FDL Action: Let’s Whip the Public Plan! (Put up or Shut up!)

[Are_grits_groceries]

A new poll indicates that 76% of Americans overwhelmingly support having a public health care option, but the influence of lobbying money on Congress is making that hope seem remote.

It's time to change that. Let's whip for a public plan.

Last week saw the conclusion of a very successful citizen whip effort to get members of Congress to vote against the Supplemental Appropriations Act. We can do it again.

Here's how it works:

There are 178 Republicans in the House. A House majority is 218. If all of the Republicans agree to vote against something, as they indicate they will on health care, then any 40 Democrats banding together can control the passage of a bill (218 - 178 = 40).

Stated another way: if 40 Democrats in the House say they will not vote for any health care bill that does not have a strong public plan, then they have the same power that a Ben Nelson or an Evan Bayh has had in the Senate to determine the outcome--when every vote was needed to pass something. Every commitment we get in excess of that 40 makes the commitment even more powerful.

We need to get progressive members of Congress to commit that they will not vote for any bill or conference report that does not have a robust public plan that is:

available nationwide
available on day one
and accountable to Congress and the voters
What you can do:

http://firedoglake.com/

Hamsher knows what she is doing. She got people out against the supplemental war bill. At the end, Obama and pelosi were having to take a direct hand to get it to pass.

This is the time to DO SOMETHING. I sit around and bitch too, but Hamsher has laid out blueprint. We all need to put up or shut up.