1: This is it. This is everything. Next week, Trumpcare will live or die. And it depends on you. Some resources follow in this thread => https://t.co/B3pHCd309i
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) May 26, 2017
We know the AHCA is horrendous policy.
We know the AHCA is extraordinarily unpopular. We know that it is unpopular even among Republican voters. We know that the Senate is far thinner margins than the House and we almost won there. So the goal this week is to let your Senators know that this is a very bad bill with very real consequences for their constituents.
In latest @QuinnipiacPoll, only 20% approval for #AHCA. Fun game: find atrocious movies that somehow have more than 20% on @RottenTomatoes. pic.twitter.com/BOfySnmYhs
— Miranda Yaver (@mirandayaver) May 25, 2017
rikyrah
Will call.
Can we have the list of all Senators up for re-election in 2018?
Ian G.
I’ve got Schumer and Gillibrand. I’m good.
mai naem mobile
@rikyrah: I know Jeff Flake and Dean Heller are up and vulnerable .
Sab
My Senator just got re-elected, but I just called his office to tell him that if I survive to 2022 I will remember his vote this year.
Elizabelle
Happy to have Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. But I’ll call some red states too. I guess our closest is North Carolina …
Ohio Mom
As usual, no one at Portman’s office is answering the phone. Left messages at the Cincinnati and DC offices. Guess I’m reduced to letter-writing, which I’ll take care of this afternoon, after my errands.
Also as usual, my so-called disability advocacy organizations — the Ohio Arc and the Cincinnati Autism Society, are nowhere to be seen. Well, not completely true. The Autism Society just sent out an email inviting us all to a workshop on stress-reduction for care-takers. How about I’d be less stressed if I could be more certain I wasn’t the only mom making calls and writing letters?
rikyrah
@Ohio Mom:
I hear you.
Did you email them back, asking what the hell they were going to do if the funding went away?
Sab
@Ohio Mom: I will call for my granddaughter.
Major Major Major Major
Man, people on Medicare sure hate socialized medicine.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: For others. They like their own just fine.
Barbara
@Ohio Mom: You can also fax. I think there is a fax tool that you can use to fax your congressional delegation. A fax is a letter, but it’s one that bypasses security procedures that all snail mail goes through. Of course, they can always turn off the fax machines.
Sab
@rikyrah: Sherrod Brown is up and he is great. Send cash to his re-election campaign. He will probably need it and if he doesn’t he will forward it on.
Barbara
@Ohio Mom: In all your spare time . . .
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: Alas, as we know all too well, they don’t even think they have socialized medicine.
Barbara
Re faxes: Here it is. It’s called FaxZero: faxzero.com/fax_senate.php
You can also pay $1.99 and they will remove their logo. I am definitely going to get my mom and sister to do this, or do it on their behalf for Toomey in Pennsylvania, and Casey for good measure though I don’t have any doubts about him.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: Same boat here. I’m happy to call NC or another neighboring red state, but don’t the staff ask if a caller is from the senator’s state?
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: Does Medicare cover terminal stupidity?
Sab
@Ohio Mom: Try the Cleveland office. I got a live intern who actually took my name and zipcode. 614-469-6774Juicers who aren’t from Ohio please don’t call. We need actual constituents to call in the last open line.
Barbara
@Jeffro: If you fax you can use the information of someone you know, assuming it would be okay with them. I am going to fax on behalf of my sister, who works all the time, and my mother, who is too old and frail to risk live meetings. She might call, but duplicate contacts are not bad. My sister works with developmentally disabled adults. I can only imagine what will happen if Medicaid gets chopped the way they are contemplating. It’s really obscene.
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: The famous quote from Friedrich Schiller: “Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.”
You will see various translations but that’s my favorite.
Kathleen
@Sab: Here’s a link to article outlining outcomes of Medicaid expansion in Ohio which might provide some fodder for calls or letters:
cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2017/02/who_are_the_700000_ohioans_rec.html
artem1s
@Sab:
Sherrod has been targeted by giant Koch PACs before. And this year there will be a whole raft of idiot Ohio greens, anti-vaxers, Monsanto-haters, weed advocates, glibertarians, Kucinichbabies, Berniebots who will take their indeterminate rage out on anyone perceived to be part of the Shillary machine that denied their martyred saint his rightful spot in the holy firmament. They are responsible for so much political insanity in this state getting traction with people who shouldn’t ever want to have any Rethug get near elected office. Every retired union white guy pissed about coal, steel and automotive jobs going overseas has somehow convinced themselves that it’s all the fault of blah people in CLE and NEOH and the Demoncrats who gave away their state party to those people.
Sherrod is going to have a tough time of it this year. He is already being targeted by hate-bots and paid fake news trolls. If you can send him money please do. If you can inundate your social media with great stories about him, please do.
mai naem mobile
@Jeffro: not necessarily . I get the feeling a lot of them think it’s organized calling from national groups. When I call McCain and Flake I volunteer that I am your consistuent from my town and zip just in case you think I am not.
Sab
@Kathleen: Thanks. I think Portman is an entitled asshole who thinks good people are born with health and money, and if you weren’t then you aren’t goodles. I will use your talking points next time I call.
I went to college with his twerp brother. If this is the best and the brightest then God help us all.
hovercraft
DELETED
Boatboy_srq
@Elizabelle: Don’t forget WV. Manchin is no sure bet.
Sab
@artem1s: Let’s not suck Sherrod Brown into the Bernie/Hilz war. He never was there, and he supports much stuff that Hilz and Bernie agree on.
Thanks for your support. I got reflexively defensive before I realized you were on our side. Thank you.
RoonieRoo
Ugh. I hate it when these calling times come because I have Cornyn and Cruz. I’ve actually been calling them which is something that only Balloon-Juice can goad me into doing.
But what I have learned is that Cruz’s office will never, every answer the phone and basically is completely unresponsive to constituents. Cornyn’s office has probably some of the nicest, politest staff. They listen and they talk to you, they write you well thought out letters back. It won’t affect is vote but his staff are quite amazing.
Major Major Major Major
@Barbara: ‘Against Stupidity’ would be a good name for a song, or book or poem or album.
Ghost of Fitzmas past
Duckworth was MY congressperson and now MY senator. For all the good it’ll do. If the rest of you got your heads out of your asses this wouldn’t be an issue. I campaigned for Melissa Bean for Christs sake. You purity test a holes are getting the world YOU MADE. And now people I love are going to die. And it’s YOUR FAULT.
Major Major Major Major
This guy is like a parody of all our worst commenters, myself included, mashed together.
Tokyokie
@RoonieRoo: That’s been my reaction to them as well. And Cruz is the one who’s up for re-election, so you’d think he’d have his staff at least pretend to care.
H.E.Wolf
@Ghost of Fitzmas past:
Bless your heart.
Betty Cracker
@Major Major Major Major: Nah, you’re never a crashing bore, even when you’re wrong. :)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@RoonieRoo: I also hate calling. Have you tried resist bot?
I do much better typing, even on my phone, than talking. When I call, I keep it short and sweet, cause I think all they do is count you as posititive or negative on a tally sheet. I’ve read that anything that looks like a cut and pasted form gets thrown out, so try to personalize it a bit, while also remembering it goes to both your Senators and your MoC according to your address
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: the world is full of them, you know.
Kathleen
@Sab: I sat in on one of his town hall calls and when a WWC male commented about how economy in Ohio was bad for working white guys Sherrod tactfully made the point that all Ohio working people – African American, Hispanic, Latinos, Asians were affected. We’re so fortunate to have him representing us.
Sab
@Kathleen: Plus notice that he is actually having town halls. Easy to do if you listen to your constituents, even the ones that disagree.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sab: Cleveland? With a 614 area code?
Kathleen
@Sab: Well, thanks to your post I called the number you provided and told the polite young man who answered that House of Rep’s latest iteration of so called health care bill is immoral and an abomination then asked him to pass on a list of my concerns about process Senate is using to rewrite the bill using Toper Spiro’s twitter link provided above. According to the efax link provided, Portman does not accept faxes.
Next time I call I will ask about impact of any proposed death care legislation will have on dealing with opoid abuse in Ohio. He acts like it’s a priority. Maybe that’s the way we get a message through to him.
A long time Cincinnati political activist friend of mine observed that Portman used to be sensible until he took the budget job under Bush. He makes “I object” noises but ends up voting party line.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ghost of Fitzmas past: You know you’re yelling at (mostly) the wrong people, right?
@Kathleen: There’s U of California law professor with a new book out on the WWC as a voting group. I heard her on NPR and while nothing she said struck me as actually wrong, it’s very incomplete, and at least in the interview I heard she didn’t acknowledge racism as an actual motivating factor in their voting for trump– that it’s not all about “the dignity of work”. Like the caller you’re referring to– reading between the lines, this is someone who thinks Obama somehow carved out special benefits or economic protection for black people. Then I caught the tail end of her interview with John Fuglesang, which included callers who were using her book as an excuse to flog the skeleton of the “Democrats walked away from the WWC!” horse, and neither she nor Fuglesang pushed back, in the admittedly brief portion I heard.
One thing she said on NPR without elaboration that made me curious, maybe curious engouh to skim her book at the library, was that middle class African-Americans have a view of government and politics very similar to the French
Kathleen
@Sab: I haven’t seen any scheduled for my area. Are you in or near Cincinnati? If so, did you get email that Peres will be in town first week in June?
Sab
@Omnes Omnibus: Whatever. It works.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
Here you go
I’m sure it will scramble, sorry.
ETA: Here’s the link so you can see it without going blind en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2018
Sab
@Kathleen: Naw. I am in Akron near Cleveland,
I’d love to see Perez in person.
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
You know he’s just a troll, right? And committing the worst sin in trolldom – being boring.
bupalos
I called Portman’s Cleveland office. The gal was very nice and made sure to note that he opposes AHCA ‘as currently configured’ due to elimination of medicaid expansion. I said I appreciated that but that there are a lot of other ways it can be configured that takes health-care dollars away from older, sicker, and poorer people, and that they seem to be working towards finding these ways – specifically so they can fund a rich-people’s tax cut- and that I can’t believe Portman would be party to this.
germy
How do WWC people feel about horses?
(washington post)
Kay
So it’s okay to wack reporters now? The Trump slide continues. How low can they go? Looks like we’re not even close to the bottom.
Another norm shattered. Now if you’re a pol who doesn’t like answering questions you can just physically intimidate the person asking them! Have conservatives thought this thru? This is really behavior they want to validate and reward?
I thought Trump was their ethical and character “bottom” but I guess they can go lower! Did the lying douchebag ever answer the question on healthcare or did beating up the reporter work out for him? I suggest he voluntarily submit to handcuffs so someone can ask him a question without risking a beating.
Major Major Major Major
@germy: as some folks here have pointed out in other threads, this may well be the least inhumane way to deal with the problem.
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have to admit that I am a bubble dweller when it comes to politics especially when it comes to PBO’s tenure at the White House and the last election. One of my strongest hot button beliefs is that any writer, blogger, pundit “news” person, whoever does not grasp the role racism played during PBO’s 8 years in office and the last election is totally clueless and not worth reading or listening to. Not surprised to hear that she’s on NPR and not challenged (based on what you heard). While I think the theory that middle class African Americans’ attitudes are like the French would be interesting to research, I don’t know how much I would trust anything she has to write. I agree though that it would be worth a skim in a library!
Immanentize
@RoonieRoo: That sounds a lot like the difference between Senator Kerry’s office (Cruz-like) and Senator Kennedy’s office which had the best retail constituent services I ever experienced. People loved Kennedy and hated Kerry because of it.
low-tech cyclist
Could we have some context, please? Last I heard, the Senate was ignoring the AHCA and writing their own bill, but in no hurry about it. Has Mitch decided to have a vote on the AHCA that the House sent over?
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major: Like
Cheryl Rofer
If you have senators who clearly oppose the AHCA, call them and thank them for their opposition.
I met a staffer a couple of weeks back who said it will, at the very least, make some staffer’s day. They are getting calls from the supporters of the AHCA too.
Major Major Major Major
@Kathleen:
You must spend a mercifully short amount of time consuming the mainstream press.
Immanentize
@Kay: How about if reporters started wearing something like a lacrosse helmet when asking him questions?
Sab
@Omnes Omnibus: Okay. That’s Columbus.
Immanentize
@low-tech cyclist: My understanding is that there is a time limit on using reconciliation to pass the health care bill (mid-June) which only requires 50 votes (plus Pence) rather than the regular process which allows filibusters. McConnell has not said he wouldn’t bring the AHCA to the floor, he has only said he probably doesn’t have 50 votes for it. In other words, it is much dicier in the Senate than is generally being reported which makes contacting your Senators over the next couple of weeks a critical effort in the longterm fight to preserve Obamacare.
Other folks — is that about right?
Kathleen
@Sab: I signed up to go for a $25 donation. Well worth it.
Sab
@Immanentize: Republican leaning ones or those questioning Republicans could wear fox hunting riding hats. Very protective and much more pretencious than construction hard hats or bicycle hats.
Kathleen
@Major Major Major Major: Avoid Mainslime Media like the plague. I depend on fellow Juicers and Twitter to keep me au courant so I have the luxury of picking and choosing my outrage.
Immanentize
@Sab: It would be classier, but maybe the best message would be a banged up construction hard had with a UAW sticker on it
Sab
@Immanentize:Agreed, but would that appeal to a Republican senator?
H.E.Wolf
@Cheryl Rofer:
[ETA: I agree with Cheryl.] Calling to support a Democratic Senator/Rep is very worthwhile. It means a lot to the staffers who are answering the phones. – it’s audible in their voices.
The staff in Dems’ offices need their morale boosted as much as we do. I like to think of it as strengthening the Resistance.
Sab
@Immanentize:Agreed, but would that appeal to a Republican senator?@H.E.Wolf: Just called my Congress-critter. I love his staffpeople.
low-tech cyclist
@Immanentize: So this is about the Senate maybe or maybe not bringing the AHCA to a vote between now and mid-June, depending on whether Mitch sees a possible 50 votes? Gotcha.
@H.E.Wolf:
Yeppers. This is why I’ve been calling my solidly Dem Senators and Rep (I’m in Maryland, and I’m in Steny Hoyer’s district) 2-3 times a week since January. I don’t feel the relief so much nowadays – I think I’ve got plenty of company now – but in the weeks before the Clownstick got inaugurated, it was a real thing.
jaymz462
Longtime lurker here. I live in the Cleveland area and got through to Portman’s Cleveland office earlier today. Going to keep hammering his D.C. number until I get through.
As far as Sherrod- he is awesome. My hatred of Mandel the Worm burns even stronger than my affinity for Sherrod though, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure Mandel is destroyed. I was at a large get-together of volunteers and Sherrod-staff a couple days ago and staff stressed how critical fundraising is. Sherrod needs 30+ million to compete. In 2012, Mandel raised $20 million and had another $40 million of dark money pour in. 2018 is expected to be even worse. I just signed up to donate $25/mo to Sherrod for the next year. Please, donate to our good Senator Brown!
Major Major Major Major
@Immanentize: I believe that it’s “a” healthcare bill for reconciliation has to pass each chamber by the deadline, but they can change it later, like Dems did for the ACA tweaks/student loan reform reconciliation package in 2010.
Ohio Mom
@rikyrah: Yes. Everyone in the Cincinnati autism society has heard me, several times over. They think I am a nut. A good friend who is very active in the upper reaches of the Autism Society appears to be pissed at me. I think she finds me embarrassing.
I have also called the National Hotline, where they are totally flummoxed because their typical call is the panicked mother of a newly diagnosed three year old.
The Arc makes an occasional half-hearted attempt so I am a little easier on them. They are also a much smaller and poorer organization.
In my worse moments, I think, well if all this goes away, I will rub it on their faces but good.
Yes, I am in bad mood today.
Periodically I call the national
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ohio Mom: as I understand it, “advocacy” organizations are very leery of pissing off donors, especially the rich ones.
also, people suck. A friend with an adult child in residential program– their daughter has Down’s– told me that at a parents/family meeting, the father of another resident stood up to share with the group his resentment at constantly being asked to give and raise money.
Gretchen
Anybody have a script? I turn into a blithering rageaholic when I think about this, so am not confident I’ll say something coherent and helpful. BCBS just pulled out of Kansas, saying they can’t plan with all the uncertainty. My senator says it’s because ACA is so bad and all he has to do is repeal it and insurers will flood into Kansas fighting to compete for selling us low-premium insurance. Nonsense, but he appears to believe it himself.
Ohio Mom
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, I get that advocacy organizations don’t want to take political sides; in fact, they can’t legally involve themselves in partisan affairs.
They can take a stand on issues though, and the current threat to Medicaid is so huge there aren’t really words. Medicaid is what pays for group homes and similar supervised living arrangements, transportation, day programs, etc.
The dad you mentioned might be tired of the fundraising appeals by the non-profit housing his daughter, but it is Medicaid, and to a lesser extent, SSI, that makes it possible for there to be a non-profit for him to complain about.
The place where advocacy organizations have dropped the ball is educating their memberships about the ins and outs of government funding. They just completely ignore the role of government in our community’s lives.
It’s the flip side of their focus on the medical model of disability, rather than the social model. So there’s lots of focus on things like the newest therapies and genetic research, and next to none on anything remotely social-justice oriented.
Ohio Mom
@Gretchen: I am not convinced that a little rage isn’t a good thing. Those smug young interns need to understand that we ARE angry. A raised voice might get through to one of them.
If you lose it, just stop and say, I’m sorry but I am just so terrified for (insert reason here, e.g., my kid’s diabetes, my wife went through cancer treatment, whatever).
Or google a Vox article and read from it.
Theodore Wirth
We are doomed because yay votes from the current crop of congressional cretins will result in generous monetary gain for: 1) re-election; 2), “serving;” and 3) post election even if they lose.
In other words, they no longer have any use for plebian voters.