We don't know what it might have been like for a British colonial officer to address a group of angry early-American patriots.
But we have a pretty good idea now, having seen members of today's Congress try to explain health care reform to furious crowds back home.
You knew it had to happen, as soon as members of Congress left Washington for their August recess. They're starting to understand first-hand now how angry ordinary Americans have become about the wholesale tinkering-in-the-dark that Washington is doing with the nation's massive and vital health care system.
Congressman Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., was a deer in the headlights at a town hall meeting whose video is making the rounds. He could hardly get a word in -- and when he did, they weren't buying it.
"No one is talking about the government taking over health care," Bishop protested -- just before the crowd exploded in bitter disagreement.
And for good reason.
Several top Democrats have, indeed, talked about bringing about a day when the country has a disastrous single-payer system like Canada or Great Britain.
Including President Obama himself.
They realize that a public option -- a widespread tax-paid government health care plan -- would ultimately force out private insurance by undercutting it and by being an attractive dumping option for companies with private plans.
That's why Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said this in an unguarded video moment: "If we get a good public option, it could lead to single-payer, and that's the best way to reach single-payer."
That's the goal.
And who would that "single payer" be? The government.
They know that. And yet, Mr. Obama protests, as did Rep. Bishop, that, "Nobody's talking about some government takeover of health care."
Well, perhaps technically they're not talking about it. But they're working toward it -- and have talked about getting a single-payer system -- which would be a government takeover.
Here are Barack Obama's own words in 2003:
"I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal health care...That's what I'd like to see."
Again, "single payer" equals government. Period.
And, in 2007, he said this to his trade union friends: "I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately."
Remarkably, the White House this week tried to say Obama didn't really say those things. The White House Office of Misinformation claimed critics of the president were splicing together the president's words to mean something he did not intend.
That's a bald-faced lie, right out of Hanoi. It's clear to the most unsophisticated viewer that those video remarks were genuine and unaltered.
They are lying to you, plain and simple. They are lying about their intentions and about what they are doing.
In the process, they're impugning your own honor: Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., early this week tried to claim that the outrage members of Congress are seeing at town halls is contrived and manipulated by insurance companies.
Insulting Americans' integrity comes naturally for Durbin. He once compared our treatment of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis, Soviet gulags and the mass-murdering Pol Pot regime.
His facts aren't any better this time around. Note to Dick Durbin: Those mean, old "villainous" insurance companies that are supposedly ginning up opposition to the congressional health care proposals? They've actually endorsed them.
Durbin, Frank, Obama, Nancy Pelosi and all the rest want you to shut up and take their medicine. They can't believe Americans are angry enough about this to show up to town hall meetings and get in our public servants' faces.
Sort of like a deer doesn't believe headlights.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
I relocated to Augusta from N.Y... After watching this public meeting, I'm not so embarrassed by the fact. Finally they are 'getting it'
Here's a link to the meeting
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Congressman+Tim+Bishop%2C+D-...
check out whitehouse.gov and their blog response to the "lies" being told about the proposed healthcare programs.
For more than 10 years George Soros and organizations he's sponsored has been paying and busing protesters and "supporters" to various rallies around the country. When the administration now claims that the objections and complaints about it's actions are "contrived", they have an example to point to. More left wing projection. I'll bet it works on the entire choir.
Good article and right on the money.
So now, ACES, you say the government is lying to us. What next--a call to armed revolt???? I"ll tell you what's revolting and it ain't the government, it's the mob mentality on display at these meetings. These angry people you think are such patriots are being regularly duped by rightwing talk radio and Faux News. They are filled with misinformation and do not respond to reason. YOu're all paranoid.
Seems like todays Editorial should be praising President Clinton for bringing back the two Americans that were being held in North Korea instead of the same old right wing rhetoric. Anybody that woiuld believe this stuff has already made up their minds anyway. After eight years of the Bush Administration, it's a little late to be ringing the bell on " a lying Goverment".
Obama stated he would bankrupt any new coal fired power plants, cap and trade will do that. Obama stated he would engineer a one payer health care system (the vidio is on you tube), it would take 10 to 15 years. The health care purposals will end up doing just that. Then Obama thinks he can flimflam us into believing that isn't what he said. Who do you believe, him or your lying eyes?
great point of view hotfoot. If you don't bend over and take this "health care" proposal then you're paranoid. Brilliant! Thank you for your input.
Obama is a liar, and will say and do anything to push this county towards socialism. Durbin, Frank, and Pelosi will not be able to sidestep their participation in this movement, but the closer the 2010 election gets, watch out for the spin that will be employed on their benefit in order to try to save their political lives. The kool-aid drinkers are seeing the error of their ways and their regret is blossoming into anger displayed at these town hall meetings. Unfortunately there will be some the A.C.O.R.N. recruited voters who will continue to vote as they are told because they are not intelligent enough to be anything other shan sheeple. The reformed kool-aid drinkers however will be enough of a boost to run the liars out of Washington in 2010 and 2012.
If you think the people at these meetings are former "Koolaid drinkers", you're nuts, 55F-100...they're the same idiots who mobbed Palin's rallies and chanted racist and xenophobic slogans. If it makes you feel better to declare yourself more intelligent than those who continue to support the President, go ahead...but all you have to do is hear an interview with one of those "patriots" to know they're about two standard deviations below average. And rude, to boot.
Well, the spin on the protests last night from Rachel Maddow and MSNBC is that CORPORATIONS are orchestrating the protests. The buzz phrase for the radicals is now CORPORATIONS against the people. That was telling as were Barney Frank's remarks that he didn't care about corporations making money. Obama clearly told us he wants to do away with private insured health care. It's on, folks. Let's get ready to rumble. I'm all in. American capitalism is under attack as surely as what happened to Pearl Harbor to start WWII.
OBAMA -- spooky, frightening, shady, brainless, power-hungry. These are just a few adjectives for the president. Remember "Quiet Cal Coolidge"? Why doesn't Obama sit back and put his feet up. Stick to foreign policy and let capitalism run its own course. I personally researched three statements the man made about universal health care. All three were merely rhetorical jibberish. He thinks that just because he says it, the people will buy it (and many do), however; what many people fail to grasp is that the president is a master salesman. It's his job to appease the "what your country can do for you" segment of the population. Mr. President, please hug some babies and attend some PTA meetings at your childrens' school and LEAVE US ALONE.
I have a problem with anyone. on the right or left, shouting, screaming, and disrupting townhall meetings. If you want to ask your question or make your statement civilly, fine. If you want to hold a sign, wear a t-shirt or button with a slogan, fine.
Bring health-care reform to the voters in the next general election. Don't let Obama ram it down our throats. Let the voters decide just like we do on local referendums.
Something this big shouldn't be left up to 539 people to decide. I don't care if we did elect them to represent us. Bring it to a general election vote.
What do you mean debate the bill? Hurry up and pass the legislation. Quickly, quickly now, move on, whips cracking, dogs snapping at the line passing by. Discipline, look straight ahead, no talking. Obedience will reward you. We are going to give you health care. Men to the right, women to the left. Keep the line moving. Faster, faster.
LOL Riverman1
" We the people" is to be no longer. You will listen and do as your master wants and like it. " We the people" are too stupid to think or do for ourselves so we must let our government run every facet of our lives. " Change we can believe in" and if you don't like it, shut up and be a good sheeple now.
If these people came to the meetings debated with their congressman on the merits it would be fine. Actually they seem to want to shout down information about the bill. I mean if you really think the bill is bad force the congressman to talk about it for hours on in and dig his own ditch. If you shout them down people leave with the same opinion they had before they got there you can't build anymore support to oppose it. But the repubs have been lacking in strategy the last few election cycles so it is par for the course. I think corporations support this in conjuction with the tea partiers and Sarah Palin fans that shout crazy stuff at her rallies.
If the representatives would read the parts of the bill that have been completed and then talk about it that would be one thing. Pelosi gave democratic representatives cheat sheets so they can espouse her views nationwide. All they are doing is repeating and not really listening and honestly answering questions. That is what is starting the shouting matches, Congressmen who don't know what they are talking about and drumming out the party line.
concernednative, they have no interest in debating the currnt bills on their merits. Nor do they have any interest in reading policy analysis or ANYTHING
overburdened: "It shouldn't be up to 539 people to decide"? Typo? 435 in Congress, 100 in the Senate, if you add that the Pres has to sign, that's 536. Who am I missing? So much for being a Constitution based Federal Republic.
Civil discourse would be the best course, TL, if it would get the job done. First, you have to get the "representative's" attention. It's relatively easy to "buy off" 535 votes, especially since most in D.C. are self-serving. It's difficult to get the attention of someone that's already had their mind made up by a lobbyist. The general population must first make the "representative" fear for his job, THEN there's a chance for civil discourse. Right, the voter is being shouted down by the media and the current administration. (redundant ) I hope I have no punctuation out of place so you won't miss the point of my post.
Oops. Premature sending. What I was about to write was that they're not interested in reading anything that addresses the subject in a rational, critical (in the proper sense of the word) manner. What, ME READ? In short, they are not coming to these meetings for answers or to air their opinions respectfully, they are coming to disrupt and to get their angry mugs on TV. Since when is it patriotic to derail the political process?
opiner, the system was good enough for you BEFORE your side lost, now you're going to have to put up with it. Sure, write and call your elected representatives, write LTEs, have your silly "tea parties"....but remember that the country had its say in November. I'm sorry you're impatient (I was apoplectic for 8 years!) but this how democracy works.
TechLover - 3 reps for D.C. even though they can't vote they can influence the bill.
CNN has lied to you again hotfot. The people are at these meetings are there to insist that the representative ALSO read the bill. The people at the meetings are there with questions based on the pages posted by the committees that wrote them. Don't fall for that old filter.
Speaking with your reps. is also how democracy works in a democratic republic, hotfot. First, you have to get their attention. It's not a ball game. My side is America. Obama's isn't.
Once and for all, opiner, I DON'T WATCH CNN. I know that's one of your talking points--sorry to disappoint you.
You speak their words EXACTLY as they do. Is it just a coincidence? Their extremely slanted and well filtered point of view is hardly based on fact.