General Discussion

... the message needs to be that this is a Bandaid to address the current catastrophic increase in ACA premium's that is hitting Americans hard.

With the "bandaid" message, I guess I envision something like: "We actually agree that ACA was a compromise solution that is not working for America. When we win back Congress, the first thing that will be introduced is adding a public option, because ultimately, America needs to join the ranks of every other developed country and implement some form of universal health care. Perhaps the nation doesn't have the political will to do that right now. But that is where we must go. It is morally, and economically, what this nation needs. As we work to build the political will for that, the public option is a step in the right direction.

As far as setting the stage for the January battle on the rest of the budget, what I would love to see is citizen lobbyists starting a "fact finding" mission of sorts. That is, contact Senate Dems and Reps and work on compiling a list of things those people are willing to go to battle for. Whether it be provisions that stop specific intolerable violations of law by the felon, or Republican cuts, or whatever -- things that they can say "if I do not get this, I REFUSE to be an accomplice in the consequences." Things they would be willing to shut down the government over until one of two endpoints are reached: the demands are met or the Republicans go nuclear and take 100% responsibility for continued lawlessness, harms to Americans, whatever.

With such a list in hand, challenge the leadership to find consensus on a set of items that the conference is ready to pledge to join a "moral imperatives" shut down on.