Last night I attended a Health Care Town Hall meeting here in Bakersfield organized by my Congressman, Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield). Went with some trepidation because Bakersfield has long been something of a metastasized colony of red in California.
The reports that an electronic sign at the entrance to the meeting (in a gymnasium at the California State University, Bakersfield campus) advised "NO GUNS" should tell you what I was expecting. And I did and didn't find it.
In addition to the "no guns" rule, there were no signs allowed inside the gym either. A small group of about a dozen pro-public-option protestors were roped off in what looked like a "First Amendment Zone" across the roadway from the gym entrance. No teabagger signs in evidence.
Inside the crowd was estimated at 3000 (I think 2000 is probably nearer, but there were a lot). I would estimate about 95 percent of those present a) voted for Shrub twice and b) weren't going to go for that "socialist health care." The whole thing went very smoothly, because the people who disrupt town hall meetings elsewhere were overwhelmingly in the majority here. McCarthy got a standing ovation from about three-quarters of the crowd at the BEGINNING.
A repeated question from about several people there was how Congress could even consider any health-care bill. "Show me where it is in the Constitution" was a repeated demand. One pro-reform fellow put McCarthy somewhat on the spot to the point where he ALMOST admitted that Congress did have the authority before backing off somewhat. I'd advise folks to spike this one, if you get the chance, by asking directly "Will you go on record that the Congress does, in fact, have Constitutional authority to pass health care including a public option." If nothing else, get the Republicans to squirm a bit.
(By the way, the cordless microphones worked very badly with lots of jump-in-your-seat static, which allowed McCarthy to get away with repeating--and reframing--nearly every hostile question. One fellow said he had BEEN a health-insurance executive until the company found out he had MS, and less than six months later he was forced out, with a pre-existing condition that denied him care. His question of what he should do if he can't look to the government for help went unanswered.)
Several attendees announced their military service, one asking if he'd dodged rockets in WWII just to have a socialist takeover of the government today.
Being in the vast majority probably kept the wingnuts somewhat under control. Only one actually went so far as to call Obama a Communist, although another noted that a Communist was one of Obama's "advisors." Socialism got brought up a lot, although one public school teacher pointed out that schools, fire departments, etc were just as socialistic, and she asked that folks stop treating the word as if it were a final argument.
Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel got brought up in one of two mentions of the death-panel scenario that the elderly and crippled would be measured for social contributions before getting treatment. No mention that Emmanuel, regardless of his brother or his White House office, is not drafting the health-care proposals (he actually advocates something like what McCarthy was pushing, ironically, including phasing out Medicare. Of course, McCarthy would've been lynched on the spot if he'd opposed Medicare.
McCarthy was directly asked what the Republicans were proposing, and fell back on the "tax credits to buy insurance" line, coupled with references that the poor could be covered under MedicAid and S-CHIP (which he voted against, of course.) He made considerable hay out of the Republican committee proposal that Congress members be forced onto any public option that got passed.
He was big on regional or national markets for health insurance, comparing it repeatedly to auto insurance. To his credit, he also said that any reform would have to deal with the pre-existing-condition situation, although he didn't say flat out that insurers would be forced to accept such members at anything like an affordable rate.
He also semi-endorsed a tax credit of some sort for uncompensated care. (Which means the government would still be shelling out tax money as a repayment for health care--but I guess a foolish consistency is only the hobgoblin of Democratic minds.)
He was asked "how can you stop this thing," and replied that the turnout at Town Hall rallies was already doing that.
McCarthy distributed packets of information which included reply cards asking what health-care policies the attendees favored. "Public option" was not mentioned anywhere as a choice. While he didn't meantion health savings accounts, it was one of the options listed on the card.
Final analysis: waste of time (and it couldn't have been good for my blood pressure). No new information, no assaults or photos of "Moran"-type signs to report. McCarthy is a solid, up-and-coming Reeper who literally stepped into the shoes of Bill Thomas. If the GOP survives as a major party he'll be another Bill Thomas someday.