Campbell crowd jeers plan at Perriello town hall
RUSTBURG — A Campbell County audience gave Rep. Tom Perriello a loud and clear demonstration Friday night of what it thought of the health care proposals pending in Congress.
Most people didn’t like them.
“This is socialism,” one speaker said, as a round of cheers and jeers filled the Rustburg High School auditorium.
Another speaker insisted the health care bill would give the government access to people’s bank accounts. Perriello replied, “If there’s any ambiguity about that, it should be cleaned up” in the legislation and “the federal government shouldn’t get access to bank accounts.”
Another speaker said, “Sarah Palin was right. There are death panels” in the legislation’s section 123, page 30. “It says a government panel will decide what treatment people get,” the speaker said.
Few of the speakers introduced themselves during the first, and loudest, hour of the 19th town hall meeting Perriello, D-5th District, has held during Congress’ August recess. As the meeting continued into its third hour, the crowd grew quieter.
Attendance probably exceeded 350, although a good estimate was difficult because people came and went.
One woman brought a copy of HR3200, the legislation she called “the 1,017-page Obama death care bill” that she objected to on “legal, moral, constitutional” and other grounds.
Her comments brought the crowd to its feet cheering.
When another speaker thanked Perriello for holding the meeting, a few people applauded. That speaker went on to criticize Perriello, saying he has “voted with Nancy Pelosi 90 percent of the time,” bringing another round of cheers. Pelosi is speaker of the House.
Perriello responded with a list of times he has not voted with the Democratic leadership.
He’s voted 10 times to investigate Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a congressman known for steering federally funded projects to his district, Perriello said.
“I don’t have any trouble voting against party lines,” Perriello said.
Another speaker challenged, “You are not a ruler, you are my employee.”
Perriello agreed that he’s an employee, and then added that he has 650,000 constituents who are all his bosses.
“It’s clear that this room seems pretty united against HR3200,” Perriello said. “That is not the opinion of my constituents as a whole.”
A few speakers said they were in favor of a “public option” choice for obtaining health care protection, but those speakers also said they wanted a health care bill that allows people who have private insurance to keep it.
Another speaker said she thought more than half of the audience was, like her, receiving Social Security and Medicare. “Both of those programs are socialist,” she said, and went on to say they are the reasons she and her husband have been able to keep their home and car.
One speaker who did give his name was John Parrish, of Altavista.
“I came to thank you” for having the meeting, Parrish told Perriello, “but I have changed my mind. You’ve talked twice as much as you’ve listened. You say what Obama wants you to say and not what the people of Campbell County want you to say.”
Perriello’s last town hall meeting will be Monday at 6 p.m. in Appomattox.
Reader Reactions
TO ESMONT RE:
“These angry people just surround themselves with only each other all the time and then think that they are the majority. Being the loudest in your own venue doesn’t make you the majority of the constituency.“
RIGHT YOU ARE! But the for-profit hospitals and for-profit health care insurance providers plant many of these people at each meeting, and the obscenely-for-profit healthcare insurance industry and for-profit hospitals issue them a script to follow by which to heckle, abuse and shout down those supporting healthcare reform, especially the dreaded single-payer system, because this kind of legislation will force them to change their greedy monopolistic ways and actually COMPETE for our dollars and take care of us! They are well aware of the power of the media and know that the more it appears these angry and mostly manufactured people are the majority, the more “support” they can claim.
But it gets even scarier. . . . . . . In the 1990s, Tom DeLay and his cohorts in the Republican leadership struck a bargain with Washington’s lobbyists that legally skirted the corruption laws and is still successful: If the lobbyists helped to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to support and re-elect Republicans and help them to preserve their majority in Congress, DeLay would invite them into the legislative process and allow them to PROPOSE ENTIRE BILLS AND SUGGEST CHANGES TO LEGISLATION PROPOSED BY OTHERS.
The GOP desperately wants retain power so they can keep their noses in the trough, and the for-profit healthcare providers and insurance companies want to keep their obscene profits, so both consider the health and welfare of the average American expendable to this goal. It is only the wealthy majority the GOP wants to preserve (and both government officials and their well-off GOP supporters can afford the uber-expensive best private insurance). The Republicans and the for profit healthcare and insurance industries are fused together in a remarkable money-making scam—the GOP won’t kill the golden goose that’s helping to fund them and the for-profit insurance and healthcare industry keeps raking in even more obscene profits!!! Besides, if insurance companies deny treatment to those they believe to be terminally ill or have pre-existing conditions, it gets rid of the drain on their hugh profits and the people who need their insurance payments to kick in the most! And when the sick drop dead from their inability to pay for expensive drugs and treatment because the insurance companies deny them coverage, the industry pockets even more money! (By the way, the insurance companies that practice this should be charged with attempted murder, as should healthcare providers that dump ill U.S. citizens out on the street.)
THUS CONTINUES THE GREAT AMERICAN SCAM AND GIVEAWAY of our tax dollars, and the for-profit insurance companies and the for-profit healthcare providers want you to believe that it’s those “evil” Democrats that want to kill your grandmother and create debt. The B.S. goes on and Americans continue to be screwed by their corrupt government. OF COURSE THE REPUBLICANS AND FOR-PROFIT INSURANCE AND HEALTHCARE COMPANIES DON’T WANT HEALTH CARE REFORM!!!! THEIR ENORMOUS CASH COW WOULD BE SLAUGHTERED!!!!
Some of you right wing radicals really need to work on your reading comprehension before you go on crazy rants. I never said that any particular town hall was not representative of town halls in general or any specific grass roots movement. What i said was, the people at town halls are mostly a specific segment of society and are NOT representative of the entire population. To think so is really naive, obtuse and conceited.
HERE IS WHY:
The vast majority of people who are able to go are those who are retired, especially those able to get there early enough to get in line to speak during the first 3 hours.
Also, people who are very very angry (about whatever) are much more likely to attend. Those like myself, who feel generally positive about the reform and confident that something will pass, don’t feel the need to go and waste time listening to crazy Glenn Beck inspired rants (2 minutes hate anyone?). These angry people just surround themselves with only each other all the time and then think that they are the majority. Being the loudest in your own venue doesn’t make you the majority of the constituency.
most moderates, liberals, youth, middle aged people, working people ect are much less likely to attend a meeting because they are not ANGRY, and thus have better things to do. Just because you surround yourself with right wing angry people, doesn’t mean that is all there is in the world
God created angels. The devil is a fallen angel, so this shows that God allows his creations to have a choice whether to believe and follow or not. The devil chose not to follow which many of God’s other creations have also chosen.
You say that Christians are trying to take over this country. Maybe if we had more true Christians speaking out this country would not be in the moral decadence it is. This country was founded by Christians and to say it is not a Christian nation is just ludicrous. As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia said, “If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is a part of our culture.“
“Post to Imprimis: Go Imprimis! But be careful … don’t sink to the liberal level and name-call. Your comments were too good … you didn’t need the last sentence.“
I reviewed all of my posts to see what you were talking about, and (upon mature reflection), I LIKE all of my last sentences. So we’ll just have to live with it!
Bob McDonnell must go shopping for a saddle and a bridle as soon as possible because the majority of women in the United States, ESPECIALLY VIRGINIA think he’s a real H _ _ SE’S A _S!!!
Barry Goldwater warned us many years ago about the religious right taking over the GOP. He said (on the record!) that he feared for America if the “religious nuts” begin to guide the party. The following is an excerpt from today’s news and has been edited as to length (P.S.: Bob McDonnell WILL go forward with mining uranium in Virginia, which is another reason not to give him any power whatsoever, except the power to shut and lock his door at the asylum):
“I would like to bring your attention to a 93-page research paper written by Republican Bob McDonnell. In it he speaks about a Christian conservative worldview that criticizes “cohabitators, homosexuals and fornicators” and described working women and feminists “detrimental” to family values.
The thesis was called The Republican Party’s Vision for the Family: The Compelling Issue of the Decade. It laid out very explicitly his vision for the role of government as well as his vision for a social agenda that should dominate governance, and it even went beyond just a personal political philosophy. It had a 15-point action plan for how to implement that philosophy.
Meanwhile, back at the farm, the family values argument plays out as yet one more hypocritical montage after another. A heterogeneous mixture of damning anyone else’s lifestyle except his own, because his way is guaranteed to get you into those pearly gates of heaven.
McDonnell’s newly-discovered 1989 graduate thesis is quite a revelation. He is in good company with professional political martyrs like Sarah Palin, striking the hot chord of damnation for all sinners, which also coincides with other famous predictions for two-thousand and twelve’s apocalypse prophecy that foretells the end of the world!!!!
It makes us wonder just how far the “bible thumpers” will go to aggressively push their beliefs upon those of us who do not share them? Or a better question is, just how long will it be before people recognize this hateful pontification for what it truly is: dogmatic and inflexible ideology.
McDonnell would have us believe it is bad to progress. It is bad to evolve. It is bad to be tolerant of others. It is bad to think critically. It is bad to empathize, understand, and intellectualize the differences between human beings. And most importantly, God hates some of his own creations.”
Post to: KeithandMegan
Go KeithandMegan!
No, really, I mean GO! Your TEN POSTS IN A ROW are holding up traffic. Even you lost count after Post No 6.
Get moving. Beep! Beep!
Post to southernlady: Go southernlady!
My ancestors came over on the Mayflower and also fled England from religious persecution. Yes, my bloodline has been confirmed and documented too. You really seem to “get it.” The others haven’t a clue as to what the founding of America was all about.
Post to lablover: Go lablover!
Post to Imprimis: Go Imprimis! But be careful … don’t sink to the liberal level and name-call. Your comments were too good … you didn’t need the last sentence.
Post to G Rotten: Go Rotten! But you’ve gotten it half-right. Health nutritional habits are the way to go; however, they might reduce the chances but will still not keep you from becoming sick and eventually die. Remember genetics and environment play a large part in healthcare. Our current system is broken but, instead of crying for handouts to legislators, cry out for tort reform and cry out to the private insurance, pharmaceutical and medical industries. Government DeathCare will be worse than what anyone in the US has experienced. Back in the 1990s the people overwhelmingly cried out against HillaryCare but the government silenced them before the grassroots had an opportunity to let the free market run its course. Bill Clinton was successful in deceiving some into thinking that government handouts were the answer. History is now repeating itself … similar to when the 32nd President of the US, Franklin D. Roosevelt, used government intervention back in 1932 during the depression to “rebound” the economy. He also called it relief, recovery and reform. Had he left the economy alone and government had not interfered by sucking the life out of the free market, most economists now agree that the economy would have rebounded faster.
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