An event that could impact future health care

in America in dramatic ways is taking place in just hours in Washington, D.C., in response to a call from lawmakers led by Reps. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., for as many Americans as possible to converge outside the Capitol to protest the bill pending in Congress.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated a vote on the bill could take place as soon as Thursday, but Bachmann told WND she is urging citizens to come to Washington and "pay an emergency House call to Congress."

"This is the most effective way we have to kill socialized medicine

and to do it this week," she said. "Nothing is more effective at reaching a congressman than having a citizen come to Washington, D.C. – not asking for a handout, not asking for tax money, not asking to take some liberty away from somebody else, but just asking for freedom."

Send Congress a message – no government health care, or you're outta there – through WND's exclusive "Send Congress a Pink Slip" campaign!

Bachmann said the American people spoke loud and clear this summer, telling Congress they don't want "cradle-to-grave takeover of health care." According to Rasmussen Reports, a full 54 percent of voters are now opposed to the House version of health-care reform. Only 23 percent of all voters strongly support the plan while nearly twice as many, or 44 percent, expressed strong opposition.

In addition to the "Pink Slips" campaign under way, a WND reader has submitted an idea for those planning to attend to print their own "Pink Slip" poster and ticket.

The images have been embedded in a PDF file available online.

"The 'Pink Slip' posters and tickets can be easily printed from any printer and are available for anyone to use for the rallies tomorrow. The 'Pink Slip' poster is designed for the rally and the 'Pink Slip' tickets are designed to be given to every socialist Congressman who supports this bill," wrote reader Joseph Smith.

Today, Bachmann said, "Just meet up at noon, what we're going to do is hear from some speakers. ... After that they'll be pointed toward the office buildings. [They can] find members of Congress, track them down, bring your cell phone camera."

The bill, if adopted, she said, "will be a disaster. It is unconstitutional. We need the help of American people."

"This is it, we don't have any more time," she said.

Bachmann said the summer of 'tea parties,' the 9/12 movement "where literally hundreds of thousands of Americans, if not more, all converged on the Capitol on a Saturday," should have given Congress the idea.

"This is the week when the decision will be made about whether we will choose liberty or tyranny, whether we will choose socialized medicine or a free market," she said.

Actor Jon Voight and "Liberty and Tyranny" author Mark Levin volunteered to speak at the event. Betsy McCaughey, former New York lieutenant governor and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, also is on the agenda.

The Minnesota congresswoman warned that Washington already has "taken ownership or control of one-third of the private economy," but if the health care takeover succeeds, that figure will rise to more than half.

"With more than 50 percent of the private economy controlled by the government, you can no longer say with a straight face that we're a free-market, capitalist system," she said.

She noted that Pelosi may have garnered the 218 votes necessary to pass the legislation this week and said a vote, if not Thursday, will probably take place Friday or Saturday.

"It appears they plan to push it through, and unless the American people push back, unless they take the extraordinary step of coming to Washington at noon on Thursday, this bill will go through," Bachmann said. "We Republicans can't stop the passage. But with resistance from the American people, I am fully confident it can be defeated."

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, echoed Bachmann's request in an interview with WND's Radio America.

"Come to Washington to save your freedom," he said. "It's the only thing that's going to change this."

Bachmann is inviting citizens to "come to Washington, D.C., by the carload" and attend the meeting on the west steps of the Capitol. She asks that attendees bring video cameras and office numbers and phone numbers of their representatives so they can find them and "get them on video saying how they will vote."

She urged, "Come to Washington, D.C., find your member of Congress, look into the whites of their eyes and tell them, 'Keep your hands off of my health care. This is not what I sent you to Washington to do. You are taking away my fundamental freedoms without my consent.'"

(Editor's note: Concerned individuals may contact their respective representatives and senators.)

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