Action Page: There Must Be A PUBLIC Health Care Bill Conference Committee
(H.Res.847).
Last night we got an email from a Republican member of Congress calling for public access to any health care bill conference committee (H.Res.847). As you should well know by now, we are NOT
Republicans, we've only been advocating for every possible progressive action for the last five years. But what progressive could possibly be opposed to public scrutiny for the legislative process? And sure enough, our most reliable hero Dennis Kucinich is a sponsor as well.
The fact is, it's not just the Republicans who have been shut out of the debate to set national health care policy. The American people have been completely shut out as well. This goes all the way back to the beginning of the process, when activists were arrested and hauled out of the Senate Finance committee for protesting the preemptive exclusion of any discussion of Single Payer (Medicare for all) as a basis for reform.
Now we hear that they don't even plan on having a conference committee to reconcile the weak bill passed by the House with the total insurance industry sell out passed by the Senate. No, they are just going to make another back room deal and install the worst case Senate version by fiat. Even our House of Representatives is to be shut out unless they entirely capitulate as well.
Action Page For Public Conference Committee:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1026.php
We all know the Republicans just want to obstruct the process, whether the bill is good or bad. And we say bring it on, let the American people SEE their obstructionism on our TVs. But shame on the Democrats, shame, shame, shame, for giving the Republicans good cause for doing so. And shame on us, if we for our own partisan reasons do not protest this outrage. The public's business must be conducted in the full light of day.
You would be wrong if you were to think you are doing the President and the Democratic Congress a favor, by not calling them out for betraying the hope of the American people for a robust public plan.
Such a plan is broadly supported and would be wildly popular. It would cement the Democrats in power for a generation. Instead, the current administration seems bent on forcing through a medical insurance industry sell out that will discredit the leadership of the Democratic party beyond redemption.
You see it happening already. Joe Lieberman, the guy who demanded any public option be taken out of the bill, including a possible expanded Medicare buy in proposal, is seeing his approval ratings tank down to George Bush numbers. And that same fate awaits ANY Democrat who does not stand up now and demand better. Because when the American people wake up to what a sick suck up to the insurance industry this bill is, there will be hell to pay at the polls.
And the dirtiest shame is that the Republicans are getting a free pass in all this. Nobody will remember that they actually opposed a strong public plan too. All anybody will remember is that they
opposed the bill that everybody hates the guts out of, the bill the Democrats forced through without even a fair conference committee, that passed without a single Republican vote.
Action Page For Public Conference Committee:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1026.php
How can the Democrats be so utterly tone deaf, so politically stupid? Who can save them from themselves? How could they be so perversely determined to thrown away every scrap of good will and optimism that the American people had riding on the outcome of this last election. We'd better all speak up, and the Democrats had better listen, or the current majority will be very short-lived indeed. And that's not what any of us want.
For Facebook Participants ONLY:
Once again, the regular action page links above are for anyone. But we told you two years ago, when we developed Voices, our action page application for Facebook, that we could change the world with
Facebook alone. At that time they had about 50 million participants. That number is now up to 350 million, and they are now the biggest social media network there is, 3 times bigger than MySpace. There are totally frivolous GAME applications on Facebook now with 75 million users. That's more people than it takes to elect a president of the United States.
We have gigantic mobilization plans for Facebook, but the first thing we need all of you to do, if you are on Facebook already, is to get your OWN Voices application tab on your own profile page, a new
capability they just made possible. This is what will enable you to watch and submit action pages over there and to mobilize and alert all your friends to do the same. You can even create your own action pages on any issue you care about. You can put the Voices application tab right on your own personal profile page, just as Democrats.com has already done.
http://www.facebook.com/democratscom?v=app_2370152746
So if you are already on Facebook, go to the link above, check out what the application does, and most importantly, click on "Get
Application Tab" in the menu at the top for quick and easy instructions on getting your own Voices tab for your profile page. Three simple steps. Do it now. When you submit an action you can automatically alert all your friends. Why aren't we taking more advantage of this built in mobilization engine?? Now we are.
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.
If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
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