Thursday, August 27, 2009

Response from Chris Carney

[Several of us have gotten the following email response to letters we've sent to Chris Carney (PA-10) in support of healthcare reform. The response is somewhat encouraging in that, in the opening paragraphs, he acknowledges the current problems and the need for reform. It is somewhat discouraging, however, that he refers to the house bill (H.R. 3200) but never states whether he is for or against it, and he mentions some other bill (H.R. 2360) that I've never heard of but which sounds like a competitor to H.R. 3200. We need to keep the pressure on Mr. Carney to remind him how important it is that he support the bill that includes a public option.]

Dear ___,
Thank you for your message supporting health insurance reform. Hearing from the people of northeast and central Pennsylvania is an integral part of my job in Congress and I appreciate you taking the time to contact me.

People throughout Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District have contacted me to express their concern with insufficient and shrinking health care coverage and skyrocketing costs. Forty-six million Americans are completely without health insurance, including over one million people from Pennsylvania. At the same time, health care costs are increasing at an unsustainable rate. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research Educational Trust, premiums increased by 98 percent while wages only increased by 23 percent from 2000 to 2007. This puts a huge strain on our middle-class families.

Increasing health care costs also threaten our nation's ability to compete in the global economy. In the past ten years, the cost of health insurance to businesses has increased 140 percent. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that spending on health care and related activities will total $2.6 trillion in 2009 - 17 percent of our gross domestic product. Our current health care system is unsustainable. We need common sense health reform that will provide all Americans access to affordable, quality coverage, while reducing costs. Any reform effort must ensure that preexisting conditions are covered, must protect an individual's right to keep their own insurance and their own doctor, must provide security to people who lose or change jobs, and must not raise the federal deficit.

Recently, comprehensive health reform legislation, H.R. 3200, the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. This legislation focuses on a few key factors. It ensures that every American has comprehensive health insurance even if they lose their job or get sick. It stops insurance companies from denying coverage to people based on preexisting conditions, requires insurance companies to renew coverage, and prevents them from rescinding coverage. For the millions of people who have insurance through their employer, nothing changes. Individuals and small businesses that do not have or cannot afford insurance could purchase affordable coverage through a "health insurance exchange." This exchange pools risk, lowering premiums for everyone. It also provides a wide array of insurance plans to choose from including, potentially, a public option. Finally, the bill provides individuals and families who cannot afford health insurance with limited subsidies to purchase coverage.

The Committees on Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor considered and passed versions of this legislation in late July. These versions must be reconciled before the full House of Representatives can consider the legislation. A vote on passage may take place this fall. Also, the Senate is working on comprehensive health reform legislation and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee already passed a bill. However, the Senate Finance Committee has yet to complete its version.

You may be interested to know that I supported H.R. 2, the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. This bipartisan legislation reauthorized the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) through 2013, preserving coverage for 7 million children already covered by SCHIP, including over 227,000 children in Pennsylvania. It also expanded coverage to an additional 4.1 million uninsured children, who are currently eligible for, but not enrolled in, SCHIP and Medicaid. It passed the House of Representatives on February 4, 290 to 135, and was signed into law. I also cosponsored H.R. 1619, the Children's Health Protection Act of 2009, which prohibits insurers from imposing pre-existing condition limitations on children.

I am also a proud cosponsor of H.R. 2360, the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP), which would make health insurance more affordable, predictable, and accessible for small businesses and the self-employed. It offers tax incentives to encourage states to reform poorly functioning small group insurance markets and encourages the development of state exchanges backstopped by a voluntary, nationwide exchange.

This process still has a long way to go. It is vital that Congress show due diligence and get this reform effort right. I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind as Congress considers this issue.

Thank you again for contacting me and please keep in touch.
Sincerely,
Christopher P. Carney
Member of Congress

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Rt. 15 Rally Last Sunday

Members of CSCC, UCDC and OFA gathered along Rt. 15 last weekend to show their support for healthcare reform. We got a lot of positive responses from passing motorists (more than we expected, I think). We're going to do it again soon, so come out and join us next time!


Open thread for Tuesday, 8/25

What do you say?

Monday, August 24, 2009

Response from Sen. Specter

[Joe received this response to a letter he had written to Arlen Specter about healthcare reform.]

Dear Mr. M___:

Thank you for contacting my office regarding health care reform. I appreciate hearing from you.

The increasing costs and growing number of uninsured individuals illustrate the need for Congressional action to reform the health care system. With a reported 47 million people without health insurance the status quo is not acceptable. Additionally, there are millions more Americans who are underinsured, with health insurance that is inadequate to cover their needs. Families are forced to make tough sacrifices in order to pay medical expenses or make the agonizing choice to go without health care coverage. There are far too many Americans whose financial and physical health is jeopardized by the rising costs of health care.

In the coming weeks and months Congress will consider health care reform which seeks to address the health care crisis, by addressing access to quality care, wellness programs and payment improvements. We need to agree on a balanced, common sense solution that reins in costs, protects the personal doctor-patient relationship and shifts our focus to initiatives in preventive medicine and research.

Health reform legislation should include health benefit standards that promote healthy lifestyles, wellness programs and provide preventive services and treatment needed by those with serious and chronic diseases. Health care coverage must be affordable with assistance to those who do not have the ability to pay for health care. We must work to ensure equity in health care access, treatment, and resources to all people and communities regardless of geography, race or preexisting conditions. The effort to improve health care should improve care in underserved communities in both urban and rural areas.

Health care reform should improve health care for those currently insured. Insurance companies should cover more preventive care costs. Reforms should eliminate lifetime and annual caps and limit out of pocket expenses. Insurers should be prohibited from refusing to renew coverage in the event of catastrophic illnesses, denying coverage, or charging higher rates based on gender, pre-existing conditions or health status.

I believe that ensuring all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care coverage is essential for the health and future of our Nation. The creation of an insurance pooling system could serve as a model to provide health insurance to all individuals. The pooling system allows individuals to group together to improve purchasing power to achieve affordable, quality coverage for the entire population and to equitably share risk. However, Congress must be mindful of the cost of providing this care and reforms should not affect those who want to maintain their current insurance through their employer.

On March 5, 2009, at the request of President Obama, I participated in the White House Forum on Health Reform. During this forum, my colleagues from the Senate and House of Representatives and other health care interest representatives shared priorities and concerns for health care reform. Since that time, regional forums have been held throughout the country so more voices can be heard on this important issue and President Obama has worked closely with those representing all health care sectors to find common ground on reform. I am open to discussing the best method in which to cover all Americans, including considering a public plan option and look forward to examining all of the options with my colleagues as the legislation progresses.

Again, I appreciate your taking the time to bring your views on this issue to my attention. The concerns of my constituents are of great importance to me, and I rely on you and other Pennsylvanians to inform me of your views. Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact my office or visit my website at http://specter.senate.gov.

Sincerely,
Arlen Specter

Open thread for Monday, 8/24

Healthcare, healthcare, healthcare.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Open thread for Sunday, 8/23

Remember, we'll be gathering to show our support for healthcare reform with banners and signs today, at the corner of Rt. 15 and William Penn Dr. (at the light near BZ Motors) in Lewisburg, from 1-3pm today.

What else is on your mind?

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Open thread for Saturday, 8/22

Remember, we'll be collecting signatures for a healthcare reform petition in front of the Lewisburg Post Office today, from 10am-2pm.

What else is going on?

Friday, August 21, 2009

Open thread for Friday, 8/21

In an experiment to try using this blog as more of a central message board for those of us involved in healthcare reform activities this month, I'm going to try and start more "open threads" like this one. There won't necessarily be much content in the original post, but since anyone is allowed to add comments once a thread has started, hopefully this will enable and encourage people to post messages and keep the conversation going.

So... what's on your mind today?

Carney Townhall in LaPorte

Who went to Congressman Carney's townhall in Sullivan County (in LaPorte) today?

How did it go? Can someone give us a summary?

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Casey's Live Conference Call Tonight

Was anyone able to participate in Senator Casey's "live teleconference" tonight discussing the Senate healthcare bill?

I received a message on our answering machine last night saying to expect a call between 6-7pm tonight, and that if I answered the phone, I'd be teleconferenced in. However, I got the call (around 6:20pm) and said "Hello?" but there was just a long pause on the other end followed by Casey's voice saying, "Hi! This is Bob Casey! Sorry we missed you..." and the rest of the message implied they thought I hadn't answered the phone and they were just leaving another message. So I guess: (a) they need to debug their voice-recognition software, or (b) I need to sound less like a machine when I talk. But in any case, I guess I missed out.

Did this happen to anyone else? Did anyone get in? What did he say about the Senate bill?

Monday, August 17, 2009

Good op-ed on NHS and US hlth cr debate

In Defense of Britain's Health System

By Ara Darzi and Tom Kibasi
Monday, August 17, 2009

LONDON -- When Britain's National Health Service (NHS) was created in 1948, its founder, the charismatic politician Aneurin Bevan, observed that it was "in place of fear." More than 60 years later, it is fear that dominates the discussion of the NHS in the U.S. debate about health-care reform.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Response from Senator Casey

[I have written Casey, Carney and Specter several times about healthcare reform in the past month. So far, Casey is the only one whose office has responded. I thought I would share the response below. He seems to be very much on-board, and so I think it is Specter that we need to focus our energy on (because the Senate will be a tougher fight), and to a lesser extent, Carney. -JG]

Dear ___:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me about health care reform. I appreciate hearing from all Pennsylvanians about the issues that matter most to them.We cannot afford to wait any longer to reform America’s health care system.

As a member of the United States Senate and of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, I am working with my colleagues and with President Obama to enact meaningful health care reform, with the goal of providing every American with access to high quality, affordable health care. Ensuring the unique health needs of children are met will be a specific priority of mine in health care reform. Many of my constituents have contacted me to share their opinions on a wide range of potential health care reform options. I welcome your comments and suggestions on this important issue.

On July 14, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) successfully reported out our bill, the Affordable Health Choices Act, to reform the Nation’s healthcare system. At its core, this landmark bill provides additional choices for Americans who need health insurance, while maintaining health insurance options that currently exist and that individuals may wish to keep.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Affordable Health Choices Act will cost $611 billion over the next ten years. Our current system is not sustainable and waiting to act or doing nothing will only make the problems worse. If we do not act, more people will lose coverage. As costs increase, the quality of care will diminish and the ballooning costs incurred by the government and business will endanger America’s fiscal health.

The Affordable Health Choices Act will reduce costs by emphasizing prevention, cutting waste and modernizing the health care system through quality information technology.The Affordable Health Choices Act also promotes prevention by giving Americans the information they need to take charge of their own health, such as information on early screening for heart disease, cancer and depression and information on healthy nutrition. The Affordable Health Choices Act takes strong steps to improve America’s healthcare workforce, making sound investments in training the doctors, nurses, and other health professionals who will serve the needs of patients in the years to come and ensuring that patients’ care is better coordinated so they see the right doctors, nurses and other health practitioners to address their individual health needs.

To address the need for more choices for Americans, The Affordable Health Choices Act includes a public health insurance option called the Community Health Insurance Plan. This plan will be one of many plans available to individuals through the Affordable Health Benefit Gateways that will be established in each state. These gateways build on the success of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), which provides a range of different health plans from which to choose to federal employees including civilian employees, Members of Congress and their staffs, retirees and their families. The Community Health Insurance Plan will be required to comply with the same rules governing private plans offered through the health insurance gateways, and will comply with the same insurance regulations as private insurers.

The Committee on Finance, of which I am not a member, has jurisdiction over other areas of health care reform and is in the process of developing its own draft legislation. This jurisdiction includes many of the options being discussed to finance health care reform such as Medicare payment reforms and taxing health benefits, sugary drinks or alcohol. Some of the most significant provisions regarding children also fall under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Finance, such as the Medicaid and CHIP programs. After the Committee on Finance has finished developing and considering its health care reform legislation, the bill will be merged with the Affordable Health Choices Act for consideration by the full Senate later this year. I will be examining carefully both the bill that the Committee on Finance develops and the merged bill that the full Senate will consider for their impact on health care for children, particularly our most vulnerable children, as we engage in the continuation of this debate in the weeks ahead.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.

If you have access to the Internet, I encourage you to visit my web site, http://casey.senate.gov. I invite you to use this online office as a comprehensive resource to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington, request assistance from my office or share with me your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you and to Pennsylvania.

Sincerely,
Bob Casey
United States Senator

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Arlen Specter's Town Hall Meeting (full recap)

Loren just posted an excellent (and concise) summary of today’s Town Hall Meeting with Arlen Specter in Lewisburg (see the next post below). For those who weren’t able to go (or couldn’t get a seat), I figured I would post a more detailed recap. I realize this is going to be a really long post, so in case you don’t want to read this whole recap, I would just read Loren’s previous post, or just these 7 key points:
  1. Specter said he shared Obama’s view that we need to reform healthcare to control rising costs.
  2. He said he would not sign a healthcare bill that would add to the deficit.
  3. He said, in reference to single payer, that “nothing should be off the table.”
  4. He said that he thought the public option was “a good option.”
  5. He repeatedly talked about preventative care, and medical tests, and implied that having people get annual exams, etc. would help to reduce costs and keep people from getting sick.
  6. He repeatedly ducked other questions about healthcare by saying “the House bill is not law yet, and there is no Senate bill yet.” I understand he’s a Senator and so he doesn’t have to vote on the House bill, but he still could have actually addressed people’s questions (and sometimes their completely mythical Sarah Palin-esque delusions) about the House bill instead of just sidestepping them.
  7. On the topic of Employee Free Choice Act, he said that he believed we should “maintain the secret ballot” (i.e., he’s not supporting EFCA).

    And now, let the full recapping begin!

The Crowd: As expected, it was a full house and there were a lot of Republicans who, as far as I could tell, really enjoy saying the word, “boo!” a lot. And shouting every time they hear something they don’t like. This happened a lot, because: (a) there were plenty of Democrats in attendance, (b) Specter said a lot of things they didn’t like, and (c) apparently, there are a LOT of things they don’t like.... What DO they like? Um, “tort reform!” But we’ll get to that later.

The Format: 30 people asked questions. There was no “lining up at the microphones”; instead, 30 people were issued numbers as they entered (like at a deli counter). Nobody I talked to (including the ones who got the numbers) seemed to know how they picked who got the numbers, but there was at least somewhat of a mix of people with different views, so I don’t think there was any conspiracy going on.

Specter’s Opening Statement: He said he’d been doing these townhalls for “decades,” that he knew we were going through difficult times with the economy, and that there was a lot of anger about “what’s going on in D.C.” He mentioned several important issues, ending with healthcare, reminding the audience that there is a House bill that’s been through 5 committees so far but no Senate bill yet. He talked about the need for more preventative medicine as a way to keeping people healthier and reducing medical costs, and made an awkward word choice when he said he’d like to see women “catch” breast cancer at an early age.” (I think he meant “detect.”)

The Questions: (The 17 Red questions were from conservatives, the 6 Blue questions were from liberals/progressives, and the 7 Black questions were from people who seemed basically neutral.)
Question #1: How does U.S. healthcare compare to other countries? And what is the prognosis for our system if we don’t reform?
Specter said we compare “very favorably” to other countries [whaaat--?], suggesting that we have lots of technology and have good cancer survival rates in a few cases. He said the “prognosis” is that costs will get out of control if we don’t reform. People need to change their lifestyles, and get earlier tests, etc., etc.

Question #2: A prospective medical student complained that she might not get into med school because schools were being encouraged (through federal funding incentives) to admit more underrepresented minorities. Also, the schools were being pressured to enroll doctors who would go work in underserved areas [implying that she was not a minority, and did not want to work in an underserved area]. She asked why government was allowed to control medical schools.
Specter basically said that these things shouldn’t be “controlled” by government, but they should certainly be considered and encouraged, particularly sending doctors to underserved areas (like Scranton!).

Question #3: A woman was concerned that healthcare bill was being “pushed through” too fast, and told Specter that the “two ways” to control costs were to enact tort reform and to “let the insurance companies offer different plans that cover different things.” (???)
He agreed with the first point and bragged that the Senate had “slowed things down.” He said that Obama wanted it passed in July, and didn’t get that, but that Obama understands how the Senate works since he used to be a Senator. [This got a really strange outburst of booing, which Specter actually commented on, because it wasn’t clear why he would get booed for saying Obama used to be a Senator. One person yelled, “We didn’t vote for him!” which seemed like a non-sequitir.] He said that torts have improved, but there hasn’t been a bill because there hasn’t been any big push for it. He repeated again that if everyone had an annual medical exam, costs would go down.

Question #4: A doctor who used to live in Canada told a long, rambling story and then asked where the money for healthcare reform would come from. Also, claimed that “page 16” of the House bill said it would “funnel everyone into a public system.”
Specter repeated his standard lines about how he would not vote for a bill that increased the deficit, and that no Senate bill had been decided on yet.

Question #5: A woman with a T-shirt showing a donkey kicking a map of the U.S., and with many pre-existing conditions including lupus, claimed that “section 123” of the House bill said that “a government bureaucrat with better insurance than what she has” would get to decide whether she lived or died, and her question was who would take care of her kids when she was dead.
[This was one of Specter’s better answers.] He jumped on her comment about “the bureaucrat with better health insurance” to say that the whole point of what they were trying to do was to get her “the same health insurance that I have.” He talked about how Senators get to choose from a slate of health plans and that everyone should have that choice.

Question #6: A woman said she was concerned that the administration had not yet “gone through and cut things out of the budget” [not strictly true, but ok] and they were spending too much new money, like in the “Cash For Clunkers” program, and that Obama had hired too many “czars” that we were paying for. Her question was, why doesn’t Congress do something about him?
Specter said that Congress did have some control, because he couldn’t spend any m money without them appropriating it. He promised to “count how many czars” Obama had and get back to her on that.

Question #7: A woman asked if he would support a renewable energy bill, and strengthen renewable energy.
He said he was all in favor of renewable energy, and that the stimulus bill he voted for included $80 billion to develop renewable energy sources.

Question #8: The owner of the Pineapple Inn opened with a quote from Goebbels (Hitler’s propaganda minister) as a way of comparing the current administration to Nazi Germany. Eventually, he asked when the government was going to cut their spending.
Specter said he supported the Balanced Budget Amendment, and that Obama has pledged that healthcare reform will pay for itself and not add to the deficit. He then rambled a little bit about other ways the government could save money.

Question #9: A student said that cancer ran in his family, and that he was worried about his family members “waiting in line” too long for cancer treatments, and that the government, not doctors, would decide who lived or died.
Specter said that doctors should decide if you need treatment and that NO ONE should decide whether you live or die. [I wish he would have pointed out that currently, insurance companies do make that decision for some people.] He then rambled a little bit about “what he wanted” was better treatments to save lives, and how the NIH (“the crown jewel of our government, maybe the only one”) was responsible for so many of our current treatments.

Question #10: A woman clutching a copy of a book on Jefferson said she was “scared” that we were “losing our freedoms” and that healthcare reform wasn’t about healthcare at all but just a way to lead us all down the path toward socialism.
Specter said his whole career, he has fought for constitutional freedoms: he fought to oppose warrantless wiretapping [which got booed with shouts of “warrants take too long!” which seemed hilarious to me at first, and then disturbing], and to protect the right to counsel.

Question #11: A woman who had obviously been watching a lot of Fox News said that the healthcare bill “scared her,” that it would let the government withdraw money from people’s bank accounts, and that there would be “end of life planning.”
Specter frustratingly declined to debunk any of this nonsense and instead just reiterated that “no one should make life or death decisions for you.”

Question #12: A man claimed to be reading from some section of the House healthcare bill, said it would increase debt, and asked where the money would come from.
Specter gave his standard answer about how the man was quoting the House bill, and that it wasn’t a law yet.

Question #13: A young man (with a backwards baseball cap) said that the government had “failed” at so many things, like the Cash For Clunkers program (???) and that he didn’t want to have to tell his children that he stood by and let the country go into debt.
Specter took issue with the assertion that the government “failed” at everything, there was some back-and-forth argument about Cash For Clunkers, and I got bored and stopped taking notes.

Question #14: A young woman said she appreciated that Specter (in Question #11) had said he was against “health panels” making decisions for people and against the government transferring money out of people’s bank accounts. She asked him to clarify whether he wanted to “require” people to have annual health exams, because she didn’t think Amish people should have to. [To be fair, this was actually a more reasonable question than I’m making it sound here.]
Specter said no, they shouldn’t be required, but we should encourage people to get annual exams. This got a lot of applause from the non-conservatives in the audience, which seemed to temporarily confuse the conservatives.

Question #15: A man asked whether Specter supported the Employee Free Choice Act.
Specter said he thought they should maintain the secret ballot (so, in other words, no). He said something wonky about a second provision on arbitration (and the “last best offer” approach) that I didn’t understand.

Question #16: A young man complained about the deficit, all the bailouts, TARP, and how Obama had promised not to hire lobbyists but the assistant treasury secretary was a former lobbyist for Goldman Sachs). [This is actually a good point that bugs me, too.] He asked why “[his] generation” should have to pay for what’s going on.
Specter pointed out that TARP and some of the other bailouts were under President Bush (which prompted a lot of confused, angry booing and the sound of heads exploding). He repeated his line about how he wouldn’t vote for a healthcare bill that added to the deficit.

Question #17: A young man with a libertarian T-shirt asked Specter if he supported Bernie Sanders (I-VT)’s bill to start auditing the Federal Reserve. [I completely agree with this.]
Specter said yes, that government agencies should always be accountable.

Question #18: A woman said she worried that the healthcare bill was being “pushed through” too quickly. She then made a bizarre logical claim that she had read the House bill, and that it didn’t say anything about abortion, and therefore it must be saying that abortions are “okay.”
Specter repeated his bragging that the Senate had “slowed the bill down.” To the second point, he said he realized that some people didn’t want their money going to fund abortions, and so there was a proposal to let people choose whether they wanted a health plan that paid for abortions vs. one that didn’t.

Question #19: A man claimed that the House bill said that illegal immigrants would get healthcare, and that they would be counted in the census (“to give them benefits!”).
Specter said, no, he wouldn’t support covering illegal immigrants.

Question #20: A man said he was “sick of you people in Washington” and wanted to know where our border fence was.
Specter said they had appropriated money for a 750(?)-mile border fence, and that it was under construction. [This prompted one shout from a man who said “it was supposed to be 92,008 miles long!” which made me question his grasp of geography.]

Question #21: A cardiologist from Geisinger told a story about a 47-year old man he’d just treated who had gotten insurance through his wife, until she lost her job, and then needed a catheterization and bypass surgery without insurance. [Unfortunately he went on a little long and got lots of people shouting out for him to get to the question.] He asked Specter to support universal health insurance, and also (referring to Question #2) sending more doctors to underserved areas.
Specter said unequivocally (!) that he supported universal health insurance, and that he also agreed we needed to send more doctors to underserved areas.

Question #22: A man said he was concerned about global warming [which brought lots of rude shouting, including people saying “no such thing!”], and asked Specter if he supported a cap on carbon emissions.
Specter said he will support a carbon cap bill, that they just needed to work on how it would be paid for.

Question #23: A man said that the deficit was a concern, but that the one place where we could afford to cut spending was the military, and that we had spent $3-5 trillion on an unjustified war in Iraq. [This prompted the worst cacophony of booing of the afternoon; at one point, some people started chanting, “Support our troops!” but luckily it didn’t really catch on.] He asked Specter when Congress would realize that we could stop wasting money by ending the Iraq War.
Specter gave a textbook answer about how “if we had known Saddam Hussein didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, we’d never have gone in,” that we were on our way out now, and that Iraqis were ready to stand up for themselves. [Gee, we’ve never heard that before.] He said we need to be “very cautious” about cutting military spending because “we still live in a dangerous world” with Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, etc., etc. Overall, this was a very disappointing Republican answer.

Question #24: A woman said she was a nurse, and a Christian, and against abortion. She said she worried the healthcare bill “removed the conscience clause, and allowed partial birth abortion.” She challenged Specter to define the conscience clause, and partial birth abortion, and state his position on them.
Specter correctly defined both things, then said he had voted against partial birth abortion in the past.

Question #25: A man said he was all in favor of solar and wind energy, but where did Specter stand on nuclear energy? [This prompted lots of “yeahs” from conservatives who apparently love nuclear power now. I’m just guessing that they probably love it more when it’s in someone else’s backyard than theirs...]
He said he supported it, that “the days of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl were over” and that it was safe. (This reminded me a lot of Alan Alda in the last season of The West Wing....)

Question #26: One of our CSCC members, LK, asked Specter whether he had heard any Christian groups expressing concern for the suffering of poor people who can’t get access to healthcare.
Specter said yes he had. [Unfortunately, I think this was intended to be a 2-part question, but the senator moved on before we got to hear the second part.]

Question #27: A man asked a confusing question about whether the public option would be “like Medicare and Medicaid.” [It wasn’t clear whether he wanted them to be alike, or not.]
Specter said he hoped they’d be “better” than Medicare. [Great Republican pandering there, Arlen.] There was some confusing back-and-forth with the questioner, but eventually he said the public option would be “like a private entity,” but public, and not run for profit.

Question #28: The executive director of the Susquehanna Valley Community Education Council (I think I have that right) asked Specter whether he supported the current initiatives to start more community colleges in Pennsylvania.
Specter didn’t answer directly, but said that he supported community colleges (in general) and had backed them in the past.

Question #29: One of our CSCC members, NC, told a story about a friend who had lost her job, applied for private insurance through Geisinger, went for the physical exam they required, and was told she was uninsurable because she was obese. [This was a great story, because it drew gasps and confused the conservatives who didn’t want “the government” telling them how to live, but suddenly were faced with an example of an insurance company telling someone they were too fat. I think I heard some heads exploding in the back...] She then asked Specter if he could name “the top 3 myths” about healthcare being perpetuated on the radio and TV, and tell us the truth about them.
Specter said that under healthcare reform, her friend would be able to get health insurance. He ignored (or forgot about) the question part of the question.

Question #30: A man said he was an army veteran [which got a standing ovation]. He wanted to know if Specter would “put in for” a bill that would basically give him free healthcare. He complained that he “went to the doctor the other day and had to pay $50 for a test.” He also asked Specter, “did you read the [healthcare] bill?”
Specter said he was a veteran too, told a story about WWI veterans, and said he’s always supported broader coverage for veterans. He talked about how he had meetings coming up in the next few weeks with Gen. Shinsheki and Secretary Sebelius [whose name prompted a lot of booing and shouting] to work on improving the VA hospitals.

And then, just like that, he was gone....


Closing Thoughts: While the conservatives probably outnumbered the non-conservatives in the audience, it was gratifying that, whenever one of them shouted something out (which happened a LOT), they got shushed by the people sitting around them (some of whom, I suspect were conservatives themselves). Although a lot of people were yelling, to any moderate person sitting in the audience, I can only hope that they came off as rude and not particularly sympathetic. I was also gratified to see Specter generally poking fun at the shouters, and he seemed genuinely pleased when the Democrats in the audience would applaud him for something.
I was just constantly amazed by the cognitive dissonance on display. I wanted to ask these people—who were suddenly SO concerned about the deficit—where they’d been for the last 8 years when Bush was cutting taxes and sending us to war at the same time. I wanted to tell the veteran who was asking for free healthcare for himself that we all just wanted what he wanted. I wanted to tell the people who kept yelling at Specter, “Read the Bill!” that maybe they should read the bill and not a Fox News blog’s summary of it. Most of all, I just wanted to tell people not to be so scared. Because I think that’s what people truly are—partly scared of the black man in the White House, but partly just scared by the horror stories pounded into their brains by the right-wing media (and sometimes the rest of the media, too). I really wish there was something CSCC could do, not just to reach out to each other, but to help these people to not be so scared of government, of Obama, and of us “liberal Democrats.” To help them see that we want many of the things they want. To help them realize that Fox News and talk radio are not “news,” that they have an agenda, and that they are basically hoodwinking them into yelling at other citizens in an attempt to protect the interests of the type of people who own Fox News and radio stations. I think it’s part of our mission not to give up on these people.

Sen. Specter Packs the Hall at Bucknell

Not only did Sen. Specter pack Trout Auditorium, there was also standing room only for the simulcast in the Langone Center (where I was). The Williamsport Tea Baggers were out in force, but there were also plenty of pro-reform, pro-Obama people there as well. I heard that 25 of the 30 questions had a slant to the right (I didn't hear them all myself.) A typical question was What are you going to do to protect freedom and keep us from falling into total socialism?

In terms of policy clues from the senator's comments, he said that he wouldn't vote for any bill that adds to the deficit, and that he would like to see universal health coverage.

He didn't offer much insight into how to do both at once. He distanced himself from the House plan, and said that he wouldn't vote for any bill that included stuff like that. Given that the CBO estimates a cost of 1 trillion dollars over 10 years for the current House plan, it will have to change a great deal to get Sen. Specter's support, I gather.

When asked about whether doctors or bureaucrats should decide who lives or dies, he said that doctors should make the medical decisions, but that neither doctors nor bureacrats should get to decide who lives and dies. (I think he repeated that answer three times as the questioner repeated the question.)

I was surprised how a good part of the audience laughed derisively when a questioner stated that global warming is real and caused by human burning of fossil fuels. Clearly, these voters aren't having any of it, so there's no real ground to have a conversation about how to address the problem.

He suggested that there would be a health plan that covers abortions and one that doesn't--for those who don't want to pay into a plan that covers abortion. That didn't go over well, at least as I read the crowd response. Several questions came from young people asking why they should have to pay for the deficit that this generation is running up.

Any other impressions, comments, or ideas? Apparently, those first in line got first chance to ask a question. Overall, I was impressed by Arlen Specter's willingness to hold town halls and face the voters. There's obviously some good reasons why he's in politics.