- Representative Steny Hoyer
- Senator Barbara Mikulski
- Senator Benjamin Cardin
I have them all in my address book on my mobile phone, so it's pretty easy to do driving into work or back home.
I always ask to speak directly with the Senator or Congressman.
Steny Hoyer had just stepped out of the office. Barbara Mikulsi was in a meeting. Benjamin Cardin was busy voting on the floor.
So, my only recourse was to leave a message with the aide on the phone. I have learned that it's best to stick to one issue per call. For this round of calls, I asked if the Senator had yet signed the pledge to promise to actually read all bills before voting on them from this time forward. In both cases the aide seemed clueless, so I told them to have the Senator see Senator Diment, as he was the first to sign. So there were know answers this round, but I promised to call back soon and follow up. Since I wasn't sure if the pledge had been circulating in the House of Representatives yet, for Hoyer, I simply asked the aide if Steny had read the cap and trade bill in its entirety before voting on it and encouraging others to vote on it as well. Of course the aide didn't have an anser. I let them know that I was awayre that it was 1200 pages long with 300 pages of ammendments added to the bill at 3:09 AM the day of the vote. ALso, that Steny had been encouraging others to vote for the bill as well.
This morning, on my drive into work, I decided to try and get them before their offices opened; to leave a voice mail message about opposing government health care reform.
Both Mikulski's and Hoyer's in-boxes were full, but I was able to leave a message for Cardin.
On my drive home, I called Hoyer's office and got an aide on the line again; sounded like the same guy. I explained to him that I wanted to let the Congressman know that I was opposed to the current government health care legislation. This was actually one of the best call experiences I've had. The aide asked me my name and where I was calling from. He then asked me if I was opposed to health care reform in general or just the current legislation. I told him, "the current legislation". He then asked what kind of reform I would like. I told him that I would support encouraging companies to leave the aquisition of health care to individuals and to simply let employees keep more of their money. I explained that it is immoral for the government to be involved in health care.
