I have great news to report. Over 30,000 of you signed the petition yesterday telling Congress to deal with the passage of health care reform first before going on vacation. That petition with the 30,000 signatures will be delivered to Congress today.
Let's keep up the pressure on Congress not to go on vacation until they do health care reform first! In the three weeks that Congress will be off on their vacation, over 143,000 people will lose their health insurance coverage, about 53,507 people will go into medical bankruptcy, and over 1,265 Americans will die as a result of not having access to health insurance coverage.
That's a price too high for us to pay for them going on vacation. Please remember these facts when you call the Democratic leadership in the House, the Senate, and the White House today!
Please let Senator Durbin and Senator Reid know that you don't want them to go on vacation, and that you don't want them to delay health care reform. Ask them to put the pressure on Senator Baucus to mark up his legislation. After all, they're the leaders of the Democratic caucus, aren't they?
CALL Senator Durbin at (202) 224-2152
CALL Senator Reid at (202) 224-3542
Tell them why health care reform being passed this summer is so important to you. Let them know what the murder-by-spreadsheet industry did to you, your family, your friends, and your co-workers. They have to hear why we're so angry that they would even consider going on vacation.
We know what's going to happen if Members of Congress go on vacation. So does Rick Scott, of the Conservatives for Patients' Rights organization, who's planning a massive TV/print/Internet ad buy in these districts of these lawmakers once they go home for their August vacation. Here's his triumphant e-mail below in which he crows about how the delay by our Congress is going to kill health care reform:
"Keep Up the Fight - Victory is in Sight!
Thanks to a collective effort by a loose knit coalition of free market health care advocates, conservative grassroots groups, and some reasonable-minded elected officials, I am very confident, after meetings on the Hill this week, that if Congress does not pass a health care bill with the public option before Labor Day, the public option is dead. While Victory is near, we must not rest.
Earlier today, Senate Majority Harry Reid acknowledged that there would be no health care vote in the Senate until the fall. Still, liberal, pro-government health care advocates are intensifying their campaigns and increasing the decibel level of their rhetoric to demonize elected officials who are rightly opposed to the public option and a government take-over of health care. We must meet them head on and continue with ads, news events (particularly in the grassroots), media appearances, etc, to finish off the public option, which is no option at all as it would be devastating to patients, our economy and our health care system."
It's why we have to keep up with the phone calls today! Please CALL Speaker Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn, and the White House with these talking points below! Remember, first thank them for supporting the House Tri-Committee health care plan, and then tell them why they can't go on vacation before dealing with health care reform:
I'm calling to thank [Name of Member] for supporting the House health care plan, and for supporting the public option and the national insurance exchange. I don't want Congress to go on vacation before they deal with the passage of health care reform! As an American who's faced denials of claims and has been facing higher insurance premiums, the public option and the national insurance exchange is NECESSARY to hold down the costs of private insurance and give us the kind of care we need. Please DO NOT delay the passage of health care reform in the House. We need you guys to stay in and work for us. Also, I've been hearing that the Blue Dog Democrats want to cut back subsidies for my family, that they want a fake state-based co-op plan, and have a trigger on the national insurance exchange by having it as state-based insurance exchanges at first. What they want is unacceptable for me and my family. Don't give into their demands. I'm an American who needs the choice of the national insurance exchange and the public option.
Rick Scott and his cohorts know that when Members of Congress go home on their vacation in August back to voters, they get hit by hundreds of TV ads from the murder-by-spreadsheet industry, and they get phone calls from angry voters about "socialized health care." Then they come back, scared to pass real health care reform, so they end up passing health care reform that may not include a public option or a national insurance exchange.
Remember this when you call the phone numbers below today:
CALL Speaker Nancy Pelosi at (202) 225-4965 and try her local office at (415) 556-4862 if you can't get through.
CALL House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer at (202) 225-3130
CALL House Majority Whip James Clyburn at (202) 226-3210
Can you please CALL these THREE chairmen in the House of Representatives, with your concerns about the Blue Dog Democrats trying to block health care reform and ask them NOT to listen to the Blue Dogs or give into their demandsl?
Ways and Means Committee Chair Charlie Rangel (202) 225-3625)
Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (202) 225-2927)
Education and Labor Committee Chair George Miller (202) 225-3725)
UPDATE: Our calls are working! Chairman Waxman just laid it down the line for the Blue Dogs--he just said he'd bypass them if they didn't stop obstructing! Don't stop with the phone calls and tell Waxman to bypass the Blue Dog Democrats!
Waxman said if the seven Blue Dogs on his panel do not relent, they could join with the committee's Republicans to "eviscerate" healthcare reform.
"I won't allow them to hand over control of our committee to Republicans," Waxman told reporters.
Right now, we really need you to CALL the White House with the talking points and tell them that the Blue Dog Democrats must UPHOLD the majority view of Americans who need a strong, robust Medicare-like public option, and not to give into their demands to weaken the public option in health care reform!
CALL The White House at 202-456-1111 and E-MAIL THEM with the talking points above, and ask for Congress to stay and work on health care reform instead of going off on vacation!
Also, if you can't afford direct calls--try this toll-free phone number at 1.800.828.0498. to call the Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate!
Can you also please help nyceve, Jane Hamsher, me, and others in this fight for health reform by donating to our fight?
We also found this really cool Facebook application called Friendsroots, which allows you to contact your friends on Facebook that lives in the districts of undecided lawmakers. So if you have Facebook, please click on this application to ask your friends to contact their Representatives about the passage of health care reform.
Please RECOMMEND this diary so others can see the phone numbers and call today!
Also, we'll be using the e-mail addresses from that petition to stay in touch with you about further action items on health care reform and other issues. We have a lot planned coming up, so if you'd like to stay in touch with me, Jane, and Nyceve, feel free to read the e-mails from us, but if you don't want to, you can opt out of the e-mails. Let me know if that's alright with you.
Thank you so much for fighting today for what we all care about--REAL health care reform with a strong public option and the national insurance exchange!