In a public Town Hall yesterday Republican Congressman Todd Tiahrt told an audience of over 300 people that he did not support doing anything to help Americans between the ages of fifty-five and sixty-four with their health care needs. His reasoning? These are still productive years for that age group and they should be out there earning and paying their due to the private insurance industry. The word "freeloaders" didn’t quite come out of his mouth but the implication was clear. You see, the "quintiles" ("quinters"?) are too valuable a resource to Blue Cross and United Health for them to be allowed to stray from the insurance companies' embrace. They are in that magic bracket where they are still paying exorbitant health care premiums, but may be denied needed medical procedures at a moment’s notice for having had the temerity to have lived as long as they have and to have acquired health care needs. It's that race to Medicare that proves one's mettle.
This is a tale of two rallies. Yesterday my wife and I did our civic duty and went out to participate in two political events here in Johnson County, Kansas. The first was a Town Hall-like campaign event for C-Street enthusiast Todd Tiahrt, who is now running for the US Senate from Kansas. This is the seat being vacated by our soon-to-be governor, Sam Brownback. The event was billed as a panel discussion with time for questions from the attendees. It was anything but...
The second event was a rally to counter the picketing of Rep. Dennis Moore’s Overland Park office by locally-grown and imported tea-baggers. This one was a lot more fun.
Republican Rep. Tiahrt is not our Congressional Representative. It was somewhat curious therefore that he was holding an "informational" Town Hall in the district (KS-3rd) of Congressman Dennis Moore-D. Seems like poaching to me. Of course, with Tiahrt’s Senate bid, it was clear from the start that this was actually a campaign rally. Still it was presented as a panel discussion. And there was a panel, though the folks who came to this rally did not come to listen, but to be heard.
Just some background here. If the name Tiahrt seems familiar to you, yes, he is the yahoo whose musings on the House floor concerning a possible abortion scenario by President Obama’s mother were rightly ridiculed by Rachel Maddow among others. In fact the Kansas Democratic Party is conducting a petition drive to demand an apology.
Tiahrt has also been featured prominently in Jeff Sharlet’s reporting on the C-Street cabal. Just for review here is the YouTube link to Rachel’s interview with Sharlet on the gospel according to power-mad, un-Christian, leader Douglas Coe: http://www.youtube.com/... In it Sharlet documents his witnessing of one of Tiahrt’s spiritual counseling sessions with the leader of The Family. (Tiahrt denies Sharlet's account.)
We drove to the Tiahrt rally, passing, by the way, extensive road construction paid for by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus bill) as did many of the anti-government rally participants with whom we were about to rub shoulders.
The rally was very well attended for a beautiful Saturday morning in Overland Park, Kansas. I’m guessing most of these folks would have rather been on the links than in a government-owned community center. There was a small but vocal contingent voicing support for the Public Option, outside. We were early enough to get some seats in the quickly filling building. Eventually, an overflow room was needed.
We quickly realized this was not simply an explanation and discussion of the health care choices before us, but rather a Tiarht campaign rally. There was no pretense that it was anything but (except that the three panelists didn’t seem to have received any talking points). There were sign-up sheets to support Todd. The infamous Republican flow chart was being handed out in large numbers, causing the already convinced to shake their heads and guffaw at the stupidity of their government. The man next to me asked, wasn't this the dumbest thing I had ever seen, and I had to agree that it was in the running. I think I lost him, however, when I pointed out that private insurance companies have a much simpler flow chart: it's just a big red sign that says, "No!" He didn't seem as interested in talking to us after that.
After loud and raucous applause led by a very big, older man who looked around searchingly for anyone who might not be participating in the general acclaim, Tiahrt began the session with some comments about being respectful and listening to what folks had to say. Then he introduced the three panelists and let them speak. The head of a local construction company explained how he had been watching health care options for small business owners deteriorate over the last ten years and was upset that nothing had been done in that time. He seemed very sincere when he spoke about the needs of his sixty-five employees. Somewhat illogically he said this issue was so important that we needed to slow down and spend a lot more time in devising a solution.
The second speaker was a self-described "bean counter" from a vision center chain. He was very knowledgeable about the day-to-day issues for businesses in covering employee health care. He was convincing in that he had that accountant’s way of stating hard truths based on "the numbers." He too said that he had dealt with this issue his entire professional life and therefore we all needed to slow down and get it right. He did somewhat shock the crowd when he explained that out-of-control entitlements meant that either Medicare benefits had to be cut by 4% or that taxes needed to be raised by that percentage. The half of the audience over 65 wasn’t sure whether to cheer or boo loudly.
The last speaker was a neurosurgeon and head of a local physicians’ association in Kansas City. He stated that as a doctor and a small businessman he thought we should ensure three things in any reform: quality health care availability for all, patient choice, and affordability. The crowd started to become restive. So far three thoughtful positions had been outlined. This was not what many of them wanted to hear. Where was the red meat?
Tiahrt soon provided it. Quickly abandoning the idea that we were to have sort of discussion he outlined the "facts" about H. R. 3200. I’m sure these half-truths and outright lies will sound familiar. Here goes:
• It will cost 1.5 Trillion (he forgot to mention this is over ten years)
• The government will have access to everyone’s bank accounts and their mortgage information
• The bill mandates that no advanced medical procedures(such as open-heart surgery) will be provided for those over 72 years just like in those evil European countries
• There will be no physician choice-the government will tell you who your doctor is
• There will be no choice for treatment options-the government will dictate your treatments
• If you have private health insurance now you will, according to the "respected" Lewin Group ( a wholly-owned arm of United Health Care, a private insurance company) be forced into a government plan.
As more of this tripe was uttered by the Congressman, I began to grumble loudly and voice some dissent. The folks around me started to become agitated and one nice older woman accused me of being a "plant." "No," I responded, "I’m just someone with a different opinion from yours."
Next it was time for questions from the floor. Most of the people there didn’t ask anything substantive, rather they spouted bumper-sticker slogans, such as: "Who here wants to see the government take away our freedoms?" Or, "Let’s cut out the pork and give us some real meat to chew on!" (Obviously this isn’t the agricultural part of Kansas.)
At one point a woman wanted to ask Tiahrt whether he supported extending a hand to people in the fifty-five to sixty-four year age range as she had seen stated on his website. My jaw dropped as he answered, "Oh, no, M’ am. That wasn’t my website you read that on. It must have been somebody else’s website. I am NOT in favor of doing anything like that. These folks are in their most productive years and we need them to be fully engaged in the workplace, earning and being productive." And paying out to rapacious insurance companies apparently.
A few folks did try to offer another view, but the crowd wasn’t having it. An older woman explained that as someone who had spent her life in health care she wanted to ask the group whether they thought we should have health care for all. This question was not well received. (As another Medicare recipient told me later, she was somewhat ashamed at her fellow recipients for their "greedy" attitudes.) We cheered as loudly as we could for comments like these, but we decided after a while that we really needed to quit the scene and head over to the more positive environs of the "Support Dennis Moore" rally across town.
Apparently the Tiahrt rally did get a bit more noisy after we left. I noticed on the local news reports that my friend, the "very big, older man," who had led off the rally with his loud cheering was latter taped ordering people to sit down and stop asking so many questions.
I’ll report on the Dennis Moore rally tomorrow. It’s always better to eat your vegetables first, then follow it with dessert.