U.S. News & World Report has assembled a list of groups who gained the most and had the biggest impact during the campaign for health insurance reform in a report titled “10 Winners in the Healthcare Debate.”

First on the list of health care winners is AFSCME and President Gerald W. McEntee:

We agree — thanks in no small part to your efforts during this last contentious year, AFSCME and our 1.6 million active and retiree members won big when this historic health reform legislation was signed into law. Among the important benefits:

• Helps 32 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today — and makes coverage more affordable for many more. Under the plan, 95% of Americans will be insured.
• Will close the senior prescription drug coverage loophole that most people know as the ‘donut hole.’
• Will prohibit discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, health status or gender. Immediately prohibits health plans from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.
• Extends dependent coverage to age 26.
• Bans insurance companies from dropping people from coverage when they get sick.
• Restricts lifetime and annual benefit limits.

So we echo U.S. News and extend well-deserved kudos to AFSCME members, working families, and everyone who worked so hard for so long to make health reform a reality. Congratulations!

Justin Nickels, AFSCME’s state coordinator, is working with the Arkansas AFL-CIO for a few weeks and reports that the state’s working families are outraged over Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s latest attack on them in this post from the AFL-CIO Now Blog.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s campaign yesterday began a telephone survey asking constituents how they felt about her primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, “accepting money from labor unions.” It was an underhanded, negative attack the Democratic senator from Arkansas hoped would distance herself from her opponent and it seems working families. Lincoln doesn’t seem to want to talk about how much money she’s received from labor unions. Her career donations from labor PACs total $576,900. President Alan Hughes of the Arkansas AFL-CIO released this statement Thursday morning:

Only someone who has become a career politician in Washington, D.C., could spend 10 years asking for our support, take hundreds of thousands of dollars from blue-collar workers, then turn around and attack us as “outsiders” because we wouldn’t help her this time around. That’s not the values people in Arkansas believe in.

Later in the afternoon, Lincoln released her questionnaire to the Arkansas AFL-CIO and demanded Halter to release his own. Her questionnaire reiterated her recent opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, which she in fact supported before the Democrats regained the White House. The Arkansas AFL-CIO then released this statement:

Today, Sen. Blanche Lincoln released her questionnaire to the Arkansas AFL-CIO and challenged Lt. Gov. Bill Halter to do the same thing. We want to thank the Senator for acknowledging that she sought after, and in the past did receive, the support of Arkansas working families—working families she now calls outside interest groups. This just goes to show how empty her promises to fight for them on jobs, health care and trade have been.

This entry by AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee is cross-posted from Huffington Post and Firedoglake.

Michael Steele, the hapless chairman of the Republican National Committee, was asked a while back by Fox News how he would stop health care reform. “I will be the cow on the track,” he answered. Steele believed that President Obama’s historic effort to end the ongoing abuses of the insurance industry could be stopped even after it had passed both the House and the Senate. As a video posted on the DailyKos website makes clear, cows can’t stop trains. Yet this hasn’t stopped Republican officials all across the country from stepping up to be cows on the track now that health care reform has been signed into law.

Republicans are playing political games as the U.S. Senate considers legislation that would make important fixes in the historic health care reform legislation President Obama signed this week. The reconciliation bill would make health coverage more affordable for seniors and the middle class, and dramatically lessen the burden of an excise tax on working families. Now, Republicans are trying to block passage of those important improvements. They have no shame.

They are introducing amendments that serve no purpose except to derail the fix. Let’s be clear. The Senate should reject every amendment that is introduced to this important corrective legislation. Changes in the proposed law, except those mandated under the rules of the Senate, serve no purpose except to delay the implementation of health care overhaul. Amendments to the reconciliation bill are simply “poison pills,” designed to sabotage health care reform. They are tricks concocted by Republicans. They are cows on the track.

There will be more than enough time in the years ahead to address changes and make improvements in the health care law. This week is not the time to do it. My friend Rich Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, was right when he called on senators to vote no on amendments, even on issues that we would otherwise strongly support. “Republicans are going to use a “kitchen sink” amendment strategy, throwing everything they can at the bill to try to sink reform,” Rich notes. “Working families won’t be fooled by dirty tricks from the opponents of health reform out to do the bidding of the insurance companies. And U.S. senators should not be fooled either.”

When we started our work on health care reform three years ago, we set our sights high. But we knew that the final legislation would not include everything we wanted. But this is not new. Major social justice reforms are never achieved in one fell swoop. When the 1957 Civil Rights Act was signed into law, it fell short of what was needed to bring about equal rights. It failed to include key protections like voting rights and access to public places. But it was a start. And it laid the groundwork for future laws that made more progress. Originally, both Social Security and Medicare excluded public sector workers. But over time that has been rectified. The same will be true for health care reform. These bills achieve enormous good and they lay a strong foundation for us to build on.

I was pleased to hear that some supporters of changes in health care reform have decided not to push amendments to the reconciliation bill.

Senator Michael Bennet, one of the Senate’s great supporters of the public option, writes that “the bill before the Senate this week is far too important to use as a political football. This bill would close the senior prescription drug coverage loophole that most people know as the ‘donut hole.’ It would remove the special political deals, like the ‘cornhusker kickback.’ It would further reduce the deficit up to $1.2 trillion over the next two decades and cover even more Americans, bringing the total to 32 million Americans.”

Bennet correctly notes: “This will not happen if the political games continue. That is why public option supporters, including many organizations that have been on the frontline of the fight with me, are urging a vote on the reconciliation bill, without any amendments.”

What we have now is a law that does enormous good for millions of American families by making health care a right for the first time in our history. And it turns out Americans like that idea.

Senate Republicans aren’t the only cows moving onto the track. Just yesterday, Republican attorneys general in more than a dozen states announced that they would challenge the constitutionality of the new law’s requirement that Americans have health insurance or pay a little extra on their federal income taxes. These Republican officials are a disgrace. Every citizen of their respective states is required to buy car insurance before they can drive the car out of the lot. Is that unconstitutional? Of course not. I thought the GOP opposed frivolous lawsuits, but apparently they don’t when they are trying to be cows on the track. What they are doing is wasting taxpayer money to score political points with the extreme and irrational voices that now dominate the Republican Party.

Some prominent Republicans understand that those in their party who have taken extreme positions in opposition to health care reform have done a disservice to our country. Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum describes it this way: “It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. We followed the most radical voices in the party, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.” When will others in his party recognize that Americans want Republicans and Democrats to work together with President Obama to lead this country forward? When will they stop acting like cows on the track?

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee released the following statement regarding the historic vote for health care reform in the U.S. House of Representatives:

“Tonight’s historic vote marks a major milestone in the struggle to break the power of the insurance industry and provide quality, affordable health care for millions of American families. Democrats in the House, with the determined leadership of President Barack Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, demonstrated the courage that is necessary to defeat the special interests and do what is right for the American people. AFSCME members will remember those who stood with us and those who stood with the insurance industry. I have told Senator Harry Reid that we intend to continue our efforts as the battle moves to the U.S. Senate. Together, we will not fail. Tonight, we celebrate a monumentally important victory for our country. Tomorrow, we get back to work in the fight to make health care reform happen.”

AFSCME’s Make America Happen campaign for health care reform has been the largest issue mobilization campaign in the union’s history, generating more than 400,000 phone calls and letters to Congress. In addition, the 1.6 million member union has invested in an aggressive $10 million television, online and print advertising campaign, along with an unprecedented use of texting and new media.

The GOP first aid kit.

AFSCME today began distributing hundreds of first aid kits for protection against the deadly virus of opposition to health care reform being spread by the GOP and their allies.

“The American people shouldn’t believe the insurance industry or the Republican party when they try to hide their opposition to meaningful health care reform,” said AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee. “The only people in America who oppose health care reform are the people in the pockets of insurance company CEOs making a fortune off of the American people.”

While the American public is demanding affordable health care for all and an end to insurance industry abuses, Republicans have focused on helping the insurance company CEOs.

“It’s time to rein in the abuses and to control skyrocketing costs. It’s time for an up-or-down congressional vote,” said McEntee.

The contents of the first aid kit include hand sanitizer for protection when handling the millions of dollars the GOP has received from the insurance industry, an affordability thermometer to measure the 66% of Americans who want more affordable coverage, and the Glenn Beck tongue depressor — because Americans deserve to hear the facts about insurance company abuses, not demagoguery and fake indignation.

AFSCME is asking members to call Congress today and urge their representatives to finish reform right, to take a stand for working families, and to vote YES on health care reform.

Read the full press release.

As Congress stands ready to cast a historic vote on health care reform, AFSCME and a coalition of pro-reform groups have launched a series of television ads as part of a final push for passage of the legislation.

AFSCME and Americans United for Change have produced an ad spotlighting sickening premium hikes on individuals and small businesses — as high as 75 percent — as a closing argument for why Congress should stand with their constituents and not the greedy insurance companies making record profits.

Read the press release for more information and watch the ad here:

Ads from Health Care for America NOW! (HCAN) along with the AFSCME, Catholics United, and SEIU were released today urging Members of Congress to listen to us, not the insurance companies, and vote to pass comprehensive health care reform now. The ads are scheduled to run Tuesday through Friday to coincide with the upcoming vote.

Below is an example of the ad running in the NY-20 district of Rep. Scott Murphy:

See the rest of the ads on the AFSCME.org website.

From our friends at Americans United for Change:

This morning, in yet another slap to the face of struggling,
out-of-work Americans, miserly GOP Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky again roadblocked measures in the Senate to extend unemployment benefits to 400,000 Americans and subsidies for affordable health care for thousands more. 

Senator Bunning’s “tough s—t” message to millions of struggling Americans, including 119,230 in Kentucky, was enthusiastically approved by Republican leaders.

It’s a sad new low for a party that believes they can gain politically keeping Washington in gridlock – drawing a line in the sand on virtually every issue, no matter how uncontroversial from creating jobs to financial regulatory reform to funding for our troops to health insurance reform and now unemployment and health care assistance for their constituents who need it most.

FYI – check out this new web video below on what the Lexington Herald-Leader calls Senator Bunning’s “callous grandstanding,”:

While the Senate is seeking agreement on jobs legislation, states will need to start reprogramming their unemployment insurance (UI) computers before the current federal benefit extensions and COBRA subsidies are scheduled to end on February 28.

Senate Majority Leader Reid attempted to get unanimous consent to move a stop-gap extension of the programs through March 7 while negotiations continue, but Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) objected.

Without timely congressional action, workers losing jobs after February 28 will only be eligible for 26 weeks of basic state benefits, and those participating in the federal extension programs will only be able to complete the extension in which they are participating, possibly losing months of assistance.

While most observers believe an extension ultimately will pass, the delay will cause mass confusion among the over 10 million unemployed workers receiving unemployment checks and cause states to spend unnecessary time and resources shutting down the extension software, responding to calls from UI claimants, and then starting up the programs again.

This message regarding President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address comes from AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee.

President Obama made it clear last night that he will fight for jobs. He knows that we cannot lose sight of the millions of working families who are still suffering from the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. Too many Americans are out of work and too many jobs are at risk.

The President and Congress must act now or millions of Americans could lose their jobs in the months ahead. To this point, the President reminded the Democrats of their obligation to lead and served notice to Republicans that ‘just say no’ is not an option.

AFSCME agrees with the President that America needs to lay a foundation for long-term economic growth, and we continue to believe that providing affordable, quality health care for millions of additional Americans is not only the right thing to do, but is also a key to economic recovery.

We also agree that federal action is needed to keep our economy from slipping back into the ditch. Too many services in communities across the country are being cut to the bone. AFSCME members understand this first hand. Members like you are on the front lines of this crisis, trying to do more and more with less and less. State and local governments need help and they need it now.

AFSCME will fight for robust investment in vital public services. Indeed, investment in public services must be a part of federal jobs legislation. In the coming weeks and months, we will call you, our 1.6 million members, to lend your voice to our efforts to make this happen.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee released the following statement regarding President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, which is expected to focus on saving and creating jobs as our nation struggles to climb out of the economic crisis:

“President Obama addresses the nation tonight after pulling the American economy back from the brink of a second Depression. Unfortunately, we have learned in the past year that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was not big enough to stimulate a full-scale recovery. Unless we act now, more Americans –- including nearly a million public employees –- could lose their jobs as current federal investments run out and the vital services Americans need during tough times are cut to the bone. There simply won’t be an economic recovery if Washington turns its back on Main Street USA.

“Economists from all sides of the political spectrum agree that one of the best ways to save and create American jobs is through vigorous investments in public services. For example, respected economist Mark Zandi, a former advisor to Sen. John McCain, estimates that every dollar invested in public services yields $1.38 in economic growth.

“Investing in public sector jobs creates jobs in the private sector. Federal funding is needed to keep our streets safe, our children educated and our families in good health. As living, breathing engines of economic development, AFSCME members urge President Obama and members of Congress to focus like a laser beam on saving and creating American jobs by including robust investments in public services in any upcoming jobs legislation.”