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Posted on 08/11/2009 7:57:18 AM PDT by hiho hiho
McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- Passions overflowed at a health care forum hosted by Congressman David Wu on Monday as Oregonians packed a small McMinnville conference room while hundreds of others lined up outside, unable to get in.
The health care reform debate playing out across the U.S. came home to Oregon as opponents and supporters of a federal overhaul yelled and sniped at one another at Wu's town hall meeting.
Congressman David Wu hosted a town hall meeting on healthcare reform Monday night in McMinnville. And the calm of the summer evening gave way to an evening full of debates.
“I was in the hospital for four hours last Monday and it was $28,000 because I'm paying for three people already who don't have insurance. We need healthcare reform desperately,” said Cheryl Hockaday of McMinnville. “We're rushing into something we know nothing about and I don't understand the rush,” added Hal Shorr of Hillsboro.
An estimated 500 people waited hours to get inside the highly anticipated meeting, but only a quarter of them made the cut. It sparked more heated conversation.
“I'm a disabled senior and I've been here since three o’clock,” shouted one woman.
Inside the McMinnville Police Department conference room it took only a few minutes for the civil crowd to turn rowdy. A number of outbursts interrupted the meeting, but mixed in with all the spirited arguments was a respectful conversation about healthcare.
"I think this is a great Oregon crowd. I think this has turned out so much better than elsewhere in the country,” said Wu.The congressman plans to hold another town hall meeting Tuesday at Good Samaritan Hospital.
A queue to get inside the forum began to form around 2 p.m. Monday, according to organizers, and by the time it began both sides were yelling at one another.
Opponents of health care reform accused Wu and other congressmen of "not reading" the legislation both houses of Congress are working on. Opponents said that House representatives would be guilty of malpractice if they were practicing attorneys.
Wu had another forum planned for Tuesday night.
Town halls were scheduled to provide a forum for discussing President Obama's health care plan but have degenerated into shouting matches across the country.
“It's not about showing up and having a real dialogue or discussing point A or B about the health care proposal," said Congressman Brian Baird said. "It’s 'shout them down, disrupt them and then post your video of that disruption on YouTube'.”
Baird believed plans were in the works to disrupt town hall meetings in Clark County so he decided to conduct his meetings in a controlled environment over the phone.
“It's a fundamental principal of our democratic society that the people have a right to discuss things," Baird said. "However, we have a responsibility to listen to the other side and that right is being denied right now.”
Polls show many Americans feel health care is in desperate need of reform. However, polls also show millions of Americans with health insurance are satisfied.
“Virtually every town hall I know of is winding up in chaotic shouting matches right now," said Baird. "Members of Congress are receiving death threats. I've received them.”
Baird is not alone in his decision to forego in-person town halls. Democrats Earl Blumenauer, Kurt Schraeder, Norm Dicks and Jay Inslee don’t plan to speak directly at town halls, either, opting instead to host radio talk shows or virtual conferences.
“I’m a disabled senior and I’ve been here since three o’clock,” shouted one woman.
She will be one of the first one O will euthanize. Clear out the dead wood. Trim the bushes.
They always choose small rooms so they can pack them and only let a anti-healthcare citizens in the door. This is turning into a disaster for the Dems which I am loving every minute. Americans are seeing what it is like to have the liberal socialist in control of the House, Senate, and WH and they are not liking what is going on right now.
That is what happens when you lie when you are running for office and the media covers. You don’t get who you think you are voting. Media won’t cover how liberal a candidate is but do they investigate anyone conservative.
Baird represents a red enclave in a blue state. Hopefully his days are numbered. Hope the residents there caught the piece in the WSJ covering his little "climate change" vacation to the South Pole. Just wish I could get other people to pay for my vacations.
Everything was very calm but it was clear people were bussed in to keep consevatives out of the hall.
A big concern for me is what is probably going on behind the scenes in silence and darkness as we are distracted with all this noise. We know they create crises so they can “fix” them in a hurry. Yet, what about the executive orders and regulations issued by bureaucrats and czars in the bowels of government.
If we had any military secrets left after Carter and Clinton I am sure we don’t now. Putting this lying Communist in charge of our military and our intelligence is beyond despicable.
Our friends and neighbors in the Democrat Party can’t wake up fast enough to stop this but they are starting to stir a little anyway.
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**They always choose small rooms so they can pack them and only let a anti-healthcare citizens in the door.**
Exactly what Wu did from our first hand reporters who did not get into the meeting. A lot were still outside.
Politicians and bureaucrats can’t even run town hall meetings how are they going to run a national health care system?
It is disgusting. The pictures from inside the Tampa Town Hall showed their organizing inside which I am sure they didn’t want but a guy was able to get inside to tape the meeting with Castor. You can see how they organize at these two videos:
Castor Oil Part 1 — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvD76-1Y2CQ
Castor Oil Part 2 — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeuvo-O9HfE
I have been wondering the same thing — what are they up to with the chaos covering up the real behind the scenes operation. Did you notice we heard very little coming out of the meeting with Mexico and Canada. It was strange. Now we are hearing amnesty for illegals.
Do you get the feeling the build-up in Afghanistan is going to turn really bad. No one is paying attention to that at all. It is like Afghanistan is on the back burner but I don’t think it is.
One thing that hurt during Carter that is going to hurt again is the aging weapon systems with no upgrades in sight. At least they hid the B-1 during Carter but with the Clinton generals, we don’t have that luxury. It is a frightening time. Wouldn’t surprise me to see the F-35 be scaled way back. I swear they are out to destroy the military and our capabilities.
We have to keep fighting against socialism. Did you hear Maxine Waters when she wanted to take over oil and gas using the word social.. and then couldn’t figure out what to say? They want to take ever major industry and put them under Government control.
Slowly people who voted for ZERO are waking up and getting mad at the media for being a cheerleader instead of reporters.
We have to take back seats in 2010 to stop this juggernaut. Say one thing — the Dem leadership is handing us a lot of good campaign ad soundbites.
Yep, concerning Mexico and Canada, we’ve heard deafening silence. Afghanistan? Did we ever actually send more troops there after Obama announced a surge for Afghanistan? I don’t think we have? When he made that announcement I wondered if he was sending as much of our military out of the country as possible and if so, why? But you are right. We hear very little about Afghanistan now. We hear a little about dramatic events in Pakistan, when they happen, but very little else. Have we won? Doubtful. If we have not, now that it belongs to Obama is the media ignoring it?
If you can recall, Carter did blurt out to the media that we had aircraft that was invisible to radar while that information was still classified. Obama is basically killing the F-22 and I wouldn’t be surprised if the F-35 might suffer the same fate. Clinton starved the military so that it didn’t have spare parts for aircraft and other equipment nor even ammo for training. Remember all the Apache helicopters that were crashing in the Balkans because of lack of maintenance . Well, at least that embarrassed Prince Wesley Clark.
I did not hear Maxine Waters say what she did about taking over the oil and gas industry but I did hear just a brief comment by Obama in a press conference or something where, like you say Waters did, he said something about taking over O&G and then quickly changed the subject.
This healthcare thing could be the wedge we need to start the downward spiral for the socialists, just as DeMint said. We have to keep the momentum we have gained and increase the political pressure on that whole bunch.
I agree 100%! Here is the link to Hot Air where you will hear Waters say socializing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niJAkR_6tKQ — then you have Fox News saying she meant nationalizing.
My prediction is at least AF Depots are going to have a tough time once again like they did in the Carter years. The depots are the ones that keep the aging fleet flying but expect major cuts in their funding.
Yet the House wanted all those executive planes which they finally scraped because of the uproar. I do not understand why they cannot fly charter and leave our AF pilots to do their job. We send soldiers overseas into combat areas on charter flights — why not Congress? I understand why you need a C-17 to take the limo along on Presidential trips but why so many to take along luggage, etc. of all the people they take along. They should put an end to these large groups of people going overseas.
If we need to cut the budget, I would ground a lot of people or let them pay for a charter. In no circumstance should the President’s family travel alone on vacation on an AF plane without full reimbursement by the President and I don’t care the party. If the First Lady doesn’t have a meeting to attend and if she doesn’t go with the President, then clip her wings. We didn’t elect her.
Forgot about Carter and the stealth planes. How anyone in the military can vote for a Democrat for President is beyond me.
We have a case here in Oklahoma where all our Republicans are holding Town Halls but the one lone RAT, David Boren, is holding no Town Halls and no meetings. When Gaylord was alive, the Oklahoman would have been all over the story but his daughter has been a disaster to be kind and you hear crickets chirping in the media even here.
That pressure has to stay on all the time. Did you see that NRSC sent out a Presidential poll for people to vote. I got mad and sent Cornyn an email and told him to concentrate on the Senate in 2010 and not the Presidential race. Can you believe they would even send out such an email with all that is going on right now?
A lot of that was being done with a height difference; someone a lot taller than the intended target they "just wanted to discuss the issue with" would show up but people remained cool.
There’s (1) Obama’s endless Czar politburo, (2) the loathsome Rahm Emanuel and Robert Gibbs, (3) Third World takeover (amnesty/illegals/La Raza/ Sotomayor), (4) smarmy Barney Frank posturing on finance issues, (5) Sen Dodd getting off scot-free VIP mortgages,
(6) ACORN's tax-paid Civilian Security Force, (7) trillion dollar bailouts of bonus-rich businesses vacationing at luxury resorts, (8) a self-absorbed jetlining Congress more concerned with perks and privileges than constituents’ concerns,
(9) Americans' disgust with being called Astroturf, The Brooks Brothers Brigade, being told to "get out of the way."
LISTEN UP TAXPAYERS Obama/Rahm are purposefully antagonizing large groups in middle America, goading us into civil unrest. This would give them an excuse to declare Martial Law. Obama gave ACORN billions to form a Civilian Security Force to silence the populace, and march us to reeducation camps.
Americans need to be very vigilant: Obama and his loathsome COS staff Rahm Emanuel are very calculated in their use of power. As dissent among the populace grows, they are capable of plotting staged events to boost their advantage.
If these two arch-manipulators perceive there isn’t measurable fear in the hearts of the people, they will create that fear to solidify their power. They know people will succumb to fear and will relinquish their God-given liberties when they are fearful.
Thanks for the UTube link. Keep in mind that Cornyn is one of the good guys just like your two Oklahoma Senators even if that survey seemed a little heavy handed. As he is part of the NRSC there are certain political procedures involved and the survey was probably part of a broader plan of some sort, if you can imagine the Republicans having a plan!
What do you think of Liz’s comments in #17?
I pull the strings of some of his people that I have known for a long time. They need to keep their eye on the prize.
I am beginning to think like Liz because it makes sense. Something is really wrong.
I am sending you a Freep Mail — need some advice.
Town Hall Health Care
Tuesday, August 18th
10:00 to 11:00 a.m.
Pioneer Community Center
615 5th Street
Oregon City
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