JUST POSTED MY ACTION DIARY FOR TODAY!Please RECOMMEND this link and REC down this diary!
I'm going to be on the road tomorrow due to last-minute travel plan changes, so I won't be able to check in as much tomorrow as I can on Dailykos until late tomorrow night. Here's the action plan for what we're going to be doing in kicking Democratic asses left and right on the need for the inclusion of a STRONG, robust MEDICARE-LIKE public option in health care reform!
I'll be posting it early tomorrow morning at 5:45 a.m. central time, and I'll need your help to keep it on the recommended list so others can see the phone numbers and CALL all day long, especially Senator Schumer's office to ask him to continue supporting a strong robust, Medicare-like public option in the Senate Finance Committee mark-up, and not to support the Conrad co-op proposal. Senator Grassley might say he's open to the Conrad co-op alternative, but he doesn't want a strong one, so it's not going to be an adequate compromise at all for the public option. Senator Schumer should be moving away from the co-op idea and toward the public option as the ONLY alternative in the Senate Finance Committee mark-up.
First, our kossack, Bonsai66, pointed out that Schumer came out in strong support of the public option this morning on Face The Nation.
"Make no mistake about it, there will be a public option in the final bill – some form of it," said Schumer on CBS’ Face the Nation.
"We want it to be a fair level playing field, but you need something to keep the big boys honest. And the only thing that really is out there is a public option. We don’t trust the private insurance companies left to their own devices, and neither do the American people."
And Senator Schumer left open the idea of the Conrad co-op proposal as a compromise to agree on between Senator Grassley and others on the Finance Committee.
Schumer said that while he supports a public option he also is open to discussing the use of nonprofit insurance cooperatives as competitors to established insurance companies.
"I am not saying that the public option should be the only option. There are some who do say that, particularly in my party."
We're tired of this kabuki theater where these elected officials pretend to be in strong support of the public option, then walk it back after they get their arms twisted by their fellow Senate Democrats. If you're not going to support us on the public option, then we just won't support you AT ALL come re-election time. This is the one issue we're not going to back down on.
It's not just Senator Schumer in this kabuki theater. It's the other members of the Finance Committee as well. We'll make it known that if any Democrat votes for a weak co-op proposal over a public option, or votes out the bill without a public option, that we will remember who they are come re-election time, and when the DSCC comes calling.
And we need to support our progressive allies as well in keeping up the fight for the public option since the White House made it clear they didn't want us and our allies to hold these moderate Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee accountable for playing kabuki theater with the public option.
We will be calling Senator Schumer's office tomorrow, the Senate Finance Committee Members, and using the OFA phonebanking tool to ask local voters in these Senators' states to hold their Senators accountable for refusing to support what a bipartisan majority of Americans support--the public option.
