Although similarly low-key most of the time, he's already on record with one of the most caustic appraisals by any senior congressional Democrat of the Obama administration's handling of health care planning so far.
This summer, Conyers spoke of his fears at a meeting of Progressive Democrats of America, which he co-founded.
'No One More Disappointed...'
"There is no one more disappointed than I am in Barack Obama," Conyers told the group. "I've told him that to his face." The reason? "Buddy, you are wrong on health care, and it's going to cost you big time," Conyers continued. "We've got to tell Obama now, or he'll be a one-term president."
Conyers backs the HR 676 "Medicare for All" bill scheduled for vote this week. He and other backers say the proposal will create huge administrative savings via a single-payer system that is used by most industrialized nations. Some nations use private insurers but with far more regulation than in the U.S. All provide equivalent or better health care to the U.S. in many or most respects at half or less of overall costs, according to studies by the international research group OECD and Economist.
More than 80 House Democrats support a robust public option with a commitment not to support inadequate measures, Conyers said last week, and if these House members stand firm with their constituent interests no harmful bill can become law. "I'm optimistic," he concluded.
Houston's Sheila Jackson Lee says, "We've got to win" by insisting on a public option. One of 93 co-sponsors also of single-payer, she wants doctors to begin the Oct. 27 hearing by describing why those not eligible for Medicare need an alternative to for-profit insurance. As an urgent reason for action, she's cited 47 million uninsured Americans plus 50 million "under-insured," including millions of children.
Younger than Conyers and Fauntroy, she's still a barrier-breaker herself. She was one of the nation's first women ever to win admission to venerable Yale College. In Houston, she served first as a city judge and then as a city council member before defeating an incumbent in a 1994 primary.
As for Fauntroy, he recognizes the difficulties of creating a mass demonstration on short notice, especially in seeking attendance by those who are sick and ill-funded -- and when a president's advisors are reluctant to use their political clout. President Obama theoretically supports a public option, but he has not insisted on it. Over the weekend, yet another report surfaced that an anonymous Obama health advisor rebuked a prominent Democrat who advocates a public option.
Winning a President's Help
"Been there, done that," however, is part of Fauntroy's contribution to this rally. He recalls Attorney Gen. Robert Kennedy's reluctance in 1963 to provide government loudspeakers for the King speech after $66,000 worth of sound equipment was sabotaged the night before the march.
Kennedy feared criticism for his brother's presidency if the government financially supported the march, Fauntroy says. In those days of powerful Southern congressional chairmen, the nation's capital was in some ways an extension of white Southern culture. The National Press Club refused to admit black applicants until 1955, for example, and the Washington Redskins refused to hire black players until forced to do so in 1962.
But Fauntroy's cajoling obtained the loudspeakers from the federal government with Kennedy's help, thereby enabling the world to hear King's historic speech.
"I've had to take it," Fauntroy recalls, "from the suites to the street."
On Oct. 27, will history repeat?
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