‘Our Democracy is Not for Sale to the Highest Bidder’

Nurses Also Call for Robin Hood Tax to Heal U.S., Global Economies

Leaders of the nation’s largest organization of nurses, joined by local union activists, picketed The Venetian in Las Vegas to protest billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s ongoing efforts, they say, to corrupt U.S. democracy through massive spending on elections.

National Nurses United (NNU), which represents 185,000 members in the U.S., including several thousand RNs in Nevada, also were promoting their call for a tax on Wall Street speculation to raise critically needed revenue to revitalize and heal the U.S. and global economies.

NNU, which is meeting in convention in Las Vegas this week, was joined by leaders and member of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union HERE and construction and building trades members for the picket.

Adelson, who spent some $150 million on the November elections, mostly to elect extremely conservative candidates, “represents the worst face of American politics today, the efforts of billionaires, millionaires, and Wall Street interests to buy our elections and democracy at the expense of everyone else,” said NNU Co-President Deborah Burger, RN.

“Our action will be a message to Adelson and the rest of the 1 percent, that we will not allow our democracy to be put on the auction block. This country is not for sale,” Burger said.

NNU members this week have also been participating in candlelight vigils with labor and community activists to call on the White House and Congress to oppose cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid during the “fiscal cliff” negotiations in Washington.

Additionally, NNU is urging enactment of H.R. 6411, the Inclusive Prosperity Act, introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison, which would set a small sales tax of 50 cents on every $100 of stock trades, with lesser amounts on trades of bonds, derivatives, and other financial instruments which could raise up to $350 billion a year for such critical needs as jobs, healthcare, and education, as well as contributing to international efforts to treat HIV/AIDS and reduce the effects of climate change.  

“It is time to hold the bankers and speculators accountable, and levy a small tax on their reckless behavior to help rebuild the economy they did so much to wreck,” Burger said.

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