Nevertheless, we persisted.
We lobbied our members of Congress, we marched and we vigiled, we wrote letters to the editor and we prayed. And we won!
Yesterday, as senators walked in to the Senate Chamber to begin the last day of votes set to repeal the Affordable Care Act, I was there with a delegation of faith leaders offering prayer to both Republicans and Democrats. As individual senators joined our small circle, they were grateful for the moment to be held in the Light.
We were joining our voices to those of people across the country who for the past six months have been vocal in calling on Congress to protect health care for all, to prevent devastating cuts to the Medicaid program that would take away health care from children and families with low incomes, the elderly and people with disabilities.
This persistence has been powerful and persuasive!
I am grateful to the FCNL network that has been on this every step of the way—even when we asked you week after week to contact your members of Congress.
Preventing the repeal of the Affordable Care Act is a decisive victory for the American people—for every person and every community because every one of us needs health care.
This fight to preserve health care has been another brutal battle of partisanship in our democracy—until Senator Collins, Senator Murkowski and Senator McCain said no, and voted against gutting the healthcare. These senators, along with every Democrat senator opposed the changes that would devastate the Affordable Care Act. We are grateful to every one of them.
We know there is more to do—both to fix the Affordable Care Act and to fix our Congress to encourage greater bi-partisanship, to encourage members to work together for the common good and for the world we seek.
For that, we are grateful and we will persist.
