Dr. Howard Dean, from Democracy For America, has teamed up with other health care reform organizations such as SEIU and Health Care For America Now (HCAN), to fight back against the new swiftboating of the public option that we NEED in health care reform.
The swiftboating liars are those from AHIP, Blue Cross Double Cross, UnitedDeath, and the other members of the murder-by-spreadsheet industry led by the likes of Rick Scott and his group, Conservatives For Patients' Rights (Deaths), and they're going to run an 30-minute informercial FULL OF LIES about the public option after NBC's Meet The Press on Sunday.
Now, who's Rick Scott?He's the one that helped dream up Harry and Louise and killed Bill Clinton's health care reform in 1993, and he might do it again to the public option in health care reform this year, and he'll be successful if we don't do anything about it.
Well, we're NOT going to sit by and let him lie so freely on the air! Let's help out DFA and HCANout by FIGHTING BACK HARD TODAY by asking NBC not to violate the FCC laws in running a misleading ad full of deceit, hatred, and lies for the public health of Americans.
Here's what Howard Dean needs us to do today:
DFA and our partners are not the only organizations raising serious questions about Rick Scott and Conservatives for Patients Right's credibility. The highly-respected website Factcheck-org, run by the non-partisan Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, has labeled Scott's prior advertisement as "very misleading."
CPR's weak rebuttal to these criticisms should have given NBC pause before agreeing to air the latest iteration of these advertisements in the full "documentary". Essentially, CPR's rebuttal conceded that it is painting a scenario that has not been proposed by President Obama or Democratic Congressional leaders and, indeed, Factcheck-org labeled CPR's response as "nonsense."
Based on Rick Scott and Conservatives for Patient Rights records, this 30-minute fake "documentary" will be false, deceitful, and filled with distortions. It is up to us to stop NBC from running the ad.
PLEASE SEND YOUR MESSAGE TO NBC NOW
And here's more from Howard Dean's staff on the blog:
The Conservatives for Patients’ Rights plans a $20 million TV ad campaign beginning this Sunday that features 30-minute segments of uninterrupted commentary by doctors and patients from the UK and Canada (both government-directed health-care systems) describing the failings and shortcomings in their respective systems.
What these Conservative organizations fail to realize is the presence of choice within the proposed American system. The point of the public option is it offers Americans the ability to choose what kind of coverage they want—a choice they currently don’t have. Where Americans are currently forced to adhere to the private sector health-care system, and British and Canadian citizens are subject to only the nationalized health-care system, the proposed American system gives citizens the ability to choose
...
The negative ads are scheduled to air in eight states with influential health-care lawmakers in Congress, including Montana, Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana, South Dakota, Indiana, Alaska, and Nebraska. This just goes to show how much your efforts are needed to help counteract the fear tactics being used by these conservative groups to try and delay the right, necessary and impending change in the American health-care system, specifically in the states mentioned above that will be soon be bombarded with these negative ad campaigns.
And if NBC refuses to pull the swiftboating of health care reform off the air, then DFA, HCAN, SEIU, and other organizations will air a 1-minute rebuttal with Howard Dean in it after the so-called "informercial."
They NEED our help to run the rebuttal ad to help defend the public option from the swiftboating by AHIP, Blue Cross Double Cross, UnitedDeath, and Rick Scott's Conservatives for Patient's Deaths. So, let's contact NBC to tell them to stop running the informercial.
PLEASE DONATE to Howard Dean's fight for the public option.
PLEASE DONATE to AFSCME's fight against Senators like Ron Wyden and Ben Nelson.
PLEASE DONATE to HCAN's fight for the public option against the likes of Rick Scott.
PLEASE HELP organize for SEIU against the swiftboating of the public option!
Also, if you're a single-payer advocate, please sign up for rallies on May 30th. It's a shout-out to my single-payer friends :-)
Also, don't forget to call these Senators today to demand a strong, robust affordable Medicare-like public option. Here's a list of talking points below:
Tell Senator [Name] that you DO NOT want the 7-year trigger for the public option and take it off the table, and that you want him to support an affordable strong, robust Medicare-like public option. We NEED a strong, robust Medicare-like public option NOW OPEN TO ALL AMERICANS AND AFFORDABLE, not more of the SAME broken system that's given us unaffordable premiums, little private insurance coverage, and rising co-pays. Also, don't TAX OUR EMPLOYER HEALTH BENEFITS. Instead, follow the proposal by President Obama to tax the wealthy above $250,000, eliminate the overpayments in Medicare Advantage, and put tax capital gains to help fund health care reform.
Please CALL Senator Max Baucus at (202) 224-2651 with this message.
Please CALL Senator Charles Schumer at 202-224-6542 with this message.
Please CALL Senator Edward Kennedy at (202) 224-4543 with this message.
And don't forget the White House as well!
CALL the White House at: 202-456-1111 and E-MAIL them as well!
Also, can you please CALL these THREE chairmen in the House of Representatives, especially Rep. Waxman who's leading the charge on health care reform below?
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)
So, PLEASE CALL and let them KNOW that you want a Medicare-like public option in health care reform! Ask them not to pass a bill out of the House that does NOT include a strong, robust Medicare-like public option that is AFFORDABLE AND OPEN TO ALL AMERICANS.
A Medicare-like public option is the line in the sand for me. Is it the line in the sand for you as well? If so, then CALL, and please help keep this on the rec list so others can see the phone numbers, call today, and help fight against the swiftboating of the public option in health care reform. Thank you!