Dear Joan,
After
months of painfully slow negotiations, today the Senate Finance
Committee voted to give away meaningful health care reform in exchange
for a few votes from conservatives.1
Committee Chair Max Baucus says that decision - to kill the public
option and therefore require us to buy insurance with less help and
fewer choices - was necessary.2 Without this concession, Baucus and others say, we can't pass a bill through the Senate.
They're wrong, and Dr. Howard Dean can prove it. Dean is backing a strong reform plan that includes a public insurance option. And he says we've got the votes to pass it.3
http://www.americacantwait.com/TrueMajority.
For years we've been told that you need 60 votes in the Senate to pass a bill. And so all summer long, we waited through gun-toting town halls, death panel fictions and shouted insults to see if Sen. Baucus and his committee could get a few conservatives to support reform and help us reach that magic number. As of today, we know that effort has failed.
But Howard Dean has a solution. A special procedure called reconciliation can be used to pass a bill through the Senate with 51 votes. And Dean's put in the work to make sure that we've got the support we need in the House, the Senate and at the White House to win.4, 5
There's no more reason to wait. Howard Dean has shown that real reform has the votes to pass. And with thousands more Americans losing their insurance or having care denied every day, we can't afford to wait much longer for Congress to act.
Sign the petition and tell Congress: Get reform done! Pass a strong bill with a simple majority that lets us choose a public insurance plan.
- Matt Holland
Online Director
TrueMajority/USAction
1 - prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/live-blogging-senate-finance-committee-debate-on-public-option/?hp
2 - voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/09/29/public_option_debate_moves_to.html?wprss=44
3 - americacantwait.com/yes_votes
4 - blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2009/09/liberal-groups-target-sen-baucus-on-health-care.html
5 - cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/24/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5336183.shtml
TrueMajority.org is a grassroots group of citizens who believe in America's true values of openness, fairness and compassion. We believe participating in an effective government is the best way to be mutually responsible for our community. TrueMajority is a project of USAction, a 501(c)(4) organization under the IRS tax code.
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