Please use the number 202-224-3121 to call the key Democratic senators and urge a no vote when Harry Reid attempts to bring Obamacare to the Senate floor next week or the week thereafter. The idea that Reid, Chuck Schumer and Patrick Leahy are the architects of your health care for the rest of your life should be enough to move you to action. It takes 60 votes to open debate. Urge each office you call to tell their senator to vote "no" on the cloture motion to open debate.
Start with Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas --each of whom face election in a year. Then move on to Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana who will be defeated in three years if she backs Obamacare in her increasingly conservative state, and then to Senator Ben Nelson to encourage him to continue to be a voice of moderate reasonability within the Democratic caucus. Then ask Senator Joe Lieberman to continue to be an independent voice within the caucus and to vote no on cloture.
There are others, all listed below. Call them all and e-mail them as well. Senator Reid has decided to throw the long ball on the public plan as well as on the massive cuts to Medicare and the huge tax increases. There is nothing centrist about his plan, and the only thing bipartisan about it is opposition to it.
We still don't have the bill to read. But we have been told enough to know that it has nothing to do with the "centrist" version that emerged from the Baucus committee. Reid figures if he can get debate started, he may have to nip and tuck parts of the bill along the way, but that he will eventually get the bill that the president and Nancy Pelosi wants. If anything passes the senate, it will almost certainly sail through the House untouched to save a second trip through the cloture bound upper body.
The "escape hatch" touted by Reid is just more smoke and mirrors --the same sort of "opt out" nonsense that keeps public employee union members contributing their scarce dollars to left wing activist leadership paycheck after paycheck. California with its hard left legislature (and its bankrupt state treasury) will never "opt out" which means that the public plan will quickly become the dumping ground of the Golden State's private and public sector employers, which will devastate the private insurance industry as it drives California even deeper under the waves. The rationing committees will get to work quickly as well to bring the costs of all American medicine down by refusing to approve crucial treatments. Read today's Wall Street Journal story on Dr. Barry Straube, one of the key figures in your future health care as he is in charge of deciding what the government will pay for under Medicare:
In deciding what treatments Medicare will cover, Dr. Straube's office looks at what is considered "reasonable and necessary" for beneficiaries. It is up to Dr. Straube and his staff to interpret that phrase in federal law because Congress never spelled out what it meant and industry groups don't agree on a definition.
There will be more Dr. Straube's in your future under Obamacare and especially under the "public option." And that is just the beginning of the bad news. The cost of every medical device will be raised by hefty taxes imposed across the board. Taxes will be applied to many people with employer-provided health insurance. The same government that cannot produce enough H1N1 vaccine with months of warning and preparation time will be in charge of every aspect of medical care for every enrollee --voluntary or forced-- in the public plan.
So now is the time to call with the simple message that you will not only vote against every Democrats' re-election in a year, you will work against every Democrat who is on the ballot next year and will be contributing money to their opponents. Hopefully the voters in Virginia will deliver such a message next week, and if New jersey voters do the same thing with the election of Chris Christie, even tone deaf Senate Democrats may hear the message they missed in August.
The next three weeks will decide the future of American health care and not just for you but for your children and their children. Spend the time necessary to make your opinion heard.
Arkansas
Sen. Blanche Lincoln
DC Phone: (202) 224-4843
Local Phone: Dumas (870) 382-1023, Fayetteville (479) 251-1224, Little Rock (501) 375-2993, Jonesboro (870) 910-6896, Texarkana (870) 774-3106
Link to E-mail
Sen. Mark Pryor
DC Phone: (202) 224-2353
Local Phone: Little Rock (501) 324-6336
Link to E-mail
Colorado
Sen. Michael Bennet
DC Phone: 202) 224-5444
Local Phone:
Denver Metro Office: (303) 455-7600 Toll Free: (866) 455-9866 Fax: (303) 455-8851
Colorado Springs Office: Phone: (719) 328-1100
Link to E-mail.
Connecticut
Sen. Joe Lieberman
DC Phone: (202) 224-4041
Local Phone: (860) 549-8463
Link to E-mail
Florida
Sen. Bill Nelson
DC Phone: (202) 224-5274
Local Phone: Orlando (407) 872-7161, Miami-Dade (305) 536-5999, Tampa (813) 225-7040, West Palm Beach (561) 514-0189, Tallahassee (850) 942-8415, Jacksonville (904) 346-4500, Broward (954) 693-4851, Fort Meyers (239) 334-7760
Link to E-mail
Indiana
Sen. Evan Bayh
DC Phone: (202) 224-5623
Local Phone: Evansville (812) 465-6500, Fort Wayne (260) 426-3151, Hammond (219) 852-2763, Indianapolis (317) 554-0750, Jeffersonville (812) 218-2317, Southbend (574) 236-8302
Link to E-mail
Louisiana
Sen. Mary Landrieu
DC Phone: (202) 224-5824
Local Phone: Baton Rouge (225) 389-0395, Lake Charles (337) 436-6650, New Orleans (504) 589-2427, Shreveport (318) 676-3085
Link to E-mail
Montana
Sen. Jon Tester
DC Phone: (202) 224-2644
Local Phone: Billings (406) 252-0550, Bozeman (406) 586-4450, Butte (406) 723-3277, Glendive (406) 365-2391, Great Falls (406) 452-9585, Helena (406) 449-5401, Kalispell (406) 257-3360, Missoula (406) 728-3003
Link to E-mail
Nebraska
Sen. Ben Nelson
DC Phone: (202) 224-6551
Local Phone: Omaha (402) 391-3411, Lincoln (402) 441-4600, Scottsbluff (308) 631-7614, Kearney (308) 293-5818, South Sioux City (402) 209-3595
Link to E-mail
North Dakota
Sen. Kent Conrad
DC Phone: (202) 224-2043
Local Phone: Bismarck (701) 258-4648, Fargo (701) 232-8030, Grand Forks (701) 775-9601, Minot (701) 852-0703
Link to E-mail
Sen. Byron Dorgan
DC Phone: (202) 224-2551
Local Phone: Bismarck (701) 250-4618, Fargo (701) 239-5389, Minot (701) 852-0703, Grand Forks (701) 746-8972
Link to E-mail
South Dakota
Sen. Tim Johnson
DC Phone: (202) 224-5842
Local Phone: Aberdeen (605) 226-3440, Sioux Falls (605) 332-8896, Rapid City (605) 341-3990
Link to E-mail
Virginia
Sen. James Webb
(202) 224-4024
1-866-507-1570
Link to E-mail.
West Virginia
Sen. Robert C. Byrd
DC Phone: (202) 224-3954
Local Phone: Charlestown (304) 342-5855, Eastern Panhandle (304) 264-4626
Link to E-mail