Whip It: How It’s Possible To Get A Public Plan

McJoan runs it down:

The first significant change in the dynamics is having a Democrat in the White House, and a Democrat with some very ambitious policy goals: economic recovery, transportation, energy, health care. While the White House might be cautious (witness a severely watered down ACES bill), it is going to be pushing major legislation through in the next session, and won’t be threatening vetoes over any aggressively progressive stuff. This ambitious, must-move legislation provides some key opportunities for progressives to have their imprint on that legislation.

The second change is a tactical one, with Raul Grijalva moving into a co-chair position on the caucus. Grijalva is a pretty savvy head-counter and maneuver, and is actively doing something that hasn’t really been done by the Caucus much before–he’s whipping. He, along with Keith Ellison, whipped on health care reform to find out what bottom line members would accept. The majority of them are single payer advocates, but the majority are realists who know what they’re going to have from the Senate to work with. The overwhelming majority of members are behind a robust public option, but more importantly, the whipping effort has managed to achieve a critical mass of them who would be willing to vote against a plan without one.

The system is tilted towards inertia, and defaults to doing what it’s always done — letting lobbyists/donors draw the bright lines and steer the conversation toward the end that they want.  

There’s a way to break that up, because a thousand phone calls placed at the right time are more powerful than lobbying money, and I say that as a fairly hard boiled cynic.  The problem with most activism is that it doesn’t trigger until its too late and the decisions have already been made. You have to ask the right question at the right time.

You can ask it today:  Will you, Rep. ______, Take the Pledge? 

Will you commit to vote against any health care bill that doesn’t contain a public plan which is:

1. available nationwide
2. on day one
3. and answerable to Congress and the Voters?

Grijalva and Ellison have already signed on.  They need your help.

You can make it happen.