Billy Kennedy (Democratic candidate for US Congress, NC-5) has the spunk, the spirit, and the courage of his convictions.
On Monday, he walked into Virginia Foxx's Health Care Town Hall forum in Statesville to join other battered constituents in asking Virginia just what the hell it is she really does up there in Washington. Several of us from Watauga County tagged along to grab front row seats.
Check out the crowd, some really pissed off people (on both sides), Foxx's insistence that government interference is ruining America's health care system, and Billy's response in this local TV station report of what went down. It's really worth a watch (can't embed--and there's a short commercial at the top).
Billy arrived early enough to meet and greet some of the attendees personally and to sign in to speak.
(If you don't want to ramble through my impressions of the event, be sure to read Billy Kennedy's account below. It's really something else.)
I sighted Foxx's pocketbook near the podium right off the bat and tried to determine if it was stuffed with buffet sweets and savories. I couldn't tell for sure. Can you?
After a brief "Howdy Yall," Foxx fired up her usual song and dance about how "there's nothing the government can do better than the private sector," and how "They don't want people to be in charge of their own healthcare." (who is this "they" anyway?)
But there were, as always, some special moments. We're accustomed to seeing Foxx cry when she talks about how America is the greatest country on earth, so it was no surprise when she fought back tears at the sight of the flag, but at one point she literally screamed, "WE HAVE A CONSTITUTION!" I've been chewing that one over, and I'm still not really sure what she meant. Did she mean we feared we'd misplaced the Constitution but that she'd just sighted it under the couch cushion? Or did she mean the Constitution was about to be rolled in by well dressed Civics Center Staff on a silver platter surrounded by sparklers? Or did she mean "we" have one but the "rest of you" don't?
We also found out yesterday she's against term limits, but she was careful to point out she didn't feel that way just because she didn't want to give up the Lemon Poached Chicken salad at Washington's Longwood cafeteria on Fridays.
This gentleman's name is Charles Bunch. He'd apparently been studying up on Germany's health care system and asked Rep. Foxx if she thought that might be a good idea. Rep, Foxx, who is by all accounts an "expert" on health care systems, said she didn't know anything about it. (I reckon Mr. Bunch didn't know that Rep. Foxx ain't too keen on what foreigners are up to.)
Billy Kennedy never got to ask his question. Rep. Foxx's staff put the names of everyone who wanted to speak in a cardboard box and then let people draw out the names. After an initial flush of questions in favor of health care reform, suddenly all the names pulled were people Rep. Foxx knew by first name and who wanted to join her in railing against socialism. I got a bit suspicious, so I followed the cardboard box guy out into the hall at one point only to find him going through the remaining names and making little side stacks. I said, "What are you doing?" I really can't remember what he answered, but I do remember it wasn't a good answer, so I asked to see what was left in the box and the little stacks. There were several pieces of paper with Billy Kennedy's name on them as well as a host of questions about why we can't have a public option or a Medicare buy-in. I'm left wondering if Rep. Foxx ate the "bad" slips of paper to hide the evidence (or just because she wanted to snack on "them" on her way back to Washington).
But the last laugh, as far as I'm concerned, was had by Billy Kennedy, who released his personal account of the event last night. It's really quite a read:
After Rep. Foxx's health care town hall today, I searched the Constitution to see where it says we taxpayers are supposed to be subsidizing her personal health care insurance. I couldn't find it.
You see, Rep. Foxx says unless something is expressly written in the Constitution, then we the people have no right to want or expect it. In fact, that was the exact question I had for her today (had I been called on). I wanted to know, since she's been a politician for the last 27 years, when was the last time the taxpayers weren't subsidizing her insurance?
It's fine for Ms. Foxx to stand up there today and tell folks that the people need to handle their own health care costs, that the government can't do anything right (so why even try?) and that our current system is the best in the world, when she lets the government handle her health needs and expects us to hand over our hard-earned dollars not just for our own health needs, but for hers too.
Our health system is indeed the greatest in the world. For her. For those of us who aren't on government programs like Medicare or Medicaid, or Tri-Care or the Federal Health Care plan, not so great.
The saddest moment of the day came when a gentleman stood up to talk about how his son had tried for 7 years to get government disability due to his cystic fibrosis. This nice man choked up when he recounted how his son had died shortly after he received disability benefits he'd fought so hard for. Ms. Foxx's reply was, "Government shouldn't have been handling this."
Now I thought to myself: if government shouldn't have been handling it, just who does Rep. Foxx think should have? Does she honestly believe private insurance was an option? But then, I checked. Indeed, there is nothing in the Constitution about helping out people who have a disability from the coughing, fatigue, pneumonia and pain of cystic fibrosis. In fact, I couldn't find a single one of those words so I guess, by her view, she's right.
Ms. Foxx says she is all about health care reform. She says we need to do something, and that her idea is to lower health costs by expanding Health Savings Accounts, limiting the ability of people to sue if they have been physically injured through the actions of a hospital or their doctor, and allowing insurance to be purchased across state lines.
Of course all of us know that Health Savings Accounts are mostly just an option for healthy and wealthy families since a lot of us just don't have the money to pay into one in the first place and, even if we did, we could never be able to save enough to pay for cancer treatments out of pocket.
When someone asked how it would work if we let health care companies sell their policies across state lines since the states regulated the companies, Rep. Foxx replied that working people might not really want "all those restrictions on the health care corporations" anyhow. Of course, as a wealthy politician who's covered by a taxpayer-subsidized insurance plan regulated by the federal government, she has nothing to lose from letting the rest of us fend for ourselves in an unregulated insurance free-for-all.
As for tort reform, the Congressional Budget Office says that wouldn't reduce total U.S. health care spending by more than about 0.5 percent.
...But I'd be willing to talk that one out with Rep. Foxx--if she'd agree to give up her government health care in return for it.
Isn't that something?