It's a tough time out there for Democrats right now, as we all know. Still, some soldier on, despite the protests. Democratic senators like Ben Cardin of Maryland, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Claire McCaskill of Missouri have held mulitple events and gone toe-to-toe with protesters.That's pretty much the spin you'll get from Democrats totally unable to defend ObamaCare.
Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., is holding town hall meetings just about every day.
Others, though, are giving up on the town hall format and looking for other ways to communicate with constituents.
Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., is the latest to say she will hold a tele-conference with constituents rather than a public meeting. Castor was involved in one of the nastier town hall events -- and it wasn't even hers. She was invited to speak by a state lawmaker at an Aug. 6 event and was scheduled to talk for 15 minutes, but she gave up when the meeting devolved into a shoving-and-shouting match. By one estimate, the meeting attracted 1,500 people and the meeting room held just 200 people.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., has refused requests for a town hall meeting, and instead went on a local radio show to take calls about health care. He told the El Paso Times: "I'm not going to give people a stage to perform."
New York Congressman Anthony Weiner tried to ban the local news channel from his Queens town hall on Wednesday, and we saw Georgia's David Scott town hall meltdown last week. Scott totally lost his temper, calling one constituent a "hijacker" for asking a question (just to mention a couple).
More at Hot Air, "Cardin Offers Weird Idea of Competition, Regulation in Town Hall." And The Hill, "Sen. Cardin Hears An Earful on Healthcare."
Also, check Memeorandum.
Video Hat Tip: CNN, "Maryland Senator Has Boisterous Health Care Town Hall."
2 comments:
Can anyone is the administration explain three issues:
1) How services to the elderly will not be reduced when $500 billion will be cut from medicare over the next ten years during which time frame the enrollment in the program will increase by 30%.
2) Further, how the health plan will not add to the deficit or increase taxes (esp. on those earning less than $250k).
3) In addition, how this so-called plan will cover the currently uninsured, which some estimate at 47 million people, and not increase costs.
There is absolutely no way it can stop any of the three issues you asked Rick.
Just bottom line even if they didn't cut Medicare spending or do anything but add 47 million un-insured it will crush the healthcare industry.
There are only approx. 750,000 doctors in the US today (about 130,000 of those are foreign born and trained).
If they want to fix healthcare the first move is to create enough doctors and nurses to start reform. That takes at least what 8 years? Not counting recruitment time. Until we are within at least 1 or 2 years of having the professionals to deal with available to everyone healthcare we shouldn't even be having a discussion let alone legislation on it.
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