The Old Redneck and two liberal Democrat friends left home at 3:30 PM, Sunday, 30 August. We planned to attend the health care town hall held by our local Congresscritter, Rob Wittman (R, VA-01).
Instead, we traveled through the space-time continuum and were transported to the Planet Orc.
Unbelievable. My first exposure to true lunacy.
But first, the details.
Rob Wittman, our local Representative, is a popular Republican in a red district, VA-01. He won a special election last year to replace another Republican who died of breast cancer. Wittman is a wimp.
The town hall was sponsored by the VFW Auxiliary and held in the VFW hall, Warsaw, VA. Doors opened at 4:30, the hall seats 200-225.
We arrived at 3:45 and were about 175 in line. Within 30 minutes the end of the line was out of sight around the corner.
Judging from the signs, T-shirts, and conversations overheard while waiting for the doors to open, we were outnumbered by something like 100:1. The Old Redneck and his two friends are in our mid-60's -- we were among the youngest in the crowd.
The president of the VFW Auxiliary announced before the doors opened that no signs or banners would be permitted. There was a lot of grumbling but, too her credit, she stood firm.
About half the crowd got into the building and the VFW rigged loudspeakers outside so the rest of the folks could hear. If you wanted to ask a question, you wrote your name and hometown on an index card and dropped it into a drum from which names would be pulled. The Old Redneck filled out a card but was not selected to ask a question.
Rob Wittman's staff was there handing out a one-pager with Wittman's "Thirteen Principles for Health Care Reform." The content of these 13 principles was a shock. The Old Redneck has read and studied HR 3200 -- Wittman's 13 principles could have been taken directly from HR 3200. For example, his Principle #10 says: "Develop new models to encourage individuals to plan for long term care needs." (Sounds like a death panel to me !!)
In his opening comments, Wittman pointed out the growth in health care spending that now consumes 17 percent of GDP and will climb to 30 percent -- he pointed at that this not sustainable and is a destructive drag on our economy. He also stated that insurance companies cannot be allowed to continue business as usual -- pre-existing conditions, cancelling policies, denying care to protect profits -- not a word about greedy lawyers and malpractice settlements.
Wittman clearly is against a public option -- he doesn't want the guvmint competing with private insurers.
Wittman also reinforced the lie that no one will be able to buy private insurance in five years. (NOTHING in HR 3200 says this. What the bill says is that new policies must comply with the legislation and policies in effect at the time the legislation becomes law will stay in effect as long as premiums are paid and the company honors the policy.) No one called him on this lie.
He then opened the floor for questions and the fun began.
I'll not go into the details except to point out that you know you're on another planet when for two hours every question contains one or more of the following phrases
-- "I heard on Glenn Beck . . . "
-- "Senate bill 2099 will force me to list my guns on my tax forms;"
-- "Obama's czars are writing this bill;"
-- "Obama's appointments to the FCC will muzzle Rush;"
-- "Obama wants to take control of the Internet and read all my email;"
-- "Where in the Constitution does it say 'health care?' ;"
-- "I don't want the guvmint messing with Medicare;"
-- "How can the guvmint manage health insurance if they can't manage cash for clunkers?"
Wittman was called up short and caught in a lie by one speaker. When asked about insuring illegal aliens, Wittman said that "We (Congressional Republicans)" had proposed an amendment that would prohibit insurance payments to illegal aliens but the amendment was defeated. One guy whose name was selected pointed out to Wittman that Section 246 of HR 3200 expressly prohibits payments to persons not legally in the country -- this speaker quoted from HR 3200 and called Wittman out on his lie -- Wittman did not respond.
All in all, it was exactly as the Old Redneck expected -- still, the experience left me dazed, confused, and deeply worried about the country whose uniform I wore for 30 years. Maybe it's because my area of VA-01 -- the Northern Neck -- is rural and is a low-tax haven for retirees. And maybe it's because reasonable, rational people had something better to do on a Sunday afternoon in August.
If the opinions of the crowd were based on rational thought and facts and even-handed debate, the Old Redneck could accept opposition to health insurance reform. But that was not the case. The opinions of this crowd were based on:
-- lie piled upon lie
-- blind allegiance to Glenn Beck
-- equally blind acceptance of the stuff you read and hear from the Freepers, Malkin, Rush, Hannity, Coulter, and Fox
-- hate, hate, and more hate (the Old Redneck moved back a few places in line to distance himself from the flaming asshole telling dead Kennedy jokes)
-- pure hate
-- and more hate.