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Reopen DC General Hospital Now!
Rebuild America's
Health Care Infrastructure!

Health Care is a Matter of National Security!

A purpose, which higher reason hath conceiv'd, that man's afflictions,
urge, ten thousand times defeated, may never be adandon'd”
                                                             Friedrich Schiller, from "Don Carlos"

Death Toll from MRSA Spotlights U.S. Public Health Crisis (November 2007)

Last Southeast D.C. Hospital May Close; LaRouche Warned of Privatization Swindle (November 2007)

Mad Cow Disease (BSE) —Don’t Underestimate This Public Health Enemy (March 2004)

SARS Rings the Alarm Bell: Restore Public Health System (May 2003)

Audio: "The LaRouche Show" - SARS and the US Health Situation ( May 2003)

Health Care Privitazation Scheme Collapses in D.C. (12/02)

"The Case for DC General Hospital"

Corruption Scandal Exposes Truth Behind DC Hospital Shut Down! LaRouche Blasts "The Boys From Brazile" (03/02)

Revive the Hill Burton Legislation

Congresswoman Admits LaRouche Was Right! (11-14-01)

Response to Anthrax Terror - Declare A Medical Emergency

LaRouche Urges Reconstitution of D.C. General Hospital

Former Head of Surgery at D.C. Gen. Says "Reopen Hospitals Now!"

More Articles on the fight to Save DC General Hospital

AUDIO of LaRouche Connection TV SHOW 4-26-01

©Stuart K. Lewis
Washington, D.C.- Rally with Body Bags showing unnecessary deaths due to D.C. General Hospital closing

"After Sept. 11, the "D.C. General issue" as such, ceased to exist. The lack of emergency preparedness of American cities, including the nation's capital, to respond to biological or chemical disasters, whether perpetrated by terrorists, or accidents, as well as the incapacity to treat mass outbreaks of disease, such as a Spanish Flu epidemic, was underscored with a vengeance, as anthrax killed small numbers, and threatened many more—including members of Congress. Washington's self-imposed unpreparedness took the lives of postal workers, and tragically "proved" what LaRouche had warned of earlier...

"...The significance of Waters' apology should be seen in light of the above; but also, in the context of the changed post-Sept. 11 environment, and LaRouche's role in exposing the coup-in-progress against the Bush Administration as of that date. Senator Daschle must now, for the General Welfare of the people of the United States, reverse himself. He should act, perhaps against the wishes of Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) et al., to defend the health of U.S. citizens, starting with restoring and expanding D.C. General's public health functions." Click for complete article

© Stuart K. Lewis
Wash, DC, June 6 - Citizens march in “New Orleans-style” funeral march for those who died due to D.C. General Hospital's closure

Read all of these articles:

THE FIGHT HAS JUST BEGUN!!

CALL FOR  A LAROUCHE MEDICAL TASK FORCE

STRATEGIC STUDIES Page

LaRouche's Interviews on the Ongoing Coup D'Etat Against the USA

KKKatie and the Media War Against LaRouche

Statements and Documentation on DC General Hospital
Morbidity Rate from Hospital Closure

Mobilize The Congress
Hon. Ray Flynn's Statemen
t
Congressman David Bonior's Statement
Petition to Save Hospital
Petition Signers
LaRouche Dialogue with Dr. Alim

Dennis Speed to April 4, 2001 Town Meeting

LAROUCHE URGES RECONSTITUTION OF
D.C. GENERAL

October 10, 2001

In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on Washington, D.C. and New York City, economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche observed that those who had opposed the efforts of the citizens of D.C., particularly concentrated around the Coalition to Save D.C. General Hospital, to maintain the full-service public hospital, and upgrade its physical plant to the most modern levels by expanding funding, were "proven terribly, terribly wrong." The members of Congress, particularly Democratic members who succumbed to the unprincipled and stupid attack of Cong. Eleanor Holmes Norton on LaRouche personally, as well as to "Gore Democrat" pressure to "avoid the general welfare idea, because it makes us look too much like the 'old' Democratic Party," were also proven terribly, terribly wrong.

Were Washington D.C. to suffer the same assault as occurred in New York, untold hundreds, perhaps thousands, would die unnecessarily, due to the moral short-sightedness of several D.C. elected and appointed officials, and their former masters at the now happily defunct D.C. Control Board. Recently, LaRouche observed, "the point is, now the control Board is ended; the issue of D.C. General Hospital is back in the lap of the Congress. We have a national emergency, which includes a national medical emergency, which includes the D.C. area. The only sane thing to do now, is to totally reconstitute D.C. General Hospital."

The present crisis demands sanity. We need voices of sanity in a time of crisis, to deal with everything. This is an act of sanity, as well as sanitation," LaRouche said. Isn't it time to face the fact, that whether there is a bombing, biological or chemical attack, or other catastrophe or not, that the policy to shut D.C. General was simply "terribly, terribly wrong," and must be reversed? Reconstitute D.C. General, as a fully funded, full-service, public hospital and teaching/research facility, equipped with state of the art plant and equipment, on behalf of the General Welfare of the citizens of D.C., and of the United States.

FORMER HEAD OF SURGERY AT D.C. GENERAL CALLS FOR REOPENING HOSPITAL
October 9, 2001

In a letter addressed to Washington, D.C. City Council member Adrian Fenty on Oct. 9, Dr. Bernard B. Anderson, Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at Howard University, and the former chairman of the Department of Surgery at D.C. General Hospital, excoriated Mayor Williams, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Control Board, and Commissioner of Health Ivan Walks for making a deal to close D.C. General. He accused those who accepted the deal of "myopia, incompetence, and stupidity."

The letter takes off from the requirements which the nation's capital has for being prepared for upcoming disasters. An adequate disaster plan, he said, must include:

  1. increased training for response to biological, chemical, and nuclear warfare;
  2. increase in the number and capabilities of Level I Trauma Centers;
  3. have these centers readily accessible to and from potential target areas;
  4. ensure that these centers are expandable in functional and physical capacity, to up to 4 to 5 times current capacity;
  5. increase funding for the health care system;
  6. This item is devoted to a full description of the capabilities of D.C. General, as a Level I trauma center, with highly qualified 24-hour staff, close access to the Capital and major roads, and one of 3 centers in the city with capabilities for functioning as a Mass Casulaty/Terrorism/Decontamination Center.

He concludes: "Surely the decision to close D.C.G.H. without providing for the services it rendered faithfully to its natural service community, and was capable of rendering to the wider community was a reckless and callous act that considerably increased the exposure and vulnerability of all persons in the city."

"While 'Humpty Dumpty' can usually not be put together

  • Foreign exchange market activity declined markedly between 1998 and 2001, with average daily turnover dropping 19% to $1.21 trillion a day in April 2001, from $1.49 trillion a day in April 1998. The BIS attributed the decline mainly to the introduction of the euro, the growing share of electronic brokering in the spot interbank market, and the consolidation of the banking sector. 31% of the April 2001, activity occurred in the U.K., 16% in the U.S., 9% in Japan, 6% in Singapore, and 5% in Germany. Overall, the British Commonwealth accounted for some 40-45% of forex trading.
  • Average daily turnover in the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market was up 53%, to $575 billion in April 2001, from $375 billion in April 1998, and nearly three times April 1995's, $200 billion. Again, the U.K. was the OTC derivatives leader with 36%, compared to 18% in the U.S. and 13% in Germany; the Commonwealth as a whole accounted for 40%.
  • Average daily turnover in the exchange-traded derivatives market was $2.2 trillion a day, a 61% increase from the $1.4 trillion in 1998.

In rough terms, the amount traded every day is nearly one-tenth of world GDP, and annual turnover runs at about $1 quadrillion a year, according to the official figures.



CONGRESS MUST OVERTURN ILLEGAL
ACTION OF D.C. CONTROL BOARD
May, 2001


In violation of its Congressional mandate, and acting behind locked doors under heavy police protection, the District of Columbia Financial Control Board on April 30 unilaterally rammed through legislation privatizating the city's health care services.

The Control Board's action was taken in the face of the {unanimous} opposition of the D.C. City Council -- Republicans and Democrats alike. The privatization program is also opposed by every professional medical society in the District.

At a D.C. Council hearing on April 27, the overwhelming weight of testimony presented, was that the contract for privatization will neither save money, nor improve and expand medical services to the District's indigent and uninsured citizens.

Two Council members -- Democrat Kevin Chavous and Republican David Catania -- have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court challenging the Control Board's action, on the grounds that it is {ultra vires}, unconstitutional, and in violation of the Control Board's own statutory authority as granted by the U.S. Congress.

They show that: -- (1) The Control Board lacks the authority to enter into a contract of this duration and magnitude (a $500-million, five-year contract), and that the powers to enter into such a contract are reserved to the Council under Federal and District law. -- (2) The Control Board has no authority to issue orders to the Council -- such as ordering it to enact specific legislation (the privatization plan), or to repeal legislation (that which created the Public Benefit Corporation, which has been operating D.C. General Hospital). Furthermore, while Congress has given the Control Board the authority to issue an order or regulation within the authority of the Mayor or an agency head (i.e., to stand in their shoes), Congress did {not} give the Control Board the power to act in the stead of the Council. -- (3) By overriding the actions of the elected Council, the Control Board has violated the rights and duty of the Council "to protect the health and welfare of the citizens of the District of Columbia." -- (4) Doctors Community Healthcare Corporation (DCHC), the parent company of the prime contractor in the privatization scheme, "has well-documented and substantial financial difficulty ... has posted large annual losses for the last three years" and has a poor reputation in the business community. (Moreover, DCHC has been investigated and sued for racketeering in a number of jurisdictions.) The Control Board has refused to make its "due diligence" investigation of DCHC available to the Council.

In fact, the Control Board passed three almost-identical versions of its Privatization Act "legislation" on April 30. The "emergency" version is only in effect for 90 days. The others only


take effect after a 30-day "review period" by the Congress (that's 30 legislative days, not calendar days) under the D.C. Home Rule Act. During that time, Congress can pass a joint resolution disapproving the legislation, which invalidates it.

FDR-PAC spokesman Nancy Spannaus, stated that the Control Board is perpetrating a fraud on the District and the Congress with this corrupt contract and privatization legislation. The privatization deal will cost lives and will devastate health care for the poor and the working poor, while clearing the way for a trillion-dollar real estate scam which depends on reducing city services and driving poor and minority residents out of the District -- the practice known as "Negro Removal."

Spannaus called upon Congress to approve the $21 million in supplemental funding for D.C. General Hospital which the D.C. Council has authorized, and to overturn this illegal action by the Control Board, which was carried out under the false claim that it was authorized by the Congress itself.


FORMER VATICAN AMBASSADOR
AND BOSTON MAYOR RAYMOND L. FLYNN
STATEMENT ON D.C. GENERAL HOSPITAL.


Save D.C. General Hospital
Stop Waging War on the Poor! -


Raymond L. Flynn, former Ambassador to the Vatican and former Mayor of Boston, Mass., issued the following statement on June 2, 2001:


I've become aware of the action to dismantle D.C. General Hospital, as a fully funded, full-service public hospital. It saddens me to see the health-care mission of this hospital, which has served the poor, the weak and the needy in our nation's capital, for over 200 years, being abused in this way.

The news of the precipitous dismantling of this beloved medical institution reminds me, in a most eerie way, of the bizarre dismantling of Boston City Hospital, the hospital where I was born and my mother and father died. At the time of our hospital's demise I was 3,000 miles away, having just assumed my post as Ambassador to the Holy See, and I could do little to intervene in the case of our distinguished hospital. Today, I am only a a few hundred miles away, and I hope I can be of help in saving this venerable public institution.

Franklin Roosevelt, while still Governor of New York State, said, "The success or failure of any government in the final analysis must be measured by the well being of its citizens. Nothing can be more important to a state than its public health; the state's most paramount concern should be the health of its people." Pope John Paul II, in his final speech of his 1995 U.S. tour said we must make "the common good the end and criterion regulating all public and social life." Like all others who have served in public office, I swore a constitutional oath to "promote the general welfare." These worthy sentiments are my trusted guides in the issue of saving D.C. General Hospital. We have a health care crisis in the United States and the closing of D.C. General Hospital will further add to it. We've got to stop waging war on the poor!



Michigan Congressman Bonior:
"Keep D.C. General Hospital Open"


The Hon. David E. Bonior of Michigan, in the House of Representatives, May 17, 2001.

MR. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, we, as a nation, spend more on health care than any other country in the world. Yet, we have 43 million uninsured people and our working families continue to struggle to obtain quality and affordable care. And now, in our nation's capital, there are efforts to close down the last remaining public hospital in the city, D.C. General. The closure of public hospitals around our nation and D.C. General, in particular, should be of concern to us all.

In Michigan, our public hospitals continue to serve patients and communities with dignity and with the belief that all people have the right to health care. These public hospitals provide our uninsured and underinsured working men and women with the quailty and essential health care they deserve. D.C. General has been serving the people of Washington, D.C. since 1806, and the care it provides is crucial for residents of the nation's capital.

I am deeply concerned with the impact the closure of this hospital will have on the residents of Washington, D.C. In Detroit and other urban and rural communities, affordable and reliable health care is becoming hard to find. Our public hospitals serve local communities without prejudice and are the only source of care millions in this nation can rely on. Now, the people of Washington, D.C. will have no choice but to turn to private hospitals for their health care--hospitals that base their care on a person's financial status and ability to pay.

Those who advocate closing D.C. General are concerned that the hospital has woefully inadequate funds to operate. The financial situation of this and other public hospitals is severely impacted by Congress' unwillingness to provide additional resources and the fact our public hospitals serve most of our uninsured and poor. The plight of D.C. General is just one example of what will happen if we do not stand up immediately and support our public hospitals.

I am also deeply troubled by the process that determined the fate of D.C. General Hospital. Through the use of an unelected financial control board, those wishing to see the hospital closed overrode the democratically elected D.C. City Council, who unanimously opposed the closure of the hospital. In 1999, a similar situation occurred in Detroit, when Lansing lawmakers dissolved the elected city school board and appointed a supervisory board, unaccountable to the citizens of Detroit. The Detroit school takeover and the D.C. control board's actions should be of concern to all Americans. Both these actions denied citizens a voice in the decisions affecting their lives. Our compassion and resolve to ensure quality health care and education for all must not be compromised by an unelected body which is accountable to no one.

Today, I join many of my colleagues in Congress, community leaders in my home state and from around our great nation, and champions in the Michigan State Legislature in urging that D.C. General be kept open and accessible to the people of Washington, D.C.


Signed:

David E. Bonior
Member of Congress



Dialogue Between Lyndon LaRouche
And Dr. Alim Muhammad
February 17, 2001

The following exchange between Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad and economist Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. took place during public discussion period at the Schiller Institute Presidents Day Conference February 17, 2001 in Northern Virginia. This conference was also broadcast over the Internet and can be heard on www.larouchein2004.com.

DR. ABDUL ALIM MUHAMMED: ..... there are some of us in the District of Columbia, who are attempting to be citizens, and to stand up on our hind legs, as you put it, but the barbarians are inside the gates. And they have occupied the high places in the powerful places, and among other mischievous things, one of the things that we're presently fighting to preserve, is the public health sector in the District of Columbia, especially D.C. General Hospital. As you probably know, there are probably 200,000 or more government certified poor people who live in the District, 100,000 of whom have no health insurance, who rely almost completely on the publichealth sector that's being dismantled.

The troubles at D.C. General Hospital have been imposed from the top down. Congress has specifically limited the amount of money that the District government can spend on public health. So, a hospital that last year had a budgeted amount of about $120 million, only has $60 million this year, and is slated to run out of money sometime in March, and the doors of the hospital are expected to close by April 1.

So, I'm just asking whether you have some ideas about how those of us who wish to be citizens, need to respond to this rather urgent emergency, that has already cost lives. I mean, we can already count the number of people who have died as a result of the difficulties imposed on D.C. General Hospital. Thank you.ä 

LYNDON LAROUCHE: I think that the first thing we have to do, is, to use the number of people who have died as a result of the D.C. General cutbacks. We have to construct a list of the death count, that those behind this operation are responsible for, and keep building it up. Because we're in a, strategically, in a Valley Forge type of situation, in which all the forces in government, in the majority, are against us. But it's not hopeless.

The problem is, what we came up against the Ashcroft's nomination. Now, my associates and I did what was necessary, with a lot of help from a lot of people. We mobilized enough to get the votes, which if Daschle and company had stuck to it, would have tied up the Ashcroft nomination. We had organized that number of votes. But then, because we didn't have the muscle to enforce what we had won, some of them finked out on us.

Now, there are two sides to that: One side is, we lost that particular fight, but we didn't lose it really. Because we're fighting a war, and we lost one battle, we had to retreat. But we made a show of force, and we got our forces united by fighting that battle. So what we have to do, is look at these situations as say, we take these battles on, and we make them cost as much, politically, to the enemy as possible, to give as much morale, and moralization to the victims and friends as possible, to build a movement of conscience around this issue.

We have to understand also, that this administration, while it seems momentarily all powerful, or they'd like to convince people of such, is not. We're dealing with a doomed emperor. He's on a short fuse. And therefore, we have to get the troops mobilized and moving in. Lives are lost in wars, lives that should not be lost. We're losing lives already. We've got to keep the death toll not for George Bush; he's not going to be impressed; he's going to delight in the number of people that die. He's never shown much compassion for anybody. Remember, Bush believes, if innocent people have to die on death row, that's good for politics, therefore, they'll die. And he'll do the same thing with Washington, D.C.

Gingrich. What do you expect from him? Phil Gramm: he's like a plugged sink drain, as an economist. You saw what he did. His wife was in the middle of Enron! He gets up and says, he doesn't think there's a national security problem in the California energy crisis, when his wife Wendy, who's of doubtful morality, is in the middle of the damn thing! So, don't expect anything from these creeps, Republican creeps on Capitol Hill, as such.   We just have to keep fighting. And not be discouraged by the defeats we take. Because we've got to win. The question is when? How soon? I think we ought to keep the score. But keep the score for the purpose of making, getting the people to understand. The people who agree with us, but who aren't fighting. Get them to understand! "Look, the reason we're not winning is because we don't have enough support from you guys. So get serious and start organizing more of your friends and neighbors, and we might have enough muscle, so you don't face a defeat, as we did with Ashcroft. If we had had more strength to support what we did in organizing Democrats to come around on the Ashcroft issue, we'd have won it. The reason we didn't win it, all the way, is because we didn't have enough support.

So, the key thing now, is on this issue, like the D.C. General Hospital, is to do two things: continue the fight and expand it. But also, let's take this thing to the other parts of the country, and build up a national movement on this thing, and take the D.C. General case, and use it not only as a D.C. issue, but make this a NATIONAL issue: "Look, look at what they're doing to us in Washington. What do you think they're going to do to you in New York? What do you think they're going to do to you in Boston? Or Detroit? Or elsewhere? You guys have got to get on board here. We've got to win a national battle in Washington, for the sake of the whole country. And so, I think we've got to go in that direction.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Speakers at the March, 2001 Coalition to Save DC General Town Meeting

  Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, Director, Abundant Life Clinic; Health Minister, Nation of Islam
      Dr. Kildare Clarke, Associate Medical Director for Emergency Services, Kings County Hospital, New York
      Dr. Michal Young, M.D., President of the Medical and Dental Staff, D.C. Health and Hospitals P.B.C.
      Paul Gallagher, Editor, Executive Intelligence Review
      Dr. Renee McCoy-Collins, D.D.S., F.A.C.D., Chairperson, Dental Department, P.B.C. (D.C.General Hospital)
      Dr. W. F. K. Seymour, Ph.D., Former Director of Microbiology, D.C. General Hospital
      Charlene Gordon, R.N., D.C. General Hospital


Links:
Extensive background material on DC General
and the fight to for the GeneralWelfare
is available from:
New Federalist's website
Executive Intelligence Review website
Lyndon LaRouche's website



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