Posted on 08/17/2009 12:04:47 PM PDT by markomalley
Thousands of protesters and supporters of President Barack Obama’s health care reform efforts stormed the streets of Phoenix Monday, as the nation’s president came to town to address veterans.
Eating breakfast at 7 a.m. at Tom’s Tavern in downtown Phoenix, Leona Meditz of Phoenix said the U.S. government isn’t designed to decide who should or should not get health care services. Instead, she said, the nation is built on competition, as insurers compete to provide coverage to citizens.
Meditz said she read the 1,000-page health care proposal document, saying the effort is based on socialized medicine.
“We need choices,” she said.
Monica Sandschafer, who was picketing on behalf of ACORN and Health Care For America Now, said it’s time for change in the nation’s broken health care system.
Health insurance is not affordable and insurance companies exclude coverage for people with pre-existing health conditions, she said.
“My greatest concern is the misinformation that has been launched against health care reform,” she said. Adding the government as another option for providing health coverage is what is needed, she said.
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Opponents of President Barack Obama’s health care reform have been accused of contriving their protests with paid help at town halls and other events.
But it was pro-reform forces who were drumming up more traffic Monday in downtown Phoenix as both sides of the debate geared up for Obama’s speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting at the Phoenix Convention Center.
Hundreds of protestors on both sides of the health issue lined up along downtown streets Monday morning. Labor unions were heavy on the pro-Obama side with members of the Service Employees International Union, National Education Association, Teamsters, United Food & Commercial Workers Union as well as nurses unions out in force. Those groups back Obama’s push to create a public health system to operate alongside private providers.
However, Obama said in Colorado this weekend that a government-run option may not be part of the final package considered by Congress — a comment that upset some universal health care proponents. Activists from the housing and liberal advocacy group ACORN also were at the downtown Phoenix protests Monday.
The anti-reform crowd includes mostly anti-tax and conservative groups opposed to government-financed and run health care and national health programs akin to those in Canada and Europe.
There also were a handful of others wanting to get their messages out, including some war protestors and opponents of H1N1 vaccines being developed for schools.
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Love the list of "public minded grassroots groups" supporting the Bamster there...
Maybe she's the one who is misinformed. After all, she's the one who is only reading the pamphlet she got from her union.
The ACORN hired, rent a mob member says it's time for "Change"
Nothing else...
LOL!!
We need citizens in the 8th District of Florida (Orlando) to attend Town Hall Meeting with Alan Grayson TONIGHT!
I’ve been asking Alan Grayson’s office (8th District of Florida - Orlando) for weeks if and when he will hold a Town Hall meeting here in his district. I kept getting “We plan to have one, but we’re not sure when and where - it will probably be the very last week of August. Watch the website for news on this.”
Finally, posted at 6:00PM yesterday (Sunday) with only 24 hours notice, Alan Grayson’s web site has announced that the Town Hall here in Orlando will be held tonight (Monday) at 7:45PM at the local IBEW Union Hall.
Here’s the announcement:
From Grayson’s website:
Congressman Alan Grayson will host a town hall meeting to discuss the need for health care reform, listen to concerns or answer questions from the constituents he serves, and debunk the many myths being circulated about the current proposals.
WHAT: Health Care Town Hall
WHEN: Monday, August 17, 2009, 7:45 p.m.
WHERE:
IBEW Local 606 Union Hall
820 Virginia Drive
Orlando, FL
The Congressman intends for and expects this event to be a respectful and productive discussion.
This is the second public health care meeting the Congressman has held during the summer district work period. On July 27th, he met with about fifty members of his Health Care Advisory Board. The meeting was announced 72 hours in advance, open to the public, and promoted and covered by multiple media outlets.
The Congressman also will conduct a health care telephone town hall on Thursday, August 20th at 7 p.m. People interested in being a part of that event can sign up on the Congressman’s website.
I am getting fed up with the press calling Obama the nation’s president. He has proven to be president of a select portion of the United States citizenry while calling those of us who dissagree with him demagogs, disrupters and worse.
” The ACORN hired, rent a mob member says it’s time for “Change”
Nothing else... “
Deep thinker.
LOL...exactly.
But it was pro-reform forces who were drumming up more traffic Monday in downtown Phoenix as both sides of the debate geared up for Obama’s speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting at the Phoenix Convention Center.
Hundreds of protestors on both sides of the health issue lined up along downtown streets Monday morning. Labor unions were heavy on the pro-Obama side with members of the Service Employees International Union, National Education Association, Teamsters, United Food & Commercial Workers Union as well as nurses unions out in force. Those groups back Obama’s push to create a public health system to operate alongside private providers.
What do you expect at an a.m. obama-fest in downtown Phoenix. Most of us hopefully have jobs, which we attended in hopes of keeping them.
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