So, being a citizen of the great state of Iowa (yay Obama & yay gay marriage), but with the good, we get the bad: Chuck Grassley.
Today, after this townhall craziness, I get mad. If you didn't see.
One of the three Republican senators working on a bipartisan health care bill perpetuated a particularly outrageous untruth about the legislation on Wednesday.
Appearing at a town hall in his home state of Iowa, Sen. Chuck Grassley told a crowd of more than 300 that they were correct to fear that the government would "pull the plug on grandma."
"There is some fear because in the House bill, there is counseling for end-of-life," Grassley said. "And from that standpoint, you have every right to fear. You shouldn't have counseling at the end of life. You ought to have counseling 20 years before you're going to die. You ought to plan these things out. And I don't have any problem with things like living wills. But they ought to be done within the family. We should not have a government program that determines if you're going to pull the plug on grandma."
- from Huff Post
(video below the fold)
Sen. Grassley pushed this "death panel" meme, saying: "We should not have a government program that determines if you're going to pull the plug on grandma."
So, after having a bad day dealing with my own medical coverage trying to keep my job because I needed time off, this was the final straw for me. I called Sen. Grassley's office here in Des Moines (at 515-288-1145) to tell him I wish he would stop lying and scaring people and actually work to help get strong health care reform that THE PEOPLE WANT. That was it, they took my name and address, and I moved on.
Nice right? Then my Mother called.
So, after I told my mother what was going on, I asked her to call Grassley's office, she did. First, the line was busy (yay for that), but when she finally got through, she told them mostly everything I said. Then the guy on the other side of the call said Grassley never said that. She then, nicely, told him she had read and seen the quote.
After winning that point, he went on about the choice she has now of private insurance. Big mistake on his part. My Mother has worked in the health insurance industry for the last 30 years, so she took him to task with facts. She told him she doesn't have a choice; her employer makes the choice for her.
And when pushed again by more facts, he finally said he would mark down her support for Obama's plan. She was angry that the whole point of the call was to tell him to stop lying, but she says she doubts that gets passed on.
Senator Grassley, why are you lying to my mother?
I then picked up my phone and called Sen. Harkin's office as well as Rep. Boswell, both Dems supporting a strong public option, to keep up the fight, and I asked them to call out the lies Sen. Grassley and his office are pushing.
Please call your members of congress and your Senators. If they start lying to you, call them on it, and then call their colleagues from their state and ask them to call them on their lies.
We need to fight back, and we have the facts, and we have their lies on tape. If we loose this fight, it will be because we didn't fight hard enough. Obama is fighting, now we need to back him up.