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OFA Makes Final Push For Health Care Reform
President Barack Obama
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President Obama's reconstituted campaign arm--Organizing for America--says it's renewing its commitment to passing health care reform legislation. At a moment when health care reform seems precariously close to defeat, OFA is once again reaching out to its members to push members of Congress to get the job done.
"Congress is weighing options and hearing plenty of special interest voices telling them to give up," reads an email to supporters from OFA Director Mitch Stewart sent this morning.
They need to understand that their constituents want them to keep fighting. So today, we're relaunching our Health Care Action Center to give you all the tools and information you need to fight for reform. At the Action Center, you can make calls, write letters, speak out in your community, and weigh in directly with Congress. There's information about what the President stands for, and personal stories that show why reform is so important. So check it out today: http://my.barackobama.com/Action Many of our senators and representatives are working overtime to gather support for a final bill and pass reform, and they should know we're standing with them. And the rest need to understand their constituents still demand action. We're so close to real reform -- we can't stop now.
As an arm of the DNC, the move suggests that, despite the fears of some reformers, the Democratic party infrastructure, from the White House on down, remains committed to reform.
OFA first launched its health care action center in June, and organized health care rallies in swing districts across the country. They received some criticism in August, though, when their activism efforts were overshadowed by Tea Partier town hall protests.
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SFCWallace
February 9, 2010 10:25 AM
"Congress is weighing options and hearing plenty of special interest voices telling them to give up,"
Ha ha! Yeah, interesting that you guys think the American people are a "Special Interest"... 54-37 RCO Ave against ObamaCare.
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Viva!America!
February 9, 2010 10:54 AM in reply to SFCWallace
Yes, they don't like it until you tell them what's in it. They didn't like the stimulus either until they were told what was in it.
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Dorn76
February 9, 2010 12:16 PM in reply to SFCWallace
You mean the people who have been hoodwinked into opposing this by Insurers, Pharma, etc?
It's true they aren't a special interest, but they are indeed "special".
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AhTrini1
February 9, 2010 10:33 AM
These people have dropped the ball BIG time!
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tpmreader
February 9, 2010 10:37 AM
How about AN end to SEEMINGLY DISIGGENUOUS, DISHONEST AND/OR FAILED LEADERSHIP and as the polls seem to suggest and/or indicate.
How about the Democratic Campaign 'We the People' expected within the hopes and promises for the cultural change 'We Can Believe In'.
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Yoni
February 9, 2010 10:49 AM
I don't know if its their final push but, as far as I can tell, it is their FIRST one.
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Viva!America!
February 9, 2010 10:53 AM in reply to Yoni
It's not their first one.
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FreeRider
February 9, 2010 11:22 AM in reply to Yoni
So what were all those other OFA healthcare emails I've been getting--Valentines?
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lousgirl84
February 9, 2010 5:17 PM in reply to FreeRider
From Huffpo today from Sam Stein
Obama Won't Drop Potential Use Of Reconciliation On Health Care
President Obama wants to keep the option of using reconciliation to pass health care reform despite calls from Republican lawmakers that he agree to drop the parliamentary maneuver as a "good faith" gesture" before their bipartisan health care summit.
White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Tuesday that Republicans coming to the West Wing for the much-anticipated February 25 meeting would be better off arriving "without preconditions." Asked whether Obama would commit to not using reconciliation -- which would allow aspects of health care legislation to be considered in the Senate by an up-or-down vote -- Gibbs replied:
The president is not going to eliminate things based on preconditions. And if that's one of their preconditions, the president doesn't agree to limiting the way we are going to discuss this.
The day before, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) penned a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel expressing their reluctance to participate in the health care summit and asking that ground rules be set before talks begin. Among those rules: agreeing to not use reconciliation to make amendments to the Senate health care bill.
"Eliminating the possibility of reconciliation would represent an important show of good faith to Republicans and the American people," the two GOP leaders wrote.
Both Boehner and Cantor pushed for Obama to scrap the legislative language in its entirety and start the process over from scratch.
During a surprise appearance before the White House press corps, President Obama was asked whether he could live with bipartisanship by this definition. He could not.
"I am going to be starting from scratch in the sense that I will be open to any ideas that help promote these goals," he said. "What I will not do, what I don't think makes sense... will be another year of partisan wrangling around these issues, another six months, or eight months, or nine months worth of hearings in every single committee in the House and Senate in which there is a lot of posturing... Let's get the relevant parties together... My hope is we can find enough overlap that we can say, 'This is the right way to move forward," even if we don't get every single idea that I want."
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tchanta
February 9, 2010 11:54 AM
OFA has been useless this year. You don't see them on TV defending the President. You don't see them going after obstructionists like Nelson and Lieberman. They just sit there and send emails.
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chimpale
February 9, 2010 12:31 PM
OFA can be powerful and very useful, but it'll be rendered toothless if the Dems keep allowing blue dogs and Republicans to block them. There's no point in rallying the troops when the only people who can actually make HCR happen refuse to go the last mile.
All the rallies and letter-writing and phone calls won't make a bit of difference if the Dems keep going up to the wall and saying "That's it, we can't go any further."
They can, but so far they refuse to.
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lousgirl84
February 9, 2010 5:18 PM
More from Huffpo since TPM doesn't seem to be on the stories.
Obama Warns GOP He Will Use Recess Appointments
In a surprise appearance before the White House press corps on Tuesday, President Barack Obama announced he would consider using recess appointments to get his nominees to their posts if Senate Republicans deny them an up-or-down vote.
Speaking to reporters shortly after he met with a bipartisan group of congressional leaders, Obama said that he informed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that he would "consider" such a course of action if the GOP obstructionism continued.
"In our meeting I asked the congressional leadership to put a stop to these holds in which nominees for critical jobs are denied a vote for month," he said. "Surely we can set aside partisanship and do what's traditionally been done with these nominations."
"If the Senate does not act, and I made this very clear," Obama continued, "I will consider making several recess appointments during the upcoming recess because we can't afford to let politics stand in the way of a well functioning government."
On Tuesday, one of those nominees -- Craig Becker, who Obama appointed to sit on the National Labor Relations Board -- is slated to come up for a vote Senate. His confirmation was thrown into serious doubt recently when Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) indicated he would vote against cloture. Should Obama appoint Becker to the post through a recess appointment, he would be able to serve until the end of 2011 before requiring re-confirmation.
Noting the length that some nominations have been held up in Congress as well as the blanket hold that Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) placed on all presidential nominees last week, Obama called on lawmakers to "get past the tired debates that have plagued our politics."
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