Memo From Speaker's Office: Expect TENS OF THOUSANDS In DC Tomorrow
Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, March 15, 2010, 5:52 PM
This memo was obtained and forwarded to me from the Office of the Assistant to the Speaker. It was sent out earlier today by Doug Thornell.
Democrats expect TENS OF THOUSANDS in DC tomorrow for the Code Red rally against their unconstitutional takeover of the health care industry:
From: Thornell, Doug [mailto:Doug.Thornell@mail.house.gov] Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 5:25 PM
To: Thornell, Doug
Subject: Tea Party EtiquetteTO: Freshman and Sophomore House Democrats
FROM: Office of the Assistant to the Speaker
DATE: March 15, 2010
RE: Tea Party Etiquette
As many of you have read, tomorrow, Tuesday, March 16, 2010, tens of thousands of conservative and Tea Party activists will be on the Hill as part of what they are dubbing a “Surge Against Obamacare.” Rick Scott, a multimillionaire investor and former hospital executive, is helping to lead the grassroots effort along with a number of other groups on the right like Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks. While many of you have met with outspoken activists in your districts in the past, we wanted to remind you of some of the best practices to review with your DC staff:
1. Be prepared. Activists are expected to begin arriving around 9am and they have been given instructions to wait in your office until they can have a meeting. Please have an orderly process and enough staff and interns to welcome what could be a very large number of visitors throughout the day:
• Have staff and/or Member time set-aside to visit with attendees in small groups;
• Ask for extra chairs or seating to be brought to your office or the hall in case there are seniors or disabled visitors that need to be accommodated;
• Consider having some light snacks, H2O, and coffee available;
• Ask visitors to leave all signs and banners outside the office.
2. Prioritize listening to your constituents:
• Have multiple guest books/comment sheets available for all visitors to sign-in and leave comments — we recommend you have one for residents of your district, one for residents of your state (but not your district), and one for out-of-state visitors. Have a Capitol Directory and map available to direct visitors to their Member of Congress and written instructions on how
to get over to the Senate side of the Hill.
• There is limited rationale for your Member to meet with out-of-district constituents, especially if you already had other business or meetings previously scheduled with constituents who had planned to visit with you tomorrow on other topics. It is up to individual offices to decide if staff would like to take these meetings.
3. Listen and communicate in small groups:
• As we learned in August, small groups are typically the best venue for exchanges on this complicated topic.
• Many of the conservative activists are not opposing the actual provisions in the bill, but are instead reacting to a caricature of the reform bill presented by right-wing media outlets. In fact, many conservative and GOP ideas and concerns are addressed in the legislation:
ü Reduces the deficit;
ü Cracks down on Medicare waste, fraud, and abuse;
ü Provides historic tax credit for small businesses and individuals to purchase health insurance;
ü Allows consumers to shop for health insurance across state lines via multi-state compacts;
ü Inaugurates medical malpractice reforms, (an area where the GOP failed to take any action when in charge of Congress for 12 years).
• Also, don’t assume common myths about this bill have been debunked. Be prepared to explain that there are no death panels, that Medicare is in fact strengthened, and that reform is not a government take-over, but it is an attempt to crack down on the abusive practices of health insurance companies by providing oversight and increasing competition.
• Finally, work to establish common-ground with visitors by ensuring they are aware and supportive of the important changes that will take place immediately:
ü Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
ü Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
ü Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;
ü Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;
ü Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;
ü Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs;
ü Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
ü Require plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26;
ü Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;
ü Relief on the Donut Hole.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Doug Ross reported that his source in DC said the unconstitutional “Slaughter Rule” will likely be used on Wednesday.
More… AllahPundit offers this advice to protesters tomorrow:
A few tips if you do find yourself inside some lucky Blue Dog’s office: Be sure to ask (a) what Pelosi’s bribing him with; (b) why, if Democrats are so confident about cost control, they had to rig the estimate on the first decade of costs by delaying the program’s start by five years (in fact, just hand your rep a copy of this); (c) how he/she can be so sure what’s in the bill when they’ll be busy writing it right at that very moment.
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bill-tb commented:
It’s weird, it’s as if it’s OK for lobbyists to meet with any Congressional member, and give money, but people should be restricted to ‘their congress clinker only? I wonder why that is.
Can I not give my money to whomever I choose as does the lobbyists?
Just a thought commented:
I’m #1.
Just a thought commented:
Drats.
Joan in Alaska commented:
And yet obama and his minions insist the public wants their Socialist Agenda.
Do they think “tens of thousands” of Americans are marching to wish them well in their endeavors?
How can obama and pelosi explain the March while saying the public wants their debacle?
MANHATTAN DECLARATION commented:
Yes We Can http://www.ScrapSchumer.com YES WE CAN!
kato commented:
They forgot to tell the useful idiots that the snacks should be organic and the coffee should only come from a benevolent country, like Kenya or Venezuela.
Doh-San commented:
“Many of the conservative activists are not opposing the actual provisions in the bill, but are instead reacting to a caricature of the reform bill presented by right-wing media outlets.”
They still just don’t get it, do they? Cretins.
Mary commented:
Every person should be asked if they personally read the answer they are giving in the bill OR taking someone’s word for it. The next question would be how they can continue to believe they will not be thrown out of office if they go along with the path their leadership is taking.
jjjjjj commented:
bring gasoline and ammo.
Militant Conservative commented:
Wish you could march with “blue guns” to signify our displeasure. These weasels need to know they are on the HUNTING list. OUR constitution gives us the rights to remove them and stomp thier guts out. I just reloaded about a 1000 rounds of magazines that I shot in Texas. That was a light day. Ya’ll better listen (congress) cuz we’re coming for ya. Better hope it is a civil election not a pitch fork and torches meeting. You’ll lose, We are many and you are few. We know where you live you know us not.
jjjjjjj commented:
Why doesn’t someone post the home addresses of all the Democrats in Congress?
pm commented:
Wonder how it sat with SanFranNan that this dude referred to the conservatives and Tea Partiers as “the grassroots effort.” Hmmmm…
And they’re instructed to treat them so graciously! The “welcome” with refreshments, chairs for seniors and the disabled; not to mention, of course, the ever popular “exchange” of thoughts that “small groups” would enable. We know how well that goes.
In such an environment, one could almost forget that, when they open their mouths, out come those inevitable lies.
Rosemary Woodhouse commented:
Memo to those still asking “why”:
They. Do. Not. Care.
Militant Conservative commented:
Rosemary Woodhouse
March 15th, 2010 | 6:51 pm | #15
You got it, we are the serfs and they are the kings. Time to reset the measure of freedom.
AF commented:
Perhaps you don’t realize this, but the Slaughter Rule was used by Republican Congresses. It’s not anything new and Republicans didn’t think it was unconstitutional when they used it. http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/03/15/re-and-here-we-go/#more-23441
Militant Conservative commented:
AF
March 15th, 2010 | 6:57 pm | #17
Your surfing some questionable sites. This will not bode well. The American Public does not want this crap. nuff said.
Neoavatara commented:
It is time to start considering impeachment of anyone considering the Slaughter rule. It is clearly unconstitutional, so what remediation is there other than impeachment?
http://neoavatara.com/blog/?p=10390
Lance commented:
Ask yourself now about what you can’t escape later.
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