Health care rally draws big crowd (Winchester - HERE COME THE TEA PARTIES!)

NV Daily ^ | 8/01/09 | Garren Shipley

[Libloather]

Health care rally draws big crowd
About 150 protesters gather in Winchester in hopes of persuading Webb, Warner to vote against reform
By Garren Shipley
Posted August 1, 2009
The Northern Virginia Daily

Health care might need reform, but not the type pending before Congress.

That was the message from a crowd of about 150 protesters in downtown Winchester on Friday afternoon.

Organizers said they hoped the rally, organized by the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, would persuade Virginia's Democratic U.S. senators, Mark R. Warner and Jim Webb, to vote against reform.

America's health care situation isn't the crisis it's made out to be, said Kate Obenshain, former chairwoman of the Republican Party of Virginia, addressing the crowd.

"Of the American people, 91 percent are insured. Of those, 84 percent are happy with their insurance," she said.

Out of the 9 percent that don't have health insurance, "one-fifth of them are illegal immigrants. Three-fifths of them make enough to buy health insurance, but for some reason choose not to," Obenshain said.

When all the numbers shake out, only 2 percent of Americans who want insurance can't get it, she said.

"Two percent is a problem, it's not a crisis," she said.

Both the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate are working on legislation that would completely reorder the way health insurance and services are delivered.

President Obama and congressional Democrats argue that the country must do something to slow the rise in health spending, some 17 percent of the nation's total economic output in 2007.

Failure to act would further cripple the U.S. economy, according to advocates.

While details of the Senate bill are in flux, the House bill would put an end to private health insurance, save for plans that meet standards set by the federal government and purchased through state level "exchanges."

Employers would be mandated to provide health insurance, and individuals would be required to purchase health insurance, or pay a penalty on their income taxes, according to the House bill.

Obenshain and protesters also had no love for a "public option" that some congressional Democrats say must be a part of any health care reform.

Said simply, the private sector can't compete with the federal government, Obenshain said.

"That means there will no longer be private options. That means there will be a board determining whether or not you get health services," she said.

"We need conservative, free market solutions to those problems, not a government takeover of health care," she said.

Congress will likely take up the matter again when it returns from its August recess.

[Libloather]

Andrea Koenker, of Winchester, tries to contact Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., and leave a message protesting the rising cost of health care at a rally in Winchester on Friday. Dennis Grundman/Daily

Kate Obenshain, center with microphone, speaks to a crowd of about 150 who gathered to protest the potential rising cost of national health care at the Joint Judicial Center in Winchester on Friday afternoon. Dennis Grundman/Daily

Benjamin Marchi, state director of Americans for Prosperity, asks those present at a rally to call their senators. Dennis Grundman/Daily

[hinckley buzzard]

"Two percent is a problem, it's not a crisis," she said.

She said the truth. Like the other "crises" invented by the leftwing cabal, this one is, well, invented.

[immadashell]

Both the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate are working on legislation that would completely reorder the way health insurance and services are delivered.

Should read: Liberals in both the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate are working on legislation to completely reorder your lives

[olezip]

President Obama and congressional Democrats argue that the country must do something to slow the rise in health spending, some 17 percent of the nation's total economic output in 2007.

Unfortunately, the current Marxist government does not understand basic economics and the fact that the solution is free enterprise. Government intervention and trial lawyers are the cause of the rising costs.

[La Lydia]

I will post more of these as I come across them.
Sen. Udall has a townhall meeting scheduled in Durango on Aug. 27. The details will be available on his website when they are finalized. No other meetings are currently planned, but it sounded as though one could be scheduled in the Denver area if enough people requested it.

Sen. Bennet will be holding townhall meetings, and the schedule will be posted on the front page of his website when it is finalized.

Rep. Perlmutter has no townhall meetings planned or scheduled. On Aug. 8, he will be holding a “Government in the Grocery” from 1 to 3 p.m. at the King Soopers at 500 Bromley Lane in Brighton. This is not a townhall meeting. Individuals can sign up on a first-come, first-serve basis to talk to him one on one for about five minutes.

Senator Specter’s Open House Town Meetings:

Sunday, August 2, 2009 @ 3:00 pm Open House Town Meeting with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius National Constitution Center 525 Arch Street, Independence Mall Philadelphia, PA 19106

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 @ 9:30am Open House Town Meeting HACC – Lebanon Campus, Multipurpose Room 735 Cumberland Street Lebanon, PA 17042

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 @ 3:45 pm Open House Town Meeting Bucknell University, Trout Auditorium 701 Moore Avenue Lewisburg, PA 17837

Wednesday, August 12, 2009 @ 8:30 am Open House Town Meeting The Penn Stater, President’s Hall 4 215 Innovation Boulevard State College, PA 16803-6603

Thursday, August 13, 2009 @ 3:00 pm Open House Town Meeting Belmont Complex 415 Butler Road Kittanning, PA 16201

There is a downloadable list of all congressional town hall meetings, so far, here:

http://www.capitolconnect.com/lls/contentpageResources.aspx?page=August2009recess

[antonico]

As Levin pointed out on his show Friday - Jonathan Karl at ABC reported that the congressional democrats know the bills they have are floundering so they’re preparing what Karl called “Plan B” - they’re going to ram through and pass the bills in both chambers anyway strictly on a Party Line vote. And as Rush has said many times, once they get this, it won’t be easy to scale back. They’ll have 18 months to cement the bureaucracy before any other election can over turn it.

We need to face it - Socialized medicine is going to happen. We cannot stop it. Elections have consequences, and this last election will have disastrous consequences from which we probably won’t recover from. And repealing Socialized Medicine once passed will be way more difficult than stopping it now. We’re sunk. Democrats don’t care what we want or don’t want. It’s what THEY want that matters to them. Too many big money donors have donated to democrats to destroy this country as we’ve known it, like Soros, who’s literally banking on the financial ruin of the USA (as are many of his ilk). They know this will sink it, and the donors are gonna get their payoff of a destroyed America. That’s why they gave to Zerobama in the first place.

Say goodbye to the Life, Liberty & Pursuit of Happiness we’ve known. If the DOJ has no interest in prosecuting Blank Panther Poll Intimidators, then they obviously have no problem with those tactics continuing. The next election will see even more of that happening, making sure they stay in power. Marxists are Marxists - they never leave Power Seats once they acquire them. And you can bet these people won’t have any designs on leaving because of something as trivial (to them) as a Ballot Box. We’re now officially a Communist Banana Republic - and Single Payer Health Care is the battering ram they’ll use to seal our fate as such.

[AmericanInTokyo]

There is precedent for patriots and constitutionalists overturning leftist administrations in this hemisphere. We should study their tactics. I take for example the story of Violeta Chammoro in Nicaragua unseating the communist Sandinistas. No easy order. But it could be done. And it can be done.

It is bad, but this will pass. We will all have to stand up to it though. Remember, they also cannot fund their socialism on the backs of middle class and upwards if it turns out they refuse to support it. Veru potent. How they going to run these schemes just on the poor supporting it? They need us more than we need them. Read Gandhi, or the nuns in front of Marcos' tanks, or the Velvet Revolution in Prague, or the uprising in Romania, and you will see oppresive regimes and rulers toppled by People Power when push comes to shove. The US is no different. Have hope.

[Caipirabob]

I'm not so include to write-off my family and children's future just yet.

There's nothing so motivating to the American electorate then when confronted with the destruction of their way of life.

There is still a chance to turn this around.

[Caipirabob]

uhng...”inclined”...not “include”...

[Man50D]

Unfortunately, the current Marxist government does not understand basic economics and the fact that the solution is free enterprise.

Unfortunately too many people think Marxists goal is to improve the economy, health care etc... Their goal is to exert maximum control over the people. Money is only a means towards that end. They couldn't care less about the adverse impact. In fact they are encouraging economic chaos as outlined in the Cloward-Piven Strategy

[patriot08]

.

Austin, Texas tea party. (Made Drudge)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8UjY3YDlwA

.