It's about time. I just read Joan McCarter's Front Page post Seriously, Florida. WTF and my outrage meter went off the chart. Just as I was getting angry that we aren't doing more to counter this pathetic indignity, I discovered this article announcing MoveOn Launches Campaign Targeting Republicans Over Obamacare Medicaid Expansion. Yes, it's about time. If we can not absolutely clobber the GOP in the 2014 elections on this we will need to turn in secret decoder rings as "dogs of political war."
MoveON has launched an ad campaign, today, targeting Republican governors who have yet to adopt the ACA, or "Obamacare's" Medicaid expansion.
The group plans to use billboards, petitions and rallies to ramp up pressure on GOP-controlled legislatures in six holdout states: Texas, Nebraska, Florida, Louisiana, Wisconsin, and Virginia. With 2014 legislative sessions underway, state lawmakers face a renewed debate around the Medicaid expansion. Democrats and allied groups have been laboring to highlight the impact on states where the expansion has been rejected.
MoveOn's billboard campaign, which begins on March 3, will detail how many local residents have been denied health care coverage without the expansion. The Texas billboard, for example, takes aim at Republican Gov. Rick Perry and reads: "Welcome to Texas! Where Gov. Perry has denied 1,046,000 Texans health care and now all Texans are paying for it. It’s like a whole other country."
A similar billboard in Florida knocks Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who endorsed the Medicaid expansion but went silent after the state's GOP-led legislature rejected it. "Welcome to Florida! Where 763,000 people are denied health care because Gov. Scott won’t fight to expand Medicaid," the sign reads.
MoveOn has also "collected 190,000 petition signatures, made nearly 8,000 phone calls to elected officials, and contributed $120,000 toward the nationwide effort."
Hurrah for MoveOn. This is exactly the kind of good ole fashion political action we need a lot more of as we move towards the 2014 elections.
I have to be honest, fellow Kossacks, I find it sort of discouraging to read these dire predictions about how we can not realistically regain the House, or perhaps even save the Senate.
What if we pull all the stops and defy expectations?
What if we create such a groundswell of liberal, progressive, and Democratic outrage at the Republicans betrayal of the common good of our people?
Let's all send money to MoveOn, and any other group that starts taking real action steps to turn back this "red-tide" of cruel stupidity. Or, maybe I should be kinder and say instead, "lack the full level of compassion and wisdom possible," with regard to the health care needs of our poorest fellow citizens.