Quote of the Day: "Beware the greedy hand of government, thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry." -- Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

Subject: Partial victory in health care fight

The Democratic leadership wanted to ram through their health care bill before their August recess. They figured the faster they got the bill passed the less time there would be for opposition to build. That's why it was a major goal for us to delay a vote on the bill until after the recess. Well...

It's happened.

The opposition to increased government meddling in health care has grown faster than the politicians expected. They've also had problems crafting a bill that makes any kind of sense, even to them.

So we can count a partial victory as of right now. As far as anyone can tell there will be no health care bill before the recess.

Things are also looking bad for the cap and trade bill in the Senate. Much of this also has to do with public pressure.

Your pressure has been a part of that. Let's keep pushing.

Send your Congressional employees another message telling them to oppose any further government involvement in health care.

You can use your personal comments to . . .

* Object to the idea currently being floated that employer provided health care benefits should be taxed in order to cover the cost of the new government program
* Tell your reps that the proper way to balance the tax treatment of employer provided health insurance versus self-purchased health insurance, is to improve Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).
* Urge your Congressional employees to increase the amount people can deposit, tax free, in their HSAs, and also allow people to pay their health insurance premiums out of their HSAs. This would put self-purchased insurance on the same tax footing with employer provided insurance.

You can send your message at DownsizeDC.org's health care campaign.

We're doing great on most of our growth numbers this month, but we're running a little bit behind on letters to Congress. So if you want to do more, then please consider sending your Senators a message asking them to oppose cap and trade. You cand send that message using DownsizeDC.org's cap and trade campaign.

To exceed the 43,290 messages Downsizers sent to Congress last month we must send 1,923 messages today.

Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army. To see how fast we're growing check out the Keeping Score report below my signature.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

KEEPING SCORE

We grew by 21 net new members yesterday! This brings us to 2,629 net new members for the year. The Downsize DC Army now stands at 26,985 -- 98% of the way from 26,000 to 27,000! We're very close to another milestone!

YOU can make the army grow even faster by following our quick and easy instructions for personalized recruiting.

We can also grow faster by doing more outreach to potential DC Downsizers. Please help us do this by starting a monthly credit card pledge -- it can be as low as $5 a month (which is just 17 cents per day). You can start your pledge using our secure online contribution form.

Please let us know if its okay to advertise your support here:

NEW MONTHLY PLEDGERS IN JULY: John DiLiberto, 2 unlisted -- 3 total. FROM JUNE: Bryan L Anderson, Janet Rea, Timothy M. Dyer Jr, Kenny Harrill, Ryan Sharif, Katherine Durham, David C. Flathmann, Maggie Culver, Ginny Rober, Dwight E. Baker, David H. Abernathy, John Murphy, Jeremiah J Blanchard, 6 unlisted -- 19 total

Or, you could make a one-time donation. Please let us know on our secure contribution form if its okay to advertise your support here:

NEW ONE TIME DONORS IN JULY: Travis Walston, Donald Grahn, Sonja Thompson, five unlisted -- 8 total. FROM JUNE: Bryan L Anderson, Richard S. Tolleson, Bryan Anderson, West Coile, James Sherman, Lawrence Lappin, Malin Williams, Jeffrey Taylor, Jason Pace, Kraig Clark, Autumn Browne, Victoria Pate, Patricia Barnum, Dwight E Baker, Rick Slusher, Dr. R.S. Gillinson, Edward J Krieger, Jan Berridge, 8 unlisted -- 26 total

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