In a news story that is very insightful to the minds of many TEA-party East Tennesseeans (motto: "We don't care what we are against, as long as Obama is for it"), A couple of people from Blount County put on red shirts, got on a bus paid for by the Koch Brothers, and went to Nashville to protest the Insure Tennessee Act.
But, according to them, they are not a part of an organization, nor do they work for the Koch Brothers, because "We didn't get paid."
More below...
Here is a link to the article, but it requires a log-in, so I will post it below, without permission of the Daily Times.
Blount Countians Marilyn Willocks, Mary Cook and Keith Miller say they did wear red shirts Feb. 4 when they traveled to Nashville to oppose Gov. Bill Haslam’s proposed health care expansion plan Insure Tennessee.
But they bristle at being labeled “redshirts” — which they see as a derogatory term applied to people believed to be members of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political organization that also opposed the plan.
“We don’t have an organization,” said Willocks, a retired teacher. “We’re just concerned patriots.”
The three local activists said they traveled to Knoxville in the early-morning hours of Feb. 4 and boarded a bus — toting 70 passengers, including more than 15 Blount Countians — bound for Nashville. The riders wanted their voices heard as legislators considered Insure Tennessee, a two-year “pilot program,” the stated goal of which was to provide health care coverage to state residents who don’t have it, or who have limited options.
But Willocks and Cook said the media misrepresented the effort to oppose Insure Tennessee as being driven by outside political interests. “It was not an out-of-state group,” Willocks said of the people who went to Nashville to oppose the plan. “I didn’t see anyone who was out-of-state. We’re grass-roots Tennesseans. We’re patriots, and we care about our country.”
And though she said Americans for Prosperity provided transportation for many of the activists through the state’s chapter of the organization, it didn’t supply anything else.
“It cost us money to go. The Koch brothers (Charles and David Koch, two politically active businessmen who support Americans for Prosperity) did not enrich us one bit,” Willocks said. “We didn’t want to spend our whole day down there.”
“We follow the views of Americans for Prosperity, and they follow ours,” said Cook, a former registered nurse who is now the president of the Smoky Mountain Tea Party Patriots.
Were not paid
In response to the allegations that anti-Insure Tennessee activists were paid representatives of Americans for Prosperity, Miller said, “No one received any money for their participation.”
The three local residents cited several reasons they opposed Insure Tennessee. Cook called it “an expansion of Obamacare.” Willocks said that, “After two years, it’s going to be dumped on the taxpayers. ... It puts Tennesseans further in debt.”
Willocks also said that problems with poor Tennesseans having access to care have been exaggerated. “It’s a lie that gets perpetuated. No one is turned away from the hospital. People are covered anyway. When they walk into the emergency room, they get care,” she said.
“And most of the these ‘poor, hard-working people’ they’re talking about aren’t even Tennesseans. They don’t have a job, and they’re from Mexico, or Honduras.”
Willocks also decried “our socialist governor who has his hands in both of our pockets.”
Legislators evasive
In Nashville, the trio spent the day attending committee meetings and talking to legislators. They said some legislators were evasive when asked for specifics of the plan. “They didn’t answer a lot of the questions asked of them,” Willocks said.
They were also upset because they said it appeared several front row seats had been reserved for Insure Tennessee supporters in the assembly hall. “We were relegated to the back, or to standing. It was very biased.”
In the end, though, all three were pleased when Insure Tennessee was defeated in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. “Absolutely,” said Cook. “That’s why we went. Politicians need to get out of health care.”
Instead of the Insure Tennessee Plan, Cook suggested a program whereby Tennessee residents could receive state vouchers to buy insurance in an open market. “Everyone can go get all the insurance they want, and see whatever doctor they want,” she said.
“What they’re trying to do instead is just crony capitalism,” Cook said. “They want to help people at the top. Poor people will not receive good care.”
Link to the article: http://www.thedailytimes.com/...
I think the correct term is "useful idiots."