I was so worried today. I was worried that, although I care deeply about the Confirmation of Sotomayor, we would see a day with no movement on the health care reform front. I was therefore, relieved to see that we have, in fact, had important movement of this front. In fact, we have legislation that legislation will protect human dignity and the integrity of the human species. I am so relieved that we've taken these measures to protect my dignity, because after reading these stories about the state of health care in my state, I really don't think we could handle a centaur. Yeah, that's right folks. The big action on health care today protected unwilling embryos destined to be joined to animals and turned into the best trip to the zoo your child has ever had.
Update: h/t to lineatus for the catchy new title!
Probably the most exciting part of this legislation is that they have developed a bipartisan coalition to support it, with seven more original co-sponsors than they had last year. According to Senator Sam Brownback's blog, Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Jim Bunning (R-KY), Richard Burr (R-NC), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Bob Corker (R-TN), John Cornyn (R-TX), Jim DeMint (R-SC), John Ensign (R-NV), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), James Inhofe (R-OK), Mike Johanns (R-NE), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Mel Martinez (R-FL), John McCain (R-AZ), James Risch (R-ID), John Thune (R-SD), David Vitter (R-LA), George Voinovich (R-OH), and Roger Wicker (R-MS) are all sponsoring this legislation.
The introduction of this legislation has convinced me of one thing: Some of our representatives have a lot of extra time on their hands before the August Recess. Accordingly, I would like to invite them to re-focus on another bit of legislation making its way through the halls of Congress: Health Care Reform for real, live, actually existing people.
However, some still seem to doubt that there is time enough. Senator Kent Conrad rolled out a few gems yesterday, including this one:
"We can get it out of the Finance Committee," Conrad said on Bloomberg’s "Political Capital with Al Hunt." "I don’t think we’ll be through the floor during this work period. I think that’s too big a lift, but that really isn’t that important."
I have to beg to differ. I think it is so important that Congress has to make the time, even if that means they have to delay their vacation. I've put off virtually everything to work on this, but maybe Senator Conrad just doesn't get it.
Fortunately, we see hopeful signs in the White House. The President Gets It. He thinks Health Care Reform is urgent. That's why he made it the very first priority of his legislative agenda and set the August Deadline. He put Congress on notice saying:
"So I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone: We are going to get this done."
I know the president is right, and I am eagerly waiting for tomorrow, when we're reportedly going to see the House bill and finally, perhaps, put Slinkerwink's plan into action! Read this post so you'll be up to speed and ready to join in.
I know that many of you share my sense of urgency. So I hope you'll take action. Today, I called the White House today and told them I feel Health Care Reform is so urgent that if necessary there should be a special session. I wrote an email to my Congressperson as well, and tomorrow I'm calling my Senators. You can too. Tell them that while some congresspeople are making time to reform health care for mer-folk, you'd rather that they stay focused on the real people in their districts and keep working on health care reform for us. We need an immediately available, nationwide public option as part of a plan that focuses on preventative medicine (not preventing the creation of lipsticked piggy folk) and eliminates exclusions for pre-existing conditions, so that folks like the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor can't be denied coverage because of their diabetes, or glaucoma, or a cyst they once had removed. And if they have to cut into their time with me, their "district work period" I'm willing to meet them halfway. I'll call Washington to fight for real reform so that they won't have to come out and seem me.
If you think Congress should keep working on reform, call your representative tomorrow and tell them: Health Care Reform: Don't Come Home without it. You can call them using this toolkit, and while you're there, you can send your local paper a letter to the editor explaining why you feel your local congressperson and Senators need to keep working until all of us 100% humans have real health care reform.
Our work is having a real impact, take it from Senator Baucus, whose Finance Committe was stymied for much of the time that President Obama was abroad. He said:
"There was the strongest commitment I have yet seen, which I deeply appreciate, that we are all going to work together to get this passed," Baucus said. "I get the sense that the urgency barometer is going up."
So take heart. There are representatives who feel the urgency of health care reform, who will work on this issue if we keep the pressure on. Those are the representatives whose work in the upcoming mark ups will either reflect the interests of lobbyists who have invested millions to persuade them not to tackle the heart of the issue when it comes to health care reform or it will reflect our voices. It is up to us to work together and make our voices heard.