A friendly political question

[voluptuary_manque]

I have posted several lists of grassroots progressive orgs. I can post them again if you need them.

Might be a good idea. Though I'm not sure that the bill is still being debated. With 60 Senators lined up, it's probably in final stages now. However, there is still the reconciliation process between the House and Senate versions so let the people responsible know how you feel!

 

[Stella_Omega]

It's a cold, snowy Sunday morning here in Washington D.C., and I wanted to write you about this weekend's breakthrough on health care reform.

On Friday, I joined a 7-hour marathon negotiating session to hammer out the final details of the reform bill. By the end of the night, we had finally reached a solid compromise to insure more Americans, lower costs, and hold insurance companies accountable to deliver for the premiums we pay -- all while protecting women's health and right to choose.

We still have several more days of hard work ahead to get it passed through the Senate -- but if we can fix America's broken health care system by working around the clock through the holidays, that's a step that I'm more than willing to take.

With the rest of the year consumed by the health care debate, that's going to leave me very little time for campaigning -- so I'm asking for your support to fill the gap and help us reach our fundraising goals before the December 31 deadline.

Can I count on you?

Please contribute today -- and help us reach our ambitious $250,000 grassroots fundraising goal before the year-end December 31 deadline!

I'm committed to staying as long as it takes and doing everything I can to get health care reform passed through the Senate this year, because hard-working American families deserve it.

Unfortunately, right-wing senators are doing everything in their power to derail reform and bring the Senate to a grinding halt. Their obstructionist tactics mean that we'll be working day and night right up through Christmas Eve.

There are so many good things in this bill, even though I surely wanted it to be better. But, at the end of the day, this is still a very good bill -- and the most significant reform of America's broken health care system since Medicare was enacted in 1965.

Among other things, the bill would:

* Extend health insurance coverage to 31 million more Americans, including 14 million lower-income, working people through Medicaid
* Prohibit insurance company discrimination based on gender or pre-existing condition -- and make sure you can't lose your insurance when you get sick
* End the upward, unsustainable increases in insurance premiums
* Increase funding for community health centers in 10,000 communities across the country, enhancing primary care for more than 25 million people who have traditionally been uninsured or underinsured
* Close the prescription drug "doughnut hole" for seniors
* Require insurance companies to spend at least 85% of their income on patient care, not executive pay or profits
* Cut the federal deficit by $132 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office

We can't let this opportunity pass us by. That's why I'm going to keep fighting for the very best health care reform bill we can get -- while defending women's reproductive health -- and then work as hard as I can to get it passed and signed into law.

Now, while I'm back in Washington DC, I hope you'll help our campaign keep up the momentum before December 31 -- so we can show the press, pundits, and our right-wing opponents the strength of our grassroots support at this important year-end deadline.

Please contribute today -- and help us reach our ambitious $250,000 grassroots fundraising goal before the year-end December 31 deadline!

We're so close to passing significant health care reform.

As we approach this crucial vote, I think about all of the Congresses and all of the presidents who tried to ensure that no more American families would ever have to know the heartbreak of bankruptcy due to a devastating illness. Now we can finally do the right thing.

Thanks so much for your help and support, every step of the way.

In Friendship,

Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senator

P.S. The December 31 fundraising deadline is just 11 days away -- and we still need your help to reach our ambitious $250,000 grassroots fundraising goal. Please help us get there: Contribute now!

 

[Stella_Omega]

Sen. Bernie Sanders can save health reform from Joe Lieberman.

We need one senator to champion progressive values.

Your message to Senator Bernie Sanders:

A healthcare bill without a strong public option is just not acceptable.


We need one progressive senator to be a hero, to stand up and tell President Obama he should crackdown on conservatives like Joe Lieberman in the Senate — not progressives — in order to get a bill passed.

Please draw a line in the sand and say you will do whatever it takes — including withholding a vote for cloture — to block any bill that does not contain a public option.

Clicking here will add your name to the petition.



The Senate is poised to pass a deeply flawed health care bill that doesn't include a public option but would require everyone to buy insurance, even if it's unaffordable or doesn't meet their needs.

Progressives are simply supposed to accept this giveaway to the insurance lobby because we're told that we need to pass something by Christmas and that nothing better can pass the Senate. On both counts, this is simply untrue.

Sen. Joe Lieberman has shown us that it just takes one senator to block a bill. We need one progressive senator to stand up and block a health care bill without a public option.

Ask Sen. Bernie Sanders to be a progressive hero and stand up for the public option. Click here to automatically add your name to our petition.

A poll released today by Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee shows that almost two thirds of U.S. voters support health care reform with a public option. Only 33 percent of those surveyed support a health insurance mandate without a public option. Not only that, but voters overwhelmingly believe that President Obama didn't fight Sen. Lieberman hard enough before caving on health care reform.1

Regardless of what the pundits and party functionaries are saying, this is one fight that progressives don't have to lose. The polls show that the conventional wisdom coming out of Washington D.C. and the Connecticut board rooms of the big insurance companies is wrong. What's more, President Obama's Christmas deadline for the Senate to pass a bill is completely arbitrary. We can't stop fighting for what we believe in just because the president wants a vote on Christmas Eve.

We need one progressive senator to be a hero, to stand up and tell President Obama he should crack down on conservatives in the Senate — not progressives — in order to get a bill passed. We need one senator to draw a line in the sand and say that if the president won't do this, Sen. Harry Reid will have to invoke reconciliation and force the Senate to pass a bill that's not subject to a filibuster.

Can you ask Bernie Sanders to be that senator and stand up for the public option? Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Just because President Obama decided to capitulate to Joe Lieberman's demands, doesn't mean progressives have to, too. If there was ever a time to use reconciliation, this is it. The public overwhelmingly supports a public option and overwhelmingly opposes a bill that doesn't have a public option but does include a mandate to buy private health insurance. The House version of the health care bill already has a public option and we know that a majority of Senators have said they support a public option. Why should we allow Joe Lieberman to abuse the filibuster and massively undermine the health care bill without doing everything we can to stop him?

What's especially ironic about the demand for progressives to pass a deeply unprogressive bill is that the pressure being applied to those fighting for a strong public option was never applied to the likes of Max Baucus, Ben Nelson or Joe Lieberman as they fought to weaken the bill.

Will you ask Sen. Bernie Sanders to be a hero and do everything in his power — including withholding a vote for cloture — to block a bill without a public option? Click here to automatically add your name to our petition.

If Democrats in the Senate continue to ignore tactics that would allow us to pass reform with 51 votes instead of 60, we will lose our only chance in a generation to fix our broken health care system. If a weak White House continues to threaten only progressives, then the most unprincipled, paid-off senator gets to write the health care bill.

We can continue to play their game where the people lose and the insurance industry and Joe Lieberman win. Or we can play hardball and block a Senate bill which contains a mandate but no public option. Health care matters far too much to let rules designed to stop change stop us. And it is cynical beyond measure to call Lieberman's demands real reform. This is why we need Senator Bernie Sanders to take a stand. If not now, when?

Thank you for working to secure real health care reform.

Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

P.S.: "If I wanted Joe Lieberman to write health care reform, I would have voted for John McCain." That's what blogger Jane Hamsher wrote and her single phrase says it all. If you are not convinced that we should kill the bill if it contains a mandate without a public option, here are a few articles you should read.

Howard Dean: "Health-care bill wouldn't bring real reform"

Keith Olbermann: "Ruined Senate bill unsupportable"

Robert Reich: "Slouching Toward Health Care Reform"

Jane Hamsher: "Kill the Senate Bill"

 

[Stella_Omega]

https://couragecampaign.org/