President Barack Obama – October 20, 2009 – Organizing for America Event in New York, NY: THE PRESIDENT: What I reject is when some folks, all they’ve got to say is, let’s go back and do the things that we were doing that got us into this mess in the first place. (Applause.) That’s all [...]
Yesterday we learned that GDP had grown at an annual rate of 3.5 percent during the third quarter, the first time the economy had grown in more than a year.
Today new reports confirm that the Recovery Act is responsible for more than 1 million jobs so far – and is on-track to create and save a total of at least 3.5 million jobs by next fall. The reports (which are required by Congress) were submitted by state and local governments, private companies, community organizations and other recipients of Recovery funds. The reports indicate 640,329 jobs have been created or saved, on a little less than half of stimulus spending to-date.
The majority of the jobs reported today were in the construction and education sectors — about 325,000 of the jobs reported were in education and more than 80,000 of the jobs are in construction.
Jared Bernstein, Vice President Biden’s Chief Economist and the Executive Director of the Middle Class Task Force, has a great post on the White House blog about today’s news. You can access the reports at Recovery.gov.
Not a moment passes at Organizing For America without volunteers and leaders across the country taking their creativity to the next level. Last week, during our October 20 Day of Action, we had students launching ideas in Ohio and neighbors working together in Michigan to create one of the strongest advocacy pushes in the history of OFA. Once again, this Halloween, we want to call on you to put on your creative hats (it’ll look great with that costume) and show us your carving skills!
A pumpkin can be many things; for some, its decoration. For others it’s what your grandmother calls you while she’s pinching your cheeks. Here at OFA, we think a pumpkin on your front porch can also be a way to show your support for health reform! Last year on October 31, four days before we elected Barack Obama as our 44th President, individuals carved images and messages into their festive orange pumpkins. Our friends at YesWeCarve.com showcased the amazing results:
We want you to send us pictures of your carved pumpkins! You can recreate some of the carvings above. Click here for some stencils, or come up with your own! Send us pictures to halloween2009@dnc.org. We are so close to the one year election anniversary mark, and we are close to making health insurance reform a reality. Bring your friends, family, and (b)roommates together and make a party out of carving your message to show your community your support for reform NOW. Let’s scare the naysayers away!
Instead of another bad Halloween joke, I’ll just leave the creativity in your hands….
Be sure to send us pictures!
Speaker Pelosi unveiled the House’s final version of health insurance reform legislation – The Affordable Health Care For America Act – in front of the U.S. Capitol this morning, marking another historic step in the on-going effort to pass reform this year.
The bill delivers on President Obama’s goals for reform: increased security and stability for those who have insurance; quality, affordable choices for those who don’t; and lowering the skyrocketing costs of health care for American families, businesses and our government itself.
Here’s an excerpt from the President’s statement this morning:
“I congratulate the House of Representatives on the introduction of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, another critical milestone in the effort to reform our health care system…
“The House legislation includes critical reforms to the insurance industry, so that Americans will no longer have to worry that they will be denied coverage, or that their coverage will be dropped or watered down when they need it most. I’m also pleased that the bill includes a public option offered in an exchange. As I’ve said throughout this process, a public option that competes with private insurers is the best way to ensure choice and competition that are so badly needed in today’s market. And the House bill clearly meets two of the fundamental criteria I have set out: it is fully paid for and will reduce the deficit in the long term.”
The New York Times reported:
The bill would require nearly everyone by 2013 to sign up for health coverage either through their employer, a government program or a new kind of purchasing pool called an exchange. Tax credits would be available for most of those buying coverage through the exchange. They would have the option of picking a new government plan or private insurance.
During the transition years from 2010-2013, a temporary government program would help people turned down by private insurers because of medical problems, lawmakers said. After that, insurers no longer could refuse to provide coverage to the sick, nor could they charge more because of poor health of the insured.
The plan also calls for a significant expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health program for low-income people. And it would impose a requirement on employers to offer insurance to their workers or face penalties.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the House bill would cost $894 billion over 10 years and extend insurance coverage to 36 million, covering 96 percent of Americans. It is expected to cut the deficit by $30 billion in the first 10 years.
Speaker Pelosi has said she expects to send the bill to the floor for a vote before November 11.
When the Obama administration proposed canceling a host of expensive weapons systems last spring, some of the military industry’s allies in Congress assumed, as they had in the past, that they would have the final say.
But as the president signed a $680 billion military policy bill on Wednesday, it was clear that he had succeeded in paring back nearly all of the programs and setting a tone of greater restraint than the Pentagon had seen in many years.
Now the question is whether Mr. Obama can sustain that push next year, when the midterm elections are likely to make Congress more resistant to further cuts and job losses.
White House officials say Mr. Obama took advantage of a rare political moment to break through one of Washington’s most powerful lobbies and trim more weapons systems than any president had in decades.
From the Redlands Daily Facts:
Cal State San Bernardino student Torrey Reed was only too happy to oblige when an Obama organizer stopped him on a campus walkway last week and asked him to immediately open his cell phone and tell his senator he supported health care reform.
The organizer gave him the number and told him what to expect from the staffer who answered.
"It’s the first time I’ve felt like I really had an impact on something," said Reed, 21, of Moreno Valley.
Similar, brief interactions occurred a few hundred thousand times last week as an army of volunteers fanned out across the country to drum up support for President Barak Obama’s top political priority…
The sheer scope and sophistication of local organizing is breaking new political ground, experts say, and the health care debate is its first real test."
National party committees have done issue campaigns in the past," said Jack Pitney, a professor of political science at Claremont McKenna College. "But Organizing For America is unusual in its degree of organization and its funding."
When a gay Wyoming college student was slain in 1998, congressional Democrats pledged to broaden the definition of federal hate crimes by the end of that year to include attacks based on sexual orientation.
The effort instead turned into a decade-long proxy war between liberal groups that want to expand gay rights and conservative groups that do not. But Wednesday, President Obama signed the bill and then hosted a White House reception for gay activists and the parents of the slain student, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard.
"After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we’ve passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are," Obama said after the signing…
The legislation extends provisions first passed in 1968 that make it a federal crime to target individuals because of their race, religion or national origin. Under the law, judges can impose harsher penalties on crimes that are motivated by such animus, and the Justice Department can help local police departments investigate alleged hate crimes.
President Obama made a midnight dash to this air base Wednesday to honor the return of fallen soldiers, absorbing the ultimate cost of war as the United States endures its deadliest month of the Afghanistan campaign.
On a clear fall night, Obama flew by Marine One helicopter to Dover Air Force Base to greet the flag-draped cases of 18 Americans killed in action this week.
After landing, the president, wearing a dark topcoat, got into a motorcade to a base chapel, where he met privately with families of the fallen Americans. He had arrived on the base at 12:34 a.m. Thursday and was expected to be back at the White House before dawn.
Obama is in the midst of an intense, weekslong review of his war strategy in Afghanistan…
Obama meets Friday with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military leaders who would have the responsibility for carrying out his strategy decisions. White House officials said Obama keep considering his options with advisers over the next couple of weeks, and other war council meetings may still be called during that period.
Today President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, legislation that will extend new federal protections to people who are victims of violent crime because of their sex or sexual orientation. It is an update to the federal hate crimes statute that Congress first passed in 1968. For the first time, the law that previously protected people from attacks motivated by race, religion or ethnicity will also protect gay, lesbian, transgender and disabled people.
The President will host a reception commemorating the enactment of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in the East Room of the White House this evening. This afternoon, before signing the bill, he said:
"…After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we’ve passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray, or who they are.
"I promised Judy Shepard, when she saw me in the Oval Office, that this day would come, and I’m glad that she and her husband Dennis could join us for this event. I’m also honored to have the family of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, who fought so hard for this legislation. And Vicki and Patrick, Kara, everybody who’s here, I just want you all to know how proud we are of the work that Ted did to help this day — make this day possible…"
Here’s an excerpt from an editorial in the Washington Post this morning:
PRESIDENT OBAMA is scheduled to sign Wednesday what is being described as the nation’s first significant pro-gay rights legislation. Attached to the defense authorization act, the measure would add sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability to the list of protected classes under the 1969 federal hate-crimes law…
The law doesn’t outlaw bigotry or "thought crimes." It applies only to "violent acts motivated by" the characteristics of the victim — acts, not thoughts or speech. But crimes that target someone because of race or sexual orientation are more than offenses against that individual. They can terrorize whole communities.
New Media Director Natalie Foster just sent out the following email, announcing the top 20 finalists — as well as the opening of public voting — for the Health Reform Video Challenge:
We just finished going through the submissions to OFA’s Health Reform Video Challenge, and they’re great. There are personal stories that grab your heart, brilliant summaries of what reform would really mean, and plenty of biting satire that calls out the insurance lobbyists.
Out of nearly a thousand excellent videos submitted, we’re down to the top 20. Now it’s your turn to watch the finalists and vote for your favorites — and then we’ll air the winner on national television.
Watch and vote on the finalists now.
The top 20 ads will also be voted on by our panel of experts and artists, including Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, animator and director Seth MacFarlane, actress Kate Walsh, Obama for America campaign manager David Plouffe, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine.
It couldn’t be more urgent for us to get these funny, powerful, and eye-opening messages out to the public. As the full Congress begins its final debate on reform, airing the winning video as an ad on national television could help tip the balance toward enacting the changes they’ve been talking about for years in Washington.
Polls close at midnight on Friday, November 6th, so don’t waste a minute: Watch the finalists and vote for your favorites right away.
Thanks, and go get started,
Natalie
Natalie Foster
New Media DirectorP.S. — Help spread the word: After you vote, make sure you send this on to friends and family so they can check out the finalists.
http://my.barackobama.com/VideoChallenge
Earlier today, Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid announced his intention to include a government-run insurance plan with an “opt out” provision in the Senate version of health care legislation. The New York Times reported:
“I’ve concluded, with the support of the White House, Senators Dodd and Baucus, that the best way to move forward is to include a public option with the opt-out provision for states,” Mr. Reid said at a news conference.
“Under this concept, states will be able to determine whether the public option works well for them and will have the ability to opt out if they so choose. I believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system.”
Shorty after Senator Reid’s announcment, the White House released the following statement in support of the work that Congressional leaders have done so far:
“The President congratulates Senator Reid and Chairmen Baucus and Dodd for their hard work on health insurance reform. Thanks to their efforts, we’re closer than we’ve ever been to solving this decades-old problem. And while much work remains, the President is pleased that at the progress that Congress has made. He’s also pleased that the Senate has decided to include a public option for health coverage, in this case with an allowance for states to opt out. As he said to Congress and the nation in September, he supports the public option because it has the potential to play an essential role in holding insurance companies accountable through choice and competition.”
From OFA Director Mitch Stewart:
On Thursday, Vice President Biden called out the insurance industry’s escalating war on health reform in a special message to OFA, and asked for your help in fighting back.
Sure enough, the insurance industry is already stepping up the attack: Reports just leaked from a closed-door meeting where insurance industry lobbyists frantically warned Republican members of Congress that it was not in their interest to "ever vote for this thing" and said supporting reform is like "giving comfort to the enemy." USA Today is reporting that groups opposing reform are lobbying at "a record pace" — and the Associated Press notes that they’ve already spent an astounding $32 million on TV ads this year.
This is what we’re up against. President Obama, Vice President Biden, and all of us together through OFA are fighting back — but success depends on having the resources to win.
Can you chip in $25 or more today to power our campaign?
In this fight, the insurance industry has their war chest and insider lobbyists. We have you. I know who I’m betting on.
Let’s win this thing.
Mitch
Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America
