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| Harkin health care forum gets contentious |
| 2009-08-10 |
| A health care event sponsored U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin erupted into a shouting match Saturday afternoon, when opponents of health-care reform yelled pointed questions and criticisms to the Democratic senator. It echoed other health care events sponsored by members of Congress around the country in recent days that have been disrupted by protestors, although no one was arrested at Saturday's event. Uniformed police officers were present as roughly 200 people turned out to see Harkin at an inner-city health care center to voice their opinions or ask questions about health care. "This is not health reform, this is control, control over our lives," one unidentified man shouted from the audience. It was only one of several such confrontations during the raucous forum. Moments before the event began, Harkin told reporters that opponents of health-care reform were using "scare tactics" in an effort to stop it. "There's a lot of people out there making a lot of money on this system, and they don't want to change it," Harkin said. "They just like it just the way it is, so whatever they can do to disrupt it, to stop it, they're money ahead. We can't let them stop us from changing this system." Jim Stone, a West Des Moines resident who attended the forum, took issue with complaints about government intervention in the health care system, pointing out that Medicare is a government-run program. He's in favor of the health-care reform proposal in Congress, and said he was disappointed with the behavior of opponents at the event. "There's no correlation between volume and intelligent questions," Stone said. "In fact, there may be a negative correlation." Marilea David of West Des Moines came to the event to speak out against the health-care reform legislation. She said the federal government should not be involved in health care at all. "I don't believe that it's something that America needs to get into. Something like socialized medicine is way beyond what we are capable of at this point," she said. Harkin told reporters that he didn't think the average American wanted to spend more on health care or to allow insurance companies to discriminate against people if they have a previous illness. "That's what we're addressing in this health care reform bill is to make sure that we have stable coverage, that we have stable quality and that we have stable prices for what people pay for insurance," Harkin said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 And, of course, our local versions of Pravda (Iowa City's Press-Citizen and Cedar Rapids' Gazette) have had absolutely no coverage on any of this. Doesn't fit the narrative, you know. |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2009-08-10 14:33 |
| #1 Tom Harkin introduced an amendment to the senate bill (Baucus' bill is shrouded in secrecy btw - Transparency again) labeling Shamans as "practitioners." Who's next, Granny Clampett? |
| Posted by: Black Bart Ebberens7700 2009-08-10 08:57 |