“I want my money back, President Obama!”

That’s the title of Marie Marchand’s column in Common Dreams this week.

Marie Marchand says she gave $20 a week for seven months to the Obama campaign — plus $60 every once in a while for a t-shirt and sticker.

“I gave of my modest purse joyfully,” she writes. “I thought I was supporting change I could believe in, not more of the same bloodshed and war!”

She now feels betrayed.

Millions of Americans are feeling betrayed.

They thought Obama as President meant change we can believe in.

They thought Obama as President meant complete withdrawal from Iraq.

They thought Obama as President meant standing up to Wall Street fat cats.

They thought Obama as President meant a living wage.

But for those of you who stood with us during the 2008 Presidential campaign, you knew the score.

You do not feel betrayed.

You are immune to Obama Betrayal Syndrome.

Because you knew, as we pointed out repeatedly during the campaign, that Obama was the corporate Democrat.

Beholden to large campaign contributors from Wall Street.

From the military industrial complex.

And from the health insurance pharma complex.

You knew what my campaign colleague Theresa Amato has documented in her new book — Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two Party Tyranny (New Press, June 2009.)

That the Democrats and Republicans are beholden to their corporate paymasters.

You knew that the only way out was to organize from the grassroots up.

That’s why we started Single Payer Action — to put the question squarely to this corporate Congress and to the corporate Obama administration — why is single payer, everybody in, nobody out, free choice of doctor and hospital — off the table?

After all, Single Payer is supported by the majority of Americans and the majority of doctors and nurses.

In West Virginia, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) — why is single payer off the table?

In Florida, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida) — why is single payer off the table?

In Oregon, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) — why is single payer off the table?

In Washington, D.C., First Lady Michelle Obama, Senators Max Baucus (D-Montana) Charles Schumer (D-New York) Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) and Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota) — why is single payer off the table?

Check out Single Payer Action TV — and watch as activists from around the country demand an answer from these politicians — why is single payer off the table?

Thanks to your generous contributions, Single Payer Action has been able to pump up a constant stream of single payer actions around the country.

Congress is now on its Independence Day recess.

Here’s what you can do to help out Single Payer Action and its summer accountability tour.

First, find out — through your Congress member’s office, from your local newspaper, or by word of mouth — when and where your member of Congress or Senator will be holding a town hall meeting or other public event.

And let Single Payer Action know.

Send the information along to: [email protected]

Second, Single Payer Action needs your help now to help fund its summer actions.

You donate, and Single Payer Action provides the actions and then reports back to you — through its web site — singlepayeraction.org.

So, please donate now — $10, $25, $50, $100, $500 — or whatever you can afford.

If you donate $100 or more now, Single Payer Action will send you a copy, hot off the press, of Theresa Amato’s hard cover, 379-page masterpiece — Grand Illusion.

Phil Donahue said this about Grand Illusion: “Theresa Amato takes the biggest swing — not a jab, but a roundhouse punch — at America’s corrupt electoral system.”

(Since it also includes chapters about my campaign against the corporate Republicans and Democrats — and since I wrote the foreword — I’ll autograph it.)

So, don’t delay.

Please donate now.

Let’s break through the corporate barriers and make single payer for all a reality.

Together, we can make the difference.

Onward to a life-saving, cost-saving single payer.

Ralph Nader

PS – For those of you in the Washington, D.C. area, Theresa Amato will be appearing tonight (Tuesday June 30, 2009) at 6 pm to launch her nationwide book tour for Grand Illusion. (Busboys & Poets, 14th & V Streets, NW, Washington, D.C. at 6 p.m.)

PPS – And remember, if you donate $100 or more to Single Payer Action now, I’ll autograph and have sent to you a copy of Grand Illusion by Theresa Amato. Please donate now.

(This book offer ends July 17, 2009.)