I ask you to please read this excellent diary by mcjoan about why we need 40 progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives to stand STRONG with us on the public option against these waffling Senate Democrats!
These Senators need to know that their electoral chances rest upon passing REAL health reform with a strong public option, and that we have a very long memory as progressives when it comes to re-election and they swoop back here on Dailykos, ask us to act as ATMs for them, and go campaigning for them. They just might not get that from us at all. It's why I'm glad organizations like Moveon.org, HCAN, Democracy for America, and SEIU are taking a hard line on this issue. It's time that progressive groups drew the line in the sand, and that line in the sand is a strong public option in health reform.
Also, here are the principles of the Public Option Whip Tool because as Jane Hamsher says, we could have 105 Democrats today who support a public option, but we need 40 progressive Democrats who WILL vote against any bill that doesn't have a public option that is:
- Available nationwide
- on day one
- and accountable to Congress and the voters
We need to find out these 40 progressive Democrats in the House, and make them the power players in asking them to vote against any bill that comes out of the Senate, which would be Max Baucus's precious little Finance Bill, that doesn't include a strong public option. It's why I want you to use the Public Option Tool next week to call your progressive Members of Congress and find out where they stand. The public option is the line in the sand for me, and it needs to be the line in the sand for 40 progressive Democrats as well!
Also, want to bring some serious local grassroots smackdown on Senators like Baucus, Wyden, Conrad, Lincoln , Landrieu, Hagan, and Feinstein? Let me tell you how we can do this. We're going to use President Obama's website, Organizing For America, to accomplish the greatest smackdown of all time this week.
I want you to sign up with Organizing For America this week. Once you've signed up with OFA, I'd like you to go to the Health Care Action Center and take a look around.
The most important tool we'll be using in the Health Care Action Center. will be the "Contact People Near You" phonebanking tool.
This is the action item agenda with the "Contact People Near You" phonebanking tool below:
- Sign up with Organizing For America.
- Go to the Health Care Action Center and click on the "Contact People Near You" phonebanking icon to the left of the screen, near the bottom of the page.
- Select your state from the drop-down menu. This is where the fun action comes in!
- Let's say, you select Montana from the drop-down menu. It takes you to a new webpage where it has a red icon that says "Make Calls Now" with a list of 25 supporters to call. It asks you to make a report after the call, and gives you talking points. In my opinion, these are weak talking points since it doesn't mention the public option, so I'll be fixing that a bit.
- So what we'll be doing is calling 25 people, asking them if they support President Obama's health care plan, which includes a public option to help keep private insurers honest. Then we'll tell them to call their Senators, such as Max Baucus, Conrad, Hagan, and others, to ask them to support the public option in President Obama's health care plan.
That's what we'll be doing---bringing down the grassroots smack-down at a local level by calling people in these Senators' states. Here are the talking points for each of the states below that you can use when calling supporters from your call list. I'll use Montana as an example first.
Montana
Hi, is [person's name] home? My name is [blank], and I'm a volunteer with Organizing for America, the grassroots organization formed to continue bringing the change we worked for during President Obama's campaign. How are you today? (Wait for response and make sure to engage in a conversational manner). As you might know, Organizing for America was formed after the campaign to support the President's agenda for change.
Recently, President Obama laid out the three core principles for real health care reform in America which has to reduce costs — such as rising health care costs which are crushing the budgets of governments, businesses, individuals, and families, and they must be brought under control. Secondly, real health care reform must guarantee choice in that every American must have the freedom to choose their plan and doctor – including the choice of a public insurance option which helps keep private insurers honest and lowers the cost of the monthly premiums that we pay. The public option will be available nationwide, available on day one, and is accountable to Congress and the voters.
Third, it must ensure quality care for all in that Americans must have quality and affordable health care. The need for action in reforming our health care could not be greater; the costs for premiums are rising 4 times the rate of wages and families and small businesses can no longer afford their existing health care plan. If health care reform is going to be passed it cannot wait another year. For American families, the status quo is unacceptable.
Do you support these principles for health reform? I also would like to ask you to call your Senator, Max Baucus, at (202) 224-2651 on Monday to ask him to support President Obama's health reform by helping pass a strong public option which keeps private insurers honest.
Here's the list of states that we should call that presently have Senators that are threatening to block President Obama's health reform, which includes a strong competitive public option to keep insurers honest. So, when you use the "Contact People Near You" phonebanking tool on OFA and use the generic talking points which I provided, I want you to choose one of these states to call and to have the phone number of the Senator ready on hand to give to the local person you're talking to when you ask that person to call his or her Senator to support the public option in President Obama's health reform bill.
California--Senator Dianne Feinstein (202) 224-3841
Louisiana--Senator Mary Landrieu (202) 224-5824
Montana--Senator Max Baucus (202) 224-2651
Nebraska--Senator Ben Nelson (202) 224-6551
North Carolina--Senator Kay Hagan (202) 224-6342
North Dakota--Senator Kent Conrad (202) 224-2043
Oregon--Senator Ron Wyden (202) 224-5244
Hope you'll be signing up with OFA this week to bring some serious smack-down at the grassroots level to these corporate Senate Democrats!
Here's a kossack, Vexed, who reported back about her husband's experience in using the OFA phonebanking tool:
This was my husband's experience calling 25 North Carolinians from the OFA list today:
"The people I spoke to were all uniformly in support of a true public healthcare option. More importantly, they were all angry with Sen. Hagan’s failure to support a public option. One person told me, “She’s on my shit list. I wrote her a letter and got a form response. Sure I’ll call her.” Another person said, “I’ll call her tomorrow and I’ll get my co-workers to call also.” If I reached voicemail, I left a message asking that they call Sen. Hagan on Monday.
Tomorrow I’m going to call Sen. Hagan’s office and let her know that I called 25 of her constituents this weekend and urged them to call her in support of a true public option. I’ll keep calling until she supports the public option. Yes we can."
Just imagine the impact that can be made if just 10 people here on Dailykos each call 25 North Carolinans, who in turn WILL be calling Senator Kay Hagan's office! That's 250 more North Carolinans that will be letting Senator Kay Hagan know by phone just how wrong she is to block a strong public option that Americans like you and me need.
Please recommend this diary so others can see the phone numbers and call!
Also, please ASK PRESIDENT OBAMAto help hold the line for us on the public option! He's having an online townhall on Wednesday, and I'd like you to ask him why Senators are so opposed to the public option when a majority of Americans are in favor of the public option to keep insurers honest and make health care affordable.
- You can ask President Obama this on Youtube here.
- You can even ask President Obama on Twitter with this hashtag #WHHCQ.
- You can go to Facebook and ask him questions there.