Cross-posted at The Daily Kos. Please bop over there and Recommend it if you are feeling benevolent :)
The Tea Party Express rolled its malevolent way through Michigan today.
Noon: Jackson!
3:30: Brighton!
6:00: Troy!
I was invited by Organizing for America to join a few of my closest Livingston County Democratic, pro-health reform friends to attend the Great D-Bag Tea Bag Extravaganza in Brighton. Why can't they ever have these things when I don't have to take vacation time to go to them???!
I left work at 3:00, hit the Brighton exit at about 3:15 and then things got reeee-eeeally weird.
We are coming down to the home stretch on healthcare, and we have seen the results of the first couple of rounds of crazy that have been sent forth in an effort to stop the process.
In addition to the Town Halls, opponents are flooding the email inboxes of America’s “low information” voters with no end of lies. Those emails are getting passed around and around and around, and by now some of them have probably appeared in your inbox.
But it’s summer...and who has time to respond to this stuff?
Well, guess what, Gentle Reader: I’ve already done the hard work for you.
Today’s story is an email response that you can send right back to your “inbox friends”. It’s a reminder of some of the frustrations that we all share in this country and some explanations of what’s being proposed...and a few words about socialism, to boot.
So get out there and copy and paste and forward and reply, and let’s see if we can’t fight the madness, one email at a time.
With all the shouting, the reality of the health care crisis and this economy can get overlooked. The Half Tank blog at The Washington Post stops in at a clinic in Grand Rapids, and the stories flow.
Leading off is that of a good friend of Democrats, Rick Tormala. A former City Commissioner, an aide to Sen. Levin, one of my all time favorite word-slingers, but now under-employed and uninsured. The clinic is literally a life-saver for him.
“I was very close to not coming here, and if I hadn’t, I would have probably stroked out somewhere and my family would be burying me.”
Next is a patient with an infected cat bite on his hand. Why hasn't he treated it? The trip to the hospital would mean absence from work and he fears, the loss of his job.
“Every day,” said clinic director Karen Kaashoek, “every day a person comes in that door that has a story.”
At this point I start getting sick, especially realizing that the clinic is turning away 200 people each week. But there's more, there's a Nate DuVal, 22-year old, diagnosed in the nick of time with Type 1 diabetes. Twenty-two years old. Trying to make it through college, not wanting to burden his already stressed family.
The piece concludes with the Move On rally we had at Rosa Parks Circle downtown. More stories of struggle follow, not least grubbing for cans to pay for mes to keep your bi-polar under control.
And did I mention there were photos?
This is the face of our neighbor, the reason why health care is so critical; why health care is properly a moral and not merely an economic issue.
It's Time for the President to Play Hardball Mr. President, I've been hoping for a while now for you to show the masterful politician and fighter that you showed yourself to be during the campaign. I was not an early supporter of Barack Obama. I figured he didn't have a chance against the Clinton machine. Then there was the Jeremiah Wright affair. The right wing and the moderates played the loop of Reverend Wright over and over. You were on the mat. But then you picked yourself up and gave one of the greatest speech's I've ever seen and confronted the race issue head on. And when Reverend Wright went a little nutty at the National Press Corp, you cut him loose.
Well, we need that fighter again. No one wants a wimp in the White House. You won with a huge majority of electoral votes because you were the better man. The country wanted what you had to offer, health coverage, getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Then you hired Rahm Emanuel, the politician's politician. He seems to be advising you right down the middle of American politics, teaching you to walk a tightrope and trying not to offend anyone. What's happened though, is that you're offending everyone, right and left.
We want to believe in you, Mr. President, but you keep letting down the very people that believed in you, that made phone calls, that knocked doors for you and gave you our hard-earned money to run the best campaign I've ever seen..
Well, now, Mr. President, it's payback time. We want real health care reform, like you promised. What we really want is single-payer, but for now we're willing to settle for a government run option, one that gives Americans great coverage at an affordable price to compete with the insurance companies that have been ripping us off for years, taking our money and then denying us coverage when we really need it the most.
If you'll give us at least that, Mr. President, you will restore our faith that you really want what's best for us, not what's best for the high-paid lobbyists that have descended on Washington D.C. or those crazy people that showed up at town hall meetings all over America with their fake yelling and screaming and bringing guns to show how upset they were that you're trying to turn this into a socialist regime. We know that's not true, Mr. President, but if you back down now, you'll lose a big majority of the people that want you to succeed, not only for yourself, but for your country. It's time to start swinging and connecting. The Republicans were never going to vote for real health care reform any way. Bipartisanship might look good on paper, but in reality it sucks.
I want to see you give one hell of a speech on Wednesday and show us all what you're really made of, some of that grit you showed during the campaign. No more Mr. Nice Guy, Mr. President.
Today, at an Organizing for America (OFA)-sponsored event, U.S. Representative John Dingell was presented with over 4,000 health care declarations supporting President Obama's three principles of health care reform. It was a great event with over 250 supporters in attendance and only one anti-reform protester who walked up and down the road in front of the building with a sign reading "Abortion is not health care."
In his comments, Rep. Dingell pledged his strong support of public option in the health care legislation that is under consideration in Congress. At this public meeting, he equated mandated health care coverage without a public option to a giant handout out to the health insurance industry. Some quotes from his talk and more photos after the jump.
Rep. John Dingell holds up 4,000+ health care
declarations presented by OFA
Just when we thought Mr. Rogers had totally bailed on talking with his constituents over the August break, we find that he only partially bailed -- he held a "tele-townhall" limited to "randomly" selected residents of the 8th Congressional District.
According to the Press & Argus, Mr. Rogers told his listeners that
they will lose their private health care or Medicare benefits if proposed health-care reforms become law. [skip] Rogers said the bill would dash Medicare Advantage plans that can include prescription drug coverage, among other options.
Statements like this really can't be called anything but deliberate deception.
Note that Mr. Rogers is awfully attached to Medicare Advantage (MA), the private plan that covers roughly 18% of Medicare beneficiaries -- yet costs taxpayers an average of 12% more than traditional Medicare. For the retirees who choose a Medicare Advantage private fee for service plan (PFFS), the cost is 19% higher.
Who thinks MA is a good idea? Probably the insurers and pharmaceutical companies which have seen their "government-sponsored medical programs" profits increase dramatically over the past few years, more than making up for losses in the employer-based insurance market.
Stop the lies, Mr. Rogers. Your district is in trouble. Choose to help your constituents
America's Affordable Health Choices Act would provide significant benefits in the 8th Congressional District of Michigan: up to 15,100 small businesses could receive tax credits to provide coverage to their employees; 7,600 seniors would avoid the donut hole in Medicare Part D; 1,700 families could escape bankruptcy each year due to unaffordable health care costs; health care providers would receive payment for $53 million in uncompensated care each year; and 49,000 uninsured individuals would gain access to high-quality, affordable health insurance.
instead of the industries that fund your political activities.
Hi, my name's Julielyn and I'm a small business owner. I'm lucky enough to be one of the millions of middle-class people who has insurance, but I don't just want health care reform, I desperately need it.
I recently quit a good-paying job with great benefits and started my own business. It is something that I'd been thinking about doing for a while, and despite the current economic climate, I knew that my business would be successful, it was the health insurance component that I was most worried about.
When I was a teen I was diagnosed with a particularly severe case of Crohn's Disease, and in the ten years that it took me to finally get in remission, I was hospitalized over 80 times, have had over 35 surgeries.
Thankfully through my dad's job in Detroit's Auto Industry, I had pretty good insurance, but the co-pays added up. At certain points, we were paying up to 25 different doctors and hospitals a month, and that was on top of raising two other children, a mortgage and all of the other living expenses. I still have no idea how my parents managed to keep us afloat.
Nowadays, the cost of staying in remission is a hefty one. I'm on several medications, and in order to stay alive, I had to have a major portion of my digestive track removed which means I now live with an ostomy. Because of this, I will live the rest of my life needing medical supplies just to stay functioning, and believe me, it's not cheap.
We’ve all been hearing the “Town Hall Meeting” stories the past few days, and the images presented have been of gatherings where you might see some current or former official “death panel” for the benefit of the crowd, where the few people who shout the loudest bully the rest into silence, and where threats of physical intimidation are part of the debate.
I attended one of these meetings, and based on what I saw I’m here to tell you that it is possible to hold an event that features none of the images previously described.
Instead, what I say was an event where people asked their questions, the Congressman answered—and from time to time the angry members of the audience got their shout on, too...but not in a way that was able to ever take control of the venue.
There were helpful lessons that can be applied by others who want to have these meetings, and today’s conversation examines what can be done to make them work for you, too.
Yesterday my Huffington Post piece recieved a LOT of attention and was on the front page and the politics page all day (still on the Politics page.)
Below is a pretty remarkable update regarding Jackson County Commissioner Phil Duckham who thought it appropriate to bring a swastika sign to the rally.
WASHINGTON (FNS) – In a startling development related to the recent disruptions of town hall meetings, FNS is now able to confirm that the Obama Administration, with the assistance of Unilever Group and Queen Beatrix, both of the Netherlands, PepsiCo, Skull And Bones, and the Bilderberg Group, is unleashing a secret plot to dispatch fleets of unmarked aircraft and helicopters to prevent teabag protesters from having access to teabags.
The goal of the plot: to disrupt protesters’ plans to save America from the destruction of our health care system.
FNS reporters have been following a trail of information that includes airport noise abatement records, classified documents, and the testimony of insiders, some of whom are now willing to be publicly identified.
We’ll begin our story by reporting on three events that occurred the evening of Friday, August 8th.
Organizing for America staff have learned that there will be an organized protest in front of Rep. Mark Schauer's Jackson office on Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 3:30.
OFA is asking that all progressives in the area that support health care reform turn out to this event to show our support for Rep. Schauer and to let him, the media, the voters and the anti-reform "teabaggers" know that THEY are the minority, not US!
During a recent National Press Club luncheon, 14-term congressman John Conyers (D-MI) gave a very candid response about reading the 1,000-plus page health care reform bill currently before Congress. In doing so, he illustrated why he should be voted out of office in 2010.
The following video is courtesy of CNSNews.com.
You don't need two lawyers Congressman. You are a lawyer. And if you need help reading, maybe you could get your wife to help you now that she has more time on her slimy corrupt mits. In case you have forgotten, it is your job to read this stuff.
If you need another lawyer to help you interpret the legislation, maybe Barney Frank could come over for a nightcap and help out.
It's sad Congressman how far you have fallen since your days as a Judiciary Committee bulldog during the 1974 Watergate hearings.
Oh by the way, we are still waiting for those George W. Bush and Dick Cheney impeachment hearings to begin.
John Dingell's town hall meeting in Romulus last night was not an exchange of ideas, it was a shouting match with a group of thugs. No one deserves to be treat this way, least of all the longest serving person in Congress. Mr. Dingell handled the situation with grace when speaking with the reporter after the meeting.
Heading into last night's health care town hall meeting with U.S. Representative John Dingell, my wife and I anticipated that there would probably be a decent turnout of opposition from the tea bagger side of the tracks. I've been reading about how the Disrupticans (hat tip: Detroit Mark) have been shutting down any semblance of civil discourse at these events all around the country and there was little reason to think it would be any different here in Michigan.
And, of course, we were right.
Representative Dingell, bless his heart, did not shirk the crowd or the tough questions. There wasn't a single softball lobbed at him the entire night. Yet even when he refuted some of the most ridiculous myths and accusations of the tea baggers, he was shouted down, called a liar and treated as if he was personally responsible for the euthanasia of all senior citizens in the country.
I sometimes wonder what Mike Rogers was like as a kid. Did he have the same talent for twisting facts? When he flat-out lied, did his parents just chuckle and shake their heads 'cause he was so darned cute?
Whatever happened back then, today Rogers is all grown up and manipulating on a major scale.
Well, I would not have fit the profile for what a mandated government plan, compensation plan pays for. In other words, if it fits outside of the normal, which is a very cold calculation, some things will not be covered under a government plan and we see that in Canada and the United Kingdom. And the reason is, the only way the government can control costs is by denying you things, rationing care. [skip] Had they not call it early, and they did when I was 19, by the time that thing had spread to my body, they could have found it later on, 22, 23, 24, it probably would have been too late. That's certainly what my doctors told me.
Yesterday, he topped this slice of emotional anecdote with a few scoops of political agenda:
Another controversial Republican amendment passed by voice vote, over Waxman's objections. Backed by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., it would bar the federal government from using research comparing medical treatments' effectiveness to deny or ration care.
With the government plan, said Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan, "you will have to call a bureaucrat and hope to God his calculator is more compassionate and smarter than your doctor."
"Cold calculations?" "deny or ration care?" Sounds scary, doesn't it?
Using research to compare treatments and make decisions is called evidence-based medicine (EBM). It's been around for quite a while, and it saves lives. It's supported by doctors, nurses and even the insurance industry. In fact, components of EBM are being used right here in Michigan.
Thaddeus McCotter is getting lots of face time on The Rachel Maddow Show. Tonight Rachel calls him out for advancing the idea that the Democratic health care plan calls for encouraging euthanasia for senior citizens. Shame on you, Thad.
MichLib's Eric B. is point-on when he says this plan is “building a future based on making things worse for people.” A future constructed by winning a race to the bottom is no future at all. This is true not only of benefits for teachers, but for the economy in general. There are some who say that in order to compete for business, we’ve got to slash benefits, cut back on environmental protections, reduce wages, and scale back regulations. That’s an outdated way of thinking.
The number one thing businesses look for is a high quality-of-life -- that means world-class schools with great teachers, a 21st century infrastructure, pristine natural resources, and affordable high-quality healthcare. If we really want to transform Michigan, making sure we have a high quality of life is the way to do it. The Dillon plan will do nothing to make it happen.
In todays edition of Livingston Press & Argus, Republican Representative Mike Rogers (R-Brighton) goes on the attack against the health care legislation currently being considered by Congress.
According to Rogers:
"We are going to punish the 85 percent of Americans who have private health insurance so that we can try and fix this problem of the 15 percent who don't," he said. "It makes no sense to me that we would abandon American ingenuity."
Given Rogers' ties to the health care industry, his stance to protect the health insurance companies at the expense of the un- and under-insured citizens of the U.S.A. is no surprise.
Mr. Rogers is offering all sorts of retreads ideas, like health savings accounts and allowing small business to jointly purchase insurance. That's swell, and as the LSJ notes,
Enacted ten years ago, they may have had significant effects.
So what is Mr. Rogers' plan?
He said he plans on proposing all the aforementioned items as amendments to the health-care reform plan currently before Congress, but he acknowledges they will likely be shot down during committee hearings.
