Today’s Theme:
Increase Visibility of the Effects of the ACA
Such a target rich environment this week between the House Ethics debacle, Trump tweeting again about nukes, serious questions about Trump’s mental stability and the conflict that’s brewing between Cold Warrior Senators (McCain, Graham and others) and Trump over Putin.
Still, I personally plan to focus today on doing whatever we can to make the consequences of an ill-conceived ACA repeal on people in our local community. Why? Because our best hope to defend democracy is to curb the hubris of the House and Senate by showing that we will not just sit down and roll over when they try to hurt the American people.
Plus now that there are real world consequences, they seem to be getting skittish about actually doing it. That’s why we hear about crazy plans to repeal with delay - after the next election (or two!). If the law was so bad, they’d just repeal it already but they know they can’t without completely destabilizing our health care system, which is already the most expensive in the world with worse outcomes than many.
What they need to know is that any attempt to repeal ACA will destabilize the health care markets so severely that people will be impacted. They’re limited in what they can repeal through budget reconciliation, and they can’t repeal/replace it piecemeal because all the parts are interconnected.
Here are the actions for Tuesday, January 3 - 17 days before Trump’s Inauguration.
Key Actions Today:
- Write down a story about how repeal of the ACA / collapse of the health insurance market will impact you or someone you know. Condense it into three bullet points and use that to prepare a script for a phone call to your congresspeople.
- Call your governor’s office and ask them to make sure that our Republican representatives understand the consequences of any destabilization of the ACA to their constituents.
- Call your senator to tell them that you are concerned about the insurance market’s reactions to ACA changes - at the local office that’s nearest you. Is this number in your Favorites yet?
- Then call your 2nd Senator.
- Then call your representative at their local office.
Finally, if you’re in the DC area Inauguration Weekend, consider joining us on Inauguration Sunday. You can learn more about that here.
Developments Over the Weekend:
- House Republicans voted to eviscerate their own oversight, by placing the independent Office of Congressional Ethics underneath the House Ethics Committee.
- Trump attacked GM on Twitter today causing GM’s stock price to plummet. I sent a letter to a few executives at GM in December warning them about this very possibility — I wonder if they remember it. . .
- Conway claims that no one will lose health insurance under the proposed repeal of the ACA — which almost guarantees that a lot of people will, given the Trump team’s relationship with reality.
- Trump screws up badly in Asia with a pair of tweets attacking both North Korea and China — which is the nation doing the most to keep North Korea in check, and causing a Depends shortage in Washington and on every nuclear air and sea base within striking distance.
- This Washington Post article is a good primer on what Republicans can do, what they cannot do, and what the most likely scenarios will be if they can manage to agree on a strategy to repeal ACA. Our job is to make that mission impossible if they want to keep their seats.
Key Messages Today:
- If Congressional efforts to repeal ACA cause the health insurance system to collapse, the deaths of millions of Americans will be on the hands of the people who voted for it.
- Delay only creates uncertainty and that will cause premiums to skyrocket just when the numbers of uninsured Americans had reached historic lows.
- The health care system is complex with many interlocking parts - you can’t destabilize part of it without the risk that the whole thing will collapse, hurting many more than those who are currently covered through the ACA markets.
Tweet of the Day:
If it feels like we’ve seen this movie before, it’s because we have. The change in 2005 led directly to the Abramoff scandel, and four years later, Obama was President with a Congressional majority in both houses after the Republicans suffered crushing losses in the 2006 elections.
Help Spread the Word!
Thank you for all the recommends, shares, callouts and tweets!
If you’re new to this, it’s the last in a series of diaries with action items specific to addressing the threat of Russian interference in our election. Here is the first diary in the series: A Ten Point Action Plan for Resisting Putin’s Takeover of America
- Bonus #1: Share the original diary and this one on Facebook, Twitter, etc to amplify the effects of our efforts.
- Bonus #2: If you are dedicated to this fight, please consider following the Kos Group “Sons and Daughters of Liberty.” I’ll post these Action Lists there, as well as other diaries that offer concrete opportunities to take action. That way, you’ll be able to read them even if they don’t make the Rec List. If you’d like to play a more active role, send me a Kosmail and I’ll add you to the group.
- Bonus #3: Sign up for Twitter and let us know you’re there. If you’re not on Twitter already, consider signing up with your DailyKos handle. My handle is @Kascade_Kat - share yours in the comments so that we can amplify each others’ messages.
- Bonus #4: Share your plans for Inauguration Day and the day after. If you’re going to the protest in DC and want to meet up with other Kossacks, post something in the comments thread. I’m going to DC and I’m bringing two people with me. Parallel marches are happening on other major cities.
Remember - history has its eyes on us this time.