Just 36 hours left. Act now to SAVE HEALTH CARE REFORM

The Senate Fiance Committee plans to vote Tuesday on the travesty known as the Baucus bill.

While some have been hailing the Baucus bill as an "important step" on the road to reform, it's anything but. Actually, the Baucus bill is what is known as a piece of "poison pill" legislation; a bill so bad that it will actually bring about defeat for the proponents of whatever the bill is supposed to accomplish.

The Baucus bill would mean:

• Individual mandates with criminal penalties


• No public option


• No cost controls


• No employer mandate


• Certain defeat by the House, or making the system worse if the House acquiesces.

And now we have confirmation of what I've been saying for so long, and the Blue DUgs on here have been laughing at. The Baucus bill would actually be worse than the status quo, and would make health care even more expensive.

Price Waterhouse has a report out examining the trends. If we keep our current broken system, the average individual private insurance premium would increase from $4,800/year to $8,200/year ten years from now. The Baucus bill would increase that rate to $9,700/year! For families, the projected costs would rise from $22,000 to $26,000. Baucus' proposals would make private insurance cost an average of 18% more than doing nothing would! Even after pumping billions of subsidy dollars and a whole new captive audience of customers to his overlords in the Health "Insurance" industry.

If we allow the Baucus bill to come to the floor, Harry Reid will use it as the template for the Senate's final bill because he believes it will get the most Republican support (one vote compared to no votes). We can't let that happen. We need to make Harry Reid bring the Kennedy bill, passed by the HELP committee, to the floor instead, and keep the Democratic Caucus in line to vote for cloture.

There's only one way to do that: give him no choice. We have to kill the Baucus bill in committee and give him no alternative to the meager, but infinitely better, reforms in the Kennedy bill. And we only have 36 hours left to do that.

Call. Fax. E-Mail. Tell the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee to kill the Baucus Bill in committee, and give us a fighting chance at actually passing real reform.

Jay Rockefeller
531 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC
20510
(202) 224-6472
(202) 224-7665 Main Fax

Kent Conrad
530 Hart Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510-3403
Phone: (202) 224-2043
Fax: (202) 224-7776

Jeff Bingaman
703 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-5521
TTY: (202) 224-1792

John Kerry
218 Russell Bldg.
Second Floor
Washington D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2742 - Phone
(202) 224-8525 - Fax

Blanche Lincoln
355 Dirksen Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510-0404
Phone: (202)224-4843
Fax: (202)228-1371

Ron Wyden
202-224-5244

Chuck Schumer
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
202-228-3027

Debbie Stabenow
133 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4822

Maria Cantwell
511 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3441
202-228-0514 - FAX
202-224-8273 - TDD

Bill Nelson
United States Senate
716 Senate Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274
Fax: 202-228-2183

Robert Menendez
528 Senate Hart Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
202.224.4744
202.228.2197 (fax)

Tom Carper
513 Hart Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2441
Fax: (202) 228-2190

(The less-than-zero rating below is brought to you by Wellpoint, Cigna, Freepers, and those misguided Democrats who prefer to bring a knife to the Republicans' gunfight.)

You Blue DUgs don't have the guts to push it into negative territory? Or are you starting to realize I'm right in this.

The Blue Dogs are only needed for a cloture vote to halt debate and some are already being snapped in line (e.g. Ben Nelson). They can vote against the bill itself to their heart's content because there won't be enough of them to block a bill with a PO under the Budget Reconciliation terms.

get thrown in jail or have our homes and property confiscated to pay for your little health care dream.

There are serious problems with the version coming out of the Finance COmmittee, but no body will be thrown in jail. This was discussed and clarified/modified during the markup, by the way. NO reason to indulge in the same kind of scare tactics the right is using.

"If we don't get this bill out of committee, then there will be no reform." "We must pass this bill or it will be another 20 years before we get another chance."

This bill deserves to die a quick, painful death in committee, and we need to make sure it does.

thrown on the street?

Cold comfort there friend.

K&R

i'm starting to refer to this monstrosity as "health care DEform" (as if the state of health care wasn't horrendously awful to start with, anyway).

KR.