There's to be a huge Tea Party "Surge" in D.C. (District of Criminals) today, a last pushback on Obamacare.
Newsmax:
Tea Party Prepares Anti-Obama 'Surge' in D.C.
Monday, 15 Mar 2010 07:45 PM
By: David A. Patten
Like two heavyweight fighters slugging it out in a battle royal, President Obama and tea party activists will square off once again Tuesday, as grassroots activists host a "We the People Surge" in the nation's capital in protest of the massive planned overhaul of U.S. healthcare.
Some tea party leaders expect 10,000 to 15,000 protesters. Others believe the crowd will be even larger.
The rally comes at a critical time. The debate over healthcare reform has become the focus of national attention, with Democratic leaders proclaiming again and again that they're closing in on the votes they need to cram the legislation through Congress without subjecting it to a Republican filibuster in the Senate. They would do so via the controversial parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation.
Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., tells Newsmax that despite the administration's statements to the contrary, healthcare reform is far from a done deal.
Editor's Note: See the exclusive Newsmax video interview ith Rep. Jack Kingston here
"I think we can still stop it, but there are all kinds of backroom deals going on, lots of arm-twisting," he told Newsmax in an exclusive interview.
Editor’s Note: See the Newsmax exclusive video interview with Rep. Jack Kingston here.
The legislation's unpopularity with voters appears to be growing, according to recent polls. A Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday indicates that 53 percent of voters oppose the Democratic plan, compared to 43 who think it's a good idea.
One of the major obstacles still standing in the president's way: The same relentless tea-party activists who knocked President Obama's legislative agenda off course last summer during the disputatious town hall meetings.
Planning for the tea party "surge" began a week ago, when various tea party organizations blasted their e-mail lists with news of a "code red rally" to be held in Washington D.C.
Speakers at the event are expected to include Rep. Mike Pence, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Rep. Joe Wilson, and Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity.
Americans for Prosperity is also calling for a "Honk Against the Healthcare Takeover Rally." Its leaders are encouraging voters to drive to their local congressional offices on noon Tuesday, and honk their automobile horns to express their opposition to the president's proposals.
In Washington, the crowd Tuesday will also hear from one of the original tea-party organizers, Amy Kremer. She serves as grassroots coordinator for the Tea Party Express and is co-founder of the American Grassroots Coalition.
"President Obama thought the grassroots had become complacent," Kremer told Newsmax in an exclusive interview. "We're absolutely not complacent. We're turning up the heat and we think it's important that we continue this pressure for as long as we need to. Whether it be another week, another two weeks, a month – however long it takes, we're not going to back down from this."
Kremer says anyone counting out the grassroots' ability to prevail is making a major error.
"The tea party is the reason that this healthcare legislation has not already been passed," she says. "We're the reason it's been held off this long. It's a victory for the people and the tea party movement, because they wanted to have this legislation passed last June. And it's because of the pressure from us -- the rallies, the townhalls, the letters, the calls, the faxes -- they have not been able to do this."
Tuesday's rally will begin at 10 a.m. at Taft Park just north of the U.S. Capitol. But the tea party activists aren't assuming their voices will carry all the way to Capitol Hill. So they tell Newsmax they'll be flooding congressional offices in large numbers, in an effort to make themselves heard.
"We're going to be literally putting people in to the halls of Congress," Everett Wilkinson, a leadership-council member of the Tea Party Patriots and the head of South Florida Tea Party Patriots, tells Newsmax. "As soon as they get off the buses, they're going to be pushed into the congressional buildings.
"And we hope to just keep filling the buildings up with people, so that the congressmen have to see people there, the staff will see people there. I liken it to the idea that it's easier for a robber to steal stuff when people are away.
It's very tough for a robber to steal things when people are at home," he says.
One activist making the long trip to Washington to attend the We The People Surge is Jason Hoyt, co-host of the Tea Party Patriots Live radio program produced in Florida.
"I just don't want to wake up the day after the vote wishing I had done more," Hoyt tells Newsmax. "That's why I'm going."
Hoyt concedes that so far politicians in Washington don't seem to be listening to the will of the voters. But he believes that could still change.
"The more people know about it, the more they hear about the shenanigans, the negotiations, the back room deals, the more people are going to be upset about it, and hopefully engage their representatives and call them," he says.
Hoyt's optimism that there's still time to block ObamaCare appeared justified Monday afternoon, when Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., announced he would vote against the legislation because it is "too expensive" and "tries to do too much too soon." McIntyre had previously voted against the legislation, but the White House had hoped to flip his vote.
Just last week, President Obama delayed a planned trip to Asia so that he could be on hand to continue to influence the debate and twist the arms needed to gain a few more votes in the House of Representatives.
"My advice to the president would be go on the trip," Wilkinson said, "because I don't think you're going to get your bill passed anyway."
Hoyt said his fellow tea party activists are already recruiting political candidates committed to reversing the 2,000-page plus legislation. "We say if 'You're not outraged, you're not paying attention.' I want to see which candidates out there are upset about what's going on, and then I want to know what are they willing to do about it?" he said.
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In advance of it, Pelosi's Assistant's Office sent out a How to Be Nice To Teabaggers memo. No Kidding. I think she's more worried about the tar than the feathers. Cleaning that off your boobs is quite painful. The feathers she'll just use for a new boa. . .
Gateway Pundit:
From: Thornell, Doug [mailto:Doug.Thornell@mail.house.gov]
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 5:25 PM
To: Thornell, Doug
Subject: Tea Party Etiquette
TO: Freshman and Sophomore House Democrats
FROM: Office of the Assistant to the Speaker
DATE: March 15, 2010
RE: Tea Party Etiquette
As many of you have read, tomorrow, Tuesday, March 16, 2010, tens of thousands of conservative and Tea Party activists will be on the Hill as part of what they are dubbing a “Surge Against Obamacare.” Rick Scott, a multimillionaire investor and former hospital executive, is helping to lead the grassroots effort along with a number of other groups on the right like Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks. While many of you have met with outspoken activists in your districts in the past, we wanted to remind you of some of the best practices to review with your DC staff:
1. Be prepared. Activists are expected to begin arriving around 9am and they have been given instructions to wait in your office until they can have a meeting. Please have an orderly process and enough staff and interns to welcome what could be a very large number of visitors throughout the day:
• Have staff and/or Member time set-aside to visit with attendees in small groups;
• Ask for extra chairs or seating to be brought to your office or the hall in case there are seniors or disabled visitors
that need to be accommodated;
• Consider having some light snacks, H2O, and coffee available;
• Ask visitors to leave all signs and banners outside the office.
2. Prioritize listening to your constituents:
• Have multiple guest books/comment sheets available for all visitors to sign-in and leave comments — we recommend you have one for residents of your district, one for residents of your state (but not your district), and one for out-of-state visitors. Have a Capitol Directory and map available to direct visitors to their Member of Congress and written instructions on how to get over to the Senate side of the Hill.
• There is limited rationale for your Member to meet with out-of-district constituents, especially if you already had other business or meetings previously scheduled with constituents who had planned to visit with you tomorrow on other topics. It is up to individual offices to decide if staff would like to take these meetings.
3. Listen and communicate in small groups:
• As we learned in August, small groups are typically the best venue for exchanges on this complicated topic.
• Many of the conservative activists are not opposing the actual provisions in the bill, but are instead reacting to a caricature of the reform bill presented by right-wing media outlets. In fact, many conservative and GOP ideas and concerns are addressed in the legislation:
ü Reduces the deficit;
ü Cracks down on Medicare waste, fraud, and abuse;
ü Provides historic tax credit for small businesses and individuals to purchase health insurance;
ü Allows consumers to shop for health insurance across state lines via multi-state compacts;
ü Inaugurates medical malpractice reforms, (an area where the GOP failed to take any action when in charge of Congress for 12 years).
• Also, don’t assume common myths about this bill have been debunked. Be prepared to explain that there are no death panels, that Medicare is in fact strengthened, and that reform is not a government take-over, but it is an attempt to crack down on the abusive practices of health insurance companies by providing oversight and increasing competition.
• Finally, work to establish common-ground with visitors by ensuring they are aware and supportive of the important changes that will take place immediately:
ü Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
ü Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
ü Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;
ü Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;
ü Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;
ü Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs;
ü Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
ü Require plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26;
ü Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;
ü Relief on the Donut Hole.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
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