Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

When I was faster i was always behind.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Let there be snark.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

This fight is for everything.

So many bastards, so little time.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / Keep on calling

Keep on calling

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Keep on calling.

Call the Senate.

Call your governor.

And if you live in the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, North Dakota, Montana, Louisiana, Arkansas, call your Representative in the House. The Senate plan is to jam it through with 50 votes and present the House with a take it or leave proposition.

This is a harder vote for non-Southern Republican representatives than the AHCA for a couple of reasons. First, there has not been an external shock to the system that has improved the bill’s popularity nor improved Trump’s popularity compared to March or May. Secondly, the AHCA was a general cut with local implications but the money that got cut from a district or a state just disappeared. Now the money that is cut goes to Texas or Mississippi.


It takes very little imagination for a challenger to come up with an ad that goes like this:

“Representative Poppins was the decisive vote to send a billion dollars a year from our community health center and hospital and send it to Texas. I’ll fight for our town hospital and for health insurance for the good people of this district while Rep. Poppins cares for Texas. I’m Johanna Hometowner and I approve this message”

Specific sweetners like the Buffalo Bribe can’t be added in the House; general sweetners like the low density carve-out or perhaps a median age modifier might be added in the Senate bill but each sweetner means another argument in front of the Parliamentarian and that takes time. If the Senate passes anything, that is what the House will vote on.

On a bill like this we can divide the universe into the Vote/Hope axis as 2×2 table. The Vote Yes/Hope Yes and Vote No/Hope No are sincere votes. There is an unknown number of Republicans in May who were Vote No/Hope Yes who function as a reserve of votes for Speaker Ryan. There are also probably a number of Northeastern and California Republicans whose preferred positions would be No Vote then Vote Yes/Hope no then Vote no/hope No. Putting pressure on these types of representatives may stop the bill in the Senate as there are some Republicans who would strongly prefer to avoid the outcome of Vote Yes and Fail.

So keep on calling today.

Reader Interactions

27Comments

  1. 1.

    HelenWheels

    Thank you for urging us to call! In Florida, we’ve been a tad busy, and its easy to let this slip by. I’ve been making my calls to Rubio; I guess I’ll start on Governor’s office into the mix.

    Thanks again!

  2. 2.

    Kay

    I’ll call Latta (House) today. Last time there was a protest at his local office here that was quite-well attended. The local paper sent a reporter to cover it.

  6. 6.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I called my two senators yesterday. They are Democrats and totally loyal to the ACA, so I don’t have to call them much, but I figured it was time to thank them for standing fast for the people they represent.

  7. 7.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    I called McCain’s office yesterday – it’s really easy and worthwhile. I plan to call again, today and every day, until reconciliation runs out on the 3oth.
    .

    What the hell: though I’m not an AZ resident, I have a relative who is.

    WashingtonDC (202) 224-2235 – press #1

    The DC has voice mail, at first the automated message suggests using email, but if you hang on it will connect you to voicemail.

    I asked him not to vote for bill that has no bipartisan support, nor a bill that only has 50 votes, nor a bill that tampers with pre-existing conditions, nor a bill that tampers with medicaid. Today I’m going to add don’t vote for a bill that doesn’t have a CBO score.

    Every bit helps.

  8. 8.

    MomSense

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Lisa Murkowski’s staff person told a caller yesterday or the day before (this week feels like a month!) that she welcomes calls from out of state people with health care concerns.

  9. 9.

    sharl

    What a difference a few months makes, apparently:

    A bill — finalized yesterday, has not been scored, amendments not allowed, and 3 hours final debate — should be viewed with caution.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 4, 2017

    l need to do like Cheryl and call my two Maryland Democratic Senators today, to say thanks.

  10. 10.

    Tenar Arha

    Here in MA I usually call my Dem Senators to thank them through the Congressional switchboard so they have the electronic counts to back up their numbers.

    For this, I also called my Republican Governor, Charlie Baker. Today I plan on calling him this AM to thank him for signing onto the “bi-partisan letter” (IIRC only McAuliffe’s a Democrat ?) because he did what I asked.

  14. 14.

    Ohio Mom

    @Sab: I like to do my calls in the morning but I did a second round yesterday afternoon and had much better luck getting the phone answered. The downside was the interns were really nasty. I guess hours and hours of being harangued will do that to you.

    I am more and more convinced they just stroll in each morning whenever it suits them. No work ethic. Just the Republican sense of arrogant entitlement. Never have these issues when I call Sherrod Brown’s office — his interns are unfailing perky and pick up the phone right away.

  15. 15.

    Mandarama

    I called Lamar Alexander’s office and left a message to the effect of how my hopes about his bipartisan work have been dashed and I can’t believe they are going to pass something without knowing how many Americans will end up without coverage as a result. I expect my call to Haslam’s office will actually mean more; he is a plutocrat but not a True Believer. He has tried to improve healthcare access here, only to have our craziest-lege-not-featured-in-a–Molly-Ivins-book cut him off at the knees.

    I feel discouraged. Every day I look at a series of quotations from President Obama and others about how we can change our country, but I’m a white southerner of many generations and I have always felt like the proverbial salmon. (If said salmon were swimming upstream in rivers of toxic sludge with angry mindless piranhas and lethargic catfish going the other direction.)

    I should have moved farther away when I was younger.

  16. 16.

    Another Scott

    @Mandarama: It’s white southerners that are going to help change the direction of the country – it’s easy for people in SF to be liberal. ;-)

    Keep fighting. Do what you can.

    Hang in there – we need you.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    Let us know if you hear of any major demonstrations in DC or wherever. To the streets again, maybe.

    This wears us down. It’s terrorism.

  18. 18.

    Bruce K

    My voting district is in New York City, and my rep’s a Democrat, so I don’t know how much good that call would do.

    I tried McCain’s Washington office on a whim, to give the message that I’m an American, and if Graham-Cassidy passes I’m a dead man, but I couldn’t get a live person on the line.

    Schumer’s DC line was busy, and I couldn’t get an answer from his NYC line.

    I’m worn out, unable to summon the rage I felt for previous attempts even though I know things are even more perilous now, and I can’t help wondering if that’s how the cruel evil bastards in the GOP planned it.

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    @Bruce K: Yes, I think they’re trying to wear us down.

    Call again, this afternoon. You will feel so much better for it. Good on you for the dialing already. 3 cheers.

  20. 20.

    Bruce K

    @Elizabelle: It’s already late afternoon for me, I’m afraid – I’m an expat in Greece who’s probably going to need surgery done by someone in New York, and my insurance situation is such that if I lose it, my choice is pretty much destitution or death.

    My situation may not be as dire as some, but … cripes. If what the GOP’s doing now isn’t flat-out evil, I don’t know what is.

  21. 21.

    Mandarama

    @Bruce K: Yes, this is how I feel.
    @Another Scott: Thank you for your encouragement! I also know I am being whiny, because God knows my fellow southerners who are people of color keep fighting and enduring. Health care just lays me low, even though I am embarrassingly safe myself, because both my parents died uninsured. I called and lobbied and pestered friends and studied the ACA, and it breaks my heart to think of it being defeated by this bunch of assholes.

    OK, I called Murkowski’s office and thanked her for her previous votes and told her that those of us far away are placing our hopes on her principles.

  22. 22.

    Ohio Mom

    @Bruce K: No, that sounds as dire as it gets to me, you don’t have to apologize. Hope it helps to know there are lots of us calling and writing and doing what we can to stop this monstrosity.

  24. 24.

    Ohio Mom

    @Ksmiami: We need that ad now, actually. By next year, it will be too late.

    I’ve called every Portman office several times this morning and the lines are busy or the mailboxes are full. I imagine his interns are hiding under their desks, praying the phones will stop ringing. Did catch a couple of unsuspecting interns in various offices of my tea party Rep though.

    I ended up writing Portman an email. Don’t think I’ll have time for more phone calls this afternoon, I’ll be deep in Rosh Hashanah prep but there’s always tomorrow. Jewish law is quite clear that all religious requirements are to be broken if a life is at stake.

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne

    If you can’t get through to the DC office, try the smaller, local offices, particularly the ones in the more remote parts of the state.

    It’s hard for me to make phone calls from work, so I usually send faxes. Faxes are still almost as good as a real letter. A postcard would probably also work — unlike a letter in an envelope that has to be opened and scanned from a remote location thanks to the anthrax attacks, a postcard should travel pretty quickly.

  26. 26.

    quantumman

    Called both Alexander’s and Corker’s offices, for all the good it will do. Raised h*ll with them especially about the offer of $300-$400 billion dollars from Koch’s for passing this horrendous bill. I for one think this is going to pass the senate. Sorry to be a pessimist. I have the same gut feeling of doom I felt before the 2016 election.

  27. 27.

    Mandarama

    @quantumman: I see you and I are in the same boat, statewise. I think eclare is as well. I can’t believe this is Al Gore’s home state. ? Let’s keep at it.

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