Entry: The Updated Healthcare Bill is about to be voted on in the House, they're voting tomorrow, Saturday.
I support the Healthcare Bill in the House. I wish it did more, but it's a good start. and it will help millions of people.
Here's a sweet breakdown from FCNL, the Quaker Lobby
AARP and the AMA have both endorsed it
that's a good sign. AMA is the American Medical Association, made up of doctors and hospitals and such. the AARP, most of us know, that's for retired people. So I guess we can assume, based on their endorsement that the bill will not 'pull the plug on grandma'.
I'd definitely prefer it over the Republican proposal that was finally released this week.
A key difference between the two bills is that the Democrats forbid companies from denying you based on preexisting conditions. Actually here's an in depth and specific look at what the CBO said about the Republican bill, from the NY Times
well, there's the best analysis I've found so far to compare the Healthcare Bill from the Republicans and Democrats, if you find any better links, hook me up.
Democrats Plan
Republicans Plan
and I'm not going to discuss Republican fear mongering right now because I'm being civil
the Republicans are boycotting the committee meetings for the Environment and Public Works committee.
That committee is trying to work on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. That's how we build a 21st century economy so we can start making solar panels and other cutting edge stuff in America. I think that stuff is kind of important. But the Republicans aren't showing up. This is a video from the hearing, notice that the bottom half of the table is empty. The only Republican is James Inhofe, he stops buy for 2 minutes, drops off a statement and leaves. This is the video of that.
one of the things I hate about politics is when people put loyalty to their political party over loyalty to the country and its citizens. I think we should be talking about the environment right now.
This is especially a problem in light of the fact that the World is meeting to discuss Climate Change in Copenhagen in mid December
Entry: One little note about Healthcare... Right now, it's action time.
Now is the crucial point to make your voices heard. Over the next week big decisions will be made. The Senate needs to feel the heat.
You know why people always break their campaign promises? Because after the election the voters are out of the picture, and the politicians are in fundraising mode. So they listen to the lobbyists and they don't hear a peep out of us till next election.
We can't sit back and hope the politicians hear us screaming through the TV. We have to make phone calls and send emails to lobby and make sure people in Washington Listen to us.
To Contact Congress call this number and ask for someone, 1-800-828-0498 it's toll free, call somebody new every day.
Or you can write to them, type something up and send a copy to everyone. You can look at the letters I quoted in my last post for ideas.
Here are the Senators that may need a bit of persuading.
Joe Lieberman, Connecticut
Bill Nelson, Nebraska
Evan Bayh, Indiana
Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas
Kent Conrad, North Dakota
Mary Landrieu, Louisiana
Susan Collins, Maine
Olympia Snowe, Maine
I know none of them are in our state, but just shoot them an email anyway, that's how lobbying works. You find out who's making the decisions and you target them. If you know anyone in these states reach out and ask them to call.
Thanks,
Now the fun pictures
The House
Tuscarora rd. Cute South buffalo Street that runs paralel to Caz Park.
