OntheWilderSide

from Single Payer Action

Ralph Nader joined a group of protesters from the National Nurses United, UE and Single Payer Action to protest President Barack Obama’s speech before
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this morning.

As Obama walked across Lafayette Square to the Chamber, he was confronted by shouts of “What about single payer Mr. President? What about your pledge for
single payer? Stop buckling to the corporations, Obama. How about a little even handedness? Stop buckling to the corporate power, Obama. Respect the
people not the corporations. Visit the people, not the corporate Kremlin.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So1ASjbZvjQ&feature=player_embedded]

Obama walked within a couple hundred feet of the protesters and waved to them.

“Why is Obama trumping Trumka?” Nader asked – referring to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

“The fact that he snubbed the AFL-CIO, whose member unions represent 13 million workers, sends us a message – that he’ll pay homage to his adversaries and continue to turn his back on his supporters, because he knows they will have no where to go,” Nader said. “They are not going to vote Republican in 2012. That is disrespect for his supporters.”

Nader said that Obama turned his back on his supporters by breaking his promises to workers. 

Nader said that Obama broke his promise to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011, to implement a card check, and “not to have more job destroying trade agreements.”

“That shows a lack of character,” Nader said. “Instead, he’s curtseying right now in front of the Chamber of Commerce. You know he’s not going to dress them down. He’s going to reassure them that business as usual prevails in the White House – and that the corporate government that dominates every department and agency in this administration will continue to deepen, continue to destroy our democracy, and drive our country into the ground as these multinationals show they have no loyalty to America – other than to control and ship its jobs and industry to repressive regimes like China.”

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Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, health, health care, Healthcare, Labor, News, politics Tagged: | Barack Obama, Chamber of commerce, National Nurses United, Ralph Nader, Richard Trumka, unions, united states, United States Chamber of Commerce, universal single payer healthcare, White House