Fighting for Healthcare Reform

Once the Democrats were unable to get a full vote on Healthcare Reform before the August recess, it was a given that August was going to be a fight to see whether the pro-public option people, i.e the majority of the people and most of the Democrats in Congress, were going to be able to out-maneuver the Republicans.  Or, I suppose a few people have thought we could bring some Republicans along, although I think that Senator Grassley has squelched that idea.  His words from the NYT.

He told MSNBC on Monday that he could not vote for a health care bill that did not have significant Republican support - even if he thought it was a good piece of legislation.

The odds for the inclusion of a public option in the Healthcare Reform bill looked pretty iffy there for a while.  We had a shadow of the same deer-in-the-headlights reaction we had for the decade from the mid-90's to the mid-00's.  But it now looks like President Obama and most of the Democrats are going to stand up and fight for a real reform package.  Whew!  The tide appears to have turned and the pro-healthcare reform people are redoubling their efforts.

Thanks to all who have made it out to the Town Halls or called our Congresscritters.  Thanks to our members of Congress for holding Town Halls despite the threats of intimidation.  Thanks to Richard Trumka, the secretary-treasurer and likely next president of the AFL-CIO, who said that Labor won't support anybody who votes against the public option.

So, what's up here in our Washington?  What's our job in this now? 

First, if you can, listen into an Organizing for America National Health Care Forum with the President tomorrow, Thursday, at 11:30 PDT.

Before or after that, call a few of our Washington State Democratic Congresscritters and thank them for supporting the public option or check in to make sure they are supporting it.  If you live in the 8^th CD and have some optimism about Reichert, call him.  I don't.  

Attend any Town Halls that your Congressional Member holds.  We'll get those up as quickly as possible.

Checking Howard Dean's website, we determine that Senator Murray and 4 Congressional Members, Inslee, McDermott, Adams, and Dicks have been staunch supporters of the public option from the beginning.  Cantwell said last Sunday morning on Bill Press's radio show that she supported it.  The latest on Brian Baird suggests that he supports it.  That leaves Rick Larsen and I'd guess he's going to come around as well.  But it would be good to let him know that is what you want him to do.

We have listed all the phone numbers for our Washington State Congresscritters on our Both Washingtons page.  Go to it!  It's very useful to reinforce their good votes and let them know we stand with them.