Chicago Republicans

Last night I attended my Congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky's, townhall meeting. The Tribune today said that the meeting was "heated" but I beg to differ. Although at times a little excitable, it was quite civil which may have been due to the smug assuredness of the many supporters that were bused in to take all the early seats and the calm collectedness of the "well-dressed angry mobsters" who managed to get there early despite being told to come later. I think my favorite staged presence were the supporters wearing white lab coats (to look like doctors) with "single payer option" buttons on the lapel where a real doctor's name would be. I only witnessed/experienced two ugly incidents, both conducted by supporters of the government option bill Jan is supporting. One lady complained about the Republicans standing in line in front of her who had saved places for each other (myself included) and the other was an otherwise attractive lady giving an opponent of the bill "the finger" repeatedly every time the woman tried to make a comment. Very grown up. Originally, upon looking over the people in line and upon entering the auditorium, I was disheartened by the inordinately high number of folks with "Reform Healthcare Now" stickers (provided to them in line by some interested party) and all of the SEIU members (in their T-shirts) carrying nicely printed, uniform signs. They clearly outnumbered the random individuals who had made their own signs, all opposed to the proposal. But kudos to Jan, who entered the hall gracefully after a glowing, fawning introduction by a Niles Township School Officer, looking poised, confident and in control. The meeting was well controlled and it became clear as it went on that many of the questions were not plants. Ms. Schakowsky actually called on real people. What the Tribune did not report was that more that half of the questioners (almost two to one) and at least half of the attendees did not support H.R. 3200. It made the following very clear: everybody, even conservatives, support some type of health insurance reform, however, most people want to fix what doesn't work, they do not want a complete overhaul of the health system, they do not want government to take over, or even participate in the arena, and they do not want all the bill's extras like granting the IRS and SSA access to individual private information. They want government to prove they can fix things by fixing Medicare/Medicaid first and by easing some of the costly regulations and restrictions on insurance companies to provide for portability and pricing flexibility for pre-existing conditions, healthy lifestyles and coverage choices. That is pretty much it.

What I learned is this:

1. Ms. Schakowsky can mislead with equal grace. She quickly brushed off conservative arguments against rationing and increasing the deficit by calling them myths. When asked about abortions under the bill, she pointedly said, twice, that no federal money would be used to cover abortions, not a dollar. Can we even say this is true today? What about all the current indirect means?

2. Democrats across the country have the same talking points and are using statistics to debunk the claims that we have the best system already and that looking like Canada or Europe will destroy this. Using World Health Organization rankings seems to play well, claiming that we are way down on the mortality and infant mortality lists. It doesn't take much to peel these apart and realize that these are based on factors that make us look bad, like excluding the effects of war or actual live births. Figures will lie and liars will figure...

3. Liberal Democrats from liberal districts are confident and fully intend on voting for the most extreme, dramatic legislation possible, including the public option. When asked if she had polled her district, she answered she didn't have to, she knows how the district feels generally and all her voters know how she feels. She came just short of daring people to vote her out. The liberal playbook, I predict, will be, vote for it, pass it and in time, your voters will forget or not feel the real impact until much later on, after re-election. They are willing to take that gamble.

4. Get ready for the new mascot: A woman next to me had a cute, blue Teddy bear with a sign on it that said "I Love Teddy Care". Awww. I actually hope they name HR 3200 after him since, like other events, it may sink and drown this country.