Health Care or Offshore Drilling? You Decide

Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake at 12:43 PM on August 13, 2008.

Well you have to say something for the #Dontgo twits -- they know how to carry Big Oil's water and back down the Democrats. Now Nancy Pelosi says that she's open to having a vote in September on mo' drilling, despite the fact that a majority of Americans think it is "more likely to enrich oil companies than to lower gas prices for American consumers."

I guess we have to take it off the table as an issue in November to insure we get subpoena power. Or more and better parking spaces for Democrats, I'm not sure which.

Anyway, if you're looking for meaningful health care changes in the next administration, I'm going to suggest that historical evidence indicates you're going to have to do more than sit back and hope the Democrats deliver. And the best time to pin them down is probably when our representatives are running for office, and not after they are securely in DC and dancing for K Street lobbying money.

Health Care for America Now has put up a citizen whip count tool (just like the one we used in the FISA battle) where you can call your representative, and ask them -- are you going to be with us on health care reform, or working to preserve our broken system?

You can then let the HCAN folks know what you hear, and they'll keep a record of where everyone is at (like Josh Marshall did on Social Security).

Because the past indicates unless we speak up, it's highly unlikely that a new congress is going to rush back to Washington and deliver the kind of legislation we desperately need.

What do you think this is, Schaivo?

Tagged as: congress, democrats, republicans, health care, reform, offshore drilling

Jane Hamsher is the founder of FireDogLake. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect.