Shame on President Obama for not pushing for single payer.

The Republicans have the courage of their convictions.

The Democrats don’t.

The AFL-CIO acts like Democrats in the Senate — their constuencies support single payer, but they don’t push for it.

And the SEIU is still an obstacle to single payer.

That’s the take of Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association.

In an interview with Single Payer Action on June 2, DeMoro (as usual) pulled no punches.

(See video of complete Interview with Rose Ann DeMoro here.)

“The Republicans actually have the courage of their convictions and the Democrats don’t,” DeMoro told Single Payer Action. “So (the Democrats) support single payer but they don’t act on it.  In effect they act against it by virtue of the fact that won’t even demand a policy debate on it. There is a conspiracy of silence — no question about it. This isn’t by accident that single payer — that everyone supports it but it’s not on the agenda.  They think they can ignore it.”

DeMoro and her California Nurses Association just buried the hatchet after a bitter feud with Andy Stern and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Any agreement on single payer between the nurses and SEIU?

“Yes, they’ll support the fight for the state option on single payer,” DeMoro said. “They’ll acknowledge that single payer is the best option.  In terms of day-to-day work, they don’t work with us on single payer and in fact we found the organization (SEIU) to be an obstacle in the fight for single payer.”

DeMoro said she’s disappointed in Obama, who once supported single payer, but now as President has backed away.

“The difference between Obama and a lot of these folks is that he actually deeply knows the difference,” DeMoro said. “He’s experienced the difference. A lot of these people here in this building (Congress) come from the upper middle class and have always had medical care. Obama had a different history. He’s felt the difference. And for him not to act on this and for him not to take leadership — this is just a lack of leadership. The Republicans are going to fight a public option as hard as single payer. . .The truth of the matter is, Obama should have led – we should have been following Obama on this issue instead of pushing him. So we’re horribly disappointed in the fact that he hasn’t done this. And we’re going to turn up the heat. Everywhere he goes there are single payer activists. There is no political action for keeping the insurance industry at the apex of power with an underfunded public option. I mean that’s ridiculous, it’s just ridiculous.  So, you know — shame on him.”