Democrat's Game Plan For Tomorrow

See below. Passed along via a source and said to be the Democrat's game plan for tomorrow now being circulated on the Hill. I'd suggest going in with specific questions. You can find a side-by-side Dem vs GOP comparison here. And read what real health care reform should look like by Paul Ryan.

Don't be angry. But don't be spun.

TO: 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.

Comments

[smitty]

Hmmm . . . the part where they admit that this procedure sodomizes the Constitution seems to have been omitted.

[Ad rem]

Dan,

Thanks for all the intensive posting lately. I can't think of another site that's had this much info presented so quickly.

[mark l.]

"TO: Freshman and Sophomore House Democrats"

funny way to select the group who needs shoring up. this coming election puts the house back at 2004.

throw in the old timers, ditiching(earl pomeroy) and 60 seats is a slim possibility.
50 is inevitable.

[Lightwave]

I think if the bill passes, 60 is not only in the realm of the possible, but that extends the window out to 80 at the high end.

There really will not be a single safe seat for the Dems in 2010 if they use the Slaughter Rule to pass this without voting. Tomorrow we're going to prove to them just how doomed they are.

If you vote no, you'll still lose the House. You may lose the Senate.

If you vote yes, you'll lose the country. You may lose everything.

[mark l.]

80? I don't see it.

I do see indiana, wisconsin, arkansas, colorado, pennsylvania, nevada, illinois, deleware, new york, washington, and north dakota going red.

should the gop falls short on the senate, 2012 is a 2 to 1 ratio of dem to gop seats.

the gop will be sitting on top of a massive majority, even if obama is reelected in 2012. I don't see a scenario where he is spared...

[ED-209]

I read at another (larger) blog a commenter suggest that if you are confronted by the media at the tea party to get snarky with them.

Look, we're true grassroots, but that also means we don't know anything about PR. This would be absolutely the wrong move to make to any media types who arrive. We need to be more clever.

If the media comes to you for an interview, here are a few tips on how to handle this:
o forget about the cameraman and the interviewer. Speak through the camera directly to the people who are watching.
o Act natural. You're a normal person and that *does* come through the camera and viewers get a feel for that, the same way they get creeped out when they see most congress critters on the television.
o Prepare a list of questions that you would *prefer* that an interviewer ask and memorize a general answer to each question. When the interviewer asks his first question, it will be the typical media BS "What gives you the right to exist?" simply ignore it and pretend he asked a question on your list, then as pleasantly as possible answer your own question.

Remember, this is a great opportunity to speak directly to people who might not be paying much attention. Be informative and persuasive. You just might change someone's mind. You'll definitely be more effective than simply being snarky to a reporter.

[unseen]

i would like to see all 435 gone by jan. every member in the house is part of the problem.

[Darth Venomous]

"Look, we're true grassroots, but that also means we don't know anything about PR. This would be absolutely the wrong move to make to any media types who arrive. We need to be more clever."

Ed, I'm going to respectfully disagree with you here.

Malkin's site had a picture from one of the tea parties once that had a sign saying, 'It doesn't matter what this sign says, you'll still call it racist'. IYAM, when it comes to the lapdog media, we're screwed no matter what we do. We could have visible wings & halos, and they'll still try to make us look like spawn of the devil.

Time to get in their faces. Figuratively, and literally if necessary.

[mrobvious]

Actually, smitty, the talking points promise is relief on the donut hole. I, for one, can definitely use it. 13 months is enough.

[kerrcarto]

"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."

So they are admitting that this is a true grassroots movement. I guess Queen Pelosi needs to retract all her statements calling it "Astroturf".

[ED-209]

""Look, we're true grassroots, but that also means we don't know anything about PR. This would be absolutely the wrong move to make to any media types who arrive. We need to be more clever."

Ed, I'm going to respectfully disagree with you here.

Malkin's site had a picture from one of the tea parties once that had a sign saying, 'It doesn't matter what this sign says, you'll still call it racist'. IYAM, when it comes to the lapdog media, we're screwed no matter what we do. We could have visible wings & halos, and they'll still try to make us look like spawn of the devil." - Darth Venomous

And did you stand up and cheer when you saw this sign? I know I did. Did anyone outside of our circle of political junkies and active patriots see this?

I'm not saying that the media doesn't have a lot to answer for. I gave up waiting for the media to see "our side" of the story a very long time ago. At this point, if I see the media being critical of some goofy liberal idea or praising a conservative value, I am instantly very suspicious and become curious to know what their angle is. It has become so bad that I use the media's own values to lend credence to my own. My trust of the media extends only as far as I trust them to come down on the wrong side of every issue consistently.

All that being said, the media is a valuable tool to be used. They will never be sympathetic to our ideas. It does not serve our purpose to waste opportunities to speak to the nation with useless confrontations with media types. Always stay focused on what the goal is, the restoration of a constitutional republic.

[Jon]

The talking points do not address veterans health care. Obama will plan to move non service connected veterans (the majority) over into the medicaid plan, longer waiting time in line with a mob including illegal immigrants and poor medical treatment.

[Tater Salad]

The Tea Party has the answer: The bums will become unemployed in 2010 and 2012. That is a promise! Case closed.