MoveOn pressures Obama on public option

From: “Kat Barr, MoveOn.org Political Action”
Date: February 19, 2010 1:28:03 PM EST
Subject: Tell Obama: Fight for the public option

Dear MoveOn member,

Big news out of Washington: President Obama plans to unveil his preferred version of health care legislation before next week’s bipartisan health care summit.

The public option was given up for dead, but in the last week, first a trickle, and now a flood of Democrats have been calling for it to be in the final “reconciliation” bill.

It’ll be a whole new ballgame for the public option if President Obama throws his weight behind it too.

Can you call the White House today and urge the president to include a strong public option in his health care package?
Here’s where to call:

The White House
202-456-1111

Then, please report your call by clicking here:

http://pol.moveon.org/whcalls/indexd.html

Most pundits and Washington insiders gave the public option up for dead in December. But they’re being proven wrong (again).

Under a process called “reconciliation,” the Senate can pass the public option with a simple majority—so it’s not subject to threats from conservative Democrats. And this week, 18 senators signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Reid urging him to bring the public option up for a majority vote, following 119 House Democrats who sent a similar letter earlier this month.

What’s more, yesterday Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services said the president would support the Senate if they decide to bring the public option back into the fold.

The public option has support from a majority of Americans and in both houses of Congress—and just makes good sense for helping lower skyrocketing health care costs and providing choice for more Americans. We’ve been fighting for it since this debate began, and we need the president to step up and fight too.

Thanks for all you do.

–Kat, Joan, Peter, Carrie, and the rest of the team