We NEED to keep our attention on the live webcasts of the committee mark-ups since they're not posting amendments online for us to review. We have to be ready to respond if they offer an amendment that's a poison pill amendment that would gut health care reform as we know it.
So, will you please join in with the liveblog today by following these live webcasts of the committee mark-ups? I'll organize the responses by my three comments below on each House Committee. Here's how it'll go:
- Respond to my comment, "EDUCATION AND LABOR: LIVEBLOG," with your comments about the proceedings of the committee mark-up. This helps organize the thread below so we can keep track of what's happening with each committee, and can quickly respond. I'll be posting one other comments like the one above for the Energy and Commerce Committee.
- If you're on Twitter, you can create a mass following of the liveblogging occuring by using the hashtag #liveblogedlabor. You can use the hashtags such as #liveblogenergycomm.
Yesterday, we called all Democratic Members of these three House Committees. Can you PLEASE keep on calling these Democratic Members today? This is a fight that the lobbyists are ready for--and they just might beat us if we don't keep on fighting like HELL today!
You can help Nyceve, Jane Hamsher, and I over at Firedoglake along with other activists in this fight by donating. The murder by spreadsheet industry spends $1.4 million a day to help defeat health care reform, and they're ramping up with everything they can to kill the public option and the national insurance exchange.
PLEASE CALL THESE DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS OF THE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE, to request that they, you know, not screw up health care reform. Also, I've marked the Blue Dogs on that spreadsheet in red. Please call the Blue Dogs on that Energy and Commerce committee list. They're likely to block the passage of health reform in that committee.
You can use the talking points below when you call these Democratic Committee Members.
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. 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 vote for any amendments during the mark-up process that would weaken the public option and the national insurance exchange! I'm an American who needs the choice of the national insurance exchange and the public option.
The Kucinich amendment for state waiver for single-payer passed on a vote of 25 Y - 19 N in Education and Labor. Looks like we might get single-payer in some states. However, this amendment is likely to be stripped out in conference committee, so keep on fighting for that amendment.
UPDATE: Education and Labor just passed the Tri-Committee Health Care bill. No info on vote numbers yet. Ways and Means passed Tri-Committee Health Care bill late last night on a vote of 23-18. Three Dems voted against--Kind, Tanner, and Pomeroy. So, Energy and Commerce is the last committee left to pass.
UPDATE #2: Jared Polis, a Blue Dog, voted no on the passage of health reform in the Education and Labor Committee. That's another Democratic vote against health reform. Titus and Altmire, both Democrats, voted against the passage of health reform in Ed and Labor as well.
SIX DEMS VOTED AGAINST HEALTH REFORM IN COMMITTEE
Rep. Polis
Rep. Altmire
Rep. Titus
Rep. Kind
Rep. Tanner
Rep. Pomeroy
Remember their names.
PLEASE RECOMMEND THIS DIARY SO OTHERS CAN SEE THE PHONE NUMBERS AND CALL TODAY!