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Organizing For America Hits Another Goal As Hill Staffers Say Phones Are Ringing Off The Hook

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The Congressional switchboards have been lighting up all day with health care supporters calling members through the Organizing for America call parties, and OFA is about to hit its second goal of 150,000 calls.

A staffer for Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) called to detail that office's experiences with the calls today, saying the volunteers offer a sample of varying perspectives on health care. Some are calling for a single-payer system, some are asking the Congresswoman to stand firm for a public option, while others are offering general support for President Obama's plan.

The staffer told TPMDC that more than 100 calls flooded in today. During a daily staff meeting they usually can have one person listen for the calls, but today they had to halt the meeting so a handful of aides could answer the phones.

"It's more calls in a single day than we've ever received on health care, and pales in comparison to efforts done by opponents. It's no small feat," the Schakowsky staffer told me. "It's definitely noticed and having an effect."

Work for a member of Congress? Is your phone ringing? Please share your stories with us.

Late update: OFA raised the goal again to 200k, and as of 4:50 are past 168k.

Americans United for Change sent reporters a story suggesting the overwhelming majority of the calls are in favor of the public option.

Later update: At 6:06, nearly two hours before President Obama would join his supporters on the Webcast tonight, OFA announced it had broken the 200,000 goal. As of this writing at 7:15, they are almost at 215,000 calls.

Andy Phelan with Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) got in touch today to tell me his office's experience, which mirrored anecdotes we've been hearing all day.

He said they had received about 150 calls split between the district office and the Hill office, with all but three of them in general support of health care reform.

Johnson is one of the progressives who threatened to vote against a final health care bill if it doesn't include a "robust" public option but Phelan said once the bill is on the floor his boss will have to "weigh those options for himself."

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10 comments

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October 20, 2009 5:18 PM   

Can't wait to see the extensive coverage about this on Fox News!

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October 20, 2009 5:25 PM   

So much for that expectations game chicanery, eh?

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October 20, 2009 5:45 PM   

Some people have commented in various threads that it isn't clear whether the President's plan includes the public option, but if you go through the links from the email telling us to call, you reach a page titled "The Obama Plan," and it definitely includes the public option.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/?returnlink=false

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October 20, 2009 6:19 PM    in reply to Kenneth Thomas

it includes the public option - but he's not fighting for it. Didn't even mention it on Saturday's media appearance. And the language is buried as the fourth point under the second header.

This is spite of the fact that 66-75% of the American public support the public option.

And 75% of US physicians support the public option OR an even higher level of government involvement in health care, e.g. single payer or a national health service.

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October 20, 2009 5:56 PM   

"It's more calls in a single day than we've ever received on health care, and pales in comparison to efforts done by opponents."

I'm assuming she meant to say the efforts by opponents pale in comparison. Is that what you took from the conversation, Christina?

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October 20, 2009 6:12 PM   

This has more to do with OFA/DNC fundraising needs than any commitment to the public option. OFA is bleeding volunteers and cash to smaller progressive organizations.

A real effort would have begun this summer.

And a broad educational effort about what, exactly, the public option is and WHY it is so important, should have been initiated in April. Instead, OFA/DNC and the administration left the public option to twist in the wind.

BTW, you really have to hunt and peck to find the public option in the President's plan on barackobama.com. It is the fourth point on the second heading. Given how essential a strong public option is to controlling premiums, it should be the FIRST thing you see when you open the page.

The President didn't once mention public option in his Saturday media appearances. More notably: he also didn't mention public option ANYWHERE in his San Francisco fundraising speech last Thursday, where it would have received a warm welcome.

I'll be giving my money to ActBlue. And I may have to write in "Robert Reich" on the 2012 ballot. After reading Reich and Angell, I'm disgusted not by the dealmaking the administration has done, but by its overall lack of effectiveness.

Dealmaking I can live with - but make it work.

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October 21, 2009 7:44 PM    in reply to again

"a real effort would have begun this summer" ????

The OFA health care kick-off parties were held on June 6th!
I've been working with OFA all summer long and we have been advocating the public option the entire time.
If you really care about the public option, you'll get out there and do some real work for it. Cynically commenting to the choir doesn't achieve much.

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October 21, 2009 12:21 AM   

I have to say that while Jan Schakowsky may be a fine congresswoman, she isn't going to win any beauty pageants. Ouch!

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October 21, 2009 2:13 AM   

But the majority of Americans don't want the evil, Socialist health care plan! Right? Right?

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October 21, 2009 6:13 AM   

According to my inbox the total came to 315,023. So 0.1% of Americans were paying enough attention to know this call-in thing was going on and actually cared enough to push 10 buttons on their phone. Woo.hoo.

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