This is hardly going to be long enough to be a diary, but I want to encourage all Dem and independent voters who live in Red states to call your Republican representative and express your shock that a republican voted to raise your taxes.
I live in Kansas, so I called (the) Moran's office (P: (202) 225-2715) to let them know of my surprise and shock over the fact he voted to raise my taxes.
I got a pleasant staffer, but the conversation didn't go all that well. He first pleaded ignorance of the vote results. So, I clued him in.
Next, he tried a variety of approaches to convince me that (the) Moran had no choice.
I should have taken notes, so I may have forgotten some of his points, but these are the main ones.
The ones I recall include:
* not fair to only leave cuts in place for some, but not all
* my counter was that he was ignoring the numbers, 98% got a cut
* tried to say something about death/estate taxes
* my counter was that is a completely separate issue, having absolutely nothing to do w/today's vote by a republican, to raise my taxes.
(see a pattern here? If you live in a red state you need to shout from the rooftops: "my REPUBLICAN representative voted to raise MY taxes.")
* He also tried to tell me that the bill had other issues.
* I was pretty simple minded in my response to that point: so? he voted to raise my taxes
There may have been one or two other talking points. At one point there was a slight pause and I could imagine him looking over his list for what to say next.
In the end, he asked where I lived and for my name, which I had no problem providing. He promised to convey my message to representative (the) Moran.