Urgent: Update and Call to Action on Senate Healthcare Bill
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has just announced that the Senate will vote at 8 pm on Saturday on the "motion to proceed" to the health care bill. This is the first of the last two significant hurdles in the Senate for the health care takeover. He needs 60 votes, and rumor has it that he's still fighting to secure the last couple Senators. We've activated our members in the top 5 target states to buck up those Senators with a flood of phone calls, emails and district office visits over the next 48 hours.
These next 48 hours are a big deal--if Reid doesn't get 60 votes it will be a major set back, certainly pushing the bill into next year. If that does happen, we will need to remember to spend significant time supporting the key Senators who voted against Reid. They'll be under enormous pressure from the left to switch their vote. And Reid will be offering sweeter deals than the $100 million he included on page 432, in section 2006 for Louisiana to buy Sen. Landrieu's vote.
If Reid does get the 60 votes, we will have one last chance stop the bill, and only a couple weeks in which to do it. Saturday's vote would begin debate. Reid will again need 60 votes again to end debate and move to a final vote, where he will only need 50 votes, which he already has. The Senate will go home for Thanksgiving recess after Saturday's vote for the next week. We will need to overwhelm the pivotal Senators with our objection to their vote while they are home so when they come back to begin the debate, they will not want to do so again when Reid asks them to end debate.
Reid will call for an end to debate as soon as he feels he has 60 votes lined up. We must push this past Christmas, which will give us another recess during which they must face their voters, and push the bill into 2010. The mentality of the Senators will change as the calendar changes, as the key targets will know it is an election year for them. Their priority is to get reelected, which means this is when they listen more closely to their voters than the powers that be inside the Beltway. This is why President Obama is so determined to get this done before Christmas, and why the next 4 weeks will be the determining weeks of this fight.
This is what we've been fighting for all year. It's why FreedomWorks members have sent over 250,000 emails to Congress this year on health care. It's why hundreds of thousands of Americans paid their own way to Washington for our 9/12 taxpayer march. It's why FreedomWorks members have logged over 10,000 calls into Congress in the past month, engaging in 120 hours of conversation with the key staff who will be advising the pivotal Congressmen how to vote. This is the hour when it will be decided who will win and who will lose. This is when everyone needs to step up--there will be no next time.
This is what we need you to do over the next 48 hours:
1. Click here to go to our online Health Care War Room and call your Senators and send an email.
2. Find out where your Senator's district office is, call them and stop by for a visit. If you can find a couple other people to go with you, bring some signs protesting the health care take over and call the local paper to tell them you're going to protest.
3. Email this blog post or a link of the online Health Care War Room to at least 5 friends and ask them to do the same. There are Senators who are still undecided and whoever puts in more phone calls and district office visits will decide their vote--the next 48 hours is the time to get your friends and family who otherwise don't engage to engage.
4. Make a small (or large!) contribution to help us help more Americans be heard by their representatives in Congress.
Remember, this is it!
