97.6% of All Bills Are Approved When Lawmakers First Vote to Begin Debate

Erick Eriskson at Red State has a must read post this morning. I'm going to copy more of it than I usually like to do because I want to be sure everyone knows how important Saturday's vote on HarryCare is:

"This is important — a vote in favor of cloture on the motion to proceed (a parliamentary issue) is, in effect, a vote for the health care legislation. Why? Because Harry Reid has enough votes to pass the health care legislation by a simple majority, but he does not have the 60 votes necessary to proceed to debate, any Senator voting for cloture is voting for the health care plan."

And then this statistic, based on this report:

In fact, “since 1999 the Senate has approved 97.6 percent of all bills when lawmakers first voted to begin debate.”

We can NOT let this happen:

Some Senators, like Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, want the health care legislation to pass, but know politically she would lose if she voted for it. So unless pressure is brought to bear on her and others, she may vote “yes” on cloture for the motion to proceed and then try to hide behind a no vote later.

I second Erickson's call to action and urge everyone to call their Senator today. Tomorrow is too late - their offices will be closed. Go to their local offices, call, fax, protest, email, and voice your opinion.

One of our local Tea Party organizations is protesting Landrieu's Shreveport office today on Fannin Street at 4:00.

Call your Senator! In fact, call all of 'em! Find their contact information here.

Everyone should call Mary Landrieu:

Washington: (202)224-5824
New Orleans: (504) 589-2427
Baton Rouge: (225) 389-0395
Shreveport: (318) 676-3085
Lake Charles: (337) 436-6650

Melt the phones!