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Town halls turn hostile for Republicans while on recess
Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) Wednesday night provided a glimpse of the strong emotions stirred by a Republican plan to alter Medicare benefits.
... While Barletta was going through a slide projector presentation about the Medicare changes proposed by House Republican Paul Ryan, a woman raised her hand ....
"Excuse me, I'd like to get something off my chest," she said, standing. "You seem to think that because I'm not effected I won't care if my niece, my grandson, my child is affected. I do care. What you're doing with this Ryan budget is you're taking Medicare and changing it from a guaranteed health care system to one that is a voucher system where you throw seniors on the mercy of for-profit insurance companies..."
"You said nothing in the campaign about I'm going to change Medicare, now you voted for a plan that will destroy Medicare," Linda Christman, 64, said. Christman is president of the Carbon County Democrats for Change, according to Barletta's office.
"I won't destroy Medicare, Medicare is going to be destroyed by itself," Barletta said.
Then it got ugly.
Haha. What goes around, comes around.
I must say I am disappointed that there were only two members of that auidence standing up to the Rep. and they were shouted down by the majority of the people in attendance, a lot of older seniors there. If that is representative of how the American people feel about the Ryan plan, that is concerning.
"Peace Cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
Albert Einstein
Constituent: ... the Ryan program proposes to turn Medicare into a voucher program.
Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI): It doesn’t, No it doesn’t.
Another Constituent: Yes it does.
Duffy: No, it doesn’t ... there’s no voucher.
Fact check:
Source: The Brookings Institution
Medicare with something called 'premium support' that is, in fact, a simple voucher — a flat dollar payment that recipients could use to buy insurance.
The plan put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan would link voucher payments to consumer prices. Because consumer prices rise so much more slowly than health costs, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the share of total costs patients would be forced to pay out of pocket would more than double by 2030.
... the fundamental problem with all voucher plans, and in fact with premium support, is that they contain no mechanism for promoting improved health care delivery.
... the Affordable Care Act is far superior because it sets up demonstrations, pilots, and experiments to identify new methods of paying for and delivering care that embody virtually every extant idea for reforming the actual delivery of health care.
Vouchers Or Premium Support: What’s In A Name?
by Henry Aaron Henry Aaron, writer for Brookings Institution
In response, Robert Reischauer [economist and president of the Urban Institute] and I coined the term “premium support” to refer to a type of health plan, that, like vouchers, would give people dollar payments they could apply to the cost of health insurance plans they would choose from a limited menu and that would include protections that voucher plans lacked.
Why I Have Moved Away From Premium Support
... there is something distinctly odd when the same people who are working hard to repeal health insurance exchanges for the non-elderly, non-disabled population simultaneously call for setting up such exchanges for the elderly and disabled. If there are populations for whom exchanges have the least chance of success, it is for the elderly and disabled, where the stakes in risk selection are highest.
Vigorous supporters of market-based controls on health spending should start where chances for success are greatest. That means proceeding resolutely to implement the Affordable Care Act, not repeal it, and to wait for radical change in Medicare until we see how the new system works.
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2011/04/06/vouchers-or-premium-support-whats-in-a-name/
More heat?
Republicans are finding out that slashing education spending is about as popular as ending Medicare:
Sean Duffy gets challenged on Medicare cuts.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/25/sean-duffy-loses-cool/
Maybe the pressure is working. Boehner opens the door to eliminating oil company tax subsidies. Way overdue. They are making mega profits and the original reason for them was to help the oil businesses get off on the right foot many years ago. I think they are doing just fine now! Save those subsidies for green energy companies, IMO.
Here's the strong messaging from the White House on oil subsidies.
Although the GOP is still against any tax hikes on the rich...baby steps, I guess.
THIS. IS. BEAUTIFUL!
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/26/webster-town-hall-backlash-medicare-medicaid/
Uhh... does he say the Republicans can eliminate tax loopholes and still uphold the ATR pledge? Because that's not what ATR says. That's why they're giving Coburn such a hard time.
He keep on pointing to that chart like it's a crutch.
Is it possible the Democrats have found their fighting spirit? Reid is really gonna do it. He is forcing a vote on Ryan's budget...wow, I am so glad to hear this. They finally understand what a winning issue feels like.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) confirmed on a conference call with reporters Wednesday that he'll force Senate Republicans to vote on the controversial House GOP budget.
"We're going to have an opportunity in the Senate to vote for the [Paul] Ryan budget," Reid told reporters, to "see if Republicans in the Senate like the Ryan budget as much as their colleagues [in the House] did."
That budget, which passed in the lower chamber with near-unanimous GOP support, includes a policy agenda that would phase out Medicare, dramatically slash Medicaid, while reducing the tax burden on the wealthiest Americans. It has become the source of significant heartburn for vulnerable House Republicans, who have had to face down angry constituents in their districts during the current two-week recess.
President Obama is in a fighting mood, too. Sorry to get off topic, but I think the union bashing is a losing battle for Republicans, too. It's refreshing to see President Obama capitalize on it.
President Obama sat down with a local reporter from Ohio on Tuesday and laid into the anti-collective bargaining bill signed into law by Gov. John Kasich (R) last month.
SB5, as the law is known, eliminates the right of thousands of state workers to collectively bargain for benefits and makes going on strike illegal. Democrats and union supports have vowed to fight the legislation at the ballot box, and they've said the issue has done a lot to fire up the base after big Republican wins (including Kasich's) in 2010.
Republican supporters of SB5 say the law is necessary to balance Ohio's budget. Obama told WKYC-TV the law unfairly puts the burden of cleaning up the state's fiscal mess on state workers.
"I strongly disapprove," Obama said of the Ohio law.
"Lets certainly not blame public employees for a financial crisis that they had nothing to do with," Obama said. "And let's not use this as an excuse to erode their bargaining rights."
Yesterday, Rep. Allen West (R-Fl) had a town hall meeting in a church (public arena?) where he pre-screened all the questions, and they were asked by someone from his staff. Yet, he had the nerve to accuse the President of acting like a third-world dictator in his budget speech. Also, Paul Ryan had a town hall meeting that was so rough he left through a back door and a police car. http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/27/allen-west-prescreened-questions-town-hall/
My congressman, John Kline held a rare town hall meeting today. He made sure to have it at a small city, Red Wing, in the souther-most part of his district, during the middle of a workday. I guess he wasn't up to the challenge of dealing with metro-area voters in the burbs at a more convenient evening meeting. I'm sorry I didn't find out about it before late last night, or I would've been there.
More town hall anger displayed last night. This time even a 14 year old gets involved.
At a town meeting held by Rep. Frank Guinta (R-NH) last night in Manchester, NH, Guinta faced a rowdy crowd and an unusual challenger, a teenager.
http://politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/apr/29/dennis-kucinich/rep-dennis-kucinich-says-bush-tax-cuts-caused-subs/
23rd Richest Member Of Congress: I'm 'Struggling Like Everyone Else'
TPM
Hard to believe, but Paul Ryan wants to reintroduce his Medicare plan this week. I don't care how much lipstick you put on this pig-it's still a pig! They are so stubborn on this, they seem to think the public just misunderstood. Nope-we get it. You want to end Medicare as we know it while cutting taxes for the rich folks. Ryan can make it sound pretty in his speech tomorrow, but it won't make the plan more popular. The Democrats must be loving this-just keep talking about your Medicare plan 24/7. They won't object! I think they are just re-explaining it since they think people were too dumb to see how great it is, but if they are smart and actually change the plan, it might not help since:
1. they already have so many on record as voting yes.
2. it makes them look confused and disorganized to keep changing a plan they were once so proud of.
Reid is supposed to put the Ryan plan for a vote in the Senate...crossing my fingers that happens.
It's called "How to snatch defeat [2012] from the jaws of victory [2010]." It is now the GOP playbook.
Yesterday Gringrich spoke out against the Ryan plan, but now he's walking his statements back. Flip-flopping is nothing new to him! Now Scott Brown has spoke out in favor of the Ryan plan. I guess he's trying to currry favor with the Tea Party crowd which has become disenchanted with him. I doubt that this will help him gain support from the majority of people in Mass.
I think they're trying to use this while dealing with the debt ceiling debate, particularly in light of the recent news that Medicare has less money than previously thought.
Have you seen the email Nancy Pelosi sent out to freshmen GOP reps on Friday? Recently they've been complaining about the at-home reception they've gotten re: the Ryan plan. It's subject line is Re: Facing the Music – Suggested Songs for Your Trip Home
As you go home to face the music of your vote to end Medicare as we know it, we know you’re worried about what your constituents are going to say…for good reason.
It ends with When the music stops, you should try listening to the American people. http://www.democraticleader.gov/blog/?p=3987
More fun for the pro-Ryan plan folks:
Tea Party hero Rep. Allen West (R-Fl) got some lovin' (not!) on Medicare at a town hall. Getting ugly out there.
Ever since House Republicans proposed and passed their budget plan to effectively end Medicare and extend tax breaks for the wealthy, constituents have been voicingdispleasure at town halls across the country. That trend continued this week at a Pompano Beach, FL town hall held by Tea Party favorite Rep. Allen West (R-FL). their
The Florida congressman was asked by a constituent why he, along with nearly all of his Republican colleagues, voted for the Medicare-ending House GOP budget. West sidestepped the question, insisting instead that he doesn’t “think it destroys Medicare.” This earned West a chorus of groans, followed by chants of “hands off Medicare! Hands off Medicare!”:
Republican have figured out how to try and calm people at town halls. No, it's not expressing concern for their problems.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/05/20/town-hall-ban-recording-devices-censorship/
Link from Politico. And now Republicans are calling Social Security a "pyramid scheme." They used to only think these things, not say them out loud!
Nevada freshman Rep. Joe Heck earned groans from a group of his constituents when he called Social Security "a pyramid scheme."
Heck was in the middle of describing the program's sustainability when he delivered the made-for-YouTube soundbite.
"The full retirement age is 67 and the lifespan is 80, so when they first conceived Social Security, they didn't think they were going to be paying benefits for 13-15 years. That's one of the reasons why this pyramid scheme isn't working," he said in the clip above.
When the crowd audibly responded, he doubled-down: "Well it is, when the people before you are paying . . . the people after you are paying for your benefits."
Heck later told Nevada journalist Jon Ralston he misspoke.