Okay, now that Tom Price will be Secretary of Health and Human Services, we know that the medical and social insurance system that we have had in place since 1964 and expanded dramatically in 1999 and 2010 is under severe threat. Elimination can be mostly done through reconciliation but modification needs to go through regular order. That means there is some leverage. Three GOP Senate defectors need to be pressured and pressured hard.
So let’s get calling. There are two objectives to these calls. The first is to make sure that there are no Democratic cross-over votes in the Senate. The second is to make the vulnerable Republicans who rely on an increasingly old base to get re-elected know that they can’t kill Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP or the ACA quietly.
Democrats who need a call to remind them that their base has their back:
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
John Tester (D-MT)
Heidi_Heitkamp (D-ND)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Joe Manchin (D-WV)
Bob Casey (D-PA)
Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Joe Donnelly (D-IN)
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
All of these Senators represent states that voted for Trump. Let’s get them some support and pushback.
The pressure list is much shorter
Dean Heller (R-NV)
Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
These Senators are up for re-election in 2018. Heller is actually vulnerable, Flake is a stretch goal.
The next round of Republican calls are to either the old line establishment (Bob Corker, Orrin Hatch) or to Senators who represent a lot of retirees (Shelly Moore Capito, Marco Rubio, both Georgia Senators, both North Carolina Senators)
So get calling.
UPDATE 1: Tell Joe Donelly thank you:
Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly says he'll oppose Tom Price as HHS Secretary, cites Price's push to privatize Medicare: https://t.co/MvtKyqrFUA pic.twitter.com/XElNbOaWEM
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 29, 2016