There are lots of lessons to be learned from previous attempts to fix health care - and a few critical mistakes that we cannot repeat. One of those mistakes is assuming that, just because a piece of legislation doesn't say "health care reform" in the title, it isn't critical to solving the crisis.

In 1993, one of the first mistakes they made in Washington was failing to put a significant down payment on health care in their annual budget. Here's our chance to right the first wrong of 1993.

President Obama's budget proposal is before Congress right now. Not only does it address health care reform, it commits more than $630 billion over the next ten years.

Clearly, the crisis we face in our health care system is unprecedented; and fixing it will take an equally unprecedented commitment to finding an immediate solution. That's what makes the president's budget so historic. For the first time, a president is upfront with a commitment for resources necessary to winning health care for everyone.

But the Congress needs to follow suit. Last week, we asked you to write letters to your members of Congress. You responded in a big way - with more than 4,000 letters to 459 different members of Congress.

The letters have gotten their attention. But, if we want to really win their hearts and minds on the importance of this issue, they need to hear from us, too.

That's why, this week, we're picking up the phone and calling Capitol Hill - urging Congress to pass the president' budget right away. Will you help us make 2,000 calls by the end of next week?

We've learned our lessons from 1993 - we simply won't get anywhere on fixing health care if we don't pass this budget. Tell Congress to get it done so we can get started right away on drafting a plan for real reform.