Unfortunatly I wasn't aware of this meeting or I'd have gone. I'd love to get in the face of one of the morons. Seems the shouters have a better network.
"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.
(2 of 2)
Dingell, D-Dearborn, remained calm as he tried to answer his critics' questions.
Dingell told the crowd -- many of whom wouldn't believe it -- that the bill won't pay for abortions.
"The government wants to control my body, my health care decisions and the doctors I see," said Christine Wofford, 56, of Canton, who distributed literature from the Liberty Council, a Lynchburg, Va., religious civil rights law firm.
The interruptions continued with virtually every question Dingell answered. Many Dingell supporters pleaded, "Let him speak," even as others yelled louder and shouted more.
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."
http://www.freep.com/article/20090807/NEWS06/908070387/Tempers-flare-over-health-carePhotos from event:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=C4&Date=20090806&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=908060806&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=1
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
