What is our first priority?

[Amy Menefee]

Other than putting our heads together, what do you see as our first priority between now and January?

[Linda Gorman]

Figuring out how to convince enough of the population that expanding government control of health care will a) reduce the amount of health care they get, b) give the government an unacceptable level of control over their ability to choose, and c) tax them into the poorhouse.

Then figuring out how to make elected officials afraid to offend this segment.

Right now the health care policy looks a lot like the global warming debate--false crisis erected on fiction with fixes that do nothing but harm.

[Linda Gorman]

oh, and one more thing--show people that by protecting and expanding private medical care they can have much better care at lower cost.

[Joe Guarino]

According to Dennis Rivera, chairman of SEIU Health Care, the service employees union has been trying to get universal health coverage "for 100 years." With 1.2 million health care workers in its ranks, the SEIU provided more money and volunteers to Obama's campaign than any other group. Now that the election is over and Obama has won, they intend to redirect their energies into health care reform. In fact, Rivera has said, "We intend to run this as a presidential race, and our candidate is comprehensive health care reform in the United States." See more in the attached article from Yahoo News last week.

Folks, we already have the brain power, coalitions, and organizations in place. We now must acquire the financial power to combat the fire power the SEIU, Health Care for America Now!, AARP, and others plan to throw at us starting now and running over the course of at least the next year.