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Loebsack gets earful from raucous town hall crowd
Posted on Aug 15, 2009 by James Q. Lynch.
By James Q. Lynch
The Gazette
CEDAR RAPIDS – Even before 2nd District Rep. Dave Loebsack’s town hall meeting started Saturday morning, the crowd of more than 500 people demonstrated they weren’t there just to hear what he had to say.
They wanted to deliver a message. Or several messages.
Rep. Dave Loebsack
When Mount Vernon Republican Emma Nemecek help up her homemade “Obama lies/Grandma dies” sign, Ballantyne Auditorium at Kirkwood Community College erupted in cheers and boos and more sign waving. “No government option” and “Obama you kill me” signs were matched with “Health care now” “Health care is your birthright” placards.
Encouraging the overflow audience to be respectful, people were asked to introduce themselves to those around them. Loebsack staffer Kirsten Running-Marquardt said “all are welcome in a peaceful manner.”
Not everyone was peaceful, according to Cedar Rapids Police Lt. Tobey Harrison. Two people were removed after their disagreement became physical, he said. Both returned to the auditorium after police talked to them.
It was evident from the first question that many in the audience felt they were being disrespected.
“Are you listening?” asked Shelley Ask of Cedar Rapids, who said she feels President Obama is “laughing at us.” She asked Loebsack to consider free-market health-care solutions, including tort reform, rather than a “government-run, government-written” health-care plan.
Loebsack agreed he doesn’t want “something completely government-run,” but favors a public option, an alternative to private insurance coverage.
Loebsack, a second term Democrat, spent a good deal of the hour-long forum responding to various objections to the health-care proposals Congress is debating. He said no federal funds would be used to pay for abortions and health-care providers would not be forced to provide abortions. The federal government would not ration health-care, he added.
He answered one question pointing out there is bipartisan agreement on a number of key points, including a prohibition on insurance companies denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
Along the way, he defended Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who one questioner accused of lying about “death panels” that would make end-of-life decisions. Grassley never mentioned “death panels,” Loebsack said, but may have been wrong in his characterization of the bill when he told an Iowa audience “(We) should not have a government-run plan to decide to pull the plug on grandma.”
If those who opposed Loebsack’s positions on health-care reform were not the majority, they were more vocal than supporters and their frustration went beyond health-care.
Those frustrations reached a crescendo when Lori Tritle of Cedar Rapids told Loebsack she was “deeply offended” by Obama’s recent comment he didn’t “want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to just get out of the way so we can clean up the mess.”
“I will not shut up and get out of the way for any president — Democrat or Republican,” said Tritle, who is part of a group, Political Changes Needed. “In last seven months we put up with bailouts, a stimulus that didn’t work, the omnibus, $2 million for a pig poop study, cap-and-tax, the GM takeover, the bank takeover, the list goes on.
“We’ve had enough. We really have had enough,” Tritle said.
“First of all, I’m not going to tell anyone to shut up,” Loebsack replied, adding that Tritle had “expressed in a nutshell a lot of concerns that a lot of folks have today about all these different programs.”
Although it’s too soon to tell whether it will work, Loebsack said, he stands by his vote for the $787 billion stimulus.
“We needed to turn this country around, to first make sure we were not going to slide further into a recession, possibly a depression,” he said.
He assured the audience he was listening to them and on health-care reform would consider their concerns before voting on “whatever we end up with, if we end up with anything at all.”
And whatever Congress ends up voting on, Loebsack said, “whether it is government-run or single-payer or whatever the case may be, I believe this is truly an American solution.”
That brought the first of his 16 town hall meetings to a raucous conclusion.
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Loebsack has already made up his mind. He doesn't have the guts to vote against the the Health Care Bill, Cap and Trade, Card Check, and Immigration Bill. He doesn't represent the people of this District. He needs to be defeated next year.
Well, SJ1, as usual you're completely out of touch with reality. Mr. Loebsack MOST CERTAINLY represents my views–and, in case you weren't tracking too well last November, he also represents the opinions of the MAJORITY of voters in his district.
Far be it from me, however, ever to suggest that a savant like you might be living in La-la Land…
Well La-la Land tells me that Ram Emanuel and Nancy Pelosi have already told Mr Dave that if he wants any more federal dollars for flood recovery he has to vote for the Bills. That's called the Chicago Way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You call it the Chicago way and I call it a sick fantasy.
Precisely, ctiger. Ol' SJ kinda makes the point with no help from anybody else. That tinfoil hat is in rare form.
But I do like that little propeller on top of it. SJ is not merely out of touch with reality, he is more than a little disturbed.
It was not Beer that made this country great, it is the ability (RIGHT) to disagree, which you don't have in a lot of other countries.
This is my opinion, not any group or government.
These agitators are the same folks who blow up clinics and parks and courthouses and believe assassination is a legitimate tactic to reach their goals. They are terrorist and have no sense of the meaning of democracy or debate. They are the Christian Taliban.
"I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration"..
Hillary Clinton, 2003
And I agree ABSOLUTELY with that assertion! However, it takes at least minimal command of facts and reality to debate. SJ, you seldom possess either. One should, it seems to me, have some knowledge of what one disagrees with and why before launching into full bellowing mode.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions. It's amazing how people just drink the kool-aid and don't check things out for themselves. I can see some people have been devout students of Saul Alinsky and practice his tactics whenever they can. Well give it your best shot!
FINALLY we agree, but not for the same reasons.
The people who have begun to follow Alinsky's (DATED!) theories are no longer on the left, but rather on the far right. Many of their sponsoring organizations–and don't give me that guff that there are no such groups–are richly rewarded by those who stand to lose a great deal of money if health care reform is enacted.
So the bottom line is that these loudmouths are nothing more than megaphones for big business and big insurance.
It IS right out of Alinsky, but they're not doing it very well. As with almost everything they do, they may have READ Alinsky, but they have not understood him very well.
Besides, the far left gave up on those tactics decades ago, and real liberals never used them in the first place.
Forgot to mention the Mob connections Obama has. Even Bill Clinton refered to Obama as a "Chicago Thug"
You forgot Obama's nice little deal with Pharma. You forgot Obama's nice little deals with GE, Golden Sachs, Citcorp, Faanie Mae, Freddy Mac etc. Both sides have ties to business. In Politics there are no Virgins! Acorn is the Enforcement Branch of the Obama Family. It's criminal history is impressive. I don't recall any Republican group having that much criminal misconduct. And Finally let's not rewrite History. A Radical is a Radical , these people are Liberals, Communists, Socialists, Elitlists etc. Saul Alinsky is still used by Obama and Acorn, Rules for Radicals is their bible.
The folks that have the most money to lose are, I believe, behind much of the town hall meeting anger and misinformation. It is, however, a critical aspect of free speech to provide public forums to allow the boil to come to a head so it can be popped. "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." ; Voltaire
You can give up screaming at No-sack Loebsack. He's made up his mind and he'll vote with his party. He doesnt have the spine to face down Pelosi. Best we can hope for is no government option and no co-op. But thank you to those that did stand and did scream. Thats what this country was built on.
Oh–and whose wife was running against Mr. Obama?
Like I said earlier, there are No Virgins in Politics
This is so far off base that a reasonable answer is impossible.