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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2010 / Pick Up Your Damn Phone

Pick Up Your Damn Phone

by Tim F|  September 21, 201011:34 am| 22 Comments

This post is in: Election 2010, Tax Policy

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Dems will lose more seats if they do nothing on the Bush Obama tax cuts than if they extend the middle class portion of the bill, so it is somewhat stupid for the House to stay paralyzed until after November. After November, of course, it will be relatively easy for John Boehner find enough Democrats crying under their desks and extend the whole thing permanently.

Personally I’d rather pay slightly more taxes and pay off the national debt. Apparently even among liberals I’m in the minority on that. It seems kind of stupid but you can’t change reality by shouting at it. A couple of seats could decide whether Pelosi keeps her gavel. Do you want to put up with a literally endless stream of hearings about Dijon mustard, solar panels and White House Christmas lists? Do you feel like finding out how many bills a tea-party energized GOP can force the pants-pissing Democrats to capitulate on? I don’t either.

Pick up the phone and call a Representative. Preferably yours. Believe it or not they care quite a bit about constituent calls. I have heard from a few staffers that phone calls during the health care debate literally made the difference between holding their ground and retreat. Email has zero impact (please trust me on this) and you don’t have time for a letter. Take five minutes and phone someone.

Find your Representative here.

Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

Guide for first-timers here.

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Reader Interactions

22Comments

  1. 1.

    Bullsmith

    September 21, 2010 at 11:37 am

    The only thing I can think of that would be worse for America right now than more unfunded tax giveaways to the rich would be another fucking war.

    Probably get both.

  2. 2.

    Martin

    September 21, 2010 at 11:38 am

    My rep is a birther. Not gonna help (and I work in the same district as I live, so I can’t pick and choose). I’ll whack at the Senate some, though, but the California Gurls are already on board with everything.

  3. 3.

    TR

    September 21, 2010 at 11:43 am

    This. A thousand times, this.

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 21, 2010 at 11:44 am

    Personally I’d rather pay slightly more taxes and pay off the national debt. Apparently even among liberals I’m in the minority on that

    Rent a phone booth, we’ll have a convention.

  5. 5.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    September 21, 2010 at 11:44 am

    Yay, Tim’s back in force.

    My House Rep is Ralph Hall, who was a Blue Dog before he realized that the only way to save his seat was to become a Republican. Fun stuff. So I’ll donate to people not in my district.

  6. 6.

    BR

    September 21, 2010 at 11:45 am

    Called Feinstein and Rep. Susan Davis. Was told that they “had not released a statement on their views.” I shouted at them a bit.

  7. 7.

    Martin

    September 21, 2010 at 12:01 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Actually, there’s a lot of liberals that agree. The main point of disagreement is whether now is the time to do that, or later.

    I don’t remember any Dems complaining about Clinton’s surplus in 1999.

  8. 8.

    NonyNony

    September 21, 2010 at 12:02 pm

    @Martin: Think about doing it anyway. Half the reason that the House is the way it is is because right-wing screechers pick up the phone and scream at anyone regardless of party affiliation, while left-wing screechers tend to confine their screeching at their fellow Democrats.

    Give your birther Rep’s staff a polite earful from a voter in their district whose pissed off about tax cuts for “rich asshole bankers who already got a bailout”. Make sure you mention the bankers and the bailout. Repeatedly. Don’t mention your party affiliation unless they ask you point blank – and if it’s not a lie tell them you’re an Independent. Co-opt the Tea Party style rhetoric about bank bailouts and tie it to your outrage. At the very least you’ll stir up some shit in his office. If you can swing it, get some friends in the same district to do the same – a Rep that gets a half dozen or so calls about tax cuts for bankers from his district might start thinking something is up.

  9. 9.

    TR

    September 21, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    @NonyNony:

    Seconded.

    I used to call and yell at Jesse Helms’ staff all the time when I lived in North Carolina. I never swayed him on anything, but it was nice to pierce through the illusion that everyone agreed with him and, at the very least, tie up the line for a minute or two.

  10. 10.

    LarsThorwald

    September 21, 2010 at 12:15 pm

    My representative is Blue Dog Frank Kratovil who, as of this moment, looks like a dead man walking. He is so far up the Republicans’ ass on this tax cut thing, he is lost to me as a Democrat.

    He will have spent two years in Congress, and will have voted against health care reform, financial rgulation, and for extending the Bush tax cuts.

  11. 11.

    John S.

    September 21, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    Called all of Ron Klein’s offices already this morning. That fucking clown signed onto that Blue Dog letter demanding tax cuts for the rich be extended.

    I told his staff that Allen West’s psychotic voters will NOT be voting for him just because he’s going Republican-lite. But I did let them know that Democrats will stay home. And I also mentioned if he wanted to make a name for himself, he should push for two bills to be introduced into the House: One for Obama tax cuts, and one for Bush tax cuts.

    We’ll see if he gets the message.

  12. 12.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 21, 2010 at 12:44 pm

    Called Tammy Baldwin. She is on the side of the angels on this.

  13. 13.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    September 21, 2010 at 12:45 pm

    My rep’s a wingnut. He knows I’m in a district gerrymandered to reward his party. The only constituent services he cares about vis a vis Democrats is “how can I help you move out of my district?”

  14. 14.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    September 21, 2010 at 12:54 pm

    My representative is Illinois’s Danny K. Davis, and he will neither lose his seat, nor stop being Progressive.

    So: I will repost this information, in whole or the gist of it, elsewhere, starting with my place and TNC’s Open Thread. And Twitter, I suppose, though what I can do w/ 140 characters remains to be seen.

    I don’t know that I have any place else to post it, frankly, other than in BJ Open Threads, but what the hell, maybe I’ll do that, too!

    Thanks, as always, Tim F. You’re a jewel.

  15. 15.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    September 21, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    Kal Penn just tweeted the following (edited to add line breaks and bolding, to make it easier to read):

    DADT&DREAM, cloture 2pmEST.

    Needed: Collins 202-224-2523
    Lugar 202-224-4814
    Voinovich 202-224-3353
    Snowe 202-224-5344
    Brown 202-224-4543

  16. 16.

    db

    September 21, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    Just called Harry Mitchell’s office to let them know I’d like to see them have separate votes (one for the working class and one for the rich).

  17. 17.

    Neil Hudelson

    September 21, 2010 at 2:13 pm

    Just called Baron Hill’s office. TPM had him as one of the Representatives that supported extending all tax cuts–and was possibly one of the Reps who considered repealing the upper-income to be a dealbreaker.

    His DC office just told me he supports the middle class tax cuts but does not want the upper-income tax cuts to be continued.

  18. 18.

    gumbo

    September 21, 2010 at 2:27 pm

    Called my rep (David Price) and 2 senators (Burr and Hagan) – Price and Hagan say extend for middle class, let those above 250k expire. Burr, of course, said extend ’em all, and I let his staffer know what I thought of that. I also called Heath Shuler, as we have a business in Asheville, and his staffer hemmed and hawed about how Shuler doesn’t know if the bill for extension will be at the 250k level or at the 500k level and can’t yet commit to anything about anything.

    We are fortunate enough to make over $250k, and when I told Burr’s staffer that and that I thought extending tax cuts for this bracket was obscene, he was struck dumb.

  19. 19.

    MarkJ

    September 21, 2010 at 2:39 pm

    I live in DC. I guess I could call Elenor Holmes Norton but a) she doesn’t have a vote so her opinion means jack shit, and b) I know what side of the issue she is on and it is the right one.

  20. 20.

    Blurkee

    September 21, 2010 at 2:54 pm

    My rep is James Sensenbrenner. ‘Nuf said.

  21. 21.

    Hoplight

    September 21, 2010 at 4:07 pm

    Just called my mostly reliable dem congresscritter. The very sleepy rep at Maffei’s office had to check the answer, but said he’s for extending them except for those making over $1million. Doesn’t seem like they’ve gotten many calls . . .

  22. 22.

    Shane Shepard

    September 21, 2010 at 5:05 pm

    Glad to see this…. regardless of party, make them listen. I was ignored by my Congressman, so I decided to run myself as an Independent and make him listen.

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