Weiner Amendment floor debate update and petition

[nightrain]

The Weiner amendment could come to a floor debate on Friday or Saturday with maybe a 20 minute debate allowed.

Now is the time to push hard on your congressperson to vote for the Weiner amendment. Even if it fails, it is very important to show that it has support. Medicare For All has a real shot at enactment when Congress realizes it MUST address health care.

Send a free fax to your Congressperson to support the Weiner amendment.


http://www.1payer.net/faxapp/senders/add/cid:35

[NYC_SKP]

1. done and k and r. nt

[nykym]

2. Off it goes

keeping my fingers crossed.

[spartan61]

3. Sent in the fax last night as soon as I received this e-mail.

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. I really wish they could have gotten a score on this...

[slipslidingaway]

7. The Dems intentionally did not get a score and what will happen is...

something that I've suspected for months now.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. Have you been able to confirm if Weiner's amendment was ever submitted?

I know they gave you some double-speak about it. Do we know the final story?

[slipslidingaway]

9. No confirmation, but what I suspect from speaking with the CBO is that...

a "personal" estimate was given, something they do for various members which does not get published. If so this estimate will be released shortly before the vote, no time for this info to be discussed on the blogs etc.

Weiner's office was giving me the run around, as far as I can tell he never really tried to gather support for his amendment. He could have done so by publishing his amendment and asking people to contact the leadership to get a timely estimate...he did not.

Instead he created a new website for the public option, the same bill that, according to him in September, contained a weak and watered down public option.

So we have been played for suckers and that is what people need to know - was Weiner involved, my inclination is Yes.


My post from early October, it was pretty clear that we were being played for suckers back then.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6729271&mesg_id=6729760

Do you wonder what is taking so long to score this bill, Weiner said back in August it was being scored during the August recess.

But when I called his office sometime in early September they said it had not been sent to the CBO.

Later in September they said it had been sent to the CBO, when I asked if there was somewhere I could read the amendment being scored the person replied - 'Is it a life or death matter'

I should have replied yes.

Today his office said the CBO is scoring something??? the amendment is still being worked on so it cannot be read.

They are not scoring HR 676 and my fear is that a number will be released close to the vote for....something.

Great job Dems!

[slipslidingaway]

5. David Swanson has it right IMO - important video to watch ....

This Week's Healthcare Votes Do Not Mean What We're Told
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=398505&mesg_id=398505

"David Swanson speaking on Nov. 4, 2009, in Pennsylvania on the Weiner Amendment, the Kucinich Amendment, the Public Option, the upcoming votes, and how we are being played for suckers."

[nightrain]

11. quite likely to be true and I think it's important to fax/call anyhow.

[slipslidingaway]

12. I'm with Conyers/Kucinich on this - NO VOTE, we do not know what they are...

voting on, Weiner never published his amendment and no score has been released to the public.

Too late, better to push for the state SP amendment by Kucinich and Sanders IMO.

[nightrain]

14. yeah, I got the Kucinich and Conyers letter after I posted. They

have a better sense of the timing.

[Feron]

6. Well I'm calling Scalise today, but...

he's a moron Republican. I'll definitely bring up the amendment however. Glad to see that it will get some airtime.

[ellenfl]

10. done. eom

[slipslidingaway]

13. A joint message with my friend John Conyers by Dennis Kucinich...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/5/801123/-A-joint-message-with-my-friend-John-Conyers

"...Tomorrow, the House of Representatives is scheduled to consider a single payer bill. As the two principal co-authors of the Conyers single payer bill, we want to offer a strong note of caution about tomorrow's vote.

The bill presented tomorrow will not be HR676. While we are happy to relinquish authorship of a single payer bill to any member who can do better, we do not want a weak bill brought forward in a hostile climate to unwittingly accomplish what would be interpreted as a defeat for single payer.

Here are the facts: There has been no debate in Congress over HR676. There has not been a single mark-up of the bill. Single payer was "taken off the table" for the entire year by the White House and by congressional leaders. There has been no reasonable period of time to gather support in the Congress for single payer. Many members accepted a "robust public option" as the alternative to single payer and now that has disappeared. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has scored the bill scheduled for a vote tomorrow in a manner which is at odds with many credible assumptions, meaning that it will appear to cost way too much even though we know that true single payer saves money since one of every three dollars in the health care system goes to administrative costs caused by the insurance companies. Is this really the climate in which we want a test vote?

While state single payer movements are already strong, the national single payer movement is still growing. Many progressives in Congress, ourselves included, feel that calling for a vote tomorrow for single payer would be tantamount to driving the movement over a cliff. The thrill of the vote would disappear quickly when the result would be characterized not as a new beginning for single payer but as an end. Such a result would be seen as proof that Congress need not pay attention to efforts to restore in Conference Committee the right of states to pursue single payer without fear of legal attacks by insurance companies..."