Hot and Cold

I'm going to have to leave the office soon while I can still feel my toes.

But going into the weekend, the latest news on the health care reform front can be summed up by stating the obvious:

Fixing health care is hard.

Seriously. Explain to me why anyone expected this wouldn't be an arduous process rife with ups and downs and stalls and restarts. Today we found out the House markups are being pushed back a tad. Ok. Whatever. So let's put in a little extra work and smooth over some of the rough patches. HELP is making good progress. We are farther along now than we have ever been, like, ever, and we have the President, Congressional leadership, and a majority of the American public on the same page when it comes to one of the largest components of the whole deal - a new public health insurance option. In my book, we are doing just fine.

Keep that in mind if you watch the talking heads on TV this weekend spew all shades of contradictory, unfounded garbage.

And with that, I'm off. Have a good one.

Jaxsicle

There's air-conditioned, and then there's "you could store meat in here" cold.

My office is painfully close to the latter.

Rally Revisited

I got some cool photos today from our June 25th rally that I am totally reposting without permission. I know. I'm a rebel. Here you go:

Talk Radio

It did get a little heated. You can listen here. I would have liked even more time to get everything out, but for what we had, I'm content.

Call Congress

No excuses. It's free.

Today is our National Call-in Day. Please be polite. Ask to talk with someone who can tell you the Senator's or Representative’s position on health care.

Call 1-877-264-HCAN (4226) to be connected to your Members of Congress.

Here is a sample of what you could say to Senators:

I’m calling from Health Care for America Now to make sure that Sen. _____ knows that we need real health care reform in 2009.

Please tell ____________ to support the legislation from the HELP Committee that provides:

* Coverage we can afford
* Comprehensive benefits we can count on
* Choice of a private or public health insurance plan
* Equal access to quality care

Here is a sample of what you could say to Representatives:

I’m calling from Health Care for America Now to make sure that Rep. _____ knows that we need real health care reform in 2009.

Please tell ____________ to support the legislation from the House Leadership that provides:

* Coverage we can afford
* Comprehensive benefits we can count on
* Choice of a private or public health insurance plan
* Equal access to quality care

Now Back To The News

In case you missed it, Reid steps up:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday ordered Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill.

Reid, whose leadership is considered crucial if President Barack Obama is to deliver on his promise of enacting health care reform this year, offered the directive to Baucus through an intermediary after consulting with Senate Democratic leaders during Tuesday morning’s regularly scheduled leadership meeting. Baucus was meeting with Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) Tuesday afternoon to relay the information.

According to Democratic sources, Reid told Baucus that taxing health benefits and failing to include a strong government-run insurance option of some sort in his bill would cost 10 to 15 Democratic votes; Reid told Baucus it wasn’t worth securing the support of Grassley and at best a few additional Republicans.

Nice. Continuing to court Senator "Go work for the government" Grassley is a rotten idea, and the more pressure support Baucus gets to go in the opposite direction, the better.

Got Perspective?

I know I can't be the only one who thinks the MJ thing is gross. For the record, this is what I put up on Facebook: