Live in a Republican district? Ask your Rep whether he or she agrees with Paul Ryan that government should sell your Social Security portfolio to AIG and give away medicare to the same insurers who ration people to death. Party leaders have tapped Ryan to write the Republican shadow budget plan, due out in March or April unless shame and good sense intervene first. Remember seniors: all it takes is one pre-existing condition and that Medicare “voucher” plus five bucks will buy you a latte at Starbucks.
The rest of you know the drill. (202) 224-3121.
jeffreyw
I’m on it, right after breakfast.
Joy
My rep is John Shimkus who is an idiot and doesn’t have an independent thought in his head. His office hadn’t seen the budget. I sometimes think letting the Republicans put their budget to a vote on the floor would be the best way to get “their message” to the people. It would definitely be a win-win for Democrats. If people thought Democrats were going to let people die after cutting their health care, imagine the screaming that would ensue if they thought they were losing their income. I wonder if the Teabaggers would have their knickers in a knot over this?
twiffer
i’m sure that most senior don’t have any “pre-existing” conditions. nope, not a one of them.
WyldPiratd
The question is when does Obama come out and fully endorse Ryan and the Rethugtard budget—in the spirit of bipartisan compromise, of course—and because it is the “responsible” thing to do in these tough economic times?
The Capitulator in Chief and the spineless Dems will not disappoint, unless they can’t stop cowering in the corner pissing on themselves long enough not to cave to the mighty Rethug majority.
aimai
I’m counting the minutes until I can call up my brand spankin’ new Senator! At least, I assume that spanking will be the least of his perversities. He is a Republican.
aimai
OriGuy
Looks like living in Florida is now a pre-existing condition.
martha
Thanks Tim. This “little” issue needs to be hammered and hammered and hammered again. I live in the district north of Ryan (or “Eddie Munster” as my better half calls him). His district was decimated by the recession (GM Janesville is gone, just to name one of many plants that disappeared) and is over-weighted with retirees. If the Dems could actually communicate without sounding like stammering fools, they might actually expose this sham for what it is.
meh
say what you want about the plan, but Ezra Klein made a great point that at least it is a realistic, thought out plan for how to tackle the issue from the Republican/Conservative perspective. While I, as most people here, disagree with virtually everything in the plan, I give the guy credit for at least putting the effort in. I would imagine that the Administration took a long, hard look at it as well – if for no other reason than to encourage additional conservatives to put the work in to putting forward alternative solutions. Bash it on policy, but give credit for the guy doing his job – sad as it is to say…
Jackie
Called Lipinski IL 3 again. Now they say that the congressman hasn’t put out a position. Last week they said he wouldn’t pass the bill. Lack of intraoffice communication or softening of opposition?
Burris still waiting for leadership.
Durbin still supporting hcr and working on moving it forward.
Bill H
Why does me calling Congress serve any useful purpose when my Representative and both of my Senators are already voting for the bill?
Tim F.
@Jackie: Excellent news! That is not an accident, but a clear sign of momentum towards getting a bill passed.
Max
Called Barbara Lee’s office again. She still hasn’t taken a formal position on the senate bill.
They are pushing the Polis/Pingree letter that she signed.
whipcongress.com/letter
This letter is a joke, as there is nowhere near the support for a public option in the Senate.
It’s like me writing a letter to my thighs, strongly urging them to be thinner.
Jackie
@Max: If it works will you post it so we can copy the winning strategy?@Bill H: Postitive reinforcement is a good training device. Plus the morons in the media have been known to notice if “the public” is burning up the phones in support. Seriously answering those phones must suck. Getting a cheerful, supportive voice must be manna.
Emily
Good luck trying to pin GOP Congresspeople down on privatizing Social Security–either for it or against. Josh Marshall tried to get comments from them all in 2005, but most made only wishy-washy statements. They’re between a rock (constituent anger for privatization) and a hard place (GOP leadership anger for not destroying Social Security.)
San
Called Sensenbrenner’s office. They said they don’t know his position on Ryan’s roadmap. Took down my address and promised to send a letter detailing his position later on.
aimai
@ Emily
The point of these phone calls isn’t to “pin people down” but to let them know that the usual explanations/dodges aren’t going to fly when the next election comes around. Its really important to call up Representatives and senators and use exactly the language Tim is proposing: not “will you guys lower the deficit” (which they sometimes hear from the teabaggers and the paid right wing grassroturf (sic) but “are you Republicans really going to kill my grandma by destroying social security?” If people just call up and say that, over and over again, its going to make an impression even if the Representative continues to insist “I have no position on the Ryan Budget at this time.”
aimai
martha
@aimai: aimai, I’d take your excellent suggestion one step further:
aimai’s suggestion: “are you Republicans really going to kill my grandma by destroying social security?”
martha’s addition: “are you Republicans really going to kill my grandma and me by destroying social security?”
I only make that addition for purely selfish reasons–I’m under 55 and Ryan throws all of us under the bus. Now, many of us have assumed we’d get tossed there eventually, but we might as well use it as a bludgeon against them…
Ming
Burris’ staff member says that if we (the public) think HCR is important, then we need to keep calling so that our senators/reps know it’s still important, and we need to get other people to call as well.
Durbin’s says “all policy issues are being considered at all times,” so the fact that HCR isn’t front and center shouldn’t make us think nothing is getting done. I buy that the Senate can do (or more precisely, fail to do) more than one thing at a time, but the line about “all policy issues all the time” is concentrated hooey.
Tim Johnson’s office (Repub Rep) is resigned to getting my calls. :)
On hold at the WH.
Legalize
No one at Jean Schmidt’s offices could tell me where she stands on social security privatization because her social security guy has been on the phone answering questions all morning. I think I know where she stands.
Lurker
Thanks for the reminder, Tim. I just called Adam Schiff’s office again.
Schiff signed the Pingree letter, but that doesn’t mean much if the Senate won’t pass a public option. I told the staffer that I had a preexisting condition and needed *something* to pass this year, regardless of a public option.
++++++++++++++++++++++
@kay — my quest for guaranteed-issue insurance under the current system continues. My husband and I notarized a general partnership form, and obtained a free Tax ID. We also submitted our DBA forms and a $63 check to the British Weekly, the cheapest DBA service in Los Angeles County:
http://www.30dollardba.com
As soon as we get the stamped form back, we will open up a business checking account and fund it with equal amounts from personal checks. Then we can apply for guaranteed-issue group insurance that can start in April.
I think this is an insane way to get nondiscriminatory health insurance, but we’re following it through.
TooManyJens
@Ming: You have Tim Johnson too, huh? My sympathy. I’ve been calling him too, because he should at least hear from those of us who oppose him (and he had town hall meetings everywhere but C/U last fall, so he’s tried not to hear us.)
mousebumples
@martha: Would that be Sensenbrenner’s district? I grew up there (and my parents still live there), and I could probably call his office and claim my parents’ ZIP as my own … but I don’t know if that’ll do much of anything.
As it is, I have Petri to try to take on today. And I’ll try to nail down Kohl and Feingold too, if I can. *fingers crossed* I think with Petri, I might start by asking if he’s for/against government involvement with health care – and expect a “no” answer. Then, perhaps, a follow-up with asking what his thoughts are re: that so many people are no longer able to afford private insurance, that their insurance is being subsidized by the state via Medicaid.
Due to my work in health care, I know many of my patients would *love* to buy their own insurance, but they can’t afford it. One 50-ish (childless) couple came in a few months ago, ecstatic that they finally qualified for a limited form of Badgercare (WI’s Medicaid “name”). It doesn’t pay for everything, by any means, but it pays for a lot more than nothing.
I’ll also probably throw in the fact that my district went for Obama in ’08 … by maybe 1%, but that doesn’t change the math. We’ll see how it goes …
Lurker
Ezra Klein: “That [Democrats] haven’t moved is evidence that will is missing, not that the rules are too complex.”
voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/02/its_just_you_democrats.html
Keep calling, everyone.
MikeBoyScout
Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA 8th District) is unaware of his fellow Ways & Means committeeman’s budget proposal; at all. He’s “busy working”.
Was able to sleuth that the home office was getting a lot of calls on Ryan’s budget proposal today.
ps. While it sux to have recently moved from a Dem district to this one, I look forward to getting this bum the heck out. Have not heard if Darcy will run again.