rssDNC Goes After ‘Sham’ Town Hall Protests
Wednesday, August 05, 2009 at 11:18 am
- 16 Comments
The Democratic National Committee is keeping up its attacks on skeptical voters showing up at congressional town halls, using this week to define them the way that conservatives defined anti-Iraq War protesters in 2003: as angry fringe extremists. It’s just sent out a new donation email that’s framed as a fact sheet on the protests.
Whole email below the fold:
Friend –
There’s been a lot of media coverage about organized mobs intimidating lawmakers, disrupting town halls, and silencing real discussion about the need for real health insurance reform.
The truth is, it’s a sham. These “grassroots protests” are being organized and largely paid for byWashington special interests and insurance companies who are desperate to block reform. They’re trying to use lies and fear to break the President and his agenda for change.
Health insurance reform is about our lives, our jobs, and our families — we can’t let distortions and intimidation get in the way. We need to expose these outrageous tactics, and we’re counting on you to help. Can you read these “5 facts about the anti-reform mobs,” then pass them along to your friends and family?
5 facts about the anti-reform mobs
1. These disruptions are being funded and organized by out-of-district special-interest groups and insurance companies who fear that health insurance reform could help Americans, but hurt their bottom line. A group run by the same folks who made the “Swiftboat” ads against John Kerry is compiling a list of congressional events in August to disrupt. An insurance company coalition has stationed employees in 30 states to track where local lawmakers hold town-hall meetings.
2. People are scared because they are being fed frightening lies. These crowds are being riled up by anti-reform lies being spread by industry front groups that invent smears to tarnish the President’s plan and scare voters. But as the President has repeatedly said, health insurance reform will create more health care choices for the American people, not reduce them. If you like your insurance or your doctor, you can keep them, and there is no “government takeover” in any part of any plan supported by the President or Congress.
3. Their actions are getting more extreme. Texas protesters brought signs displaying a tombstone for Rep. Lloyd Doggett and using the “SS” symbol to compare President Obama’s policies to Nazism. Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil was hanged in effigy outside his district office. Rep. Tim Bishop of New York had to be escorted to his car by police after an angry few disrupted his town hall meeting — and more examples like this come in every day. And they have gone beyond just trying to derail the President’s health insurance reform plans, they are trying to “break” the President himself and ruin his Presidency.
4. Their goal is to disrupt and shut down legitimate conversation. Protesters have routinely shouted down representatives trying to engage in constructive dialogue with voters, and done everything they can to intimidate and silence regular people who just want more information. One attack group has even published a manual instructing protesters to “stand up and shout” and try to “rattle” lawmakers to prevent them from talking peacefully with their constituents.
5. Republican leadership is irresponsibly cheering on the thuggish crowds. Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner issued a statement applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to “a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress.”
It’s time to expose this charade, before it gets more dangerous. Please send these facts to everyone you know. You can also post them on your website, blog, or Facebook page.
Now, more than ever, we need to stand strong together and defend the truth.
Thanks,
Jen
Jen O’Malley Dillon
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee
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16 Comments
Pingback posted August 5, 2009 @ 3:20 pm
[...] DNC Goes After ‘Sham’ Town Hall Protests – The Washington Independent.comThe Democratic National Committee is keeping up its attacks on skeptical voters showing up at congressional town halls, using this week to define them the way that conservatives defined anti-Iraq War protesters in 2003: as angry fringe extremists. It [...]
Comment posted August 5, 2009 @ 4:12 pm
i guess it would be redundant to say…”Meet the new boss”
Comment posted August 5, 2009 @ 5:31 pm
I'm not being paid and I am going to protest. I don't like the bill. It's not sustainable and we can't pay for it. California is letting 40,000? convicts out of jail because they can't support the medical requirements. If we can't support the convicts, can we realistically support everyone in the US? I certainly don't want the government to have my medical records, which they will if this “single Payer” system is enacted. I certainly don't trust the fed's ability to comply with HIPAA's Security and Privacy acts. You've demonstrated well enough that you leak CIA information and other classified documents, you compromise VA information. How will you protect us?
So the democrats are trying to say that people who protest are being paid? Sorry but that's a crock because no one I know is being paid and I haven't found anyone who supports it as it is currently written.
Obama's policies are bordering on socialist. No question about that.
I don't think anyone is trying to “break” the presidency and ruin it. That's certainly not in anyone's self interest. But I certainly don't want legisaltion that hasn't been read and debated properly in an open public forum being pushed through whether it is Republican or Democrat. Especially when it's not fiscally responsible and the delivery has obvious and outright lies as to what willhappen and the outcomes.
Comment posted August 5, 2009 @ 5:51 pm
You're not getting paid for carrying Blue Shield and Aetna's water? What was that term conservatives used to describe anti war protestors before Bush's war of choice? Oh yeah, useful idiots.
Funny how you fiscal responsibility scolds only show up when a Democrat is in the White House.
And, your talking points are bordering on delusional. No question about that…
Comment posted August 5, 2009 @ 6:50 pm
Funny thing about this. It's not an either/or proposition. You can be against the public option reform, and STILL think there needs to be health care reform. Being contra hastily drafted legislation does not a water boy make. I do think conservatives fell down during Bush's wild spending spree. Much like I feel that liberals are silent when Obama continues much of Bush's anti-transparency policies.
Comment posted August 5, 2009 @ 10:40 pm
Sustainability is a red herring in this case. All it takes is a small reconsideration of national priorities. Revoke the Bush II tax cuts and that's ten years of national single payer health care. Make the marginal tax rates progressive again, even by changing them back to the levels of the Reagan era, and it is covered for a century. Cancel a war or two or a weapons program and you get another quarter century of national health care coverage. People get scared because the numbers are so big, but in a pinch any problem can be solved and if democracy is in play, shortcomings can be fixed.
Think about how much money we wasted trying to overthrow foreign governments or bomb peoples into liking us or stealing their resources and keeping them in check redirected to helping people and fulfilling the dreams of our founding fathers-promoting the general welfare and securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
Comment posted August 6, 2009 @ 4:36 am
“You can be against the public option reform, and STILL think there needs to be health care reform.”
So what's YOUR idea of health reform other than public option?
Comment posted August 6, 2009 @ 11:16 am
Well, it's getting out in the drive-by media now.
From David Hahn, “Publisher StatePaper.com ” August 5, 2009.
Publisher: Obama Should Produce Original Birth Certificate
At StatePaper.com, we know by making this statement we will be instantly tagged as “racist,” “birther,” or other pejorative terms by those who defend the President of the United States. We often defend the President and the job he is doing and are regularly lambasted for being “too liberal” or an “Obama lover” by some of our most prolific critics.
But, here is the issue:
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of our country. Article II of the Constitution requires the President to be a natural born citizen. Without reciting them here, there appears to be some serious questions raised about whether President Obama was born in the United States or Kenya. We have not checked sources, but there are reports that some witnessed his birth in Kenya.
The President's campaign staff and then his administration have released and placed on the internet a “Certificate of Live Birth.” We do not dispute the validity or correctness of that document as others have tried to do, suggesting the use of computers to alter seals and names. By releasing this document the President agrees that the claims about his status as a natural born citizen is an open, important, public issue.
But, this “Certificate of Live Birth” is simply not the best evidence that the President and his administration could offer to lay to rest any doubt about his status as a natural born citizen.
Barack Obama is a lawyer and a graduate of Harvard Law School. All law students study the body of law we call “Evidence.” One of the core tenets of American law is the “best evidence rule” which requires the production of original, or certified copies, of original document to prove a fact. Abstracts and summaries are not original documents.
The President has offered an abstract (Certificate) of his birth, but not an original birth certificate which would be the best evidence of his birth. We need the best evidence so that it can do what the best evidence is meant to do; dispel the doubts about a fact. We need to see the Birth Certificate. That's the one that is often handwritten and signed by the doctor.
Lawyers and legal thinkers will, obviously, argue the finer points of the “Best Evidence Rule” and its applicability to this matter. But, that misses the point. The notion of “Best Evidence” is solidly-grounded in law. This is an important public matter and it seems now that the President has started down the path of offering some evidence (Certificate of Live Birth), he should offer the “best evidence” (Original Birth Certificate) which is the source document for his birth. The document behind the document which has been released. This is what is needed now in the court of public knowledge.
The fact in question here is the constitutional qualification of the President of the United States to hold office. With a simple nod, the President could offer the American people the best evidence, the source document(s), as he learned about at Harvard, and dispel those who question his birth as a natural born citizen. His failure to provide this best evidence, when it could be so easily done, raises only more questions, which fuels an ugly public debate.
I guess there are some things that not even a journalism school graduate can stomach.
Comment posted August 6, 2009 @ 12:38 pm
Glad you asked.
We could tax healthcare benefits as we do with any other income. This is affectively a subsidy for the healthcare industry, and (for many) unnecessarily ties healthcare to employment. Reform insurance laws to allow insurers to provide the same policies across state lines. Reform AMA licencesure requirements to allow nurse practitioners act as primary care. Promote and expand the HSA program. I was on such a program until recently. It works like a catastrophic plan (high deductible), but with a pre-tax savings account where the money rolls over year after year. Reform FDA regs to give high risk patients access to developmental drugs and also to streamline the drug approval process. The whole co-pay for an office visit model of insurance is nonsensical. Health insurance should cover expensive procedures not routine maintenance. Additionally, the gov't could offer vouchers and/or tax rebates for those uninsured who fall below a certain income level.
Will any of these ideas be enacted? No. Will they even be debated? No. Dems and current public option supporters do not want debate. They just want their damn bill passed.
Comment posted August 6, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
“Dems and current public option supporters do not want debate.”
Gee, i didn't know the town hall protester is a “dem” /Sarcasm.
Comment posted August 6, 2009 @ 5:17 pm
LaLee, thanks
A commenter at Weigel's last place of employment makes a great case for the “sham” protests: http://www.reason.com/blog/show/135251.html#134…
Comment posted August 6, 2009 @ 6:22 pm
Tuci, you loveable little Paulbot moron, an opinion column in a web-only college newspaper is the best you can come up with?
Comment posted August 7, 2009 @ 1:35 pm
I reported that letter to the flag email address since it's full of lies and disinformation
Pingback posted August 7, 2009 @ 10:10 pm
[...] [...]
Comment posted August 10, 2009 @ 11:51 pm
You dopes are incorragable. Your 5 facts about anti-reform mobs above above is total bogus left-wing bullshit. You didn't even get into naming the 5, and the protesters have become “mobs”. Gimme a break. Not one specific example. Not one name. Not one antecdote. Your story is nothing but a lot of hot air. It's okay when the leftists protest – it's patriotism, it's old-fashioned demonstrating, blah – blah -blah. BUT – when the righties/centrists/independents/libertarians do it – ITS FUCKING ANTI-AMERICAN THUGS and MOBS!!!! Fuck you!
Comment posted August 11, 2009 @ 4:17 pm
Being a Utah health insurance underwriter for http://www.BenefitsManager.net and http://www.DentalInsuranceUtah.net I have the opportunity to consult within many state insurance committee meetings. Some interesting changes took place in Utah with the passage of House Bill 188 that other states should pay attention to and perhaps the federal legislation. The bill created a state insurance pool requiring private health insurance carriers to come together and underwrite risk. Through governmental guidelines (which I have traditionally opposed in the past) they created a arena of underwriting rules that essentially guarantees the participating insurance carriers a ?no loss? or ?no gain? over each other. What this essentially means is that they pool the underwriting medical risk and spread it evenly among each carrier. All the sudden, we see guaranteed issued policies. We see rates drop by as much as 13% In Utah, our average monthly family rate is $867 for a $500 deductible plan. Some of the family rates within the ?Utah Insurance Exchange Portal? are approaching $700.00 now. To see more of HB 188 and see how Utah wrangled change without increasing taxes or rationing go to: http://www.prweb.com/releases/utah_health_insur…
The private insurance sector can be corralled into cooperation where they can meet their goals. You have to understand that health insurance carriers are only looking for a 4-5% administration fee. That is it and they are more efficient as compared to a governmental portal that will cost more money. Take a look at Utah folks!
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