On Friday, the President went to a townhall in Ohio and I heard him throw down a challenge to those who are ready to give up and just walk away from a year of hard work on healthcare reform:
But this isn’t about me. It’s about you. I didn’t take up this issue to boost my poll numbers or score political points – believe me, if I were, I would have picked something a lot easier than this. No, I’m trying to solve the problems that folks here in Elyria and across this country face every day. And I am not going to walk away just because it’s hard. We’re going to keep on working to get this done
Yesterday, David Plouffe, poised to take over the Democratic national campaign strategy for November, backed up that commitment by leading off his roadmap for victory with a call to pass comprehensive healthcare reform and a warning that we can't give in to fear.
And Steve Benen just reminded us, in case we forgot, that "this is why Democrats exist."
Damn right. We are not quitting now when we are in sight of the goal. Call Congress now! 202-224-3121.
Last Tuesday night, as I sat watching the Massachusetts elections returns come back, I was disappointed by the loss but energized by how so many people came together to try to save the Senate seat. I knew things had just gotten a lot harder, but I was pretty upbeat about how we would take this firepower and turn it on GOP obstructionists in November.
I saw how many volunteers and activists walked away resolved to learn from this experience and keep fighting - just check out the comments to this OFA Thank You to the Netroots..
In contrast, the initial response from the Hill was deeply discouraging.
They couldn't seem to agree on what strategy to pursue and an awful lot of people seemed content to just push this off for weeks or even walk away from it entirely. The Healthcare Phobocracy at work.
After everything so many of us went through over the last year to get it this far, and after everything we just gave the Coakley campaign, that kind of response is completely unacceptable.
Today Steve Benen posted a Strategy Memo to Democrats laying out all the reasons why walking away is not just wrong on policy grounds, and on moral grounds, but on political grounds. Here's how it ends:
V. This is why Democrats exist.
In advance of the midterm elections, there's a spirited debate in Democratic circles about the direction of the party. Reasonable people with good intentions can make compelling arguments about the party's relationship to its base, reaching out to moderates and independents, and keeping the coalitions from 2008 intact going forward.
But comprehensive health care reform exists largely outside that debate, in large part because the issue is at the core of the party's platform, and has been the Democrats' raison d'etre for decades. It is, to a very real extent, precisely why the party exists.
Democrats' commitment to making comprehensive reform a reality need not be dependent on the result of one special election. Indeed, it can't be — if the party backs off its most important issue, on the eve of a transformative victory, its entire agenda is suspect.
***
VII. If scare tactics win, Americans lose.
The current health care proposal has much in common with some of the landmark bills of the 20th century, and like its predecessors, it has been subjected to withering attacks, nearly all of them false. But Democratic policymakers have stood firm in the face of professional liars and misinformation campaigns before, and have always been vindicated by history.
In 1935, Republican opponents of Social Security insisted that Roosevelt's "socialistic" plan would, among other things, force all Americans to wear dog tags. Not quite a half-century ago, conservative critics of Medicare seriously argued, in public, that the law would empower bureaucrats to dictate where physicians could practice medicine, and open the door to government control over where all Americans were allowed to live. Around the same time, many opponents of the Civil Rights Act believed the fabric of America was being torn apart by the legislation.
Those who peddle "death panel" and "government takeover" nonsense today are but branches on a large and ridiculous tree.
The question now is whether Democrats will do as their predecessors did — overcome the lies and scare tactics, stick to their principles, and pass their agenda anyway.
Update: You can now link straight to this piece from www.passthedamnbill.com (h/t Balloon Juice readers)
Starting on Friday, and over the weekend, we began to see real glimmers of hope.
From the President in Ohio:
I didn’t run for President to turn away from these challenges. I didn’t run for President to kick them down the road. I ran for President to confront them – once and for all. . . . No, I had no illusions when I took on health care. It was always going to be hard. I knew from the beginning that seven Presidents had tried it and seven Presidents had failed. But I also knew that insurance premiums had more than doubled in the past decade, that out-of-pocket expenses had skyrocketed, that millions more people had lost their insurance, and that it would only get worse.
I know folks in Washington are in a little bit of a frenzy this week, trying to figure out what the election in Massachusetts the other day means for health insurance reform, for Republicans and Democrats, and for me. This is what they love to do.
But this isn’t about me. It’s about you. I didn’t take up this issue to boost my poll numbers or score political points – believe me, if I were, I would have picked something a lot easier than this. No, I’m trying to solve the problems that folks here in Elyria and across this country face every day. And I am not going to walk away just because it’s hard. We’re going to keep on working to get this done with Democrats, Republicans – anyone who is willing to step up. Because I am not going to watch more people get crushed by costs, or denied the care they need by insurance company bureaucrats, or partisan politics, or special interest power in Washington.
Let me tell you – so long as I have the privilege of serving as your President, I’ll never stop fighting for you. I’ll take my lumps, too. I’ll never stop fighting to bring jobs back to Elyria. I’ll never stop fighting for an economy where hard work is rewarded, where responsibility is honored, where accountability is upheld, where we’re creating the jobs of tomorrow.
....
And I’m going to keep up the fight for real, meaningful health insurance reforms. That’s why we expanded the children’s health insurance program to include four million more kids. And that’s why I’ll continue fighting for reform that will hold the insurance industry accountable and bring more stability and security to folks in our health care system
From David Plouffe's op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post,
We still have much to do before November, and time is running short. Every race has unique characteristics, but there are a few general things that Democrats can do to strengthen our hand.
-- Pass a meaningful health insurance reform package without delay. Americans' health and our nation's long-term fiscal health depend on it. I know that the short-term politics are bad. It's a good plan that's become a demonized caricature. But politically speaking, if we do not pass it, the GOP will continue attacking the plan as if we did anyway, and voters will have no ability to measure its upside. If we do pass it, dozens of protections and benefits take effect this year.
****
-- No bed-wetting. This will be a tough election for our party and for many Republican incumbents as well. Instead of fearing what may happen, let's prove that we have more than just the brains to govern -- that we have the guts to govern. Let's fight like hell, not because we want to preserve our status, but because we sincerely believe too many everyday Americans will continue to lose if Republicans and special interests win.
(Here's a bit more on why David Plouffe is someone worth listening to h/t Newsie8200)
Well I'm not giving up either - especially when a solution is within our grasp.
Over the weekend, we began to hear bits of hopeful news about "intimations of sanity" -- a way forward for a comprehensive bill involving passing the Senate Bill in the House and moving a package of fixes through reconciliation.
But apparently the tea party crowd is burning up the phone lines to DC and the pro-reform message isn't getting through loud enough:
From an anonymous friend who works on Capitol Hill.
We—and by we I mean all Democrats in Congress—need to hear from more supporters. It is clear that the teabaggers have been far more organized than liberals and progressives, but your efforts are reminding us that the American people are on our side and giving us the morale boost we need to get this bill passed. Please keep up the good work.
You know what to do.
Oh yeah, we know what to do:
Call your Democratic Rep and Senators. Capitol switchboard # is 202-224-3121.
You can lookup your member of Congress and get office #'s here:
http://www.congress.org/
Call District offices too - they are often not as busy and easier to get through and it is a local call.
Toll free #'s: 1-866-338-1015, 1-866-220-00441-866-311-3405
Call ALL of them - do not assume you know where they stand. They need to hear from you.
Let's send one simple message - we have come this far and the American people want you to see comprehensive reform through. Pass. The. Bill.
The most important thing is that Congress hear right now, today, that Americans do not want them to give up now.
If you are on twitter, then tweet this diary around, tweet your member of Congress, tweet the leadership and the WH, tweet about your phone calls to the Hill.
Here's ones I sent today:
Rep. Barbara Lee: Don't give up - we've got your back w/ #pplpwr. #hcr now. #passit || If you agree #tweetcongress http://bit.ly/...
@Barbara_Boxer: Don't give up - we've got your back w/ #pplpwr. #hcr now. #passit || If you agree #tweetcongress http://bit.ly/...
Sen. Feinstein: Don't give up - we've got your back w/ #pplpwr. #hcr now. #passit || If you agree #tweetcongress http://bit.ly/...
Tweet Your Senator Here
Tweet Your Rep Here
(You can also tweet the WH - @barackobama, and the leadership - @HarryReid, @NancyPelosi (unofficial)
And Hill staff need to see the Plouffe and Benen articles - you should email the links with you own encouragement to take this advice to heart.
You can write your member of Congress via webform here:
Write Your Rep
Or call and ask for an email address to send something over.
Include these links:
Link to Benen Strategy Memo
Link to Plouffe Op-Ed
One last point, and it goes to the subject of a whole lot of diaries, comments and tweets I have seen this a.m.
There has been a lot of chatter today about various procedural scenarios - what should happen first, reconciliation scenarios, vote counts, whip counts. Here's my personal take on all of that: get as much as we can but don't let it fail.
I'd love to get the Senate bill "plus" - with all the negotiated fixes - and it looks like this is seriously being discussed. But at the end of the day, I'm going to let Nancy Pelosi whip the bill and get her votes however she can. I doubt any of us on the outside really know the score of what "can" pass better than she does.
If you care about the order or the structure or the procedure of course you should say so. But I'm not holding my Rep and Senators to anything other than getting this done the best way they can. And I don't think fighting with each other on the tubes about which way to go is all that productive. We aren't negotiating with ourselves. We are trying to keep the Republicans from killing healthcare reform for another fifteen years. While we debate the message, the other side is already getting theirs out there, and their message is "no way, no how, no healthcare reform."
My message in my calls to my members has been very simple: you can't give up now. Millions of uninsured Americans are counting on us to bring this home. Pass the bill and I'll have your back in November.
Honestly, we don't have time to argue about the perfect message. The only message we can send right now is a flood of phone calls saying pass comprehensive HCR, pass it now.
Here's more from Benen, and I agree:
The Senate bill, however, delivers real reform. It's precisely why so many reform proponents have been so vocal in urging lawmakers to complete the deal. Just in the past few days, proponents of reform who have routinely disagreed over policy specifics have all rallied behind the same idea — the House should quickly approve the Senate bill, the Senate should extend assurances to the House about proposed changes, and the White House should provide the leadership that brings the contingents together. Proponents include leading reform advocacy groups like Health Care for America Now, leading labor leaders like the Service Employees International Union's Andy Stern, and a variety of pundits, from progressives like Paul Krugman to centrists like William Galston.
Also note, this approach was touted last week in a joint letter signed by several dozen leading policy experts, including Paul Starr, Theda Skocpol, Judith Feder, and Jacob Hacker, widely credited for crafting the idea of a public option.
Throwing in the towel now? The President isn't giving up. David Plouffe isn't giving up. And from what I have seen Friday and this weekend and today in action diaries and comments about your phone calls, we aren't giving up either. Congress don't you dare give up on us now.
Update Deaniac83 has posted more about the policy issues at stake.
