After an hour and a half in the office, the group decided they "should block some doors. Individuals blocked one door going into the office and then another door coming out of the office.
The Homeland Security police came up and told the activists to stop what they were doing. When the individuals refused to leave, around 13-15 were arrested, taken to the basement of the Federal building Pelosi's office is in, and cited for refusing to obey a lawful order.
The sit-in at Pelosi's office came together very quickly. It was the product of a coalition including citizens from Direct Action for Single Payer, the California Employees Association, Single Payer Now, and a retired Americans association in California.
The sit-in came about a week after a blockade at BlueCross/BlueShield, which was organized as part of MobilizeforHealthCare.org's actions for real health care reform for all.
CrooksandLiars.com reports on a conference call Nancy Pelosi recently had with bloggers. Pelosi claimed "single payer would be disruptive to Medicare." (Audio of the call can be found here.)
During the summer, Pelosi said she would allow a vote on a single payer plan if Rep. Weiner removed his single-payer amendment from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's health care bill.
The Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) put out this statement from executive director of Health Justice, Clark Newhall:
"While we have been pushing for a debate on the House floor for single payer, and been calling for the representatives to keep the Kucinich [Amendment]. ... It seems House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lied. ... [The Kucinich Amendment] allowing states to create state-level single-payer healthcare has been stripped out of the House healthcare bill, after having passed in committee back in July by a vote of 27 to 19."
The IPA also released a statement from a California Nurses Association spokesperson:
"In July, the House Labor and Education Committee approved an amendment introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich that would exempt states that enact Medicare for all / single-payer bills from the onerous limitations contained in the federal ERISA law governing employer sponsored health plans.
Since then a rogues' gallery of Fortune 500 corporate interests and insurance lobbyists have put a lot of pressure on the House leadership to strip the Kucinich Amendment from the final bill going to the House floor."
Pelosi and Democrats plan to block amendments to health care reform when health care reform is debated and comes to a vote on the House floor.
Stay tuned for photos and additional reports on the action. And make OpEdNews your source for all information and news on the citizen actions for real health care reform in America.
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