Sanders bus tour stops in Pittsburgh tonight

Sen. Bernie Sanders is coming to Pittsburgh on Saturday as part of a MoveOn.org bus tour that is holding rallies in the region to urge lawmakers to vote against the GOP health care plan introduced Thursday in the U.S. Senate.

The independent U.S. senator from Vermont and former presidential candidate will be speaking at rallies in Pittsburgh; Columbus, Ohio; and Charleston, W.Va.

The group is specifically targeting Republican Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

The Pittsburgh rally will begin at 7 p.m. in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown.

“The immediate task is to defeat one of the worst pieces of legislation ever presented in the history of this country,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview, “legislation that would raise premiums on older workers [and] defund Planned Parenthood.

We need to rally the American people to oppose legislation that would deny people health care to give the rich tax benefits.”

Mr. Sanders asserted that health care is a right.

“This is a very ugly, anti-working-class piece of legislation.

When you get people off health insurance, thousands of people will die, others will suffer unnecessarily, and sick children won’t get the attention they need and deserve.”

He said the task should be to improve Obamacare. “Longer-term, we need to move toward Medicare for all, a singlepayer system that will guarantee health care for all.”

In a release announcing the tour, the organizers said: “MoveOn.org and Sen. Sanders argue that the Senate’s health care legislation is an especially cruel and destructive transfer of wealth to the wealthiest Americans at the expense of kids, lowincome Americans, the elderly, those with disabilities, and the nearly 23 million Americans who could lose their coverage as a result of health care repeal efforts.”