Sep 1, 2009 1:02 pm US/Eastern
Top GOP Senators Hold Health Care Forum In Hialeah
HIALEAH (CBS4) ― Outgoing U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and former GOP presidential candidate Senator John McCain will host a health care forum on Tuesday at Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah. The forum is not open to the general public unlike the Democratic town halls held in recent months that have sometimes descended into shouting matches.
ReportingThe health care issue has become the single hottest topic in politics since the August recess began a few weeks ago. Countless town halls have seen people voicing opposition to any form of a public option with health care reform. Some protesters have carried guns; called Obama a socialist or communist, called him a fascist, and even compared him to Adolf Hitler.
According to estimates from the White House and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the nation can't continue on the current path with regards to health care costs, which both Republicans and Democrats agree on.
The question comes in on how to change the system. Democrats have been championing a public option that would give everyone the option to buy into a system like most civil service workers already have. Republicans have countered saying things such as tort reform will help solve a large part of the health care crisis.
Some of the rhetoric from the extreme fringes of the GOP have turned incredibly ugly in recent weeks. Last week, CNN reported on a pastor in Arizona named Steven Anderson who openly prayed in his church that Obama should die and go to hell. The preacher upped the ante over the weekend and said that he hopes, "I hope that God strikes Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy."
Democratic groups plan to protest outside the meeting in Hialeah.