This Wednesday night there is a Health Insurance Reform panel discussion hosted by the Simi Valley Democrats. Click here for the details. Rep. Gallegly has announced no plans to hold any scheduled and public events focusing on health care or other topics. Funny that the media focuses on the debates happening at town hall forums without being critical of the politicians that have skipped out. It is also funny that in Ventura County it is Democratic clubs putting on panel discussions, not elected officials.
Why are conservative protesters showing up to complain there isn't enough room in the facilities rented by Democrats but not demanding Republican office holders hold public and scheduled events? I emailed conservative activist Justin Tevis after I saw he called Rep. Lois Capps cowardly for not holding a town hall meeting ( She has said they are scheduling an event for September) to ask if the same standard applies to Rep. Elton Gallegly but he hasn't responded yet.
Sure some of these town hall meetings are rowdy but elected officials should take questions and argue with their constituents. We shouldn't have to give them a campaign donation to discuss policy with them. Sometimes I see dumb stuff at town hall meetings but often what I see is robust debate that shouldn't be avoided by politicians, regardless of party.
Tuesday afternoon I am going to be interviewing Republican State Assembly candidate Mike Stoker.
I am also confirming some other interviews including with a candidate for statewide office.
If you know someone running for school board or city council that would like to schedule an interview please send me an email.
Talkingpointsmemo.com has mentioned this too:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/08/old_school.php?ref=fpblg
Why doesn't Congress "reform" its on luxurious taxpayer-paid health care plans?
The analogy has been oft made in the spirit of bipartisanship in the healthcare debate that the opposing camps need to meet somewhere between the 40-yard-lines. If we were to set Democrats and Republicans on opposite goal lines, let's see where the referees currently have the ball marked on the field.
The Democrats started at their goal line with a Single-Payer Plan that was immediately considered a "non-starter" and was dismissed as politically impractical. That moves the Democrats to their own 30-yard-line. The conservatives are still dug in at their own goal line and are throwing the red flag to challenge a call before the kickoff. They seem to be claiming that the referees have much nicer uniforms than the players and that from their view at the goal line, the painted grass at mid-field looks too much like a swastika.
The next play is a running play and OHHHHHHHH, another player down for the Democrats, seems there won't be any negotiations to barter with Big Pharma for better drug prices. They can continue to charge whatever they want and there won't be any silly talk about death with dignity or even life with dignity. Place the ball at the 50-yard-line for the Democrats. But wait, there seems to be a disturbance on the field. The Republicans are being penalized for interference at the Townhall Meetings but since they are currently on their own goal line, penalizing them half the distance to the goal is a futile and meaningless gesture.
In the background, I can hear the media over the PA system. Boy, it sure is loud. Let's tune in and hear what they are saying: "Mrs. Graves, please report to the Death Panel, your euthanasia is waiting. Mrs. Graves, please report to the Death Panel." "Senor Pobrecasa, Senor Pobrecasa, your 50 free lifetime season tickets bought for you and your extended family by someone else are available at the front of the line. Calling Senor Pobrecasa".
Back to the action. Third down. It looks like a quarterback Public Option but the Public Option is stacked up behind the line of scrimmage. Somebody really missed their blocking assignments on that one. It's clear that the Democrats have given up the passing attack and that moves the ball to the Republican 20-yard-line. Republicans meanwhile still appear to be huddled up. They don't seem to be in any hurry and are again penalized for taking too much time and are backed up half the distance to their own goal. Again, the penalty doesn't hurt them too much but he fans are getting restless and some have started heading for the exits recognizing that it doesn't matter who wins anymore.
Fourth down. Democrats try to surprise everyone, including this reporter, by co-opting for the Hail Mary pass but Republicans are stealing the signals from Head Coach Obama and it is easily broken up by the defenders.
Status quo wins! Status quo wins!
Hey, where did all the fans go?
Why would a town hall meeting be necessary if the Rep. is going to vote no?
You seem to start from a position that government should, let alone could, reform healthcare. The only things that bring prices down and quality up, is competition and choice.
Right KDus, competion and choice have really worked well for the American people so far. Pull it out, dipstick. You're a couple quarts low.
Oh, I get it. Rather than run your engine with enough maintainence to keep it healthy, let's make sure it gets to the townhall meeting two quarts low and all warped and overheated.
Things You Have Got To Believe To Be A Republican
1. Insurance company death panels are a good thing. Paying bonuses to people who deny and thus ration care for those that are covered by the contract the insured pays for is a good thing.
2. 14,000 people a day lose their insurance. Who cares as long as it is not me?
3. Increasing the cost of a health insurance policy by 10% or more a year is a good thing. Who cares if payments to doctors or hospitals have dropped the last 2 years.
4. Canceling coverage of those that develop serious illness is a good thing. The use of the "preexisting condition" argument is a good idea. An example is the woman whose coverage was cancelled because she failed to put on her application that she had had a couple of acne pimples while a teenager.
KDus,
The primary reform the Govt's trying to deliver IS competition. Presently there's NO competition amongst the private sector insurers and thus the quality of care is low and the price of that care is high...more than TWICE the cost of French health care, considered the finest in the world for a large nation.
If you truly believe that competition and choice are the keys to making health care better then you should be supporting reform.
GS:
We will see if the President's actual performance in reforming health care matches his campaign rhetoric.
Prior to the election, Candidate Obama railed against the unbridled corporate power of Health-Care lobbyists in Washington, particularly the influence of rich, "K"-street Republican lobbyists with the Bush Administration.
In fact, last year on several occasions while he was on the campaign stump, Mr. Obama promised loud and often to conduct public, televised meetings and negotiations regarding health-care reform with representatives of the Health Care Industry in the White House!
How soon he seems to have forgotten those campaign promises..
After being elected, the President far too quickly cozied-up to former Louisiana Congressmen, Democrat turned Republican Billy Tauzin, Chief Lobbyist for the American Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.
Mr. Obama embraced Mr. Tauzin's proposal to provide $80 Billion in so-called "cost-cutting" measures as the Pharmaceutical industry's contribution toward the public good.
$80 Billion in so-called promised cost-savings is nothing compared to the $2.2+ Trillion cost of health care in this Country, which approaches more than one-sixth of the value of the nation's $14 Trillion GNP!! What a joke!
And further, as we see in today's Star Editorial, the Obama White-House appears to be just as secretive about the visitors-list as was the Bush White House.
Notwithstanding Vice-President Cheney's putative claims about Executive Privilege, we all know that the real reason for his secrecy was that neither he nor President Bush wished to endure the embarrassment of publicly disclosing which energy lobbyists visited which administration official in the Executive Office.. Could this be Bush-Cheney West Wing D'javu all over again?
Now President Obama is backing-off the single-payer, public option for health care. Amazing reversal in the President's stated public positions regarding the role and leverage that such a single-payer public option might exert on health-care cost-containment and reform in less than six short months after his inauguration.
More and more, I'm beginning to see the eerie form of the Ghost of Richard Nixon walking in the hallowed halls of Obama White House. At least as it applies to Executive Secrecy, Executive Privilege and far-too friendly relations with Wall Street banks and corporations..
For the sake of the country, I hope that I'm dead wrong.
As I have told all my good friends that voted for Mr. Obama. He was not MY candidate, but he is OUR President...
NostraDemus
Don't get me wrong. I said, during the campaign, that Obama was the best candidate but that he would make a lousy president because he's the sort of politician who never met an issue he couldn't compromise his way out of.
Even back then it was clear, and I both wrote about it and spoke about it to many, that his two biggest campaign donors, BigBanking & Big HealthCare, would have their claws in the guy and wouldn't let go.
I don't believe Obama wanted a public option (though I believe its the one ingredient necessary for successful health care coverage reform). It was a red herring to allow the White House AND BigHealthCare to wrap an empty box in the gaudiest paper and bows, as a gift to the American people. I imagine the box is beign wrapped as I write and we'll soon hear that Obama has persuaded BigHealthCare to support his efforts 100%....in a watered down compromise, that is.
So, if it'll make America feel good, bring on the gaudy box.
KDus,
Of course government could reform healthcare. They could do it by legislation banning or allowing certain practices or by legislation creating or destroying competition.
If Gallegly is going to vote no he should face voters and take their questions and explain why their concerns are better addressed by his position.
Most politicians hold town hall forums. I would appreciate if he held them on any topic.
Latest NBC poll. "Do you approve or disapprove of how congressional republicans have handled healthcare?" 21% approve 62% disapprove.