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Himes' townhall meetings draw large crowds

by: Scarce

Thu Sep 03, 2009 at 06:51:25 AM EDT

Norwalk townhall on the left, Greenwich from Monday night on the right.

Here's a couple of typical news reports on the level of debate seen thus far. Because these things are just a collection of soundbites you get these type of mixed messages:

Congressman Jim Himes hosted the second of three meetings this week to discuss his stance on the highly controversial "public option" issue and answer questions from his constituents.
"My vision of the public option is an additional competitor providing more choices in what is largely an uncompetitive market right now," he said.
A packed auditorium was split on this debate; many questioning if the government should tackle individual problems within the health care system rather than enact a sweeping change.
"To monkey around with such a portion of our economy, in such a wholesale fashion, just doesn't make economic sense," said Winthrop Baum of Fairfield.
"If we get this wrong, the damage is really catastrophic and irreversible," said Rep. Himes. "This economy, this country, this government, this private sector can not sustain another two or three years of 10-11 percent increases in health care costs."

Scarce :: Himes' townhall meetings draw large crowds

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Himes' townhall meetings draw large crowds | 5 comments

Here's a soundbite that reveals a lot about the teabaggers (4.00 / 2)

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

Connecticut Bob

by: Bob Adams @ Thu Sep 03, 2009 at 14:07:57 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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lack of interest, lack of compassion (0.00 / 0)

This is a completely manageable situation for people who are genuinely interested in the problem and in each other. You just wait, Himes explains the question (as he would e.g. for someone who yelled a question without a microphone that people could not hear), and he gives the answer, in one or two languages. The hardline "My way or the highway" mentality couldn't be clearer here. Wow.

It is indeed humbling, I imagine, to be a leader in the community and to have to talk about the fact that you have no health care -- and that apparently is not only because your church doesn't provide it, but because your wife lost her job. To be heckled while trying to make this experience public? I would find it agonizing.

by: greenpeas @ Thu Sep 03, 2009 at 14:30:15 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Jacqueline Wash's misunderstandings (3.00 / 1)

In this TV report (my TV 9= WTNH), Jacqueline Walsh puts forth the example of a small business paying $500,000 a year for health care for its employees, and says that if there is a government option, it will decide to shunt off all of its employees onto the government plan and pay nothing. Not true. A company would have the option of providing health care for its employees, OR not providing health care and paying a tax equivalent to 8% of the employee's salary that would permit the employee to choose either a private plan or the public plan through a co-op for other employees of small businesses or those who are unemployed or could not get coverage before. So once again, the opponents of health reform have their facts wrong.

This is the same person who Neil Vigdor of Greenwich Time stated "put Jim Himes on the spot". How do you put someone on the spot if you've got your facts wrong?

by: thomashooker @ Thu Sep 03, 2009 at 15:40:20 PM UTC

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Facts? (0.00 / 0)

The "naysayers," teabaggers and thugs are not interested in facts. They just want to prevent respectful dialogue and obstruct well-intentioned people from having a substantive conversation about sometimes reasonable differences.

As I watched "crazies" shouting down seriously ill people who simply wanted to tell their stories at the Norwalk Town Hall, I couldn't help marveling at the calm, reasoned, respectful tone that Jim Himes maintained throughout that event. I once innocently asked Chris Shays: "What is your opinion about the [then just-disclosed] warrantless wiretapping of private citizens?" He threw down his pad and pencil and started shouting at me: "Some people just don't appreciate the seriousness of terrorism," to which I replied that some people could be concerned about both of those things at the same time.

What a pleasure to see that we now have a thoughtful, smart, and incredibly even-tempered Congressman in Jim Himes; and while there remains a steep road to climb if we are to achieve quality, affordable universal health care, at least we have the right guy in Congress working to achieve those goals. Jim really stood tall under fire this week.

by: Ann Galloway @ Thu Sep 03, 2009 at 17:15:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]