FROM ACORN --- Urgent: Health care reform is under attack

Acorn Newsletter | 8-19-09 | Acorn Chief Organizer

[Pantera]

		Health care reform is under attack. Send a message to Congress now.

		Tell Congress to support health care reform that includes a public option! Click here.

Dear Supporter,

It's time for urgent action. Health care reform is under attack, and every single one of us needs to respond right now. Tell Congress that you support health care reform that includes a public option.

Last time, they tried to get to Barack Obama by spreading lies about ACORN. Now, they're using the same cowardly strategy and scare tactics to stop health care reform.

Worst of all, it's starting to work -- and it's turning ugly fast. Congressional townhall meetings have erupted into shouting matches thanks to right-wing disrupters. Some have even turned violent. At least one opponent of health care reform posted a message on the popular website Twitter urging the public to use firearms if they encounter ACORN members at a community health care discussion. He wrote, "If ACORN/SEIU attends these meetings for disruptive purposes, and you have a license to carry....carry."

So it's no wonder that opponents are actively spreading lies through email and talk radio in an effort to juice up the angry mobs and derail reform. We need you to contact Congress and tell them: 1) we won't be intimidated by the scare tactics of an angry, shrill minority and 2) we need adequate health care reform now!

Here are three health care reform lies -- and the truth:

Lie #1: The health care bill includes payoffs to ACORN and unions and ACORN will be enrolling people into the "public option."

The truth: In reality, provisions of the bill allow for anyone to provide input into community care options. This includes homeowners, religious leaders, neighborhood groups, and others. There are no payoffs. There is no money exchanged in any way. In the ongoing effort to demonize ACORN, every instance of the word "community" has become associated with our efforts.

Lie #2: Congress is going to destroy private insurance and you will only get government-run health care.

The truth: Reform creates a "public option" and the public option expands choice. The public option -- really a nationwide plan with a broad network of providers -- will compete with private insurers to do what competition is supposed to do: increase quality and decrease costs. You keep your coverage and doctors, if you want to, while choice extends to millions of the uninsured.

Lie #3: Health care reform will lead to rationing.

The truth: Reform will expand choice for quality health insurance coverage -- while covering more people. But right now, health care is already rationed in some of the most inhumane ways imaginable: denial based on "pre-existing" conditions, recission processes triggered when you make a claim, different coverage based on your gender and, of course, the yearly and lifetime limits on coverage from many plans. The current system is controlled by corporations and their decisions about whether you get coverage, who your doctor is, and what procedures and medicine are covered are driven by profit motives, not health care decisions. A big part of reform is to stop that.

We are ACORN, and you know these kinds of lies and attacks don't stop us. It just makes us work harder. And we've been fighting for health care reform with everything we've got for over a year now. In 15 states, ACORN members have been mobilizing thousands of community residents, getting dozens of congressional leaders to sign on in support of basic principles for health care reform.

But we're up against the combined power of the insurance lobby, the drug makers lobby, and the for-profit hospitals, among others. And these guys are fighting dirty, doing everything they can to intimidate Congress and stop reform.

The threats of violence show how opponents of change will stop at little to keep the status quo. That's why we need you to tell Congress not to be intimidated by the lies and threats and stand up for adequate health coverage for all Americans.

The truth is that we are on the brink of historic reform of America's inadequate health care system. This moment will determine whether the people or the corporations win this fight. We need to make sure that Congress hears from real grassroots people, not corporate-funded Astroturf, so we can win adequate health care for all Americans. Can you tell Congress to stand up to the lies and intimidation and support common-sense health care reform?

We need you to take action today!

In solidarity and strength,
Bertha Lewis
ACORN CEO and Chief Organizer

© 2009 ACORN and ACORN logo are Registered Trademarks of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Inc. ACORN is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, with over 400,000 member families organized into neighborhood chapters in 100 cities across the country. Since 1970 ACORN has taken action and won victories on issues of concern to our members. Our priorities include: better housing for first time homebuyers and tenants, living wages for low-wage workers, more investment in our communities from banks and governments, and better public schools. ACORN is an acronym, and each letter should be capitalized. ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

[Pantera]

Know your enemy.

[halo66]

Hey, Bertha...STFU!

[Puppage]

Health care reform is under attack

YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT IT IS!

[tcrlaf]

I smell the stench of PANIC....

[Puppage]

Congressional townhall meetings have erupted into shouting matches thanks to right-wing disrupters. Some have even turned violent.

Thanks to the SEIU thugs.

[xcamel]

They are

NUTS!

[sarasota]

ping

[angkor]

You've got a "wiredforchange.com" cookie being set in the HTML you used for your post.

>>>"http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=BaYyoecWCI2a2r2wD1wDrz4uMZt0EDQi"<<<<

[ExTexasRedhead]

The American people are under attack from their government, IMO.

[Republic]

And HEY Bertha, how ya doin as ACORN'S CEO....Ya feelin the crunch yet of regular folks who are NOT PAID expressing their beliefs. Beliefs which are totally AGAINST PRESIDENT UHBAMA?

Let's see....YOU GET PAID out of the money that I EARN. You live off of other's TAX DOLLARS that congress slips into bills for community action networks....of which your group is the supremo community action group, the fabulous ACORN! ( You sent the guys around to the very private HOMES of bankers, didn't ya babe, to threaten them into giving out unsecured loans to folks with no incomes so they could, in turn, buy houses, huh? You guys were only following the dictates of barney frank and chris dodd, right? Good ol gate protectors of Fannie and Freddie.

Well, Bertha, I want to know your salary.

And Bertha...I want to know the MOST RECENT CONSERVATIVE CAUSE your groups or minions in ACORN have hit the streets to promote and support...please, JUST NAME ONE....because I need to know that my congressmen and women have not given out MY MONEY to a group that works AGAINST MY PERSONAL BELIEFS...or is...a PARTISAN GROUP.

So babe...let's be forthcoming and transparent like your big boss, Mr. prior dope smoking now cigarette smokin Bo in the WH is.

[halo66]

Bravo! LOL!

[ErnBatavia]

I thought ACORN changed their name, since the current one is starting to get a soiled perception.

"Community Organizations International"

[PLD]

Most of its component organizations have two things in common: they have no experience or expertise in health care, and virtually all received large, tax-exempt grants from far-Left billionaires like George Soros and Teresa Heinz Kerry. Like the “grassroots” movement for campaign finance reform a decade ago, the public demonstrations for health care reform are largely a Soros-financed operation. Former Governor Howard Dean announced HCAN’s mission on the first night of the annual “America’s Future Now!” conference (formerly the “Take Back America” conference), hosted by the Campaign for America’s Future in June. Dean pledged to spend up to $82 million to advance socialized medicine. HCAN rallied 15,000 people in D.C. in April, 10,000 more in June, and with state affiliates like the Maine People’s Alliance, hundreds more in state capitals in July. A searchable database of upcoming spontaneous demonstrations can be found here.

However, a closer look at its members shows it is less a “grassroots” organization than a series of interconnected left-wing pressure groups united by a collectivist ideology and, for most, a common donor.

Among the 21 members of its steering committee are ACORN, MoveOn.org, and the Center for American Progress. CAP, headed by former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, was created with Soros’ money as a counterweight to the Heritage Foundation. In 2007 alone, Soros’ charity, the Open Society Institute (OSI), gave CAP $1.75 million in 2007 and approved additional grants totaling $1.25 million. Soros personally gave millions to MoveOn.org before the 2004 elections, and he has funded ACORN, the most notorious practitioner of election fraud in the nation.

http://aconservativeedge.com/2009/08/08/george-sore-us-healthcare-george-convicted-of-insider-trading-soros-making-himself-richer-off-your-money-and-your-health/

[halo66]

Maybe she will run for President since she is the “Chief” organizer.

[Pantera]

A better name for the group might be “Community Organization National” or “CON”.

[ironwill]

HA! I used their own form to change the words and make it an Oppose Øbama Care rant.

Use their resources to get OUR message across. Make it expensive for them. Use Alinsky’s playbook against them.

[OBXWanderer]

Well, Bertha, I want to know your salary.

38k a year but 5 mil is missing....I'll bet you Bertha LIVES LARGE on that 38k.

[Allegra]

Yeah, ACORN...we oppose this so-called "health care reform." And we dare to speak out.

If you drama queens want to call that being "under attack," so be it.

But get used to it. Real, freedom-loving Americans DO have a voice and we're gonna keep on using it.

[Bronzewound]

Worst of all, it's starting to work

That's the part I like!

[Heart of Georgia]

"In the ongoing effort to demonize ACORN, every instance of the word "community" has become associated with our efforts."

For good reason.

ACORN is BO....BO is ACORN