From Indivisible....
To those of you standing indivisible,
Tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT join us for a special Facebook Live that you won’t want to miss to talk about our next steps and how we will hold the Members of Congress who voted for TrumpCare accountable.
Back in November, the word in D.C. was that the Affordable Care Act was a goner. Smart Washington politicos thought Trump might have a repeal bill ready to sign on his first day on the job. The House had voted to repeal it dozens of times. Obama had to veto it once. But Trump is still waiting. Even after today’s vote, Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land. The legislative fight continues, and it only gets harder for Trump now. Because of you
It’s hard to overstate how cruel this bill is. Simply put, Republicans got TrumpCare passed in the House today by making it more extreme. They had to convince the uber-conservatives in the Freedom Caucus to vote for it, so they had to make it even crueler. The original failed TrumpCare bill last month stripped healthcare from 24 million Americans. But that wasn’t enough for them. The new bill builds on that by:
- Gutting protections for pre-existing conditions
- Eliminating services for special needs kids in schools
- Letting insurers effectively charge women more than men
TrumpCare is a moral monstrosity.
We knew this was coming. Today is a setback, but we always knew the House would be tough for us. We were never supposed to win the House. It’s a majoritarian institution—the party in power sets the rules and decides what gets a vote. Everybody assumed that Trump’s lackeys would jam through TrumpCare in January and that would be that.
But it wasn’t. A bill that should have taken them days instead took FIVE MONTHS. And that’s because resistance groups across the country stood indivisible. We defeated the bill last month together. For months, we blocked the number one legislative priority of a unified conservative government. We proved how powerful constituents are.
And here’s the thing—this was supposed to be the easy part. To become law, this bill has to go through a 5-step process:
- Pass in the House
- Pass an amended version in the Senate
- Go to “conference“ to hammer out differences between the House and Senate
- Pass in the House again
- Pass in the Senate again
It took them 5 months to take the first, and easiest step - passing a repeal that they’ve passed literally dozens of times through the House before. The next steps are much harder - and we’re going to be there, every step of the way, until this bill collapses under the weight of its own lies and cruelty.
11 Days of recess starts today—this our chance. At this very moment, your Representatives are on flights back home to your district. Over the next week they’ll be holding fundraisers and working out of their district offices. As of today, only five members of Congress have scheduled town halls. This is our chance to provide IMMEDIATE feedback to our representatives. First, call on them publicly to have a town hall to explain their vote on TrumpCare. If they won’t, show up and give clear feedback. When these members are forced to vote again on TrumpCare, they will look back to the responses of their constituents this week.
New resources to fight back. To help you make your voice heard, we’ve put together an updated TrumpCare resources webpage here to make the most of the next 11 days. This includes a new toolkit on how to implement an innovative and effective tactic we’ve seen from the field: staging a “die-in” at a member of Congress’ public event or congressional district office. We’ve seen local indivisible groups across the country use this tactic to effectively pressure their Representative and get excellent local press, which compounds the pressure. Start planning your die-in for this week of recess now.
We’ve also included a top 10 list of the worst things TrumpCare does, a procedural graphic, and a copy of the roll call vote so you can confirm how your MoCs voted to hold them accountable.
We’re standing indivisible with you. This is a raw moment for many of us. Indivisible team members have pre-existing conditions themselves, or have children or family members who would be directly harmed by TrumpCare. We know many of you are in the same boat. This is real, and this is scary. But we also know that we’ve succeeded for months because Indivisible groups across the have been fighting back on their home turf. That’s how we’re going to keep fighting, and the Indivisible team is going to keep supporting that local power and leadership. We’re with you, and together we will win.
In solidarity,
The Indivisible Team
