Republican mobs?

[Towntalk]

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) opposes all tax increases as a matter of principle.
We believe in a system in which taxes are simpler, flatter, more visible, and lower than they are today.  The government's power to control one's life derives from its power to tax.  We believe that power should be minimized.

ATR was founded in 1985 by Grover Norquist at the request of President Reagan.

The flagship project of Americans for Tax Reform is the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a written promise by legislators and candidates for office that commits them to oppose any effort to increase income taxes on individuals and businesses. Since ATR first sponsored the Pledge in 1986, hundreds of U.S. Representatives, more than fifty U.S. Senators and every successful Republican Presidential candidate have all signed the Pledge. In the 111th Congress, 172 U.S. Representatives and 34 U.S. Senators have taken the Pledge never to raise income taxes.

Americans for Tax Reform began promoting the Taxpayer Protection Pledge on the state-level in the early 1990s.

ATR works with state taxpayer coalitions in all 50 states to ask candidates for state legislature and constitutional office to sign the State Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which reads: "I _____ pledge to the taxpayers of the __________ district, of the state of __________, and to all the people of this state, that I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes."

Additionally, Americans for Tax Reform works with state-based center-right groups to help replicate ATR's national Wednesday Meeting in the states. Currently, there are over 50 meetings in 45 states. These meetings bring together a broad cross section of the center-right community- taxpayer groups, social conservative groups, business groups, legislators, etc., to promote limited government ideals.

Realizing that Americans not only need to be protected from higher taxes, but from higher spending; Americans for Tax Reform created the Center for Fiscal Accountability (CFA) in 2008.  CFA focuses on all central issues related to fiscal responsibility and accountability, especially spending restraint and  the promotion of a more transparent and accountable government on the local, state, and federal level through easily searchable online spending and contract databases.

Americans for Tax Reform and Americans for Tax Reform Foundation also sponsor the annual calculation of Cost of Government Day (COGD), the day on which Americans stop working to pay the costs of taxation, deficit spending, and regulations by federal and state governments.

ATR is a nonprofit, 501(c)(4) lobbying organization.  Contributions to Americans for Tax Reform are not tax deductible.  The Americans for Tax Reform Foundation is a 501c(3) research and educational organization.  All contributions to the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation are tax deductible to the extent provided for in federal law.

[sfc_oliver]

Harnessing 'Town-Hallers'
Don't believe everything you hear
about the "town-hallers," those
shouting mobs showing up at
congressional town hall meetings to
bark about Washington's healthcare
reform plans. Despite the perception
they are GOP plants, party insiders
and conservatives groups say they are
homegrown protesters with no ties to
politics. Grover Norquist, president of
Americans for Tax Reform, should
know. Norquist, who has organizations
in some 45 states, says, "These local
leaders are all new people. They are
completely independent." And they
are attractive to organizations like
Norquist's, which is reaching out to the
town-hallers in hopes of adding their
power to ATR's in advance of the 2010
House and Senate midterm elections.

From US News and World Report (Washington Whispers)

[sfc_oliver]

Single Payer government run health care has got to be the worst Idea anyone even dreamed of. I have lived with this system my entire adult life. Trust me you do not want it.

Wait for several hours until your number comes up.

See a kid who had 6 months medical training for triage.

Half the time get an Asprin pac or cold pac and get sent back to work.

The other half you might get to see a PA and if you are really lucky you may actually see a full fledged doctor.

Then if you survive 20 years....

You have to find a Doctor who will accept the cut back payments.

You are told when you can see the doctor and what you can be treated for.

You are even told which drugs you can use and which you have to pay for yourself.

Then you are told that certain procedures are not covered.

If I could afford to purchase health care insurance on a fixed income I certainly would.

[irishbobcat]

Greens: Democrats' town meetings on health care reform deserve debate and civil protest, not disruption and mob violence
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org


Serving the health insurance lobby, both Republicans and Democrats have tried to shut down open discussion on single-payer, promote phony reform, and spread disinformation; whether Democrats or Republicans win the health care debate, Americans will lose, say Greens

Greens urge Americans who support real health reform to contact Congress members in support of single-payer (HR 676)

Greens mourn the deaths of two single-payer heroes: Marilyn Clement and Nick Skala


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders spoke out today against the violent disruptions taking place throughout the US at town hall meetings on health care reform.

But Greens said that both Democratic and Republican leaders deserve blame for obstructing the public debate on health care reform. Greens pointed to various attempts to silence discussion of single-payer national health care in public forums and the media, as well as spread misinformation about single-payer and the Canadian health-care system.

The Green Party is urging supporters of real universal health care to lobby their US Representatives in advance of a promised vote on the single-payer bill (http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/08/05-8). Greens have called for a nationally televised debate on the merits of single-payer and for GAO and Congressional Budget Office studies on single-payer. Analyses from these offices in the 1990s showed that single-payer will reduce health care spending by billions (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=226).

Candace Caveny, Michigan Green candidate for the US House, 10th district (http://www.candacecaveny.org):
"While storm troops egged on by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and other shills for the insurance industry are disrupting town hall meetings, the Democrats running these events are also squashing open debate on health care. Democrats in Congress have blocked discussion of the single-payer plan, keeping it 'off the table,' to use Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus's words. Both the disruptors in the audience and the Democrats and certain union leaders on stage are defending the right of insurance companies to maintain their profits and control over health care, while hundreds of thousands of Americans are going into financial ruin because of illness and injury. The only real solution is the single-payer plan, represented by John Conyers' House bill 676 and supported in Michigan by UAW Local 599 and the Steelworkers Union, as well as the Green
Party."

Lisa Green, Green candidate for the California State Assembly, 53rd District, in the 2010 election (http://www.votelisagreen.net):
"In May, physicians, nurses, Greens, and other single-payer advocates were arrested after peacefully standing up to protest the exclusion of single-payer experts during Senate Finance Committee roundtables on health care reform. If fearmongering Republican leaders, front groups, and public personalities like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck are urging mobs of their supporters to break up town hall meetings, they should be investigated and prosecuted, just as the nonviolent single-payer protesters were arrested."
(Leaked memo on disruption from insurance industry front groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/31/recess-harassment-memo/)

Alfred Molison, Green candidate for Houston City Council, District C (http://www.votealfred.com):
"Americans are receiving mountains of disinformation about health care reform from Democratic and Republican leaders alike, as well as from TV, radio, and the Internet. Democrats keep telling us that single-payer is not possible or desirable, despite polls showing majority support for guaranteed national health care. Republicans, media shills, and groups like Conservatives for Patients' Rights are equating Obamacare with the Canadian single-payer system -- an outright lie, since the Democrats' reform plan favors the health insurance industry. As in 1993, Democratic front groups like Health Care for America Now! and Citizen Action and many union leaders believe it's more important to declare victory for the Democrats than to provide real health care reform."
(Video of Mr. Molison and other Green candidates: press conference at the Green Party's 2009 National Meeting in Durham, North Carolina, July 24: http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus/ondemand/flv_8f77dfc8-b911-4950-902c-346c35ca3b90)

Jody Grage, treasurer of the Green Party of the United States:
"Rick Scott, head of Conservatives for Patients' Rights and an inspirer of the town hall disruptions, is a welfare cheat. Mr. Scott was fired from his position as CEO of Columbia/HCA in 1997 after he was caught trying to defraud the government for hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars in false Medicare and Medicaid payments, the largest Medicare-Medicaid swindle in history (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/22-4). The company had to pay back $1.7 billion, but Rick Scott, instead of facing prosecution, received $10 million in severance pay and $300 million worth of stock. In reality, insurance companies have no objection to health reform or government intervention if it means they'll receive huge taxpayer-funded subsidies to inflate their profit margins and CEO salaries. The enraged mobs storming town hall meetings and the liberals swallowing the Democrats' 'public option'
and 'mandate' schemes have all been manipulated in a game played by and for the health insurance industry. Whether the Democrats or the Republicans win the health care debate, the American people will lose."

SIDEBAR...
Greens mourn the recent passing of two leaders in the movement for single-payer universal health care: Marilyn Clement, 74, founder and national coordinator of Healthcare Now! (http://www.healthcare-now.org); and Nick Skala, 27, staff member of Physicians for a National Health Program (http://www.pnhp.org) and a member of the Green Party in Texas and Illinois.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

[Towntalk]

Couldn't agree more.

[iwasthere]

we must debate this isssue in a civilized manner.

[Towntalk]

From LaRouche's web site

It's the U.S. Population that Rejects Obama's Nazi Health Policy

http://www.larouchepub.com/pr/2009/090807pop_rejects_obama.html

[sfc_oliver]

Thank you Towntalk. I knew there was something behind this Nazi BS.

[Towntalk]

The news media has been portraying those who oppose health care as Nazis, but never revealing where the posters came from.

Here is a report that does release the source of the Nazi posters.

This in no way excuses the Limbaughs, but it does raise serious questions about the media.

NBC, CNN and MSNBC All Assign Communist LaRouche's Obama-Hitler Poster to Conservatives, Limbaugh

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/seton-motley/2009/08/12/nbc-cnn-msnbc-all-assign-communist-larouches-obama-hitler-poster-conse

[sfc_oliver]

My head hurts

[irishbobcat]

Conservatives: "The Goal Is Not Compromise"

HuffPost's Art Levine relays a first-hand account from a major conservative organizing conference call, revealing their obstructionist goals: "Apparently we on the left aren't the only ones frustrated with the Senate Finance Committee. Listeners on the call were encouraged to actively protest Senators Grassley, Enzi, and Snowe in order to stop them from negotiating with Democrats. The moderator said, 'The goal is not compromise, and ANY bill coming out this year would be a failure for us... because the Democrats will turn even a weak bill from the Senate Finance Committee into Canadian-style single-payer through underhanded implementation.' They called for mass protests in Iowa in order to sway Grassley."

Sen. Susan Collins defends insurance industry to CQ: "I'm always surprised when I hear some of my colleagues describe the public plan as being needed to keep the insurance companies honest . . . when insurance carriers are regulated in every state in the nation ... They are a heavily regulated industry."

Possible '12 prez candidate Huckabee tries "up is down" explanation of right-wing town hall mobs. CNN: "At only two of the hundreds of meetings held, have I seen situations get out of control. Both of those incidents were caused not by the average Americans wanting to be heard, but by organized supporters of the Democrats trying to stop the free speech of people opposed to the proposed bill."

The Walker Report explains the problem with the punditocracy's favorite bipartisan bill: "The Wyden-Bennett bill would eliminate the tax exempt status of employer-provided health insurance benefits. It would replace this with a standard tax deduction to help buy insurance and additional subsidies for low income wage earners. This all sounds good, but here comes the rub. Neither the tax deduction nor the subsidies to make buying health insurance affordable are indexed to the cost of health insurance ... the government provided financial help for people to afford insurance will quickly become worthless ... The bill is only cheap because it does a terrible job of providing affordable health insurance in the long term."

Palin Suffers Fallout From Ludicrous "Death Panels" Comment

"Palin 'death panel' claim sets Truth-O-Meter ablaze" concludes Politifact.

The Plum Line reminds "Sarah Palin Has Her Own 'Death Panel' Problem: "deaths of elderly patients due to mismanagement and neglect from Alaska state medical programs"

Salon.com's Mike Madden reminds the death panel are here, they're called private insurance companies: "The future of healthcare in America, according to Sarah Palin, might look something like this: A sick 17-year-old girl needs a liver transplant. Doctors find an available organ, and they're ready to operate, but the bureaucracy -- or as Palin would put it, the 'death panel' -- steps in and says it won't pay for the surgery. Despite protests from the girl's family and her doctors, the heartless hacks hold their ground for a critical 10 days. Eventually, under massive public pressure, they relent -- but the patient dies before the operation can proceed. It certainly sounds scary enough to make you want to go show up at a town hall meeting and yell about how misguided President Obama's healthcare reform plans are. Except that's not the future of healthcare -- it's the present ... 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, a leukemia patient from Glendale, Calif., died in December 2007, after her parents battled their insurance company, Cigna, over the surgery."

Ezra Klein interviews GOP supporter of expanding Medicare end-of-life planning coverage, Sen. Johnny Isakson: "I just had a phone call where someone said Sarah Palin's web site had talked about the House bill having death panels on it where people would be euthanized. How someone could take an end of life directive or a living will as that is nuts. You're putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don't know how that got so mixed up."

Wonk Room's Igor Volsky of the "consequences of misinformation": "Last Thursday, Mike Sola, whose son has cerebral palsy, disrupted a town hall meeting with Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) by wheeling his son up to Dingell and verbally attacking the Congressman for supporting a bill that would give 'no care whatsoever' to Americans with 'cerebral palsy.' ... In reality, rather than empowering political appointees with the ability to make medical decisions, all of the health bills improve care for Americans with disabilities."

[sfc_oliver]

Dennis, Turn around , bend over, and cram it.

I'm tired of your BS cut and pastes.  You know that the term  Teabaggers is nothing but an insult to many people who want government spending controlled which included the Bush Administration. You simply were not listening.

No one on this forum is a "Birther" though your Lord and master Mr Obama has hidden plenty about himself from the public.

  And now you want to lump us all together with some nutcases who have gone on shooting sprees.

I've had it with you Mr Nutcase. My government has called me a right wing radical extremist and God knows what else. But I do not have to take it from you.

I Believe I will start sending your comments to the Struthers school board, See how your co workers feel about some of your stupidity.

Yes I'm Pissed.

And Please, Please run for Congress again. I would love to attend a few speeches you might make.

[irishbobcat]

All the Rage Over Health-Care Reform
 
The ugliness of the opposition to health-care reform is a symptom of something much larger. 
 
Paul Waldman | August 11, 2009 | web only 
 


 
 
 
About 200 protesters wave signs and chant outside a townall meeting in Alaska where Sen. Mark Begich is speaking. The group is working to get Begich the hold a town hall meeting on President Obama's health care plan. (AP Photo/ Al Grillo)
 

If you've watched any of the growing library of YouTube videos depicting (mostly) middle-aged white guys yelling at their members of Congress during town meetings about health care, you may have had the following reaction: Why are these people so angry? Did that congressman kill that guy's dog or something? What the heck is going on here?
One answer is that what is going on is a campaign of thuggery organized by a loose coalition of corporate-funded interest groups, lobbying firms specializing in "Astroturf" campaigns, and conservative organizations. But that's only part of the story. For all the strategizing by the usual right-wing suspects, the people being marshaled are there of their own volition, and they aren't acting. They may have been told where and when to appear by a Washington lobbying firm, but they are genuinely, sincerely, quiveringly mad.

At present, their anger is being spat at the administration's attempt to reform health care. But that rage goes much deeper than any one policy; should the health-care plan fail, it will continue to simmer unabated. It's been manifested by many groups: the "birther" conspiracy theorists convinced that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and is therefore ineligible to be president; the "tea baggers" suddenly angry about federal spending and taxes (after eight years of not being too concerned); and in its most extreme forms, the stream of angry men carrying out mass shootings when the liberals or the immigrants or the women have pushed them too far.

In order to understand this ire, you have to understand the people who are turning up the flame and adding their own seasonings to the cauldron.

Primary among them are the right-wing talkers who have been so gloriously liberated by the election of Obama. Tune in to Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, or Glenn Beck these days, and it's like drinking anger and fear from a fire hose. Every day brings the threat of a new American apocalypse; every policy change reason for yet another comparison to Hitler; the very presence of Obama in the White House an affront to all they believe in. Nothing is worse than this -- the president of the United States is an uppity black man with an Ivy League degree, who would appoint a Hispanic woman to the Supreme Court instead of someone who deserves it, who might not really be American, who plainly spends his every waking hour working to keep good honest folks down.] Back in 2007, O'Reilly warned that the "far left" wanted to "break down the white, Christian, male power structure," and now it has come true.

What gives the conservative pundits' their message all the more power is that this shocking transition happened at a time of economic misery, when more and more people are suffering. Even those who haven't lost their jobs are worrying more about their economic future than they ever have before. People are afraid and uneasy, and some of them have the growing feeling that something just isn't right. It isn't just the economy. It's everything they see around them, in a society that becomes more complex and inscrutable all the time, where the traditional arrangements that gave order and hierarchy and predictability to the world and their place in it are breaking down. It's more than the knowledge that some pencil-pusher could lay them off at any moment. It's kids who don't respect their elders. It's walking down the street and hearing people speaking foreign languages. It's everything that makes them feel threatened and uncertain and out of place.

And when they turn on their radios and televisions, they find a kind of order. I know what you're feeling, they are told, and I can tell you at whom you ought to be mad, so let's yell and scream and fear and rage together. It isn't your boss; it isn't Wall Street,. No, it's a new administration and the people it represents, the people who made you into a minority of all things, the people whom we can turn into an amalgam of every enemy you've ever hated. It's them.

This message is an insistent buzzing in the ears of the bitter, making their brains throb with a low-grade headache they can never quite get rid of. And more than any of his colleagues, Glenn Beck is the pied piper of this rage. Beck is ready to believe any conspiracy theory no matter how nutty (whether that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is constructing concentration camps for uncooperative Americans, or that cash-for-clunkers is a plot by the federal government to gain access to your computer). He is given to endless apocalyptic warnings (he recently noted that the Nazis implemented the Holocaust by first cutting health-care costs, I kid you not). And his daily rantings have made him the right-wing star of the Obama era. When he proclaimed that Obama "has a deep-seated hatred for white people," few familiar with Beck's act could claim to be surprised. "They don't surround us," he is fond of saying ominously. "We surround them."

And it's not just the radio and television talkers. The Republican establishment has evidently decided that keeping the rabble roused is essential to any hope it has of regaining power. So not only are Republicans doing their best to push forward the "Obama wants to kill your grandmother" meme, they'll seemingly seize on any opportunity to yell "Boo" at the public.

One of the silliest cases came last week, when the White House asked the public to send them examples of rumors, lies, and misinformation so that they could counter the claims. You can see what's coming -- conservatives, led by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas (who is smart enough to know what baloney he's spewing), quickly characterized it as an effort to get people to snitch on their neighbors and put them on a national enemies' list.

This, in a nutshell, is where the GOP has come: They see that angry old man, his face reddening, yelling at his congressman to make sure government doesn't get its hands on his Medicare, and they nod approvingly. Yes sir, they say, you've got it. We don't want you to mow down the parishioners in your local liberal church or anything, but we like you just the way you are -- deluded, disgusted, and getting angrier by the minute. That festering ball of resentment and rage that lives in the pit of your stomach isn't a tumor; it's a flower that deserves nurturing and food to grow big and strong. Read those chain e-mails, tune in to Rush and Sean and Glenn -- and did you hear the latest rumor?

The health-care town meetings give these people a forum for the ugliness welling up inside them, but their fury isn't really about health care. This debate will be over soon, and when it ends, they'll be just as mad, just as bitter that the country that used to belong to them has left them behind, and just as eager to hear that the most bizarre conspiracies their imaginations could conceive are coming true. As one woman shouted through tears at a town meeting in Arkansas to the cheers of the crowd, "I have never seen my America turned into what it has turned into, and I want my America back!" Whether health-care reform succeeds or fails, she and others like her won't get what they want -- and their anger won't go away.

[Towntalk]

10 ''SEC. 440. HOME VISITATION PROGRAMS FOR FAMILIES
11 WITH YOUNG CHILDREN AND FAMILIES EX-
PECTING CHILDREN.
13 ''(a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to im-
prove the well-being, health, and development of children
15 by enabling the establishment and expansion of high qual-
ity programs providing voluntary home visitation for fami-
lies with young children and families expecting children.
18 ''(b) GRANT APPLICATION.—A State that desires to
19 receive a grant under this section shall submit to the Sec2-
retary for approval, at such time and in such manner as
21 the Secretary may require, an application for the grant
22 that includes the following:
23 ''(1) DESCRIPTION OF HOME VISITATION PRO-
GRAMS.—A description of the high quality programs
25 of home visitation for families with young children
26 and families expecting children that will be sup-

838
•HR 3200 IH
1 ported by a grant made to the State under this sec-
tion, the outcomes the programs are intended to
3 achieve, and the evidence supporting the effective-
ness of the programs.
5 ''(2) RESULTS OF NEEDS ASSESSMENT.—The
6 results of a statewide needs assessment that de-
scribes—
8 ''(A) the number, quality, and capacity of
9 home visitation programs for families with
10 young children and families expecting children
11 in the State;
12 ''(B) the number and types of families who
13 are receiving services under the programs;
14 ''(C) the sources and amount of funding
15 provided to the programs;
16 ''(D) the gaps in home visitation in the
17 State, including identification of communities
18 that are in high need of the services; and
19 ''(E) training and technical assistance ac-
tivities designed to achieve or support the goals
21 of the programs.
22 ''(3) ASSURANCES.—Assurances from the State
23 that—
24 ''(A) in supporting home visitation pro-
grams using funds provided under this section,

839
•HR 3200 IH
1 the State shall identify and prioritize serving
2 communities that are in high need of such serv-
ices, especially communities with a high propor-
tion of low-income families or a high incidence
5 of child maltreatment;
6 ''(B) the State will reserve 5 percent of the
7 grant funds for training and technical assist8
ance to the home visitation programs using
9 such funds;
10 ''(C) in supporting home visitation pro-
grams using funds provided under this section,
12 the State will promote coordination and collabo-
ration with other home visitation programs (in-
cluding programs funded under title XIX) and
15 with other child and family services, health
16 services, income supports, and other related as-
sistance;
18 ''(D) home visitation programs supported
19 using such funds will, when appropriate, pro-
vide referrals to other programs serving chil-
dren and families; and
22 ''(E) the State will comply with subsection
23 (i), and cooperate with any evaluation con-
ducted under subsection (j).

[sfc_oliver]

So why would a Congressman hold a town hall meeting outside his own district? Looking for a friendlier crowd? It doesn't help him to snub his nose at those who elected him. Face it people do not like what they are hearing about this Health care reform. And they do not trust a congress that has passed so much without even reading it.

Have any of you tried to read this piece of work? It would take a team of lawyers to understand most of it. And our Congressmen are not that smart.