Were you an Obama Campaign Donor or Volunteer in 2008? If so, your help is needed. Unless Congress passes the health care bill without delay, Democrats are toast in November. Health care reform is a core platform of the Democratic Party. We all worked hard in 2008 to get Democrats elected, and if they can’t deliver on their signature priority, with unprecedented majorities in the Senate and the House, we have to ask, when and what will they ever deliver on?
I am not going to argue the procedural tactics of how the House and Senate should get this done. The purpose of this diary is to encourage everyone who gave money or time to the Obama campaign in 2008 to reactivate your old campaign contacts, and get this new campaign (Pass.the.Damn.Bill) underway.
Join me over the fold for the plan.
This is how this pyramid scheme will work. Let get 13 million calls to Congress.
Step One: Call your representatives yourself. You can call the capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 (This number can be used to connect to your Congressperson and your Senators.) If you need talking points take a look at this great action diary last week from terrapin station84.
Fax or phone are most effective, and don’t forget to remind them how many hours or dollars you gave towards helping Democrats in 2008, and how they will be getting none of it if they don't do what you want.
Step Two: If you're like me, I'm sure you were involved in a local, active, Obama group. Dig out that old email list, or get on www.barackobama.com and reconnect with the active groups in your neighborhood. Email your group with the information in this diary. Let's get every member of these groups to also call their representatives. To make it even easier for them, look up the phone numbers for your local representatives and include them in your email.
Step Three: Get a hold of the head honcho in your group. Persuade them to get you the Obama supporter call lists for your area so you can organize a phone bank to get every Obama voter calling congress.
Please use the comment section to state which state or group you were involved with, and how active that group was during the campaign.
We have to ask ourselves have we each done all we can do to get healthcare passed? If every Obama voter or donor called their representatives next week, would that bring enough pressure on congress to get this done?
The comments of Kent Conrad (chair of the Senate Budget Committee) and these words of Nancy Pelosithis week have been encouraging -
We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn't work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people for their own personal health and economic security and for the important role that it will play in reducing the deficit.
- however, the comments of
Rahm Emanuel have not. He wants the Senate to take up the Jobs Bill and Financial Regulation first, and considering how slowly the Senate moves, this would effectively be death for the Healthcare reform bill.
Ezra Klein is very clear when he says this is what it will look like when health care reform dies:
It is very, very, very important to be clear on what the death of health-care reform looks like. It is not a vote that goes against the Democrats. It is not an admission that the White House has moved on from the subject. It is continued statements of commitment from the key players paired with a continued stretching of the timetable. Like everything else in life, policy initiatives grow old and die, even if people still love them.
We need to keep the pressure on to get this bill passed!
Finally, remember Obama’s Election Night speech in Grant Park – "It cannot happen without you":
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you - we as a people will get there.
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.