Action Needed - HR 676 to be voted upon in Sept. Act Now

Congress to vote on HR 676 in September.

We need everyone to contact their legislators to vote yes.

We need help contacting our phone tree.

Gather more Single Payer Postcards.

 

Dear Single Payer Activist, 

 

Thanks to the strength of the single payer healthcare movement, HR 676 will be voted upon in September.  NOW is the time to contact your legislators for a yes vote on single payer.  You can contact them by letter, by phone, by attending their town hall meeting, or by visiting them.

See the list of asks below.  You can determine you Congress Member by going tohttp://www.votesmart.org./  

We also want states like California to be able to implement a single payer healthcare system even if we do not win the vote on HR 676 this year.   See what to ask for below.

 

We also need more postcards to President Obama in support of HR 676.  Please order some below.

And lastly, we need phone tree volunteers to call our activist to contact their legislators.  We can send you local numbers and a suggested script.  This is very important as less than ½ of our activists have email. 

 

Please let us know how you can help.

___ I have contacted by Congress Member ___________.

___ I have contacted Senator Boxer.

___ I have contacted Senator Feinstein.

___ I plan to go to Congress Member ______________ town hall

          See list of some town halls below.

___ I plan to visit my Congress Member or Senator at their office.  He/She is ______   We have postcards you can deliver.

___ I can call our phone tree to encourage activists to contact legislators.

___ Send me ___ 8 postcards, ___ 15 postcards, ___ more Obama postcards.

___ I have forwarded this email.

 

Below is an excellent script prepared by the California Alliance of Retired Americans, a list of some northern California town halls, and a couple of articles on the town hall bullies who prefer the status quo.

 

Thank you.

Don Bechler

Chair – Single Payer Now

415-695-7891

singlepayernow.net

 

WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMEMBERS AND SENATORS   I am a constituent writing to ask you to please stand up for real health care reform when Congress reconvenes. Here is what I hope you will do:   ·        Demand that HR 676 come up for a floor vote – and then vote for it. ·        Even if HR 676 doesn't pass, states likeCalifornia must have the right to implement a single payer system. Vote for the State Option (Kucinich amendment) ·        Oppose any effort to tax benefits as a way to finance health care reform.   Write and/or E-Mail your Congressmember and bothU.S. Senators with this message.  Write to the local office nearest to you.  If you have a chance to go to their office in person, even better. If there is a Town Hall meeting in your area, try to attend and bring others who will support this message.

CALL YOUR U.S.REPRESENTATIVES   INSTRUCTIONS: Call the district office. Ask to talk with the Congressmember. If not there, ask to talk with the staff person working on health care reform. ·        Introduce yourself, and let them know you are a constituent. ·        Tell the person you are talking with that you are calling to talk with the member about the health care reform proposals being considered by Congress. ·        Tell them that there are three things you want the Congressmember to do: o       Ask that HR 676 be placed on the floor for a vote – and vote for it! o       Vote for a health reform proposal ONLY if it includes the State Option. o       Oppose any effort to tax benefits. ·        Be sure to ask for the Members position on these issues, and than them for their time.

 

 

Congress Member Stark's town halls.

Wednesday....August 12th....7PM....Alameda Hospital.....Conference Room A 2nd Fl.   located at corner of Clinton andWillow   http://alamedasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5586&Itemid=14

Saturday....August 15th

 

9AM.....Fremont Senior Center.....40086 Paseo Padre Parkway......880 to Stevenson Blvd. E 1.5mi on Stevenson rt on Paseo Padre the Senior Center is in Lake Elizabeth Park

 

10:30 AM....San Leandro City Hall.....835 E 14th St....nearest major cross st Davis.....Davis Exit off 880

 

12:00 PM....Alameda City Hall.....2263 Santa Clara Ave......exit 880 Freeway on 23rd Ave. West on to Park St. 7 Blocks rt on Santa Clara.

 

Congress Member Speire's Town Halls

____  Attend event in San Carlos event         - Thursday August 20    5-7:30 pm

                 (700 block of Laurel St.)

____  Attend event at Park Merced                - Friday     August 21    5-6:30 pm

             Temple United Methodist Church

              65 Beverly St.

____  Attend event in Moss Beach                 - Sunday  August 23  11-12:30 pm

             Cypress Meadows Conference Center

              343 Cypress Ave. 

Two articles on the bullies who favor the status quo.

 

	There's been a lot of media coverage about organized mobs intimidating lawmakers, disrupting town halls, and silencing real discussion about the need for real health insurance reform. The truth is, it's a sham. These "grassroots protests" are being organized and largely paid for by Washington special interests and insurance companies who are desperate to block reform. They're trying to use lies and fear to break the President and his agenda for change. Health insurance reform is about our lives, our jobs, and our families -- we can't let distortions and intimidation get in the way. We need to expose these outrageous tactics, and we're counting on you to help. Can you read these "5 facts about the anti-reform mobs," then pass them along to your friends and family? 5 facts about the anti-reform mobs 1. These disruptions are being funded and organized by out-of-district special-interest groups and insurance companies who fear that health insurance reform could help Americans, but hurt their bottom line. A group run by the same folks who made the "Swiftboat" ads against John Kerry is compiling a list of congressional events in August to disrupt. An insurance company coalition has stationed employees in 30 states to track where local lawmakers hold town-hall meetings. 2. People are scared because they are being fed frightening lies.These crowds are being riled up by anti-reform lies being spread by industry front groups that invent smears to tarnish the President's plan and scare voters. But as the President has repeatedly said, health insurance reform will create more health care choices for the American people, not reduce them. If you like your insurance or your doctor, you can keep them, and there is no "government takeover" in any part of any plan supported by the President or Congress. 3. Their actions are getting more extreme. Texas protesters brought signs displaying a tombstone for Rep. Lloyd Doggett and using the "SS" symbol to compare President Obama's policies to Nazism. Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil was hanged in effigy outside his district office. Rep. Tim Bishop of New York had to be escorted to his car by police after an angry few disrupted his town hall meeting -- and more examples like this come in every day. And they have gone beyond just trying to derail the President's health insurance reform plans, they are trying to "break" the President himself and ruin his Presidency. 4. Their goal is to disrupt and shut down legitimate conversation.Protesters have routinely shouted down representatives trying to engage in constructive dialogue with voters, and done everything they can to intimidate and silence regular people who just want more information. One attack group has even published a manual instructing protesters to "stand up and shout" and try to "rattle" lawmakers to prevent them from talking peacefully with their constituents. 5. Republican leadership is irresponsibly cheering on the thuggish crowds. Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner issued a statement applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to "a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress." It's time to expose this charade, before it gets more dangerous. Please send these facts to everyone you know. You can also post them on your website, blog, or Facebook page. Now, more than ever, we need to stand strong together and defend the truth. Thanks,  Jen Jen O'Malley Dillon Executive Director Democratic National Committee

 

 

 

The Town Hall Mob

By PAUL KRUGMAN
August 6, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/opinion/07krugman.html

There's a famous Norman Rockwell painting titled
"Freedom of Speech," depicting an idealized American
town meeting. The painting, part of a series
illustrating F.D.R.'s "Four Freedoms," shows an
ordinary citizen expressing an unpopular opinion. His
neighbors obviously don't like what he's saying, but
they're letting him speak his mind.

That's a far cry from what has been happening at recent
town halls, where angry protesters - some of them, with
no apparent sense of irony, shouting "This is America!"
- have been drowning out, and in some cases
threatening, members of Congress trying to talk about
health reform.

Some commentators have tried to play down the mob
aspect of these scenes, likening the campaign against
health reform to the campaign against Social Security
privatization back in 2005. But there's no comparison.
I've gone through many news reports from 2005, and
while anti-privatization activists were sometimes
raucous and rude, I can't find any examples of
congressmen shouted down, congressmen hanged in effigy,
congressmen surrounded and followed by taunting crowds.

And I can't find any counterpart to the death threats
at least one congressman has received.

So this is something new and ugly. What's behind it?

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, has
compared the scenes at health care town halls to the
"Brooks Brothers riot" in 2000 - the demonstration that
disrupted the vote count in Miami and arguably helped
send George W. Bush to the White House. Portrayed at
the time as local protesters, many of the rioters were
actually G.O.P. staffers flown in from Washington.

But Mr. Gibbs is probably only half right. Yes, well-
heeled interest groups are helping to organize the town
hall mobs. Key organizers include two Astroturf (fake
grass-roots) organizations: FreedomWorks, run by the
former House majority leader Dick Armey, and a new
organization called Conservatives for Patients' Rights.

The latter group, by the way, is run by Rick Scott, the
former head of Columbia/HCA, a for-profit hospital
chain. Mr. Scott was forced out of that job amid a
fraud investigation; the company eventually pleaded
guilty to charges of overbilling state and federal
health plans, paying $1.7 billion - yes, that's
"billion" - in fines. You can't make this stuff up.

But while the organizers are as crass as they come, I
haven't seen any evidence that the people disrupting
those town halls are Florida-style rent-a-mobs. For the
most part, the protesters appear to be genuinely angry.
The question is, what are they angry about?

There was a telling incident at a town hall held by
Representative Gene Green, D-Tex. An activist turned to
his fellow attendees and asked if they "oppose any form
of socialized or government-run health care." Nearly
all did. Then Representative Green asked how many of
those present were on Medicare. Almost half raised
their hands.

Now, people who don't know that Medicare is a
government program probably aren't reacting to what
President Obama is actually proposing. They may believe
some of the disinformation opponents of health care
reform are spreading, like the claim that the Obama
plan will lead to euthanasia for the elderly. (That
particular claim is coming straight from House
Republican leaders.) But they're probably reacting less
to what Mr. Obama is doing, or even to what they've
heard about what he's doing, than to who he is.

That is, the driving force behind the town hall mobs is
probably the same cultural and racial anxiety that's
behind the "birther" movement, which denies Mr. Obama's
citizenship. Senator Dick Durbin has suggested that the
birthers and the health care protesters are one and the
same; we don't know how many of the protesters are
birthers, but it wouldn't be surprising if it's a
substantial fraction.

And cynical political operators are exploiting that
anxiety to further the economic interests of their
backers.

Does this sound familiar? It should: it's a strategy
that has played a central role in American politics
ever since Richard Nixon realized that he could advance
Republican fortunes by appealing to the racial fears of
working-class whites.

Many people hoped that last year's election would mark
the end of the "angry white voter" era in America.
Indeed, voters who can be swayed by appeals to cultural
and racial fear are a declining share of the
electorate.

But right now Mr. Obama's backers seem to lack all
conviction, perhaps because the prosaic reality of his
administration isn't living up to their dreams of
transformation. Meanwhile, the angry right is filled
with a passionate intensity.

And if Mr. Obama can't recapture some of the passion of
2008, can't inspire his supporters to stand up and be
heard, health care reform may well fail.