Seth.
Just got off the phone with Congressman David Scott D.C. office(GA’s 13th District) where I spoke to his aid assigned to healthcare reform. Scott was the Rep who had his office (not a mile from my house) defaced with a swastika last August.
His aid said he was in favor of reform but wanted a stronger bill. I told her in no uncertain terms (voice wavering, close to tears) that he needed to ACT and not wait around.
I hit on the hate crime angle multiple times, letting her know that if anyone should realize the cost of getting this done, it was him.
She told me she’d pass it on to him, but also told me to get more folks to call.
She was sharp and knew many of the finer points, but urged me to get my friends to call.
My zipcode is 30082 if you need a place to make your voice heard.
Every one of your calls has an impact.
***Update***
Two interweb-related updates: Our updated whip count is here, and enterprising readers have registered passthedamnbill.com and set it up as a pass-through to Steve Benen’s strategy memo. Good work, guys.
DJShay
I just called my Rep. Larry Kissell. I was passionate and told the staffer that if HCR doesn’t pass this year, the democratic agenda is done. They will have lost the confidence of the people to govern and Obama would be a one term president. Also said my mother would benefit greatly from the bill passing. And I mentioned that I donated a lot of money to his campaign (which I did and it was a lot to me) and that if HCR didn’t pass this year, I would not donate again. She said she would pass the message along. I will call again tomorrow. Squeaky wheel and all that. Please call your Rep. Early and often!!
BR
Also, if you’re a twitter user, consider twittering your congressperson (and making it clear you’re a constituent). That’ll get past the staff filter and right to them. (Of course, you might have to put it differently.)
One approach might be to ask them to read Benen’s or Krugman’s (depending on who you think they’ll trust) recent articles on why the senate HCR bill needs to be passed.
Cedwyn
another point to push when making calls:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/25/829991/-AHIPBrown!
in light of Casey v United, it is absolutely imperative we enact the 85% mandated medical loss ratio in the senate bill immediately.
John Cole
For ever convert, the firebaggers are getting folks to vote against it. Morons.
Lolis
I called again today and also said I wanted DADT dealt with this year.
DJShay
Just got this email from MoveOn.org. I voted that if they don’t pass reform, I probably will not donate.
Incertus
Called Alcee Hastings’ office this morning and the guy who answered the phone said Hastings will vote for the Senate bill and then work on fixing it. Hope he’s not just feeding me a line.
mcc
SEIU sent out an email today, they are doing their own whip count on the bill. Whereas the people here as I gather have mostly been calling about the “House passes the Senate bill” strategy in specific, SEIU is asking the more general question of whether Congresspeople support a “comprehensive health reform bill that guarantees affordability and holds insurers accountable” (though this phrasing would seem to clearly rule out either cutting up the bill or taking a reconciliation-only approach).
http://call.seiu.org/9/72hours
I will probably email them a copy of the balloon juice spreadsheet once I’ve updated it.
mcc
@DJShay: MoveOn is also doing a set of emergency rallies Tuesday calling for the health care bill to be passed. There’s one at my Congressperson’s office and a Balloon Juice user in Georgia said there was one at their Congressperson’s office at the same time. If you want to see whether there is one of these scheduled near you (and if not they do offer a link telling you how to host one, though maybe it’s a bit late for that?) enter your zip code here.
Keith G
Jesus, we are so fucked
A majority of colonists were not in favor of Revolution pre Bunker Hill and even after by some counts.
A majority of citizens would not have supported a Constitiuiona Convention if they had been aware of Madison’s, Washington’s and Hamilton’s plan for said convention.
So this dildo Rep knows what is good for the general welfare of the Union, but no. Must get phone calls.
We are doomed as a significant polity. Too bad. We had such promise.
beltane
@Keith G: Here’s a quote that was sent to me today. It goes with what you just wrote:
DJShay
@mcc: There isn’t one near me :( But what we really need is a march on DC. I would love to see MoveOn and other pro HCR orgs get togethter to plan this. I would take time off work to go.
Betsy
I called, didn’t get much of a response. I stated my zip code, and explained that I think that health care needs to be passed now; that if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be passed later; and that the Dems would lose control of the house and senate and would deserve to.
The staffer listened politely and then said he would pass my views on to Capuano. Not a very satisfying response. Maybe I should have asked what Capuano’s current position is?
Tim Chambers
For the spreadsheet: spoke with Mikulski, Barbara – (D – MD)…
“She supports the bill, but has not made any statements about the best path forward yet.”
So: undecided, but a supporter of the bill in theory. So: keep calling her. Show her we have her back and we want her to vote for comprehensive HCR.
Jim
@Betsy:
I’m amazed at people who get through to specific staffers. All I’ve ever gotten on any issue from Salazar is “The congressman has not yet released a statement”. Salazar’s a rural blue dog who, from what I can glean, really only cares about ag- and water issues. He voted for the House bill, but he also voted for Stupak.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Unless your Representative is a wingnut to the nth degree and part of the party’s hackstablishment in his first term in the House.
Who represents an area that voted for for St McCain 60-40. That would be 10 minutes of my life I’d never get back.
Go you people with Dem Reps! It sucks living in the second reddest county in Misery.
Violet
Question – would it help to phone the DNC or any entity like that? I’m happy to let them know I’m withholding any and all donations unless health care reform is passed. Can they lean on any representatives?
Posted below, but don’t think it’ll be seen. Here’s what I wrote:
Just called my Congressperson. The intern who answered the phone said no decision had been made, but I should “call back in a few weeks” to find out what the position was. A few weeks? Are you KIDDING ME? That kind of kicked me into high gear, and I went on about how we don’t have “a few weeks” and this needs to happen NOW.
So I asked if they were aware of the Steven Benen memo that came out today. Intern said no. I said – well, kind of demanded, LOL – that everyone in the office, from the intern up to the Congressperson read it and take it to heart.
Also said I supported candidates financially, but there would be no support unless health care gets passed.
Also – the intern made sure they had the right spelling for Steve Benen’s name and double checked with me because they were going to google it. I wish I’d know that passthedamnbill.com was up and running then. Anyway, at least I tried.
Also, phoned the White House, just to register my opinion on the subject.
shortstop
The guy answering the phone at Jan Schakowsky’s office states, in a fairly condescending tone, that the congresswoman will not speculate as to how she will vote on the Senate bill until “she knows what’s happening.” No understanding, apparently, that House members actually have some ability to make things happen.
DJShay
@Violet: Calling the DCCC (202) 863-1500 might help and the White House is a great idea.
ellaesther
Speaking of “every one of your calls counts,” I thought I would re-post this here, because my conversation with a Davis staffer really pounded the point home for me:
Okee dokee, I just got off the phone with the office of Danny Davis(IL-07) (who I also called last week, btw, but much more briefly)—I said my piece, mentioned the memo, and asked the staffer who answered the phone what the Congressman’s thoughts are on the question, and he transferred me to Davis’s Health Legislative Assistant, who was so gracious and helpful and talked with me for, I don’t know, 15-20 minutes.
Summary version of the conversation: Davis is, after all, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and is pro-single payer himself, but he realizes that this is the best bill we have right now and is thinking of it in terms of a framework that can be filled in and built on later, much like Medicare.
I asked how folks like me (and was very clear that I think of myself as a progressive) can help, asking “phone calls like these?” And he said “Oh without question, make the phone calls.”
Personal, handwritten letters are also very powerful he said (“anytime a Congressional office gets 20 or so personal letters that are of the same opinion…”), but allowed as how the irradiation process in the Capitol slows the mails down considerably….
He said that emails are also paid attention to, but did mention that any staffer is likely to get about 100 a day on this issue—to me that is an indication that if you’re going to go with email, make sure your subject line is sharp and stands out, and that your text is brief and to-the-point. Like, 150 words, tops.
I then said “if I happen to know people who live in the districts of other members of the Progressive Caucus, should I encourage them to call?” and he said “oh, that would be excellent.” Here’s a link to a list of the members.
So, just to re-iterate: Tim F., you are doing the work of our better angels here, and I thank you. This is clearly an important part of the process.
And we should probably all be asking to speak with our Representatives’ Health Legislative Assistants.
(And I’m sorry if some of this information has been shared in other threads on this issue. I will admit that I haven’t had time to follow all of them closely).
Jim
@ellaesther:
Hear hear. Depressing how few other blogs are making any effort. They’re all wrapped up in their own purity, I guess.
shortstop
Maybe he can call across town and get his fellow CPC member Jan, the chief deputy freaking whip, off the fence.
Violet
@DJShay:
Just called the DCCC. Waste of time and money. Person who answered the phone said they are “for health care reform” but said they “don’t deal with policy.” Spineless idiots.
She did say that the House bill was “substantially different” from the Senate bill. I told her it was as good as it was going to get and they needed to pass it despite the differences. She didn’t seem very excited about that.
I told her that they’d not be getting another penny from me unless HCR passes. And they should pass the Senate bill. And to let her boss know.
Cris
I know HealthyAmericanFuture.com isn’t as irreverent and balloon-juicy as passthedamnbill.com is, but I’m going to keep on pimping it, if for no other reason than to justify shelling out 16 bucks.
Guy S
Lowey is a little more positive than your count indicates. See my email from last Friday.
Jim
@shortstop:
I’d guess it’s because she’s in the leadership that Jan S can’t say anything, but I’d bet a kidney she’s on the side of the (resigned, pragmatic) angels on this one. Can’t tell you how much I envy you guys who have good reps.
BruinKid
OK, called Henry Waxman’s (D, CA-30) office, and the staffer I spoke to said Waxman was committed to reform, and was open to the idea of passing the Senate bill along with the reconciliation fix. Also let him know what I was hearing from members of Bruin Democrats about it.
I then called both of my Senators’ offices (Boxer & Feinstein). The Boxer staffer I spoke to hadn’t heard about the Politico story about Reid and Pelosi discussing the reconciliation fix, and was pleasantly surprised about it, so I’m hopeful Boxer will be in favor of it. She should be, given what she’s done so far. Feinstein’s office was also open to suggestions, including this fix.
The Feinstein staffer also suggested I have the club write a formal letter letting her know our position on this, so I’ll bring it up at our meeting this week when we watch Obama’s State of the Union as a club.
Aaron
I called the office of Zack Space (Dem, OH-18) this afternoon at lunch. I spoke to the woman who answered the phone for about five minutes and asked about his stance on the health care bill – he voted for the House version, but is leaning towards voting against the Senate version. Now, you should understand that Ohio’s 18th district is a very, very conservative area of Ohio – there’s a lot of farm land, along with old, collapsing industrial cities like Zanesville, Newark and Chillicothe, and a lot of farmland. It should be ripe ground for healthcare reform – both my parents are out of work, and have been for over a year. There’s just nothing there anymore.
I told the woman at Space’s office that I understood that the 18th was a conservative district, and that I was sure they were getting a lot of phone calls from people opposing healthcare reform. People like my dad, as deep red a Limbaugh Republican as you can find. Those people aren’t going to vote for Space in 2010 no matter what he does or how he votes on HCR. I, however, did vote for Space in 2006 against the truly foul Joy Padgett, and again in 2008. I also explained that I would not vote for Space in 2010 if he doesn’t support the progressive agenda. I explained that if he’s not going to vote for the biggest piece of progressive legislation in fifteen years, we might as well have a Republican in there. There’s no sense in having a Democratic congressmen who is so compromised by threat of losing his seat that they don’t vote as a Democrat. She said she’d pass my views on to Rep. Space.
DJShay
Never in a million years did I’d ever look to this site for activism. incredibly relevant spot on analysis, yes, but activism, no. Thanks so much. It may not be where you envisioned or even wanted to be, but Balloon Juice has become the go to site for pro HCR activism, at least for me.
DJShay
@Violet: But at least they know their members are antsy. If enough people call, they’ll have to make a statement at some point
angler
I hate the Senate bill’s dilution of healthcare reform and I hate the process that created it; i.e. the endless ratcheting of progressive Dems to support conservative measures.
Here that might make me a bad faith progressive who would put the perfect before the good. So, suitably chastized by Tim, John, and the collective wisdom of half the liberal blogs, I decided to take one for the team and I phoned my rep. Betsy Markey, Colorado 04, and urged passage of the Senate bill.
Markey could be classified as a vulnerable “conservadem”. She’s a first-term Democrat in a district that has been solidly Republican for a decade. She voted no on the original House bill because she thought it was bad for the budget.
Markey’s staffer, who was very polite, said that Markey has not yet made up her mind and is waiting to see what the final bill to be voted on looks like. That’s a lame dodge, so I asked how the Congresswoman would vote on the Senate bill as is–remember this is the compromised no public option, excise taxing, lower subsidy for the poor compromise that met the demands of Nelson and Lieberman. The staffer offered the initial dodge but said that Markey’s hesitations in supporting any reform package are cost control and the deficit; the same reasons that she offered in voting no the House bill last fall.
I made the case that the Senate bill does more to reign in costs and lower the deficit than does inaction and that the politics of the bill make its passage better for Markey’s re-election than its failure. The staffer promised to add those to the list that is kept for Markey about constituent calls.
Phoning Rep. Markey’s office reinforces my belief that this moral case for ratcheting the left to move right is backwards as an electoral political strategy and backwards as the ethically responsible action on healthcare.
Backwards as practical politics because the just-to-the-left of the Senate’s middle approach to legislating will not make Markey and other purple district Dems less vulnerable in 2010 than would HCR with the public option, or at least no excise tax, higher subsides, and other progressive fixes to the Senate bill.
Races in various districts will play out the same with or without the Senate bill in its current form. Markey will distance herself from whatever gets passed, and no matter what HCR looks like her opponent will be a tea bag Republican who calls her a socialist and she might well lose. Meanwhile, progressives like Nadler and Grivalja will win re-election, no matter the content of the HCR bill.
What’s unique about Congress right now is the Dem’s big Senate lead. It’s big enough to pass an amended bill that accomplishes what congressional leaders have decided cannot be done in conference. House progressives are ready to vote for something much better than what the Senate passed. They may or may not be able to pass one next year, after 2010. Oddsmakers today say they won’t have that chance. So if we can get a bill now, why not get a better one since this is the only time that the bill can pass?
This might be what rep. Scott refers to when he said he wanted a “stronger” bill. Without any fear that the 39 House Dems (all but two of whom did so because they thought it was too far left) who voted no on Nov. 7 House bill will back the Senate bill, the fate of HCR is in the hands of House Progressives. If the Democratic Senate takes a beating in 2010, progressive leverage in the House won’t matter because the Senate will stop whatever they send on. Therefore, leverage the 59 seat majority now. Doing so covers millions more than the Senate bill, pays for that coverage without taxing middle-class, improves oversight over the insurers thereby keeping costs down and concentrating spending on benefits rather than corp. profits. If the bottom line ethical call here is helping the uninsured, then the House Progressives are acting responsibly in pushing for a fix of the Senate bill.
It’s also a better strategy for winning in 2010. House Progressives are pushing for the difference drawing, good policy over, bad, standing strong position that this blog and others often say is the way to win. Unless Obama is very high in the polls, Markey is going to run away from him, no matter how foolish that may seem to many Democrats. A strong HCR bill might help Obama’s approval ratings, but that’s an add on effect of passage. Assuming Obama’s poll numbers stay steady, a weak or a strong HCR bill won’t change the politics of the purple districts. A strong one might, however, make a difference in blue states senate races, like Massachusetts, and shore up party’s senate majority in its task of preserving the reforms of 2010 from GOP the onslaught in 2011.
For those who agree call your Senators and tell them to amend their bill, and sign the HCAN petition for passing the bill with the fix included: http://healthcareforamericanow.org/page/invite/finish
For those who disagree and who are really, really fed up with the House Progressives, make them powerless by persuading conservative Dems, like Markey, who voted no on the House HCR bill that the Senate bill is the change they were waiting for. That’s still better than nothing and it doesn’t rely on yelling at the left to get what you want.
Cris
Earnest question, and I think I know the answer, but I’m just not sure if it has been definitively addressed here.
My state’s lone representative is a known opponent of HCR. Do I bother calling his office?
(And yes, I know that it’s worth keeping pressure on my two Democratic Senators, especially that one.)
Violet
Just phoned the DNC. First time got routed to someone’s voicemail. Second time got a real person. Asked who I needed to talk to to influence Congressional Dems to vote for the Senate version of the health care bill. The person I got on the phone said he didn’t deal with health care or policy, but would pass on my thoughts to Chairman Kaine.
I told him that the bill wasn’t perfect, but it was the best we’d get and we needed to get it done. I asked why the Dems were afraid of their own shadows and running around like chickens with their heads cut off after MA elected Brown. He got a chuckle out of that comment. Said he agreed with me on both counts.
So he could have been the plant watering guy for all I know. But he said he’d pass along my thoughts to Kaine.
Oh, I also asked if he’d read the Benen memo and he said no. So I told him what it was and said every Democrat from the lowliest person to the head of the party needed to read it and take it to heart. He said he’d go check it out.
No idea if that did any good at all.
Jim
@Cris: It only costs a phone call, I’d go ahead and do it. If you have some personal angle, you might mention it.
I’ve been curious about Tester. He’s very much under the radar. Did he make any Evan Bayhish noises post MASSacre?
Bob (Not B.o.B.)
@John Cole:
I think I will speak for my sister who buys her own insurance and has a preexisting condition, when I say to the firebaggers: Fuck you!
Jim
@Violet:
Hell, if Obama put Plouffe’s “no bed-wetting op/ed on his facebook, somebody may post Benen’s piece. I’m not on Teh Facebook, I’m too old. I assume Benen the whippersnapper has put it on his? Can you other young people viral it around to your tweets? Then get off my lawn.
shortstop
I know, I know. It just annoyed me that the patronizing intern who answered the phone used the “She doesn’t know what she’ll do until something happens” line — such a stupid thing for a member of the leadership to say.
CT Voter
Tim F?
I heard Jim Himes (D-CT, 4th district) say, on a local NPR station this AM that while the Senate bill was extremely undesirable, he was going to vote for it, because Dems needed to accomplish something.
I’ll call Murphy’s office again, to see if I can get a more definitive answer.
Cris
@Jim: I haven’t heard Tester’s response to MA; most of his mention in the news of late has been his ongoing struggle with Denny Rehberg over Tester’s wilderness bill.
meh
I hate to the turd in the punchbowl but HCR is dead. morte. The only thing that Congressional Democrats are debating now is the best way to shift the public attention away from the HCR failure onto their focused populist wrath at Wall Street. When you add together the Mass election plus the fact that corporations, including Pharma/Insurance can now spend unlimited sums of money on elections, they (the mighty blue caucus) realizes they are seriously endangered creatures. They are in survival mode now folks – the only thing women and children are good for at this point are human shields.
ellaesther
I just posted about all of this on my own blog. It might not help much, but hopefully it will help a little.
Can’t say it enough: Thank you Tim F.!
Ana Gama
@Cris:
Cris,
I called Fred Upton’s office knowing that I would be told that he will not support the Dem’s HCR. I reminded him that his district went for Obama. Doesn’t matter. But I felt I had to register my voice. Once upon a time, Fred was more reasonable than he’s been this year.
Now if I lived a little north of here and had to call Pete Hoekstra-the-ass, I might not have bothered.
wyliecoat
Just called my rep Pete Stark (again). This time the staffer promised the Congressman would get back to me and took down my name and address. I told him if he used it to solicit money, there would be pitchforks involved. And also told him to tell Stark to “Pass the damn Bill.”
Boy, I’ve been depressed for days and unable to read the papers/blogs. This makes me feel a bit better.
Violet
@meh:
As the Benen memo points out, their survival is not improved by not getting health care across the finish line. It is improved, however, if they have done something tangible that helps the average person. And if they do what they were sent there to do.
Passing health care would improve their odds of survival. Any Dem who doesn’t see this is an idiot.
Jason B at Work
Has anyone heard any info on the content of the SOTU address? I mean besides the fact that he won’t be divulging any “LOST: The Final Season” spoilers.
Know what I’d like to hear? It’s crazy and it’ll probably never happen but I’d like to hear him come out and say that re-election means nothing, and then kick all kinds of rhetorical ass on how he’s going for broke for the rest of his (possibly single) term. I’d also like to hear him give some direction to Congress, as they are obviously still waiting for instructions from some benevolent deity. And yeah, we’ve all figured out by this time that Barry is far from a deity, but getting him on the record for passing the Senate bill would at least be a start. So there’s my pie in the sky. What do you guys think is going to happen?
@meh: My honest opinion is that their survival is explicitly dependent on the fate of HCR, minus the Blue Dogs. There are far many more reasons to get it done than to drop it. I’d honestly like to hear why you think it’s a dead issue, because man, to me that means they’re content to lose in 2010, 2012, and on and on and on until the next Republican admin comes in and does something so severely retarded that the Dems get back in power.
& on preview: what Violet said.
flounder
Tim, can you update with Ann Kirkpatrick?
She is a big “I don’t know.”
The staffer I talked to today said that she hasn’t been really getting any calls about this. If anyone is in her district (Northern Arizona), or familiar enough to pretend they are in her district it might be worth calling her.
Sue
I called all my reps plus the White House last week, and thought today’s DNC idea was a good one, so I just emailed them. Not politely, either, noting that the potential loss of voters was real, and ended by saying that the Tea Party people are getting the attention but they’re not the only only ones who’ve had it.
I’m not comfortable being a squeaky wheel, but that was kind of fun.
liberty60
@DJShay:
Moveon is heading a rally near my house, at Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s office-
http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/attendees/index.html?event_id=100621&id=-12966635-6LGcoSx
I don’t know if they are organizing other rallies, but I am going to this one.
Rep. Sanchez’s office has told me she supports a stronger bill than the Senate, but would vote for it if need be.
We are rallying to make sure she knows we want something acted on.
arguingwithsignposts
Well, Kos just called out JC. Blog fight!
GregB
Olympia!
-G
FlipYrWhig
@arguingwithsignposts: Kos is fucking stupid, as usual. His site is specifically pumping more poison gas into the mineshaft–not that it wasn’t already there–then wondering why someone else isn’t dealing with the fucking poison problem.
Everyone would rather not sell out, capitulate, bend over, whatever you want to call it. No one does it just for the hell of it (except maybe Joe Lieberman). But if you don’t, you end up with nothing. They you have to run on nothing. You have to run on how hard you tried. Find a way to make that a win. I’ll be waiting.
thomas Levenson
Just called Barney Frank’s office for the second time, and for the second time spoke with his health care staffer, who is unfailing informed and polite. He told me that Frank agrees with me and the sentiment Tim advances: pass the best bill possible — the Senate one plus a reconciliation package. Also passed on my calculations on the fact that the Senate bill saves us between 6 and 10 9/11s a year — up in a post I won’t link to for fear of blogwhoring.
Keith G
@arguingwithsignposts:
Isn’t that what used to known as a false premise?
Evolutionary
My Congressperson is a fairly Conservative Republican (Jim Gerlach-PA) so I don’t know if I will bother calling him although I may yet do so. I did call both Senator Casey’s and Senator Spector’s office and thanked them for voting for the Senate bill and ask them to encourage the house to pass the Senate bill by commiting to imporvements through the reconcilliation. Both staffers said they would pass the message on. They both asked for my location (one by zip code and one by County) so I assume correlating with caller ID they can easily tell if you are a constituent or not.
Woodbuster
It is no use at all for me to call any Congress Critter within 300 miles of me here in SC, but I have pimped out the http://www.passthedamnbill site (great idea, by the way) to everybody I know, plus Sully, Maddow, Buetler, Ezra and others.
God, to move back to California….
FlipYrWhig
@Keith G: Yup. And remember, there’s no one less “corporatist” than the guy who wants to splash his brand on everything in sight.
Edited to add: if the administration decided to do something that ran afoul of the “corporatists” in the Democratic party, it would get probably about 45 votes. And I know everyone likes to act like that would be better, but I’m not sure why. More righteous, sure. More helpful to actual people, no.
geg6
@liberty60:
They’re having a rally at the downtown Pittsburgh offices of Specter and Casey here, too. Though I have to say that both of my senators have been pro-HCR from the start. Specter was for it before his switch and Casey has been good on everything except anti-abortion amendments (which I knew he would be).
IMHO, they’re better off targeting people like my representative, Altmire (UPMC-PA-04). As a former UPMC lobbyist, he is quite vulnerable to embarrassment and bad press. I don’t think most people realize he is a wholly owned subsidiary of UPMC.
JasonF
Republican members of Congress need to hear this stuff from their constituents, too. It probably won’t get any of them to vote for HCR, but it may give them pause enough that they ease up a little on the obstructionism, creating just that much mroe room for us to squeeze in and pass this bill. Also, these guys talk to each other, and if some Blue Dog Democrat says to some Republican “Man, my phone is ringing off the hook with these guys who want us to pass the Senate bill,” if the Republican says “Yeah, I’m getting a lot of those calls, too,” it’s going to make the Blue Dog think that maybe voting for HCR isn’t the kiss of death he thought it was.
Besides — is your time really so important that you can’t waste ten minutes of it on the phone?
flounder
That Kos meme that if you are pro-Senate Bill now, then means you sat on your ass all summer and thought it was cool that Baucus and Snowe played footsie for six months is some weak tea.
I stopped by FDL the last couple days and left comments (on posts lamenting that some House Reps had signalled they were going to break their PO only pledge) to the effect that while I donated to FDL’s public option fund in the summer, I was releasing the Reps from any pledge and they could keep my money.
Hamsher flipped out and said the same thing as Kos basically-you haven’t commented for like two years–and it means you weren’t an activist against a crappy bill this summer.
I also got into it at DKos today with someone who was making the BS claim that anyone who has a sense of urgency right now didn’t care while Baucus dithered.
We all should want the same thing (health care reform) but I am amazed that the people who are the purest “sense of urgency trolls”– that fought better and harder during the summer and will never change tactics–think that somehow we can bust open a whole bunch of new paths and ever get anything done, much less anything that doesn’t end up being tort reform, tax cuts for business, and making Mississippi’s insurance commissioner the commissioner for the entire U.S.
No one has explained how the hell a good health care plan comes out of anything except the Senate Plan + reconciliation + inevitable tweaking and expansion. No one.
Violet
@JasonF:
This is a really good point.
TimF, is there any chance you could address this in a front page post? Many folks with Republican representatives might not be calling and some good could come from the effort. Squeaky wheel and all.
arguingwithsignposts
@arguingwithsignposts:
I should note that I’m not saying I agree with what Kos wrote, but just passing along that it’s there, at the top of the GOS right now.
Luthe
Called Murphy (CT) again. The intern I spoke to knew nothing and said that he didn’t know the congressman’s position because everything was still “hypothetical.” I’ll call again tomorrow.
Kyle
Scott was the Rep who had his office (not a mile from my house) defaced with a swastika last August.
Because the worst thing Hitler did was provide government-managed health care.
Brought to you by the hive mind of Ronald “Medicare is communism” Reagan.
Jim
along those line, it might not be a bad idea to let certain GOP Senators know that their obstructionism is not appreciated: Lugar, Snowe and Collins, the only ones in the caucus who aren’t completely batshit crazy imho
Jason Bylinowski
@arguingwithsignposts: Too late, my friend, far too late.
BANNINATE THIS MAN !
Jim
Via Steve Benen, some signs that Pass The Damn Bill messages are not, in fact, a complete waste of time.
Michael
As seen on GOS:
I am part of the Democratic base… (2+ / 0-)
Recommended by:
Boston to Salem, soccergrandmom
… even though I’m an independent and a moderate. And I absolutely, positively plan on voting and campaigning for Democratic candidates in 2010.
And any little pissy-pants so-called-Democrat who doesn’t vote in 2010 will be just as effective as that dead canary in the coal mine… but, unfortunately, they probably won’t afford us the one benefit you get from a dead canary — the shutting-the-fuck-up part.
If you don’t vote, you shouldn’t talk. And if just voting to keep theocratic, crazy-ass Republicans out isn’t enough motivation to get you out voting for Democrats even if you’re disappointed in them, then you have no clue what the fuck is going on in this country.
I swear to fucking Zeus, I wish I could drag some of the whiners here out of their safe, comfy little blue states and have ’em hang out in the deep red South for just a month or two and meet some of this psycho-Taliban Republican trash, and learn what their plans for all of us are. You will urgently try to elect Democrats after that, even if they don’t give sufficient attention to your pet agendas. I, too, wish Democrats were better, but just the fact that they’re not Republicans is still enough to keep my enthusiasm for electing them going.
For example, my co-worker’s fucking brother is now ready to take up arms against (get this)… the ASPCA. My co-worker donated money to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and it pissed him off because he thinks they’re gonna “take away his guns” and “starve his kids” and put him in jail, etc., and now he wants to go to war with them. Yes… the right-wing theocratic morons are so wigged-out that they’re pissed at the ASPCA! Anything that has anything to do with any form of kindness in this country is a scary-ungodly-threat to them.
And some of ya want to sit home and let them go back into power because Obama’s been weak on your pet meh-meh-meh.
Man… if ya’ll do that, then you really don’t deserve to be in charge of anything to begin with. I don’t blame anyone for finding Democrats disappointing — they absolutely fucking are — but if you sit home and let the infinitely-worse Republicans back in power just out of spite, then you are one stupid pack of dumbfucks.
If you can’t get motivated to put Democrats in, at least be motivated to keep Republicans out. Otherwise, you’re not helping anybody.
“Glenn Beck ends up looking like a fat, stupid child. His face should be wearing a chef’s hat on the side of a box of eclairs. ” – Doug Stanhope
by Front Toward Enemy on Mon Jan 25, 2010 at 04:58:12 PM EST
El Tiburon
Man, I am really torn over this entire debate. My gut is telling me to let this POS die.
But I have to say the passion and dedication on all sides is commendable and admirable.
I honestly feel that both sides of this struggle come at it honestly and with heart-felt emotion and that each side has a goddamn persuasive argument on their side.
If nothing else it show the utter buffoonery of the conservative/teabagger/Beck fuckclustery.
I hate to ride the middle-rail, but I guess as far as I’m concerned, no matter the outcome, I come out a winner. And a loser.
The aftermath of this will most certainly make this period seem like the calm before the storm. Shutter up the windows John Boy, this ain’t over.
Tenzil Kem
Just talked to Senator Franken’s LA for health care issues — she was not familiar with the pass the damn bill concept but seemed receptive (especially once I explained that I was not calling to ask for a unicorn via reconciliation) and said she’d discuss it with Al — she called the issue his top priority and said he was committed to it regardless of the method of passage. I also referred her to the Benen memo, which she said she’d take a look at.
Jason Bylinowski
http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/i_dont_even_want_to_be_alive?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
I LOLed. Frealz.
FlipYrWhig
@flounder:
IMHO the reason why Baucus was “dithering” was that there have only ever been two routes to getting the filibuster-proof 60 for health care reform: corral all the Democrats including Sanders and Lieberman; or pick off a Republican or two or three and let some of the most irksome Democrats go piss up a rope. Somehow the blogospheroids decided that _both_ were unacceptable, abominable acts of capitulation.
You either suck up to the weakest and most irritating Democrats or you suck up to the most reasonable-seeming Republicans. Grassley wasn’t a bad choice for that; the space between Baucus and Grassley should be bridgeable. Two months or whatever later, it wasn’t. Fuck. It took so long because it was the best option to lock in some support from unexpected places. Guess you have to deal with Lieberweasel and Nelson and Lincoln and Landrieu.
It’s one or the other, _because there aren’t enough liberals in the Senate_. At least the Lamont vs. Lieberman contest had the potential to swap a more reliable Dem for one of the least reliable. That was a smart political tactic. Until there’s a way to push more liberal Democrats into places like Nebraska, Arkansas, and Louisiana, there’s no way to pressure those Senators so that they have something to fear for resisting a more liberal policy. It’s not fixable. You kiss someone’s unsavory butt or you give up on policy; or you refuse to kiss unsavory butt, lose, then go full metal crazy on how the butt-owners are hurting America, and you’d better have the votes to get rid of them and replace them with better and/or more loyal Democrats.
jwb
@flounder: “We all should want the same thing (health care reform) but I am amazed that the people who are the purest “sense of urgency trolls”—that fought better and harder during the summer and will never change tactics—think that somehow we can bust open a whole bunch of new paths and ever get anything done, much less anything that doesn’t end up being tort reform, tax cuts for business, and making Mississippi’s insurance commissioner the commissioner for the entire U.S.”
Yes, I might be a bit more sympathetic if our fine progressive activists hadn’t gotten their asses handed to them by the teabaggers this summer. I don’t care if the teabaggers were pimped by Fox, that they were artificially pumped up by corporate money or that they are a bunch of clowns, that doesn’t change the fact that the teabaggers completely and utterly outperformed the progressive activists.
flounder
@FlipYrWhig
I fully agree. But I think by sometime in August it was pretty obvious that Snowe wasn’t biting and the charade went on for what, 2 more months or so?
What I have a problem with is someone telling me that if i had somehow made a few more phone calls in June that Harry Reid would have decided to just go straight to reconciliation and we would have single payer by now and that by admitting, as you and I both know, that roughly 10-20% of the Dem Senators were going to screw up the bill at some point, we were somehow complicit in the way the whole thing went down.
I also have a problem with saying torch the whole thing now.
A little piece of me died the day Lieberman beat Lamont.
And maybe it is a little piece of spiteful Lieberman inside me, but I really don’t want the Republicans and Lieberdems strutting around bragging about how they trashed health care reform. I’ll take the Senate Bill over that.
Drich
Called my 2 Senators (Durbin and Burris) and my Representative (Schakowsky) today. Got the “no official statement, but we support reform” line from all three. I know all three to be strong supporters of real reform, but I reiterated the need for each to move the bill forward, preferably by passing the Senate bill and fixing it via pre-agreed upon reconciliation legislation. I urged the Senators to work with colleagues to agree upon reconciliation approach amenable to the House, and the Representative to accept the Senate’s guarantee of a cleanup bill.
Call in all day if you have to, and get your friends and family to. And start planning on march on their office should they fail to support a resolution. They need to know they will be held accountable if they fail after a year of legislating something that is already 40 years overdue. Time is running out.
zftcg
Called my Congressman (Ed Towns) the other day. Was told by the woman who answered the phone that he will vote for whatever health-care bill comes to the floor. I tried to ask a couple variations to pin down his exact position, but she just kept repeating that line. So it’s possible he’s being weaselly, but I think that qualifies as a yes.