9/13: Reflection on Larson(D-CT) West Hartford Town Hall

( an assignment for American Law and Society: Attend a Town Meeting. Listen to both sides, and form an opinion in your conclusion. )

 

Healthcare & Honor in CT’s 1^st Congressional District

It went like this: My grandfather and I loaded up in his van, headed down to Larson’s town hall, and arrived about a half hour early. When we arrived, we found the steps of our Congressman’s office were overrun with proponents of the bill – Nothing wrong with that. They have a right to be there, too. When my grandfather and I stepped over to get to the doors, they turned to each other and yelled, “Form the line!” attempting to force us to back down. Uh… excuse me?

This was our house. We were not backing down. And no thugs were going to silence our right to free speech and participation in democracy.

I know I’m not supposed to take a side, not ‘till the last paragraph, but as an active member of my community I was already well aware of the issue at hand and went not be informed but to be heard. Do pardon my bias, but I am but a lowly opinionated citizen, not a fancy-schmancy N.Y. Times Journalist(you know, the ones that are always objective).

Dozens of dirty hippies, union thugs, and bussed in folks from Massachusetts stormed the steps of Congressman John Larson’s town hall in support of President Obama’s socialized health deform. The opponents were loud, rude, and, oft times, not even residents of Larson’s district. Their signs were glossy and well-laid out – Ours were scribbled on cardboard. They were decked out with stickers and pins, the dress reflecting some kind of…uniform, dare I say? I do dare! They looked like soldiers in uniform!

This is an issue that’s been covered to death by the mainstream media, and as I flip back and forth between CNN and Fox News, I begin to get a full picture of why. This is Obama’s Waterloo. Him and his associates denounce us protesters and opponents of his healthcare plan, but he’s out there campaigning for it – Which shows us as the threat…and common sense tells most people that the government couldn’t even run a hot dog stand efficiently, let alone a complex national health scheme.

The two sides of the issues are clear and obvious; the hippies carried signs demanding we take care of our brothers and sisters. They said nobody should go without healthcare and the government growing even larger and more intrusive is justified. They advocated the passing of a bill that is so difficult to read  lawyers have trouble deciphering what it says. Who even wrote the bill? Something has been committed to paper in some way, because I’ve gleaned bits of it on the news… like the infamous page 16 that points out private insurance will be made illegal. Who wrote it? Apparently there are several in the works, and without the details being exposed and hammered out we already have politicians like John Larson(D-CT – oh, hey, that’s our guy!) pledging their support for the so-called “Public Option” plan(it’s not an option if page 16 renders private competition illegal).

H.R. 3200 seems to be the bill we’re pulling through the ringer, though, so let’s start there.

“H.R.3200 – Title: To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.

Let’s take a look at this posting from Sean Hannity’s forums, containing not only a link to HR 3200, but also an immense amount of intelligent discussion on this bill:

“America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009″
Introduced 7/14/2009
Status: Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.”

This isn’t the only proposal being worked with, but it seems to be the most prominent one, based on its status and on it being the top-listed item on THOMAS.

As rumored, the bill does indeed contain an (illegal) order to get health insurance or be punished with a tax; see Title III (“Shared Responsibility”) Subtitle A Sec. 301, which leads you to the tax described starting in Sec. 401. Because the tax is described in a thicket of IRS Code modification, I’ve not looked into the exact amount this would be. But a guide to the amount is seen in the text: “The tax imposed under subsection (a) with respect to any taxpayer for any taxable year shall not exceed the applicable national average premium for such taxable year.” So, it’s designed to be comparable to the cost of a health insurance policy. I.e., the purpose of this tax is to punish the disobedient.

Note also that employers are ordered to provide insurance to their employees or pay a penalty/contribution for their disobedience. We’re to be locked into the employer-provided-insurance model that only exists in the first place because of WWII wage controls. “

His claims check out. I followed up on the links personally, instead of acting like a “professional” journalist and misquoting, misattributing, rewording and not following up if I put down false second hand information as fact. Maybe it’s just my thing, I don’t know. The link to this forum is included at the bottom of this text.

This addresses only some of our concerns about the bill. Our side carried signs advocated insurance reform, most definitely, and also encouraging personal responsibility. We advocated Capitalism and denounced Cuba – The culmination of this argument came about when a woman asked, “What’s so wrong with socialism, anyway?” And later on when some kid gave me a Socialist Action newsletter. Now, I know I hate it when folks generalize on our side, so I won’t do it to these guys. I’m sure there were a handful of them that really believed in this because they think it’s the right thing to do, folks who advocate love and peace and denounce socialism. Maybe they don’t realize how much we’re slipping away from The Constitution. Maybe they think what Europe’s got ain’t such a bad system after all.

America was founded on the very principle that we would not be like every other nation on earth, and definitely not like Europe. We fled from there, remember? We were a nation founded on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; on individual freedoms; on dreams. The Founding Fathers tried to warn us about tyrannical governments – “Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace” – thank you Mr. Madison – and thus engineered sets of checks and balances to be installed within our own government to prevent it from growing out of control. They wanted us as close to anarchy as possible – with the government as small as we could get away with – doing little except enforcing laws and building roads. Look around. Don’t you think they’ve overstepped the set boundries? Gosh, I see it, and it makes me angry. Thomas Jefferson is spinning in his grave.

Larson had a panel of experts behind him. The proponents of the bill had waited since 3:30 outside of the doors so they could flood it and hopefully keep us out. Still, dissenters managed to fight their way in, few though their numbers were. Aren’t we the ones he wants to try and convince, after all? A woman behind him even had the guts to say that this plan was constitutional. She quoted the Constitution:

“WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

She emphasized that bit in bold. Promote the general Welfare does not equal Provide the general Healthcare. It really bothered me that she’s twisting the words of the Founding Fathers to fit her agenda. They didn’t believe in big government. They didn’t believe in the government being involved in their lives at all, some more than others. The general consensus amongst those 56 great men was that government sucks and they wanted little to do with it, and it’s power should be limited so it can’t intrude on your life. That was it. Bada-bing, bada-boom, done. Finished. It’s simple enough when you actually read what they wrote. Wonder how many in Congress read and comprehended The Federalist Papers – if for nothing more than a better understanding of government in general.

There was no other side in that room. The few dissenters were abused and made to feel like their opinion was not welcome at this discussion. Last I heard, everybody has the right to participate in local government – It’s our duty, damn it! And to think you have the right to silence opinions you do not agree with is despicable, anti-American, and snobbish.

Larson was quoted as saying that if necessary, they’ll tax the nations wealthiest 1%. Where is the sense in that? I’m tired of watching these politicians demonize money, sick and tired of it. I am not entitled to what somebody else has earned. Money does not equal greed; business does not equal evil; and being proud of profits does not make you despicable. Ayn Rand addresses this issue best in her novel, Atlas Shrugged:

So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia. “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil? …. Money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no courage, pride or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich–will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt–and of his life, as he deserves.

Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard–the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money–the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law–men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims–then money becomes its creators’ avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they’ve passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter….Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns–or dollars. Take your choice–there is no other–and your time is running out.”

Still, the other side hammered in that Medicare is awesome(bankrupt) and the government has a history of running successful social entitlement programs(haha what).Overall I think their emotions governed them too much – One whiny chick at the front lines was sobbing the whole time. “Healtchare noooow! Healthcare noooow!” Which doesn’t help her case. When you go into an argument you have to Mr. Spock it, so to speak. Bring facts and remain objective and emotionally distant. Be open to the truth if you are proven wrong. Take in everything with an open mind, even if you think you are right – because we owe more to the truth and our country than we do to political parties, and our personal bias.  Want to talk solutions? How about Tort Reform? They walk right out of the room when you bring up that one. How about devising a way for your healthcare to follow you – not your job? Don’t know how that would work, but I think it sounds about right. How about we look into insurance reform and punish the folks who through people under the bus and wrongfully take advantage of people? Why don’t we clean up Medicare and Medicaid? The concept of these make no sense to me, because I think they’re immoral by nature, but if we’re going to deal with this little entitlement program, let’s do it without bankrupting the country. A last comment – We’re often told “Well, the Republican party doesn’t have any ideas.” Republicans shouldn’t have to meet up in a secret clubhouse and come up with a party-based plan to be taken seriously. If one man – Democrat or Republican – has a good idea, it should be met with support on both sides of the aisle without embarrassment. To blame the Republicans for not having a plan supported by the whole party angers me because it only reinforces this Democrat v. Republican partisan issue. I hate that. Parties do not matter. It doesn’t matter to me, it doesn’t matter to most Americans – Why can’t they see that? Why reinforce this black and white stupid tug of war garbage they’ve been playing at for years? America is more awake and aware of what’s going on than I’ve ever seen in my short little lifespan, and it’s amazing to me that they think they can get away with this.

The claim that this plan is revenue neutral is laughable, but that’s cool, Prez. Just keep printing money and touring the world apologizing for America. Keep running up the deficit. Guess we can cut you a little slack – Clinton and Bush left you quite a screwed up economy. I understand that. But how much longer can you blame the last administration before you man up, buck up, and do the right thing? Spending money does not save money, just as surely as “abandoning the principles of the free market system” does not save the free market… and proposing this government expanding socialistic healthcare takeover at this time is the wrong thing to do for the budget, no matter how often you preach otherwise. Proposing it at any time would warrant a very lengthy and serious discussion, actually – so don’t get up on your pedestal in front of Congress acting annoyed at us. You haven’t been clear – and when you have, we got the meaning crystal. When it comes down to it, no matter all the problems in this bill, I think all you have to do is glance at the Constitution and the rejected 2^nd Bill of Rights to come to your conclusion on this heated issue, because that’s what’s important. This healthcare bill is about so much more than healthcare – It’s socialism, it’s big government, it’s entitelement, it’s an embarrassing defecit – This healthcare bill and our current President represent years and years of building frustrations among your average Americans who simply cannot keep silent anymore. What makes these politicians so arrogant that they think they can trample on our Constitutional law – That they’re smarter than Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, I could go down the whole list. It’s arrogance in it’s purest form – This Healthcare bill is just one way that it twists and manifests itself.

And on 9/12, as I watch T.V. and see the crowd at Washington D.C. – The crowd I should’ve been apart of – I pay attention to their signs. They address Healthcare because it’s so prominent right now, but Obama’s agenda is all interconnected – They’re all the same issues, the same concerns. I see Anti-Czar signs and a guy that looks like he could be my neighbor in an old baseball cap quoting the Constitution off the top of his head. My mind wanders to all these town halls and the people coming out and asking questions everywhere. And I think of a great man in the distance of our past, penning this to paper:

“A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation.”

Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1792

The quote I used from the Sean Hannity forum discussion is located at http://forums.hannity.com/showthread.php?t=1562881

The full text of HR 3200 is available at http://docs.house.gov/edlabor/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf

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