Obamacare e-mails overload Congressional Web site

Democracy in action. They used to say people vote with their feet. It appears the American public now speaks with the click of a mouse.

The Associated Press is reporting that the volume of e-mails from the public to their elected members of Congress about Obamacare has been so great that it has overloaded the House of Representatives' Web site.

From The Associated Press story by Anne Flaherty:

WASHINGTON — Amid a boisterous debate on health care reform, people flooded members of Congress on Thursday with so many e-mails that they overloaded the House's primary Web site.

Technical support issued a warning to congressional staff that the site — www.house.gov — may be slow or unresponsive because of the large volume of e-mail being sent to members.

Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the House's chief administrative officer, which maintains the Web site, said traffic data was not available and could not be released without the lawmakers' consent.

But anecdotally, he said, the spike in e-mail volume was widely believed to be a result of the health care debate.

"It is clearly health care reform," Ventura said. "There's no doubt about it."
Lawmakers are in their home districts this month for the August recess, where a populist backlash has emerged in some quarters against President Barack Obama's plan to reform the nation's health care system.

Democrats are trying desperately to regain control of the debate, with the White House posting a new Web site designed to dispel what it called "the misinformation and baseless smears that are cropping up daily." House Democratic aides have set up a health care war room out of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office. It is designed to help lawmakers answer questions about the legislation.

If you want to try your luck, the Web site to reach members of Congress is
www.house.gov