First, the good news: Senator Harry Reid has finally presented the text of the merged Senate bill and started procedures to pass the first set of votes as soon as this weekend. The public option is in the bill as promised and, even better, it has not been further weakened -- instead it's almost the exact same as the version passed by the late Senator Ted Kennedy's H.E.L.P. Committee earlier this year.
The bad news is that it only takes one Senator from the Democratic Caucus to support a Republican filibuster and kill the whole bill. To make it worse, Republicans are expected to filibuster the bill at every step in the processes so there will be many chances for betrayal by a turncoat in the Democratic Caucus.
Today's the day we need to deliver our message loud and clear.
If ANY member of the Democratic Caucus joins a Republican filibuster of healthcare reform with a public option, the Caucus must immediately strip that Senator of all Committee Chairmanships.
Since we launched this campaign just three weeks ago, MoveOn members have joined us in demanding accountability. Now, we're merging our campaign with signatures gathered by our friends at CREDO Action and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee too and together we're ready to deliver signatures for 410,649 Americans today.
It was only three months ago when the public option was declared dead and we were all told to accept defeat.
Now, we're only weeks away from finishing what we started on March 25, when my brother Howard and I launched the Stand with Dr. Dean campaign. We stood up to draw a line in the sand, demanding inclusion of a public option in any healthcare bill passed this year and you stood with us.
You got the public option this far, now we need to bring it home to win. Sign up and deliver:
democracyforamerica.com
We can't let one Turncoat Senator kill the bill. Take the time out of your day -- over your lunch break -- on your way home from work -- tomorrow on your way to work -- as soon as you can -- and deliver the signatures to your Senators.
I'm counting on you. Because, when we work together, we're unstoppable.
Thank you for everything you do,
-Jim
Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America |
