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Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Rich Galen :: Townhall.com Columnist
Just Say No!
by Rich Galen
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Will Congress pass Obamacare by the end of the year?

The House has already headed home for its August break, but the Senate is still in session. Among other things, the Senate will hold a confirmation vote this week on Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court which she will be when the Court opens for business on the first Monday in October probably with 65 or so votes.

But, it's the House which is made the news on the first day of their "District Work Period." A number of Members held town hall meetings which in most cases are nothing more than opportunities for them to remind their constituents that they are back there in Washington trying beat back the crazy (choose one) Left or Right wingers from destroying this great nation of ours.

Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin FREE

For most folks a sitting Member of Congress is the most senior public official with whom they will ever be in the same room - except if they live in Iowa or New Hampshire in which case, sooner or later, they will have beeen in the same room with every sitting Senator in their lifetime.

So, town halls meetings are generally pretty easy going things. Members of the House generally know enough of their constituents so they can call on friendly faces to ask public policy questions about which the Member knows way more than the constituent and so can sound very smart, concerned, and well-informed.

Except for yesterday when a number of Members had town hall meetings at which the Obama Health Care Plan (OHCP) came up followed by shouting and chanting, followed by at least one Member of Congress scooting out of his own town hall meeting only to be followed by those same shouting and chanting constituents.

The Member of Congress in question here is Lloyd Doggett of Texas. His district includes Austin which is so liberal that I was once quoted as saying there are more committed Communists in Travis County than there are left in the Kremlin.

CBS News pointed out that "although Texas went for Republican John McCain in last year's election, Doggett's district voted for Mr. Obama by almost a 20 point margin."

This liberal district in this liberal city is the place where his constituents shouted "Just Say No!" to Obama care and chased the Congressman out of the hall.

Meanwhile, up in Philadelphia Democratic Senator Arlen Specter held a town hall meeting with the Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius on Sunday. According to the Fox News website they were "booed and jeered" by audience members.

At one point, Specter explained that the way he deals with these 1,000 page bills is to split it up amongst the staff and they read sections and report to him. Continued...
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About The Author

Rich Galen has been a press secretary to Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich. Rich Galen currently works as a journalist and writes at Mullings.com

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(14 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: Aug 5, 2009 - 10:45 AM EST
PGA301
I know for a fact people have been declined coverage because of taking three daily medications, people have been declined coverage for pre-existing conditions and for some they can't get coverage at ANY COST. If you don't think this is true, then I can't help you.

But even if not this is what is going to happen. Insurance companies will no longer be able deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, nor raise rates due to age, nort put older, sicker people in one pool and younger, and less sick people in other pools. To trade off is that it will also force everyone to have insurance no matter if they want it or not just like today most states (if not all states) require of car insurance.

I never said I agree with this or not, I am just telling you what is going to happen.

They will call this health care reform and declare victory. Already the have shifted the focus from health care (which many Americans that have private healthcare are satisfied with) to health insurance (which most Americans hate as much as Al Qaeda).

I am not a Democrat either.

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Reply # 2
Date: Aug 5, 2009 - 9:00 AM EST
It is Later than You Think
I usually don't read anything written by Rich Galen. Tactically, he is usually so far off the mark, that it should not surprise anyone that his two most visible clients, Quayle & Gingrich, did NOT fare well in the public eye. I had hoped that he might have learned something, since I last read him; but alas, that is not the case.

Using Lloyd Doggett, Member of Congress from Austin, Texas, as his prime example, Galen confidently makes the blanket statement that the town hall meetings have the “… real effect on public policy. No amount of arm twisting by the Democratic House leadership and no amount of angry phone calls from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel will offset 400 angry constituents at a town hall meeting.”

Using his own example, Doggett, and other leftists like him, comfortably ensconced in “safe” districts, will NOT pay any attention to the very real visceral reaction of mainstream America, to the wholesale transformation of the greatest health care system in the world to a National Socialistic system. While I think that the vote will be somewhat closer than the Obamatrons would have liked, I think that the neo-Marxists will permit last minute amendments of their plan to get part (maybe 75%) of their plan approved. This is in keeping with their patient adherence to incrementalism, as a prime tactic, in order to eventually get their very radical ideas implemented in this country.

If America, including Galen and his most visible former client, Newt Gingrich, don’t embrace, rather than run from, the “Party of No” appellation, instead of cozy couch sessions and compromise with the likes of Comrade Pelosi (and others) over seminal issues like the Global Warming Scam, the neo-Marxists will eventually prevail. As another poster here said, the answer is not “Just Say No”, it is “Hell No!”
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