April, 28 2021, 12:00am EDT
The American Families Plan Is Incomplete Without Lowering Drug Prices
Following the news this morning of the contents of the Biden Administration's American Families Plan, Margarida Jorge, campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, issued the following statement in response to the plan leaving out language to lower prescription drug prices:
WASHINGTON
Following the news this morning of the contents of the Biden Administration's American Families Plan, Margarida Jorge, campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, issued the following statement in response to the plan leaving out language to lower prescription drug prices:
The Biden Administration and congressional Democrats have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help the millions of Americans still forced to choose between basic necessities and the prescription medicines they need to live healthy lives. While the American Families Plan includes investments that directly respond to the urgent needs of millions of families, the proposal is incomplete without long-overdue measures to make prescription drugs more affordable for every person, no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they have in their bank account. Lowering drug prices for seniors, people with disabilities, and patients struggling to afford everything from insulin to cancer medications is a top healthcare priority for millions of Americans who can't wait anymore for accessible life-saving medicines.
The Lower Drug Costs Now Act, recently reintroduced in the House, would allow Medicare to directly negotiate prices on behalf of beneficiaries for the first time, saving taxpayers more than $450 billion. These savings could support the Administration's efforts to rebuild our economy, make healthcare more affordable, create jobs and increase accountability for taxpayer investments in new medicines and treatments. Drug corporations would also no longer be able to charge seniors and families more for drugs in the United States than people in other countries pay for that same drug.
President Biden has repeatedly affirmed his commitment to lowering drug prices as part of making healthcare affordable for everyone. The time to act on that promise is now, by including the Lower Drug Costs Now Act in the American Families Plan.
Lower Drug Prices Now brings together a broad array of state and national partners to fight for transformative policy change that will finally ensure everyone has access to affordable medicine whether they have a sore throat, high blood pressure or an acute illness like cancer.
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Climate Group Reaches Over 4 Million Voters to Elect Harris Then 'Organize Like Hell'
"Young people know what's at stake in this election," said one Sunrise Movement leader.
Nov 05, 2024
After setting out to reach 1.5 million young voters between late August and Election Day, the youth-led Sunrise Movement announced Tuesday that it made over 4 million voter contacts with a campaign targeting seven battleground states.
"Sunrise's program focused on presidential swing states where young, climate-minded voters were poised to decide the election: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Georgia," explains the group's new report. "Our voter contact universe was made up of people under the age of 35 who were very likely to be concerned about climate change."
The report lays out how Sunrise—sometimes partnering with other progressive groups—reached voters via digital advertising, phone calls, text messages, and door-knocking.
"We have six years left to stop catastrophic climate change. The next president will shape the planet for generations to come."
"I'm blown away by how many people stepped up to help us reach a record number of young voters this fall," said Sunrise communications director Stevie O'Hanlon in a statement. "We set a goal of reaching 1.5 million voters, and we blew past that goal, surpassing even our 2020 reach."
The report notes that this past spring, polls showed some young voters backing former Republican President Donald Trump over Democratic President Joe Biden—who dropped out and passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris this summer—but Sunrise "employed a four-part strategy to turn these numbers around."
The strategy was:
- One of the largest youth voter programs nationwide;
- Use direct action and social media to spotlight the GOP's deeply unpopular climate policies;
- Pressure Democrats to back and emphasize policies that would motivate young voters; and
- Make the case to young progressives and disillusioned voters to vote for Harris.
Trump made clear that he would drive up emissions with plans to "drill, baby, drill" and pledged to roll back the Biden-Harris climate policies if fossil fuel executives poured just $1 billion into his campaign. While Harris is widely endorsed by green groups, she has worried some with her embrace of hydraulic fracturing—or fracking—and promotion of "the largest increase in domestic oil production in history."
Still, many organizers for climate action and other key issues—including Israel's U.S.-backed genocidal war on the Gaza Strip—have emphasized during this cycle that Harris is the best choice and the only candidate capable of denying Trump another term.
Sunrise's report acknowledges that "from the war in Gaza to the economy, frustration and disillusionment among young people is at historic levels. This has led many young voters to consider voting for third parties or sitting out altogether."
"We held 'Beyond the Ballot' trainings to dig into our four-year plan to win bold climate action if Harris wins," the publication says. "In those sessions, we dug into how much harder these plans would be under a Trump presidency."
"Through phone and text conversations, Sunrise directly persuaded thousands of voters in this position to vote for Harris," the report continues. "Sunrise also put out social media and press content making this case. These posts reached over 1.5 million people on Instagram alone."
Sunrise campaign director Kidus Girma declared Tuesday that "young people know what's at stake in this election."
"We have six years left to stop catastrophic climate change. The next president will shape the planet for generations to come," Girma added. "No matter who wins, our movement is stronger than before and prepared to take bold action to force the next president and Congress to act."
The report followed a Monday video in which Sunrise executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay said that "one of the hardest things about this election cycle has been watching the left absolutely rip ourselves apart. If you vote for Harris, you're accused of supporting genocide, and if you vote third party or don't vote, you're accused of supporting fascism—and I wish we would just be a little bit more compassionate to ourselves because the truth is we're in a really shitty situation."
"This system was not built for everyday people to have power; it was not built for the left to be able to build power," Shiney-Ajay stressed, detailing the group's rise—from early climate strikes to Biden launching the American Climate Corps and signing the Inflation Reduction Act—and Sunrise's plans for the future.
"First we elect Kamala Harris, because frankly the terrain that we're going to be organizing under Harris is going to be a lot easier for the next few years," she said. "Then, we organize like hell, especially around school strikes and campus takeovers, and we actually use the student power that we have to be able to go on indefinite school strikes and bring society to the realization that we need dramatic change fast. We pair that with escalations in city hubs."
"All of that builds up to 2028," the movement leader continued, highlighting the United Auto Workers' call for a general strike. That nationwide action, she argued, is an opportunity to call for "big climate legislation, structural reform to our democracy, and labor protections."
Shiney-Ajay added that "we can use that organizing power that we build to call for... a Democratic primary in 2028 to actually make sure that the next candidate that we get running for president is actually going to stand up for the values and the world that we know we deserve."
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Greta Thunberg Won't Attend UN Climate Talks in 'Yet Another Authoritarian Petrol State'
"We can't legitimize COP meetings in their current form," Thunberg said. "The last three years, they've taken place in authoritarian regimes, and holding them in such places leads nowhere."
Nov 05, 2024
When national delegates and civil society representatives gather in Baku, Azerbaijan next week for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, one prominent climate voice will not be among them—Greta Thunberg.
The 21-year-old Swedish activist said she would not attend COP29 due to Azerbaijan's authoritarian record and reliance on fossil fuels, and criticized the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for naming it as a host.
"It is extreme hypocrisy of the UNFCCC to let yet another authoritarian petrol state host the COP," Thunberg said in a video posted on social media.
Thunberg expressed concerns about Azerbaijan's record of stifling internal dissent as well as its ethnic cleansing of Armenians. The U.N. summit comes a little over a year after Azerbaijani forces entered the disputed, ethnic Armenian-controlled territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, prompting most ethnic Armenians in the area to flee across the border to Armenia. Armenia told the International Court of Justice in April that Azerbaijan had "completed" ethnic cleansing in the territory and was "erasing all traces of ethnic Armenians' presence" there.
At the same time, Thunberg added her voice to the many environmental advocates who have called out Azerbaijan for planning to expand its fossil fuel production. Azerbaijan's selection was especially controversial because it came on the heels of the United Arab Emirates' hosting of COP28, which also prompted backlash due to the country's human rights record and reliance on oil and gas. Both COPs also came under fire for selecting presidents with close ties to state-run oil companies.
"It is a slap in the face to all the people who are suffering from the climate emergency and from the repression and oppression of the Azerbaijani regime," Thunberg said.
"Climate activism and human rights are united."
There is another reason that Thunberg cannot attend COP29: It has a closed land border, which means that people can only enter the country by plane, something Thunberg has vowed not to do for climate reasons.
"The population in Azerbaijan is trapped. They can't travel in or out of the country except through the airport. Even if I could go there, I wouldn't. I don't want to legitimize the regime," Thunberg toldBlankspot.
Instead, she is traveling through Europe ahead of COP29, coming as close as possible to Azerbaijan. Currently, she is in Georgia where people are in the streets protesting a parliamentary election they say was rigged by the ruling party with help from Russia. After COP29 starts, she plans to continue on to Armenia.
During COP29, she will meet with Azerbaijani activists who are not in the country, as well as activists from Georgia and Armenia.
She told Blackspot that one purpose of her trip is to "highlight that we can't legitimize COP meetings in their current form. The last three years, they've taken place in authoritarian regimes, and holding them in such places leads nowhere."
More broadly, she also aims to foreground the relationship between the climate crisis and human rights.
"In countries like Sweden, many people are surprised when you talk about how climate activism, the LGBTQ movement, and human rights are interconnected," she said. "But in countries where people face repression and rights violations every day, activists see a clearer connection."
"Of course, we can't talk about the climate until our fundamental human rights are met," Thunberg continued. "'We can't talk about the climate if we can't go out on the street and hold a sign,' they say. Unfortunately, the climate crisis is extremely urgent, so it has to happen simultaneously. Climate activism and human rights are united."
Thunberg's remarks come as there has been an increasing crackdown on climate and other forms of nonviolent protest, including in so-called democratic countries. In its most recent report on the killing of environmental defenders, Global Witness observed that countries like the U.S., U.K., and E.U. member states had continued to criminalize climate protesters in 2023, with new laws targeting dissent and dolling out harsh penalties for common protest tactics.
"Nonviolent, nondestructive climate protest is increasingly being subjected to criminal prosecution, while punishments are being ratcheted up to levels befitting violent and far more serious crimes," author Stan Cox observed in October.
As for the outcome of COP29 itself, Thunberg does not hold high expectations.
"The only thing that will come out of it is loopholes, more negotiations, and symbolic decisions that look good on paper but are really just greenwashing," Thunberg said.
However, she maintained faith in the importance of speaking out on climate and other issues.
"Every time those in power get a chance to act, they choose not to and instead listen to industries that destroy the planet and violate human rights, rather than doing what's right," Thunberg said. " I want to spread awareness, focus on grassroots activism, and support those who are trying to make a difference."
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All But 3 State Attorneys General Call for Peaceful Transfer of Power, Condemn Political Violence
The three Republicans who didn't join the statement "presumably want violence," said one critic.
Nov 05, 2024
A bipartisan group of attorneys general on Monday led the vast majority of the United States' top state-level legal officials in releasing a statement calling for a peaceful transfer of power regardless of the presidential election results—but three Republican attorneys general were conspicuously absent from the list of signatories.
Ken Paxton of Texas, Todd Rokita of Indiana, and Austin Knudsen of Montana did not add their names to the statement, which condemned "any acts of violence related to the results."
"A peaceful transfer of power is the highest testament to the rule of law, a tradition that stands at the heart of our nation's stability," said the officials. "As attorneys general, we affirm our commitment to protect our communities and uphold the democratic principles we serve."
The statement was released a day after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said at a rally that he wouldn't mind journalists getting shot and that he "shouldn't have left" the White House after he was voted out of office in 2020.
Trump urged thousands of his supporters to descend on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 to try to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory, and has continued to claim he was the true winner of the 2020 election.
Election experts have said in recent weeks that Trump has been setting the stage for the same baseless claims of election fraud and vote-stealing that he and his allies spread in 2020—telling supporters that Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris will only win the election if Democrats cheat and saying, along with his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), that he will only accept the election results if he views them as "fair and legal."
The attorneys general—representing 48 states, the District of Colombia, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—called on Americans "to vote, participate in civil discourse, and, above all, respect the integrity of the democratic process."
"Let us come together after this election not divided by outcomes but united in our shared commitment to the rule of law and safety of all Americans," they said. "Violence has no place in the democratic process; we will exercise our authority to enforce the law against any illegal acts that threaten it."
The statement was spearheaded by two Democrats—Ellen Rosenblum of Oregon and William Tong of Connecticut—and two Republicans, Dave Yost of Ohio and Kris Kobach of Kansas. Kobach notably led a so-called Election Integrity Commission during Trump's term in the White House, searching unsuccessfully for evidence that the Republican was the true winner of the national popular vote in 2016.
Of the attorneys general who did not join the statement, Rokita and Knudsen are up for reelection on Tuesday.
Indiana-based author Steve Tally said Rokita, Knudsen, and Paxton "presumably want violence" and urged voters to oppose the state attorneys general.
"Where is the Indiana secretary of state and attorney general on this one?" said Destiny Wells, the Democratic candidate challenging Rokita. "Oh that's right, it's their team."
In Texas, Paxton has been a vehement supporter of Trump, announcing Monday he would deploy an "Election Day Rapid Response Legal Team" to polling places and suing the Biden-Harris administration over plans to send federal election monitors to Texas.
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