This is it. No more excuses. No more bullshit. If we truly want to reform our health care system, these last few days of July and entire month of August are absolutely crucial. We must inundate Congress with phone calls, emails, and personal letters telling them to pass meaningful health care reform that reduces costs, provides coverage to the uninsured, and ensures choice of a strong public option.
I don't care if you live in Vermont and have the best senators in Congress or live in Oklahoma and have the worst; every single elected official on Capitol Hill must hear their constituents demand strong health care reform. I live in Ohio and have a one great Democrat who is strongly in favor of real reform (Brown) and two lousy Republicans who want nothing to do with it (Voinovich & Boehner). But starting yesterday, I made the pledge to myself that I would call all 3 of them every single day between now and the day the bill is signed. And that is the pledge I am asking all of you to make today.
We have won several victories in our quest for real reform. The HELP committee's bill in the Senate and Tri-Committee House bill both contain a public option. Also a solid bloc of House members from the Progressive and other caucuses have declared they will only vote for a bill with a Medicare-like public option. And great liberal Senators like Brown and Leahy are starting to stand up and say a public option must be in a bill. This gives liberal Democrats tremendous influence over the final version of legislation. But right-wingers, Blue Dogs, and spineless senators like Baucus and Conrad are still determined to pass a piss poor, bipartisan "compromise" bill. So if we really want to win this battle against the billion-dollar insurance companies, we must continue to voice our opinion to our elected officials that it is not real reform without a public option.
It doesn't matter who your representatives are. If we want Congress to know that there is overwhelming support for a public option, every single member of Congress must hear daily from their constituents that it is mandatory in any health care legislation. Please join me in making the pledge to call your 2 senators and 1 congressman every single day between now and the day the bill is signed by President Obama. This means leaving messages on weekends and calling the local offices while they are home on vacation.
Here is the link to find your Senators and here is the link to find your Representative. Program the numbers in your cell phone. Put them on speed dial. Tattoo them on your fucking forehead. It doesn't matter, just put the numbers somewhere so that you are reminded to call them every single day.
In addition to calling your own reps in Congress, please volunteer with Organizing for America. We are collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures and declarations of support all across the country for Obama's 3 principles of health care and plan on submitting them to Congress near the end of the August recess.
This next month will determine whether we get real health care reform or not. Please join me in the fight and make the pledge to call your 3 reps in Congress daily until the bill passes. We need at least one person calling every single senator and every single representative every day. If you do join me, please comment below who your reps are that you will be calling.
Thank you all