Fix Health Care Policy

The President Learned Nothing From August

“There remain some significant details to iron out.” Thus spoke the President of the United States last night, in an address in which, with a straight face, he told an awaiting nation that he was finally delivering not lofty rhetoric, but his grand plan on health care.

On that score President Obama was right. It may have been, however, a bit of an understatement. Absent, of course, was how exactly all the savings he confidently predicted would materialize, how exactly the government would prevent employers from dumping all their employees into a government plan and how czars and boards would operate without bureaucrats coming between Americans and their doctors. Ah, details, details.

In fact, while he kept referring to “our plan” he never explained whose plan he meant. One of the two House plans? The one Senate plan that exists or the Finance one that’s under construction? What’s he actually for? What’s the President against? (more…)

Tags: congress, President Obama, townhall meetings

Townhall Sentiment from Congress

“I won’t be doing sucker-punch town-hall meetings.” — Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) per USA Today (August 14, 2009)

“I’m not going to give people a stage to perform.” — U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) per USA Today (August, 14, 2009)

“I have seen this kind of hate before. I have seen this discussion before. I have seen snarling dogs going after people who were trying to peacefully assemble. I have seen the eyes of people who were being spat upon… This is all about activity trying to deny the establishment of a civil right. And I do believe that health care for all is — a civil right…This is an attempt on the part of some to deny the establishment of a civil right.” — House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) per The Huffington Post (August 13, 2009)

Town hall protesters are “evil-mongers.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) per The Hill’s blog Briefing Room (August 13, 2009)

Tags: civil right, evil-mongers, townhall meetings

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

Five Questions for Health Care Townhalls

From Long Island to Philadelphia to Austin, Texas, Democrats returning from Washington to host townhalls are getting an earful from constituents about their concerns over President Barack Obama’s health care plan. Despite the fact that all recent polls show that a majority of Americans do not support Obamacare, the left still has the audacity to claim that the concerned citizens showing up at these events are health insurance industry stooges.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) told the Center for America Progress: “These health insurance companies and people like them are trying to load these town hall meetings for visual impact on television.” But when actual journalists have reported on who is showing up at these events, they are telling a different story. Reporting on events in Pennsylvania and Texas, the New York Times describes the protests as “organized by loose-knit coalition of conservative voters and advocacy groups.”

This country deserves a respectful, honest debate about health care. And the hundreds of townhalls Members of Congress will be hosting across the country this August are just the place for that conversation to happen. Here are just five questions Americans should be pressing their elected leaders on over the coming month: (more…)

Tags: abortion, comparative effectiveness research, Congressional Budget Office, deficits, Douglas Elmendorf, Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, Health and Human Services, Paul Krugman, Rep. Barney Frank, Rep. Dean Heller, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Rep. Patrick Tiberi, Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. Tom Coburn, townhall meetings

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