The Obama Healthcare plan is sparking great interest in the American people. While this administration fights to take over the 16% of the government that this would give them, people are finding out more and more about this BILL. The people that it would affect more are the senior citizens. These people have paid into the system all their lives and now at the twilight, they will effectively be put out to pasture or as I see it, Soylent Green. Regular Americans are finding out just how insidious this health care bill is and they are not liking it.  The Democrats have found out quickly that during these townhall meetings on healthcare, the people will have their say.

Are they really that scared of constituents posing hard questions to them?

Remember, we the people elect them to represent us.

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) went back to her district in Houston to show her constituents her respect for their concerns, which she demonstrates at about the 4:30 mark of this video. When was the last time one of your employees interrupted a meeting with you to take a cell phone call, especially in the middle of a tough question? Listen to the reaction around the person taking the video.

“She’s not even listening. … Seriously? … I mean, come on.”

Keep watching for a couple of minutes afterward, because Jackson-Lee does worse when she’s paying attention. She claims that the public plan won’t impact the existence of private insurance, and then in the same breath claims it will compete against existing private plans to make them “better”. And while her constituent tells a difficult tale of cancer survival, the best Jackson-Lee can offer is that a public plan will allow people to lose weight without having to pay $19.99 to those programs we see on TV. Er, $19.99 is less than most co-pays; it’s certainly less than what one has to pay through Medicare without Medicare Advantage for a doctor visit.

And what exactly is wrong with Slim-Fast and other private sector nutrition programs? They’re accessible, they’re effective for at least some people, and by the way, insurance plans don’t cover them anyway. If that’s the best sales pitch ObamaCare and Jackson-Lee have, it’s going down in low-cal flames.

Mike Sola of Milan demands that U.S. Rep. John Dingell explain why his son Scott, who has cerebral palsy, would not be covered under health insurance reform legislation. They were later escorted out by police.

Photos by KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/Detroit Free Press

U.S. Rep. John Dingell was greeted with jeers and cheers Thursday as he tried to explain why changing the nation’s health care system — as he has advocated for more than a half century in Congress — makes sense. Despite what some protesters said, “there will be no payment of taxpayer funds for abortion,” Dingell, 83, told the crowd. As Dingell opened the forum, Mike Sola of Milan interrupted the congressman as he pushed his son, Scott, in a wheelchair, to the podium. He said proposed changes wouldn’t help Scott and called Dingell a fraud.

Even before the Romulus town hall began, opponents engaged backers. “You may be dead in five years!” shouted Val Butsicaris, 60, of Taylor. “They may euthanize you!” She referred to concerns of government rationing of care for elderly people. Mel Hoffer, 67, of Monroe, a retired Ford quality control worker, said he supports reforms because the country needs it. There’s no assurance autoworkers will continue to get health care they now have. “We don’t know what’s going to happen.”  Mel Hoffer, 67, of Monroe, a retired Ford Motor Co. employee, said retired autoworkers have no guarantees. “We may need something to fall back on,” he said. Earlier in Troy, several hundred protesters gathered outside the office of U.S. Rep. Gary Peters.

Advocate Dingell tries to defend proposal

The news release announcing the town hall wasn't issued until Thursday morning, but by 6 p.m., when U.S. Rep. John Dingell's meeting in Romulus began, the word was out and hundreds of people showed up, many intent on disruption. Scott Hagerstrom, the Michigan director for Americans for Prosperity -- a group opposing President Barack Obama's health care initiative -- said that after he learned about it, he sent an e-mail alerting 18,000 members in southeast Michigan. Dingell, 83, the dean of Congress and a man passionate about changing health care in America since first being elected in 1955, wasn't deterred by protests that had occurred at similar events around the nation, including one in Petoskey on Wednesday.

Mel Hoffer, 67, of Monroe, a retired Ford quality control worker, said he supports reform because the country needs it. There's no assurance autoworkers will continue to get health care they now have. "We don't know what's going to happen." But Fadwa Gillanders, a Henry Ford Health System pharmacist, said no changes are needed. "I work with poor people all the time," she said. "Nothing is left wanting in ... America." The hearing ended with opponents yelling, "Kill the bill!" and proponents answering, "Health care now." Earlier in the day, several hundred people gathered outside the Troy office of U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Hills, to protest abortion, socialism and Obama's health care proposal. They criticized Peters' unwillingness to hold a town hall. "He believes that speaking with constituents one-on-one is the most useful way to meet with constituents," said Cullen Schwarz, Peters' spokesman. "The last one was supposed to last only 90 minutes and he stayed for three hours and 45 minutes so he could talk to everyone who showed up."

John Rhen, 68, of Troy wasn't buying it. "They're going to take over everything. It's socialism," he said. "I don't want some bureaucrat making health decisions for me and my family." About 20 people who support the health care reform plan mingled with the protesters trying to get their point across as well.

Spontaneous, uncoordinated, passionate -- citizen resistance to Obama socialism grows by the day. America is no stranger to resistance. The nation was born from citizen resistance that had mixed support among the colonists. About one in five was loyal to the King. Some of the bitterest fighting in the American Revolution was between Loyalists and Patriots. And all of it was between Americans in the Civil War. We know how to resist.

There was a spontaneous resistance after December 7, 1941. It shook America out of its flirtation with isolationism. In that case, it was largely Republican politicians who were slow to see the danger from international tyrants. Edwin Bodley of East Chicago, Indiana was a junior in engineering at Purdue University when he joined the students who, upon hearing the news of Pearl Harbor, spilled out of their dormitories in a spontaneous demonstration of resistance. The next day Edwin enlisted in the Air Force. After flying 56 missions over the "Hump," he volunteered to go back to the war and rescue downed flyers in the Pacific. Lieutenant Bodley died on August 13, 1945, hours before the war ended, the navigator on the last US crew aircraft lost to hostile action in World War II. The resistance never died in him. His name was Legion for there were many like him in those days.

So we Americans understand resistance. We don't hunger to engage in it. We can be slow to respond to the non-violent circumstances that provoke it. But once it begins, it takes its own course among us. Like water pulled by gravity seeking its own level. It's happening now.

The internet has shortened the gestation period for resistance. Nearly every day a new video surfaces on the web showing an angry crowd of ordinary citizens talking back to their member of Congress, or to some Cabinet person, as the pol morphs from confident and officious to stunned and stupefied. (Obama's czars, on the other hand, like their Russian predecessors, never face public scrutiny. They butterfly float in an ether world of inbreed wonkishness in search of purpose, doing who knows what. Hopefully, little.)

The April 15th Tea Parties, belittled by the legacy media, were collectively the coming-out event of a new American resistance. The cause then was out-of-control government spending. Today, it's shifted to a wider focus on Obama's brand of socialism for America. When the cover of the February 16, 2009 issue of Newsweek proclaimed "We Are All Socialists Now," it was a barely visible comet streaking across a news cycle. Not now. "Like hell we are!" is the rising antiphonal response today as a litany of proposed socialist legislation lines up in Congress. 

Barack, Nancy, Harry, Rahm, Barney, Waxman et al have been cattle-driving a legislative cramdown since the TARP bill passed in George W. Bush's final days. They mistook victory against a tepid Republican presidential candidate for a mandate to reconstitute the United States of America. Slow to awaken, her citizens now grow angrier. It's not the loss of land and lives they fear, but of freedoms. Accustomed to trusting any new president, they're quickly losing confidence in this one. Seduced by his artful use of the spoken word, they're growing attuned to the nuances within his words. When he begins a sentence with "Let me be clear about this," our listening becomes acute, for it's not clarity that often follows, but evasiveness through circuitous parsing.

As members of Congress go home for recess it won't be to playground games. Some will hide from their constituents, not wanting to face them. Why bother? They plan to vote as Rahm and their party leaders tell them anyway, for their only ideology is to remain in power. Others will think, "The people have short memories; soon they'll be back watching reruns of Law & Order."  They'll underestimate the resistance. Meanwhile, the legacy media will attribute it to right-wingers and belligerent extremists incited by their demonized arch enemies, conservative talk show hosts. They don't get it either.

Others, the bolder pols, will face their constituents and be so foolish as to presume to tell them what they, the voters, should think. Tell them what's good for them, whether they know it or not. This will be a mistake. Unless they represent the uniformly like-minded, these members of Congress will face spirited resistance. More of it than most will have encountered in their political careers. When it comes, their faces will assume fault lines of shock-and-awe in the face of citizen audacity. Some will paper over it with thin smiles and louder talk. That won't work.

Vocal opposition from their constituents differs from what they're accustomed to hearing from colleagues on the floor of the House or Senate. There it's, "I respectfully take exception to the position expressed by the honorable member from the state of bla bla bla." The ruling class speaks the language of the ruling class when citizens might be watching on C-SPAN. But in the public forum, people speak plainly, in a language with which some members of Congress are not used to being addressed. The resistance doesn't speak Beltway.

Regardless of the decibel-level of the opposition to Obamacare and Cap & Tax that Congress hears back home, many will return to their Safe Zone inside the Capital and vote against the wishes of their constituents. They are, after all, wiser and more knowledgeable in these matters than the voters. They may chose not to give us the government we want, but the government they think we should want. And would want, if we knew what was good for us. Such is the timeless arrogance of power.

If that happens, stand-by. For the American resistance will continue to mount, and soon begin to register on the Richter scale.

Illustrations by Big Fur Hat. No actual Obama posters were harmed in the preparation of these graphics.

Tensions are running so high at town hall meetings that Rep. David Scott, a Georgia Democrat, yelled at a local doctor concerned about health care after mistaking him for an "astroturf" political operative looking for a fight. Mr. Scott became visibly agitated when one of his constituents, a practicing doctor, asked a few questions about health care reform during a town hall meeting. The meeting was held to discuss a road project, but was opened up for questions near the end. That's when Dr. Brian Hill stood up to speak.

Dr. Hill asked Mr. Scott why he was going to vote for a health care plan similar to that implemented in Massachusetts "that is shown not to work" and if he supported a government-provided health care insurance option. The congressman replied by accusing the doctor of "hijacking" his event.

"I'm listening to my constituents, OK?" Scott said, "These are people who live in the 13th Congressional district, who vote in this district. That’s who I’ve got to respond to … So what you’ve got to understand, those of you who are here, who have taken and came and hijacked this event we dealing with here, this is not a health care event."

"You chose to come and to do it on your own," he yelled. "Not a single one of you had the decency to call my office and set up for a meeting." He went on, in a threatening voice, "You want a meeting with me on health care, I'll give it to you!"

The outburst is yet another example of how confrontational town hall meetings have become over recent weeks, as constituents are becoming more forthright in asking their elected representatives challenging questions. These actions and other forms of protest have been encouraged by limited government advocacy groups opposed to the stimulus package, the Democrats favored health care reforms and other big spending government proposals.

The White House has labeled these efforts "astroturf", shorthand for fake grassroots. To combat these efforts, groups supporting these plans — such as Service Employees International Employees Union — have been appearing at these town halls as well, effectively creating local "showdowns" between opposing political powers.

Mr. Scott's public tirade against the doctor was filmed by WXIA-TV News, a local NBC affiliate that confirmed the doctor lived in the congressman's district in a follow-up interview.

The doctor told WXIA he wasn't working for any outside causes and had called Mr. Scott's office repeatedly, asking to speak with the congressman.

"I did not go to a meeting to create any problems, I went to the meeting to literally ask a question that I thought was very, very important for my patients," he said.

(NOTE: The WXIA video report of the event that includes the congressman's remarks and the post-interview with the doctor is available on their website here under the video titled "Congressman Scott's Town Hall." HotAir.com, a conservative-leaning blog, also has it embedded into their item about the town hall here. It is more easily accessed on HotAir.com)

A supporter of health care reform, left, who did not want to give her name, pushes forward to rip a sign out of Kris McLay's hands outside the Stout Street Clinic visited by Nancy Pelosi. (THE DENVER POST | RJ SANGOSTI)

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, visiting a Denver clinic for the homeless Thursday, insisted that Democrats are united in backing health care reform and brushed off a question of whether raucous, conservative-led protests against reform have hurt the effort.

"This is called the legislative process," she said during a brief question-and-answer period after touring the Stout Street Clinic in downtown Denver. "There are differences of opinions. This is the democratic process. . . . This is a very big initiative, to change health care in America." Pelosi's visit to the clinic — to see and tout the impact of stimulus funds — came at a time when the national debate over health care has escalated into a figurative shouting match.

The shouting match became a literal reality outside the clinic Thursday, as people skeptical of more government involvement in health care traded chants and slogans with others who support sweeping reforms. When one person in the crowd shouted, "Health care can't wait," a rival responded, "We have health care now." A woman walked among the demonstrators singing "God Bless America" in a warbling voice. Inside the clinic, Pelosi said she welcomed the time during Congress' August recess for representatives to talk with their constituents about the issue.

"The plan for August," Pelosi, D-Calif., said, "is to have a discussion, to listen carefully to what people are saying." Pelosi's visit provided a peg on which supporters and detractors of Democrats' health plans could hang their competing agendas. In a conference call earlier in the day, state GOP chairman Dick Wadhams blasted House Democrats' plan as a "back-door way" of destroying private health insurance and creating a health care system that is solely government-run. "Single-payer," Wadhams said, using the political parlance for such a system, "will drive up the cost of health care and drive down the quality. It will end up rationing health care."

Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, from Aurora, said in a statement, "Mrs. Pelosi and her Democrat colleagues yet again failed to explain how they plan to pay for their trillion-dollar government takeover of our health care system." Pelosi, though, drew support from Democratic U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette of Denver and Jared Polis of Boulder, both of whom toured the clinic with her. "People should not be scared by scare tactics," said DeGette, who said the plan must not add to the federal deficit. "They should find out the details of this legislation." Pelosi said Democrats' health care plan would not lead to a single-payer system, instead saying a plan including a so-called public option would preserve people's

choice to keep their private health insurance. "If you like what you have, you can keep it," she said. Pelosi rattled off a list of other benefits she said the plan would have — including tax credits to small businesses and secure coverage for seniors. Representatives for Colorado's other three Democratic House members — John Salazar, Ed Perlmutter and Betsy Markey — said their bosses had other obligations that prevented them from attending the tour.

Pish-poshing reports of squabbling between liberal and conservative Democrats, Pelosi insisted members of the party were on the same page — if not the same paragraph. "Do we have a diversity of opinion? Yes," she said. "But we do not have a split in the party." Proposals of a big health care overhaul also won support from John Parvensky, the president and chief executive of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, which operates the clinic. Parvensky said he is in favor of reforms to health insurance regulations as well as continued efforts to improve "safety net" programs for the most needy. Eighty-five percent of Stout Street's patients are uninsured, he said.

U.S. lawmakers have a big battle ahead in September. What should they do about the nation's healthcare system? Those pushing for change say too many Americans are uninsured or not covered for all their illnesses. And they say for those who are happy with their coverage the cost will get out of control in a matter of years.
Democratic representatives Mike Ross and Vic Snyder both came to Little Rock Wednesday to explain what changes could be coming. And Arkansans got a chance to sound off too.  It was a loud crowd at Arkansas Children's Hospital and everybody had something to say.

Mike Massucco said his biggest fear is a government run healthcare option. He said, "it undermines the whole capitalistic system. With them they say, 'no, we're not going to have a government option.' They will and of course nobody can compete with the government."

Mike Ross is the chairman of the Blue Dog Democrats, the conservative group that slowed down the vote on healthcare reform. Ross says right now there are 5 different bills floating around and lawmakers need to look closely at each one before making a final decision.

"It's not that the American people do not want healthcare reform. They want the right kind of reform and they don't want it to be rushed," Ross said.

Congressman Vic Snyder says something must be done because at this rate, the number of uninsured will keep climbing as premiums go so high that insurance will become unaffordable. "If we don't do something their current coverage will change. And that's the message I think we need to get out today," Snyder said.

Ross says he won't vote for rationed care or federally funded abortions or coverage for illegal immigrants. And as for the cost, "we have to first squeeze all the inefficiencies out of the current very broken healthcare system before we ask the American people to pay another dime," Ross said.

Now as for Mr. Massucco's concern that a government plan would run private healthcare out of business, Representative Ross said the plan he voted on in the energy and commerce committee would level the playing field. That bill would require the government to negotiate with providers just the same as private insurance companies, so the government wouldn't be able to offer dramatically lower rates.

Snyder and Ross say they would not support a completely government-run, single-payer health insurance plan. There will be 10 more legislative votes before any health care reform bill becomes final. Lawmakers will get back to work on health care in September after the August recess ends.

WKTV reports: During a news conference at Union Station in Utica on Tuesday, Congressman Michael Arcuri and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, were interrupted with shouting from taxpayers upset over government spending.

***

"You're lying to me," said Don Jeror as he loudly interrupted Hoyer. "Just because I don't have sophisticated language, I can recognize a liar when I see one."

***

"Why would you guys try to stuff a health care bill down our throats in three to four weeks, when the President took six months to pick a dog for his kids?!" said Jeror.

Today was great.  Close to 1,000 people showed up for Arlen Specter and Kathleen Sebilius' Obamacare Town Hall.  ACORN and SEIU had their drones there.  ACORN continues to embarass itself by exploiting amputees and handicapped people to further their cause.  It was actually very sad to see because you felt bad for them because of their misfortune and you also felt bad for them because they were totally unaware that they were merely props for ACORN to exploit.

Sebilius and Specter offered no answers.  How can you sell a product when you don't even know what it is?  Sebelius defended herself by saying that she wasn't a "member of congress".  Last I checked she was head of Health and Human Services, she might want to bone up on the legislation. 

We learned nothing new from these two people, aside from Arlen Specter coming out in support of a single payer insurance program funded by taxpayers.  Mr. Specter is increasingly desperate.  Pat Toomey has pulled even with him in the polls, and Mr. Specter is trying to gain the support of the far left by supporting single payer healthcare.  He also had a Biden-esque gaffe when he expressed support for passing this as quickly as possible.  The crowd exploded.  I took video and took pictures of the event.  Enjoy. 

LOS ANGELES—Police were called on a group of retirees who refused to leave Sen. Dianne Feinstein's West Los Angeles office until she talked to them about health care reform. Los Angeles police Sergeant Rich Brunson said Thursday that police lured the group of seven outside somehow, then locked the building's doors behind them. Brunson had said earlier that eight people were being taken into custody, but corrected himself after getting new details from officers on the scene. A spokeswoman for the 55- to 87-year-old activists said they arrived at Feinstein's office around noon and remained in her conference room more than six hours. Feinstein spokesman Gil Duran says staff offered the retirees an in-person meeting with the senator during a Los Angeles visit next week but that they demanded to speak with her immediately.

Screaming constituents, protesters dragged out by the cops, congressmen fearful for their safety — welcome to the new town-hall-style meeting, the once-staid forum that is rapidly turning into a house of horrors for members of Congress.

On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior. In at least one case, a congressman has stopped holding town hall events because the situation has spiraled so far out of control.

I had felt they would be pointless,” Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO, referring to his recent decision to temporarily suspend the events in his Long Island district. “There is no point in meeting with my constituents and [to] listen to them and have them listen to you if what is basically an unruly mob prevents you from having an intelligent conversation.”

In Bishop’s case, his decision came on the heels of a June 22 event he held in Setauket, N.Y., in which protesters dominated the meeting by shouting criticisms at the congressman for his positions on energy policy, health care and the bailout of the auto industry.

Within an hour of the disruption, police were called in to escort the 59-year-old Democrat — who has held more than 100 town hall meetings since he was elected in 2002 — to his car safely. “I have no problem with someone disagreeing with positions I hold,” Bishop said, noting that, for the time being, he was using other platforms to communicate with his constituents. “But I also believe no one is served if you can’t talk through differences.”

Bishop isn’t the only one confronted by boiling anger and rising incivility. At a health care town hall event in Syracuse, N.Y., earlier this month, police were called in to restore order, and at least one heckler was taken away by local police. Close to 100 sign-carrying protesters greeted Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) at a late June community college small-business development forum in Panama City, Fla. Last week, Danville, Va., anti-tax tea party activists claimed they were “refused an opportunity” to ask Rep. Thomas Perriello (D-Va.) a question at a town hall event and instructed by a plainclothes police officer to leave the property after they attempted to hold up protest signs.

The targets in most cases are House Democrats, who over the past few months have tackled controversial legislation including a $787 billion economic stimulus package, a landmark energy proposal and an overhaul of the nation’s health care system. Democrats, acknowledging the increasing unruliness of the town-hall-style events, say the hot-button issues they are taking on have a lot to do with it.

“I think it’s just the fact that we are dealing with some of the most important public policy issues in a generation,” said Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), who was confronted by a protester angry about his position on health care reform at a town hall event several weeks ago.

“I think in general what is going on is we are tackling issues that have been ignored for a long time, and I think that is disruptive to a lot of people,” said Bishop, a four-term congressman. “We are trying, one by one, to deal with a set of issues that can’t be ignored, and I think that’s unsettling to a lot of people.” Freshman Rep. Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.), whose event at a Syracuse middle school was disrupted, said that he still planned to hold additional town halls but that he was also thinking about other options.

“I think you’ve got to communicate through a variety of different ways. You should do the telephone town hall meetings. You should do the town hall meetings. You should do the smaller group meetings,” said Maffei. “It’s important to do things in a variety of ways, so you don’t have one mode of communication.”