June 29, 2018

4 things politicians want before you can get what you want

NEWS FLASH: The One Subject at a Time Act now has 27 sponsors! Retweet

Rep. Scott Tipton [R-CO-3] has become the 27th sponsor of HR 395, the One Subject at a Time Act. 

Now how do we get enough sponsors to pass it? Let’s start with two startling facts…

  • We already know that nearly all Americans want OSTA, once they learn about it.
  • The same thing is true for most members of Congress.

That last point may stun you. Here’s why it’s true.

  • Rank-and-file congressional reps hate voting for bills that contain unrelated proposals.
  • But congressional leaders like Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and Nancy Pelosi love to cluster unpopular proposals with sure-to-pass bills.

How can we exploit that conflict to pass OSTA?

It’s important to understand that…

Politicians are followers, not leaders.

Therefore, they want to know four things about any piece of legislation…

  1. How many of my constituents want it?
  2. How badly do those constituents want it?
  3. Do other people in Congress want it?
  4. Can I afford to make enemies out of the people who oppose it?

Here’s how you can give your reps answers to these questions that will lead them to support OSTA.

  • Let them know that their constituents really want OSTA by flooding them with a constantly growing number of messages, phone calls, and visits to local offices. Doing this will lead to new co-sponsors.
  • Increasing numbers of cosponsors will send a message that other people in Congress want OSTA too. And that will snowball to still more cosponsors.

So we need to answer the politician’s final question, “Can I afford to make enemies out of the people who oppose it?” This translates to, can they afford to anger the congressional leadership? We think the answer shifts to yes the closer we get to having a majority of those in Congress as OSTA cosponsors. And…

That’s also the point at which we can pass OSTA over the heads of the leadership using a discharge petition.

A discharge petition is a procedure where a congressional majority bypasses the leadership to schedule a vote on a bill. That probably won’t be necessary, but we’ll push the issue that far if that’s what it takes.

To help make all of the above happen, three patrons have given us $50,000 to recruit 19,000+ new DC Downsizers. But that’s still not enough. We need YOUR help to meet the following objectives. We must constantly…

  • Recruit more people\Raise more money to fund more recruitment
  • Increase the amount of pressure we exert on Congress

We’ve set the following goal for the last week of June…

  • Add 45 new DC Downsizers. We’ve recruited 35 so far this week.

Please do the following…

Thanks for being an ACTIVE DC Downsizer,

Perry Willis & Jim Babka

If your comment is off-topic for this post, please email us at feedback@downsizedc.org

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