This document was put together by Jodi Griffin from Red Lion, PA. She was tired of the spin and misstatements about health care reform. She wanted to know in more detail what the President wanted to achieve; what were the accurate statements and what is spin?
It looks like Insurance Companies (like United Healthcare) and Republican Senators (and some Democratic Senators) think that if the debate takes too long the emerging bill will be defeated. They think it is a victory to push a vote until after the August recess. They think during the delay they can win by spreading fear.
I think that delay gives us time to share accurate information with friends and neighbors and call our senators. Who wins the debate is up to us. We can fight organized money with organized people. We can fight fear. Yes We can.
Declare your support: http://my.barackobama.com/reform
Have you heard the health care reform bill is coming together? It is by no means a done deal. President Obama needs us to lobby for his 3 principles of reform. We can not control every detail in the plan (and this wouldn't be much of a democracy if we could), but we can help keep it on the track the President laid out. The three principles:
1) REDUCE COSTS
2) GUARANTEE CHOICE (including a public plan option)
3) ENSURE AFFORABLE CARE FOR ALL
Many of us are not as intimately familiar with the legislative process as a lobbyist but the next couple weeks will be critical. To make our impact we need everyone's help. There are 1500 past volunteers in our area that we need to contact next week. Yes, it needs to be next week. Organizing For America wants each of them (and us) to contact all of their congressman to request that they support the health care bill and the reform principles. While lobbyists have made this kind of effort for years, a grassroots organization directed by the President's goals has not. Let's make history together again! We need to fill up our congressmans' voice mail with messages of support for the President's health care reform principles. If you want health care reform. Next week will be the chance to keep it on track and influence the legislation. "There's going to be a major debate over the next three weeks, and don't be fooled by folks trying to scare you saying we can't change the health care system. We have no choice but to change the health care system because right now it's broken for too many Americans." - Barack Obama When can you make time in your schedule to help?
We had our monthly local OFA steering committee meeting on July 14th. Michael Shapiro from the PA OFA Staff called in to our meeting to introduce our new Regional Director Devorah Fried. They presented information about the new healthcare reform bill congress is producing. They outlined that the next 3 weeks will be critical in the effort to make real change. Over that time we need volunteers to host phone bank efforts to recruit volunteers, canvassing efforts to pursuade our neighbors and for each of us to contact our congressmen. We need to fill up their voicemail. It is time to create a bill with the President's 3 health care reform principles.
The steering committee agreed to host several events over the next week and a half. State OFA staff will help us reach out to all our past volunteers so we can all participate in the legislative process. When you get a call, take time to help us out at an event or simply with a phone call to your elected officials in congress.
It was an exciting meeting, discussing how we could help locally and getting great support from the growing OFA staff in PA.
We had a great turnout at the listening tour meeting held at Park City Mall on Tuesday July 7th. David Driscoll-Knight answered questions about heathcare and the new OFA staff in PA. He emphasized the uniqueness of OFA. It has not been attempted to re-staff campaign organizations so soon after an election to help promote the elected official's agenda. The organization will provide us with training, support, and goals to promote the President's agenda but also a way to share ideas with national OFA staff and the White House. State staff participate in weekly phone meetings with Mitch Stewart, OFA Director. National OFA staff communicate regularly with White House staff. Our feedback will help them stay in touch and improve this experiment.
We recorded all questions and comments and provided that information to David for the State OFA staff to review. Thanks to everyone that attended
I provided an opening statement that I felt remind us of the change we need (text in double quotes are from President Obama's books)...
We had a great afternoon meeting on Sat June 27th at the Red Lion Bed & Breakfast. Holly and Taylor updated information on our contact list, set up a facebook page and twitter account. We had several brainstorming discussions on things to include in our healthy summer brochure and set goals to gather additional information from programs like 'eat fresh, eat local' and 'healthy york'. Thanks Ken and Mary Lou.
We got approval from York Hospital to hand out information about their Ready Care program. This is an effort to provide care to insured patients outside of the emergency room in an effort to reduce costs. We may not get final word from them until mid-july about how many brochures they can get us to distribute.
14 people came by to get information about President Obama's health care reform effort. July 14th at 7pm will be our next steering committee meeting. We hope to have brochures to start distributing by that meeting!
We had a decent turn out of 7 at out our meeting on Tuesday to discuss a Health Care day of service. But considering that we had 16 people RSVP and many people responded to our email or phone calls saying they were interested but too busy, we came up with an idea we hope will work effectively with our busy schedules. Here is the outline of our project along with tasks we need completed. Health Care Service Project - a healthy summer brochure/pamphletI believe we are envisioning something that is easy to distribute amount friends and neighbors, brings the health care discussion into public interactions locally, and communicates valuable information in a simple, new way. We see this coming together in several steps...
We (a group of team leaders and volunteers in York County) decided we needed to stay in touch and brainstorm things we can do locally to improve our community. We wanted to be ready to mobilize volunteers and share information when the national OFA calls on volunteers to help with projects.
We are looking for volunteers to present ideas for projects and to organize projects. The only rule to get your voice heard is to show up. See the extended post for details...
The local steering committee meetings are held on the second Tuesday of every month at 7:30pm at the Red Lion B&B, 101 S Franklin St, Red Lion PA 17356. Contact George and 717-332-7429 or george.a.sanders@gmail.com for more information.
"We won because the American people mobilized for change. It was really people at a grassroots level who carried our campaign financially, who carried it organizationally, and we don't want that to dissipate." - Barack Obama
The organization will operate on these core organizing principles:
The organization's goals will be to promote:
In order to accomplish these goals, we will:
With the McCain campaign putting a big chunk of their remaining effort into PA we will need everything our volunteer team can do to win this election. The canvassing effort is the primary focus. Here is the canvassing schedule:
On Saturday 10am-1pm, 1pm-4pm, 4pm-7pm; we will be reminding voters about when to vote, where to vote and how to vote. This will be a day with very brief conversations with friendly voters.
On Sunday 10am-1pm, 1pm-4pm, 4pm-7pm; we will be handing out door hangers as another reminder with the voter's specific polling location.
On Monday 10am-1pm, 1pm-4pm, 4pm-7pm; we will be handing out door hangers as another reminder with the voter's specific polling location.
On Tuesday 8am-11am, 11am-2pm, 2pm-5pm, 5pm-8pm; we will be going to doors urging supporters to go vote. This will be a day of exciting but quick conversations, we'll leave door hangers for people who aren't in.
If you can fill in any shifts email or call me (717-332-7429, george.a.sanders@gmail.com)! All our shifts start at the Red Lion Bed & Breakfast, 101 S Franklin St in Red Lion. Thank you for any help you can provide. We are looking for more drivers/runners and food donations too. If you are not sure about any jobs described, email me and we can find something for you to help with! Thanks again for everyone's help so far.
In the latest edition of BusinessVoice (The York County Chamber's newsletter Oct 2008, Vol 5, issue 10, page 4), there is a graphic showing the difference between John McCain and Barack Obama on Taxes, Healthcare, Trade, and Startup Incentives. The information provided was an excellent effort by the Chamber to educate business owners and encourage us to get employees registered and out to vote. One major thing lacking in both the article and in the graphic is an explanation of how the plan by John McCain will switch health insurance from an employer based system to an individual system and the impact of the resulting taxes on businesses and our employees.
Health insurance premiums under John McCain's plan will not be pre-tax income. Businesses will thus have a new tax that many of us will not be able to pay. My company's premiums for a single employee are around $200/month. For a family it is close to $500/month. If we had to pay income tax, social security and Medicare on the health insurance premium, a single person would add $100/month in taxes to our business’ bottom line - for a family it would be more than $200/month.
My company as a whole would see $700 per month or more in additional tax. How is this a pro-business plan? As a small business owner my family's insurance is part of that plan. How is this a pro-family plan?
Hey York Team! I think everyone needs to see this and look for Leslie in the front row and Sherry in the background!
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/09/obama_strikes_b.html
Then check out Lilly in this one...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090403433.html
And Brad on here...
http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/article.asp?aID=68176
And Barb and Tiffany are in this one - Barb keeping the press out of the seating area and Tiffany carrying more chairs!
http://www.wgal.com/news/17395693/detail.html
Then a couple local newspaper articles....
http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_10385249?source=most_viewed
http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_10384867
Quoted from an email sent by Barb Paulin:
"A young volunteer stopped by to pick up something from me to deliver to Tracy at HQ. We didn't know this young man but we were all chatting when one of my husband's customers came by for salsa and tomatoes. We had never talked politics with him, so after introducing Courtney and this young volunteer as our Obama kids, we asked our customer if he supported Obama. He DID. He voted Obama in the primary. But he told us he has been hearing things on the national media lately that made him wonder and he is actually thinking of voting for McCain. I asked for an example and he told us that CNN had reported that Obama had taken the American Flag out of his campaign jet and replaced it with a picture of himself. I was shocked. That is not the Barack Obama I know, and I admitted that if true, that upset me as well. I vowed to look into it. This young volunteer that Tracy had sent to my house spoke up and acknowledged he had also seen this report on cable news and had looked into it. The truth? The Obama campaign had been leasing a plane from American Airlines during the primary. It carried the AA logo. Now that he is the presumptive nominee, he can still lease the plane, but it cannot carry the logo of any corporation. So the AA logo along with the linked US flags were removed. The plane still bears flags of the US. And no, there is not a plane flying about America with a picture of Barack Obama on the side!! Or if there is, Obama is not a passenger in it! Folks this is nuts! How is the media getting away with such lies! Why do otherwise smart and successful people believe them? Well those are questions for another evening. But I do want to give kudos to that young volunteer that Tracy sent to my house. He is Stephen Kemp, a Penn State York student from the Shrewsbury for Change Team. Robby, you have way too many exceptional young people. I want some of them :) Don't believe everything you hear on tv and maybe we should follow the lead of our young people this time around???"
After the Platform Meeting today I returned home and talked with the Obama Fellow staying with us. She had a good morning registering voters (38 in just a couple hours) but in the afternoon she was in the office and a volunteer came in with an emergency. He said his brother had shoved a girl and he tried to stop his brother. The brother kicked him out of the house because of it. The police were involved but no charges were filed because the volunteer did not want to get his brother into more trouble. The volunteer came into the campaign office to see if someone could give him a ride to move his things from his brother's house to his temporary housing. The Obama Fellow helped him. On route to his temporary housing they stopped at a store that took food stamps so the volunteer could take some food to the place he was staying. The Obama Fellow waited in the car. There was a girl about 12 with some friends and her little brother (about 5 or 6) in front of the store. The boy was upset and the sister was pushing him trying to get him to head home. The Obama Fellow asked what was wrong. The sister said he wants money. For what, the Obama Fellow asked. He wants a candy bar like mine. How much is it, the Obama Fellow asked. It was 25 cents. The Obama Fellow gave the boy 25 cents. He was very appreciative and gave his sister a hug before he ran into the store. The Obama Fellow dropped the volunteer off at his temporary housing and returned to the campaign office to finish doing data entry and tasks at the office. What does it say about the campaign that the volunteer trusted going into the office above all other local organizations? What does it say about the campaign that empowers volunteers like the Obama Fellow who while only 18 handled these events with grace and humility? The Obama Fellow relayed this story to me because she was so sad and frustrated that she could not do more and it was weighing heavily on her. We ended the night with the thought that tomorrow is another day and we'll have a chance to start renewed. This is the way to change the nation.
We want change. We want honesty. We want integrity. We want results.
I don't want to be paying for Clinton's debt by contributing to Obama's campaign, I don't want to have a sideshow that distracts progress on real issues - wars, health care, energy, turning our country around....
I would be so utterly disappointed at a choice of Clinton for VP. There would no longer be an option to vote for change in November. No more kings (or queens), no more of the same.
There are plenty of other, better choices, female and male.
Course she has to know this as well, considering the tactics she is still using, attempts to change rules at every corner and threats to turn the convention into a war zone.
Hold the line Senator Obama! Pick the best and brightest, not the most manipulative.
YEAH!
YAY! North Carolina
YAY! Indiana
Still may be a few weeks until the last vote but time for Senator Clinton to start working on an exit strategy and for Senator Obama to show off his skills at bringing the team together! We made it through all the vetting and most of the hard primary work, I'm ready for the next step.
Time to get the band back together!
I am old enough to remember or have been involved in presidential elections only since 1992 (I vaguely remember 1984 and 1988). In none of those previous elections were there any significant ways for an average person in Pennsylvania to really be involved throughout the process unless they went to Iowa or New Hampshire or donated a lot of money. I'm not talking about paid campaign people or activists but the people who have busy schedules and need to keep their full time job or kids. The closest a candidate got was about 200 miles away in either Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. Maybe I just was not in touch with the 'right' people but I think there is a significant change this year.
Now I hear neighbors asking when is Obama coming to York, PA as if it is expected he will get to everywhere in the state. The campaign has almost 30 field offices in PA (some all volunteer) and has local teams in almost every township and borough. In my area the Obama organization appears stronger than the Democratic Party's. I understand this is the process that was done in most other states. If this is done in the remaining states because Senator Obama has to compete with Senator Clinton that will make the Obama campaign that much stronger. Seeing the energy in the area I would hate to have North Carolina, Indiana, Puerto Rico, or any of the remaining states not get some of the same attention.
My parents have complained about all the money being spent but I am starting to think that money is refreshing the soul of our country. Everyone is supposed to be involved in the election, participation is part of our civic duty. At least for once money is being spent refreshing something, allowing many more to participate and not just on TV ads, yard signs, and bumper stickers that will be thrown away in November (although there are plenty of those too).
The word is that the organization needs to stay in place for the general election and after Senator Obama becomes the president. I wonder too if the organization will rival what the DNC can do. I get excited thinking that we will empower Senator Obama to actually get things done by continuing to work locally. I am amazed that a leader has appeared who can do all this and is aiming not to conquer the world (like a Hitler, Stalin, or an Emperor) or stamp out other people (like leaders in Serbia, Sudan, etc) or cater to a few special groups or cling to principles without thinking (like George W Bush). That is the real promise of Senator Obama. It will be part of our responsibility to require that future candidates meet his level of integrity.
There is some real work to get done in PA yet and to get to the convention but after the last few weeks, none of the 'problems' I hear from journalists look unsolvable with a smart and honest candidate, strong campaign staff, and deep organization.
We can do better. Fight Fear. Usher in Hope. Yes We Can. Vote Obama.
