In a letter Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) asked local communities to help them organize protests against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
“Beginning in January, it is likely that Republican leaders will follow through on their threats to ram through a budget bill that will severely undermine the health care needs of the American people,” the letter read.
Republicans are planning to use a procedural maneuver known as budget reconciliation to repeal the law with a simple majority vote in the Senate as soon as January, but Democrats are trying to lay the groundwork for a grassroots movement against the repeal.
Democrats argue that repealing the law will take away insurance for more than 20 million people and take away Medicaid expansion in states throughout the country. Republicans say their plan wouldn’t phase out Obamacare for two to three years. Republicans also promise they will replace it, but have yet to come up with a replacement bill.
In the letter, Schumer, Pelosi and Sanders designated Jan. 15 the day of action and asked activists to “organize a rally or other event” back in the states. Democrats are calling Jan. 15, “Our first stand. Save health care.”
The letter also demanded that President-elect Donal Trump not touch or make changes to Medicare or social security, programs he vowed not to mess with on the campaign trail.
“He must be held to his promises and should veto any legislation which cuts these vital and necessary health programs,” the letter readx.
Not the wisest idea to fight the first battle in order to save what a majority of people view as well-intentioned but badly crafted legislation.
I’d like to hear how the Democrats would make Obamacare better because those rate and deductible hikes are real and made access to health care difficult for a lot of people.
Day of Opposition? How 'bout a year of opposition or a couple of years of opposition?? On Jan. 15th The Orangeman will tweet some ignorant and inflaming diversion and the news media will again be distracted and preoccupied with bullshit, particularly cable media and they’ll end up focusing on nothing but that for most of the day. Just watch. I hope they have a better plan than this.
They need to flood the airways, the internet and all media or it’ll end up being just like the opposition to the Dakota pipeline. It won’t get covered unless there is sustained action and opposition. There’s an open radio station up for sale in Muskegon, Mi. I just heard on the news. Why not start small and build up some terrestrial stations in the hinterlands for the faint of heart in the heartland. I keep remembering how Occupy Wall Street wasn’t covered either until people got in the way and agitated the media enough to force them to cover it…and finally people got wind of the movement but it had taken long enough that an effective counter by Wall Street mouthpieces and the GOP had already taken hold of some of the narrative.
It might be nice if our esteemed leaders quit proving Republicans right about them, by trying to dictate from Washington when the protest will be and just how and where we ought to hop to. Or maybe at least allow sufficient time to organize an event, not the Wednesday before New Years for the third Sunday of January.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
All I can add is, To the barricades!
Wrong. the PPACA is a solid idea and has saved lives and promoted gov’t windfalls for years now, with better empirical evidence based on sound medical outcomes. The wiser thing to do is to get some balls and finally have Dems defend the beauty of it, and how eliminating it would result in people being at the mercy of rapacious insurance companies that will continue to raise rates at an even quicker timetable for pure profit for their CEOs as they did before the ACA was implemented. Dems don’t have a partner in fixing it so long as Goopers are in charge. Its an argument for getting rid of them to sustain a good democratically initiated plan that has helped millions. People are going to have to pay either way. Either they do it at extreme rates with dumbass vouchers and private health accounts, or they do it with some regulations in place that tell doctors, hospitals and insurance companies the bulk of the healthcare actually has to go towards healthcare. The only way to do that is through metrics that measure the effectiveness of the program going forward. When Dems have a partner in changing the things that are problematic…then its time for real discussion. Until then…No mas.
Edit to add: I gotta run out now and get some Obamacare with an appt. in just a few so I just want to say folks, get all you can out of the law now while you still have the opportunity because these fuckers are gonna take the entire social safety net down whether we like it or not…If you don’t like that, then accept the reality and plan accordingly with the politics in mind as well.