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Posts Tagged ‘Constituents’

Facebook Group Started 3/15/2010 Opposing Obamacare Reaches 1,000,000 Fans

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

A Facebook Group Started Just 11 Days Ago To Oppose Obamacare Passed 1,000,000 Members This Evening

In a nod to the strange new world of online activism, Americans who oppose President Barack Obama’s health care reform package, known as Obamacare, formed a Facebook page entitled:

I bet we can find 1,000,000+ people who disapprove of the Health Care Bill

The page was started on March 15, 2010, and just 11 days later at approximately 11:45PM eastern time, the 1,000,000 person signed on as an opponent of Obamacare.   This kind of flash online activism by everyday Americans who oppose the massive government health care program just passed by Congress and the President could pose a major obstacle to Obama’s efforts to “sell” his health care package to the country in the next week with multiple rallies at various places in the United States.  Here’s how organizers described their page:

This Group was started on March 15, 2010 to send a substantial message to those in Washington who are not listening to their constituents.

The purpose of this Group is to serve as an outlet and organizational platform for those that believe in health care reform, but believe that such should be bipartisan, fiscally responsible, minimize role of government and be approved through a legislative process true to the intent of our Constitution. We welcome people of all party affiliations.

Since the bill was passed, this group has had phenomenal – record setting growth of 200-300 new members per minute. Our title says 1,000,000+ and we well expect millions to join us in this fight.

We will continue to serve as a basis for information, ideas and a platform to mobilize action to repeal this law. Our fight will remain focused, civilized and non violent and will continue until our goal is achieved.

Here is their brief message announcing the crossing of 1,000,000 Obamacare opponents signed up:

*********ALERT********
CONGRATULATIONS ON FIRST 1,000,000 at 11:45 PM Fri March 26, 2010.

The ability to add 100,000 people a day on average to a Facebook page animated solely by its opposition to the massive Obamacare package is an indication of the high level of grassroots energy in America that is presently mobilizing against the President’s signature initiative. Many Democrats and establishment media types have been claiming that Obamacare is rising in popularity with the public since its passage last weekend, but sites like this one provide some evidence of the opposite effect: a rising tide of activism objecting to the passage of the massive bill.

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Evan Bayh Bluntly States Congress has Created Zero Jobs

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

After a day of attacks from the Left after his retirement annoucement, Evan Bayh slams the Democratic Congress's handling of job creation

Freed up from concerns about the wrath of the Obama Administration or the Democratic Party after his shock retirement yesterday, and perhaps troubled by the harsh personal attacks from the left in the wake of his announcement, Evan Bayh today slammed the Democratic-controlled Congress as creating no jobs to help the economy and workers through the ongoing economic slowdown in America. Bayh was responding to a question about his position, as enunciated at his retirement press conference yesterday, that he could help his constituents more outside of Congress than in. Politico reports on Bayh’s CBS “Early Show” appearance this morning:

Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) is retiring, but he’s not the retiring type, ridiculing congressional job creation efforts — i.e., the stimulus — on “The Early Show.”

“If I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months,” Bayh said.

The White House is no doubt smarting this very moment over the cutting nature of Bayh’s attack, as such sentiments have been pouring forth from GOP politicians ever since the January/February 2009 Stimulus debate. When Scott Brown made a similar comment just two weeks ago, the White House went into full spin mode, attacking Brown harshly, as reported by ABC:

Minutes after he was sworn in by Vice President Biden, newly minted Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) says the stimulus “hasn’t created one new job.”

The comments came at Brown’s first press conference as a U.S. Senator when I asked him if he is willing to work with Democrats on a jobs bill. Based on his response, that seems unlikely.

“The last stimulus bill didn’t create one new job and in some states the money that was actually released hasn’t even been used yet,” Brown said.

“It didn’t create one new job?” I asked.

“That’s correct. We lost another 85,000 jobs again, give or take last month,” he responded. “And in Massachusetts, it hasn’t created one new job and throughout the country as well. It may have retained some but it hasn’t created any new jobs. I need to see the bill.”

…..

The Obama Administration says Brown’s got his facts wrong.

“Economists of all political points of view, including those from the non-partisan CBO, estimate that the Recovery Act has created or saved between 1.5 – 2.4 million jobs across America,” said Jay Carney, spokesman for Vice President Joe Biden, the administration’s top Recovery Act booster and watchdog.

“Unemployment is far too high, which is why the President is so focused on jobs. But it is beyond dispute that if it were not for the Recovery Act, as many as 2.4 million more Americans would be unemployed today.”

More Carney: “Anyone can go to Recovery.gov and see that MA state and local government, businesses and community organizations have already reported directly funding over 9,000 jobs in the state last year – and that’s based on a only a portion of the total $8.4 billion in Recovery funds that have already gone to MA.

So far, the White House has had no response to Bayh’s comments whatsoever, showing what a difference the source of a similar comment can make to the White House’s response. The perception of Bayh as now being free to speak his mind, and newly frank views being quite similar to prior GOP attacks on the Democratic-controlled 111th Congress, will surely rile the establishment media and political blogosphere and ensure the Bayh shock retirement story continues to occupy a substantial portion of the overall news cycle for days to come.

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