Republican tax plan - channeling resistance
November 14, 2017 9:51 PM

Last week's election victory was a welcome respite in the endless news nightmare, but the dread is returning when I read more news about the looming Republican tax plan vote.

I don't even think I can be coherent about this anymore, as there's just too many things to choose from that raises alarms - Medicare, Medicaid, threats to repeal the individual mandate, cutting Mortgage Interest Deductions and state/local tax writeoffs, taxing grad student income...

I'm overwhelmed with the news, so am in need of the hivemind's recommendations to take action. Are there any orgs mobilizing protests on this? Any scripts to send to my friendly (overworked) Congressfolks? Group hugs?
posted by hampanda to Law & Government (2 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
I just sat down and wrote several post cards to Republican senators. Then I made several phone calls to them. And I sent an email to my local representative, who is a Democrat and a reliable NO vote.

The Democrat called me back (well, his legislative director did) and she and I spoke for a long time. In particular, what she told me she wanted was my personal story of how this would affect me.

For each Republican (all out of my state) I chose one aspect that I thought s/he would be hearing a lot about from their constituents, so that my voice would join theirs. For Susan Collins, for example, I thanked her for saving the ACA and asked her to do it again, pointing out the repealing the mandate would be fatal to it. In fact, for almost all senators I pointed out that the voters made it loud and clear that they want the ACA strengthened, not weakened, and that this was a step in the wrong direction. And for Ted Cruz, I mentioned his intelligence and said he knew, for sure, how bad for the economy this bill would be, and discussed the effects on the deficit. For others, I discussed how many loopholes were already being discovered, and asked that they vote NO to slow the process down, to let such a large reform be properly vetted.

So that's what I'd do: choose one or two points that you think will resonate with each person you contact. Tell a personal story. Remind them how clearly we spoke about protecting the ACA, because they realize just how pissed people were about that — avoiding town halls, phone lines overwhelmed, etc.

Thank you for speaking out. We all need to be vocal about this, and if we attack it on personal grounds, and for each of its list of horrors, hopefully we will be heard.
posted by Capri at 2:14 PM on November 15, 2017




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