FixHealthCarePolicy

Townhall Protester Charlene Clark

“I’m greatly concerned about legislation being pushed through Congress — health care and ‘cap and trade.’ I think the government is taking away a lot of our liberties. I would like to leave the world a free America, not a fascist America, or big government.” – Charlene Clark, of Baltimore, at a recent Maryland townhall meeting. She waved a sign that said, “Free America Doesn’t Need Socialized Medicine.” (August 11, 2009, per CQ)

Tags: cap and trade, health care, liberties

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had this recent exchange on townhall protesters:

Unidentified Reporter: Do you think there’s legitimate grassroots opposition going on here:

Pelosi: I think they are Astroturf. You be the judge. They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care.

Tags: grassroots opposition, Nancy Pelosi, swastikas, townhall meetings

The Senate Doctors Show, Episode 8

Tags: John Barrasso, Sen. Tom Coburn

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)

Sen. Durbin on the futility of “flooding the switchboards on Capitol Hill” and warning representatives not to be “sucker-punched” or “side-tracked” by “these tactics” at townhall meetings.

Tags: Capitol Hill, health care, switchboards, townhall meetings

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the Health Reform Vote Deadline

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) now says reporters fictitiously made up the deadline for a health care vote to happen before the August recess, per The Hill.

“That is a deadline that you created … It’s not like we don’t have a product. Significant progress has been made.  The mere fact that this wasn’t done by last Friday or by five o’clock doesn’t mean we’re not going to get a quality product.”

Tags: deadline, Harry Reid, health reform

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.)

As noted in a recent CNSNews.com video report, Rep. John Conyers, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, questioned the point of reading a health care bill:

“I love these members of Congress that get up and say, ‘Read the bill.’ What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”  – from CNSNews.com, at National Press Club (July 27, 2009)

Tags: Conyers, read the bill, thousand pages

The Senate Doctors Show, Episode 4

The U.S. Senate’s two medical doctors, John Barrasso (R-WY) and Tom Coburn (R-OK), host a biweekly Senate Doctors Show to discuss health care. In their latest episode, they answer questions from citizens about the ongoing debate.

The next show takes place on Thursday at 4 p.m. Questions and comments can be submitted through , Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter.

Tags: congress, John Barrasso, Senate Doctors Show, Tom Coburn

Vice President Joe Biden on Health Care Spending

“And folks look, AARP knows and the people with me here today know, the president knows and I know, that the status quo is simply not acceptable. It’s totally unacceptable. And it’s completely unsustainable. Even if we wanted to keep it it the way have it now, we can’t do financially.”

“We’re going to go bankrupt as a nation. Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’ The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.” — emphasis added on excerpts from a speech at AARP town hall event, per CNSNews.com (July 16, 2009)

Tags: Joe Biden, spend money, status quo

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT)

“Basically the president is not helping. He does not want the exclusion, and that’s making it difficult.” — excerpt regarding the White House’s opposition to a tax on employer-funded benefits from The Washington Post (July 16, 2009)

Tags: President Obama, tax exclusion

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.)

Rep. Hoyer had this to say regarding the proposed new tax on individuals and families of a certain income level to partially pay for a new House health reform bill:

“This is a surcharge on people making over $280,000 as an individual, $350,000 [per year] as a couple and it’s graduated, it goes up as you reach $1 million in income.”
 
“I don’t know many small business men or women who are making, themselves $280,000 [per year], so I’m not sure that very many small businesses are going to be affected by this.” — quotes from article in CNSNews.com (July 15, 2009)