You want to get 2 million people to Washington to change things? Tell them that if they come, the Senate will pass Medicare for All and defend it in Conference, if they come, but only if they come.

I’m not seeing it. Speak slowly :) At what point does Reid need to invoke reconciliation? The Senate hurdles ahead as outlined by Chris Bowers: “First, on the cloture vote to bring the bill to the floor for debate and amendment. Second, on the cloture vote to end that debate and bring up a floor vote on the overall bill. Third, on the cloture vote to end debate and bring up a floor vote on the overall health care bill after the health care bill is returned from conference”.

As previous thread made clear, the House bill has now become intolerable. Time to kill it unless Stupak is taken out and robust public option is put back in. For a moment I felt guilty that I didn’t know Stupak was about to fuck up abortion rights, but then I realized he & the Catholic bishops kept it secret until the last second. We were clearly outplayed on this one. We never had a chance to whip it or do a money bomb to prove our determination.

P.S. I just called Stupak’s office to let them know they are going to suffer serious payback for abusing their power in gutting abortion rights. Staffer did not “scream” or accuse me of “yelling,” so they have apparently decided to suck it up and take the criticism. His main rebuttal to my claim this was done secretly in conspiracy with Catholic bishops was that Stupak offered his amendment in committee, said he would bring it up again on the floor, and had support of House leadership to do so. He didn’t deny they conspired with the bishops, didn’t seem fazed that the Committee REJECTED it, and was silent when I told him we blame House leadership as much as Stupak for the last-minute, secret play in Rules Committee. I told him passing Stupak was a major mistake for the party and both supporters of Stupak & Dem. party leadership will see payback. He said he would pass it along to the Congressman.

But it seems high risk to act in the hope that the PO will be expanded after the fact. When public pressure is down, and we are back to doing our day jobs instead of sneaking time to respond to action alerts, AHIP will still be on the job 24/7, doing everything they can to prevent expansion of access to the PO. Doing everything they can to make sure that my health $$ go to their cartel, not to a public plan.