Universal healthcare is one of the most important issues for middle class Americans. It would provide healthcare for middle class people whose jobs have been shipped abroad by Lou Dobbs' corporate sponsors and a safety net for middle class people who face similar job losses in the future.

Helping the uninsured get beyond their absolute dependence on emergency rooms for medical care would make everyone safer who really needs emergency care.

Lou Dobbs doesn't care.

I would have stopped watching that racist corporate panderer entirely if my gym didn't have CNN on all the time. The propaganda fest Dobbs plays out while I'm working out is amazing.

Dobbs is attacking universal healthcare with a truly reprehensible tactic, demonizing people who support including illegal aliens. This is a classic bait and switch. Dobbs wants to gets people so worked up over illegal immigration that they won't listen to people who want to get healthcare for the uninsured.

Universal healthcare is literally a life and death issue. More than 18,000 people in this country die each year because they don't have access to health coverage. Playing these kinds of games with the lives of middle class Americans who are getting screwed by Dobbs' corporate sponsors shows Dobbs' hypocrisy in claiming that he cares about the middle class.

Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) recently sent me an email defending their organization from an attack on that organization designed to distract Dobbs' viewers from his real, anti-middle class agenda.

Tim Carpenter, PDA's National Director, said:

On CNN last night, Lou Dobbs was in the anti-immigrant zone. Nothing new about that--except this time he went after PDA.

“Tonight,” he intoned, “a political action committee called Progressive Democrats of America, PDA, is pushing a major new plank for the Democratic Party. PDA wants what it calls health care for all, including illegal aliens. One leading member of Congress has already signed on.”

A report from a CNN correspondent was briefly matter-of-fact: “Progressive Democrats of America wants to end the Iraq war and plow the war funding into setting up a system of universal health care.”

And I got a few seconds on camera, explaining: “We believe in health care for all.... Our goal fundamentally is to make sure that all of us have health care, all of us within the U.S. borders have health care.”

That concept made host Lou Dobbs nearly apoplectic, as he soon let viewers know. “I mean this is utterly and completely outrageous,” he said.

The idea that “illegal aliens” should have health care as a human right made Dobbs go ballistic. “I'll just speak for myself,” he said, “I mean, it is unbelievable that any elected representative of the people would provide that level of benefit to citizens--to people who are not even citizens of this country.”

What set off Dobbs’ eruption? Apparently it was his correspondent reporting that PDA “is urging the Democratic Party to adopt a plank at the party's convention in Denver, guaranteeing accessible health care for all.”

I think it is great that PDA is fighting back against Dobbs' garbage. I also think it is high time that middle class Americans unite to fight back against Lou Dobbs, who is a tool of the superrich who does everything in his power to distract and divert us from our real enemies.

Sadly, Dobbs' attack on PDA is part of a broader campaign by Dobbs' to deny healthcare to middle class and poor Americans. He loves ranting against universal healthcare on a regular basis these days.

I remember when CNN stood for Cable News Network, not Corporate Nuzzling Network.

Pathetic.