Last night there was a tele-town hall with Rep. Heath Shuler (D, NC-11). If you're not familiar with Mr. Shuler's work, he is a former college football star who rode a wave of populist support into office (defeating Charles Taylor 4 years ago, and the ridiculous Carl Mumpower last year). He is also a member of the Blue Dog caucus, a group of socially and fiscally conservative democrats. Congressman Shuler is the Blue Dog whip in the house.
Like many of his colleagues, Shuler shirked an in-person town hall in favor of a "tele-town hall." While I agree that this format did keep anyone from hijacking the process, it certainly felt like it was a much more "staged" event, and even though the callers were supposedly pulled by a first-come/first-serve queue, there really was no way to know for sure how callers were chosen.
That aside, follow the jump to reach into the mind of the Blue Dog Whip and the minds of the constituents who were allowed to ask their questions.
Surprisingly, most of the questions that were posed to Mr. Shuler, came from a progressive bent. Though I did not take an official tally, I would say that easily 80% of the questions posed to the congressman were looking for assurance of the inclusion of a public option, providing universal care, cutting costs, or the continuation of Medicaid or Medicare benefits.
The places of concern were as follows:
When asked whether the to 1% of wage earners should have their taxes raised to pre-Bush levels in order to pay for Health Care, Shuler balked saying that he hoped to find a way to cut what he repeatedly called "waste, fraud, and abuse" of the system in order to save money before raising taxes.
When asked what his major issues were with the bill (H.R. 3200) he suggested that he was "uneasy" that an amendment to the bill that would have insured that no federal money went towards funding abortions failed to be added to the bill. This was a sticking point that he mentioned more than once.
Shuler also suggested that, before he would support the bill, he wanted incentives added that would encourage people to live a healthier lifestyle. Frankly, I agree with him on this point.
Finally, a major sticking point, he noted that it took from 2005 to 2008 to get the Farm Bill done, but we "finally got it right." (I think that's arguable.) He suggested that there not be as much of a rush to get a health care bill done, but that it be "the right bill."
I never got to ask the congressman my question, which would have been something along the lines, "Given that so much misrepresentation and outright lies about the bill are coming from prominent republicans like Sen. Grassley and Sarah Palin, would you be willing to support a bill even if a bipartisan agreement couldn't be reached?"
So, there's the report from Blue Dog land. I'll be around to answer any questions for a little while in the comments. (It's 5:55 PM Eastern, right now).