Last night, I attended a town hall meeting held by "Blue Dog" Democrat Lincoln Davis - my representative - in Columbia, Tennessee. It was the second of seven scheduled town halls that Davis is holding over this week and into next week.
It was a great experience, even though I came away still uneasy about how Davis will vote on H.R. 3200 (or whatever equally disastrous health care bill is ultimately put up for a vote in the House).
The meeting was held at Columbia State Community College, in the Waymon Hickman Building's Cherry Theater. News reports estimated the crowd at 500, and I'd say there were definitely that many, probably even a little more. The place was packed solid.
Although there was clearly a lot of emotion, anger, and frustration in the air, this was not an out-of-control, back-and-forth shouting match, a la Barney Frank or Arlen Specter. There were no union thugs on hand, at least none that I noticed - just a few UAW members, but they were just there to say their piece like everyone else in the room.
The format was such that the audience asked all the questions first, then Rep. Davis responded to them all at once at the end (he and his aide took notes while the questions were asked). There were two lines formed (one on each side of the auditorium), and it took nearly a full two hours just for everyone to work their way up to the microphone to ask their question or make their comments.
The vast majority of the crowd was against any sort of government takeover of health care - be it outright single-payer, the 'public option', or 'co-ops.' To be sure, there were more than a few people there in support of the public option. One pro-Obama woman even lamented that the Democrats are too conservative for her (the crowd got a kick out of that one). But the overwhelming sentiment was that H.R. 3200 should be torched right there on the spot (Davis had a printed-out copy in front of him on the table).
To his credit, Davis sat there very politely without saying a single word for nearly two hours, taking in what everyone had to say. Which is exactly what he should be doing at these meetings - listening to his constituents.
As you'll see in the video below, I had a little something to say to Davis myself. Here is what I had roughly outlined in my head (I was going from memory at the town hall, so it didn't come out verbatim like this, but it was pretty close):
I have two things I'd like to say – one question, but first a statement.
You describe yourself as a “Blue Dog” Democrat. That means you are supposed to be a fiscal conservative, and that you were elected mainly on the premise that you would act as a check on the more liberal wing of your party (Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, etc).
And yet you supported the $787 billion dollar so-called “stimulus” bill, which has done nothing to stimulate the economy. There is nothing fiscally conservative about that.
You supported the $410 billion dollar omnibus bill. There is nothing fiscally conservative about that.
You supported the $33 billion expansion of SCHIP. There is nothing fiscally conservative about that.
You supported the $3.5 trillion dollar FY10 budget. There is nothing fiscally conservative about that.
When Obama took office, the national debt was already at a record $455 billion dollars. Last month, it hit $1.3 trillion according to the Congressional Budget Office - and they predict will hit $1.8 trillion by September 30.
With all due respect, sir – you’re a phony when it comes to this "Blue Dog" business. [Yeah, I said that]. You need to get your act together fast and stop playing footsie with Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank! [This line is in the video]. You are supposed to be representing your constituents here in the Tennessee 4th!
Now my question:
Obama and your colleagues in Congress keep telling us there are 46, 47, 50 million uninsured Americans. That is wrong. When you factor out illegal immigrants, people who choose not to buy insurance (ex: young people), short-term uninsured, etc., the figure is more like 15 million uninsured Americans (give or take) who want/need insurance but cannot afford it. If we can’t trust you to be straightforward with us concerning a basic statistic like this, why should we trust you on other aspects of the health care issue?
Davis didn't answer my question on the '46 million uninsured Americans' statistic. But he did talk generally about debt. He mentioned that the national debt first approached $1 trillion under Ronald Reagan in 1981. Deficit spending continued under Reagan/Bush 41/Bush 43. Under Clinton? A projected surplus! So, he asked, where were you guys back then?
That was his answer to my question, I guess. And yeah, I get it - conservatives in the main probably weren't as vocal as they should have been about deficits back then (although to suggest they were silent is not correct either). But how that justifies Obama quadrupling an already record-high national debt in less than one year (and for what?!) is mind-boggling to me. It's just not a rational response. Plus, I specifically recall Democrats like Claire McCaskill carping about Bush's deficit spending during the election last year. Where are those voices on the left now? There is talk now about "deficit-neutrality" from Peter Orszag, the White House, and many Democrats - but what good is being deficit neutral after you've driven the economy over a cliff with staggering, unprecedented levels of pure deficit spending?
If the rest of Davis' town halls are like the one I attended last night, then he'll know exactly where his constituents stand on the health care issue, if he doesn't already. The rest is up to him. But if he ends up voting in favor of H.R. 3200 or anything close to it, it will be a deliberate thumb in the eye of the people he is supposed to be representing.
He seems to be toying with that idea.
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