--Now that Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt, I) has [introduced](https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/907949996066136064) his long anticipated single payer Medicare For All Act in the Senate Wednesday, which has 15 co-sponsors in the Senate, a record level of support.

Written by Michael Cohen on September 14 2017.

 ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Sept-2017/074h.png)

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 [Comments](#disqus_thread)

TRUMP WATCH--Now that Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt, I) has [introduced](https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/907949996066136064) his long anticipated single payer Medicare For All Act in the Senate Wednesday, which has 15 co-sponsors in the Senate, a record level of support.

We only care about just one thing though.

 Give us a CBO score!

 The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has panned every Republican proposal so far. That's why they are rightly unpassable and indeed have not passed.

Let's see what the [CBO says](https://www.cbo.gov/) about Bernie's brainstorm.

The battle lines are clearly drawn. Wednesday, Lindsey Graham actually said that single payer was now "inevitable" unless his own last gasp bill is passed instead. Incidentally, [hospitals fear](http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20170913/NEWS/170919956) that the GOP block-grant bill (from Republican Sens. Lindsay Graham, Bill Cassidy, Dean Heller, and Ron Johnson) would slash Medicaid funding.

The day that Republicans admit that single payer is a serious potential reality, which is what Graham just did, is a day for celebration … and renewed and determined activism.

 Use the direct fax action page to tell your Congress members, NO to Graham, YES to Bernie, and use the social media buttons at the top to share this action with everyone else you know.

 Here’s the [Medicare For All NOW](http://https//www.utalk.us/?a=medicare_for_all_now) action page.

 Graham taunts that passing his bill would end Bernie's single payer dreams (and ours). We have a better idea. Let's end the political career of any politician who will not stand strong for what the people want.

 Not only will we only support candidates who will stand with Bernie on single payer, after they are elected we will speak out even more to demand that they honor that promise.

 There is no credible counter argument, just hysterical hyperbole. Lindsey Graham demagogues that single payer would mean the "end of a sustainable federal budget."

 Oh, really? Then how is it that all the countries with single payer now have not already gone bankrupt? And why is it that not a single one of them, not one, not one, is the least bit interested in going back to the kind of corporate gouging we suffer under now?

 The fact is that the politicians who have already stepped forward to co-sponsor Bernie's bill are doing so because they heard from YOU. They need to keep hearing from you. Whether they are sincere or not now is of no consequence. We will enforce sincerity as required, by speaking out in even greater numbers.

 Because that is how politics works.

 And if you appreciate the insights contained in these messages, speak out, be the squeakiest wheel in your own community.

*(Michael N. Cohen is a former board member of the Reseda Neighborhood Council, founding member of the LADWP Neighborhood Council Oversight Committee, founding member of LA Clean Sweep and a contributor to CityWatch.)*

-cw

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