The Obama Organization's Blueprint For Healthcare Change -- Southern California Version

[abumbyanyothername]

This is to all of you who may have participated with me in the Obama for President Second Street phone bank in Santa Monica and would like to recapture some of the energy of that magical time and direct it to President Obama’s healthcare agenda.

On Tuesday Obama Second Street team member Joy Horowitz and I led a small delegation to Dianne Feinstein’s district office in West Los Angeles to talk about healthcare. The meeting was easy to set up via email and a surprising success. I wanted to report back to you with what I learned about fighting for healthcare reform.

We chose Senator Feinstein because at the moment it appears that the biggest opposition to a desperately needed, progressive healthcare plan that includes a “public option” (a government run plan to compete with private insurance to keep them honest) is in the Senate and there is concern that centrist Democrats may be an obstacle to the reform President Obama seeks. Senator Feinstein has so far been lukewarm at best when talking about healthcare reform.

We met with Trevor Daley, her district director who has been with the Senator for twelve years. He was open and responsive. There were five of us and we told him our individual healthcare stories and we talked passionately and personally and pressed him hard about the need for healthcare reform. Here’s what we heard back about Senator Feinstein and healthcare.

Trevor told us that the senator does support a public option plan in principle, depending on the details of the bill that comes out of committee. He argued that although there’s a perception that she’s soft on the President’s plan, that is far from the truth. He added, “She’s trying to help the Administration and reform health care, but she needs something to look at and evaluate.” When we reminded him that the senator had appeared on CNN and said she thought it would be wise to delay action on a health care bill, he replied: “She was saying we need to pull back and look at details and not rush.” We weren’t shy to remind him of the President’s call to action-- that now is the time.

Here’s the crucial point. Joy asked him what the best way was to get our message to the Senator. He said we needed to keep telephoning the office and to send delegations. Believe it or not, ours was the first delegation to meet with Trevor about health care! It was clear from our meeting that the Senator needs to hear from constituents about this issue. He said that Senator Feinstein is very disciplined, pays careful attention to the call logs and meeting reports, and follows through when there is critical mass, which he defined as tens of thousands of calls. We were disappointed to hear so far there have only been a few thousand. .

So here is what you need to do if you care about healthcare reform:

Call Feinstein’s office! (310 914-7300, 202 224-3841) Tell her that you support healthcare reform that includes an unhampered “public option.” We learned from one of the interns that scripted calls are noted as “scripted” in the log, so it is better just to speak in your own words. Something short will suffice as the purpose of the call is to register that there are many people out there who demand healthcare reform.

Visit the District Office! If you are able to put together a group that can speak effectively to the healthcare cause, ask for a meeting. It is part of their job to meet with you. Contact me by replying to this email if you would like assistance forming a group. I’ll be glad to help put people together.

Call your other representatives! Senator Boxer (213 894-5000) and Representatives Jane Harman (310 643-3636) and Henry Waxman (310 652-3095) need to have the pulse of the electorate. Let them know you want an effective healthcare bill with a strong public option.

Volunteer for a local phone bank! Local phone banks are forming rapidly to call constituents here and elsewhere to urge them to call their representatives. You can find one by searching for events at http://mybarackobama.com or by going to www.veniceforchange.com or http://30barack.com/ . Venice for Change will have a phone bank on Tuesday, July 14th at 6PM.

Let your friends know! Forward this email to anyone you know who might be interested. Talk it up.

Thanks so much for your interest. Email if you have questions. Let’s make healthcare happen together!