THE CURRENT PUBLIC RAGE IS UNDERSTANDABLE, BUT IT´S POINTED AT THE WRONG TARGET

The Republicans got us where we are today, but the protesters are showing up at the wrong Town Hall Meetings.

…Georgia Democratic Representative, David Scott´s office sign was allegedly vandalized by "White, Southern Protesters"

It´s pretty obvious that the current outrage that is being presented at the many Democratic Congressional Town Hall Meetings is being orchestrated by the far right. If that´s not a correct statement, then why are only the Democratic congressional members the ones that are mostly having Town Hall Meetings with all the crazy, upset American attendees?

We all knew that this month the rhetoric was going to probably get pretty dirty, but it´s appears to be much worse than anyone imagined. You can tell that it´s starting to get down to the wire when President Obama gives praise to Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, (R-IA) for trying to work out a bipartisan health care plan. Then 24 hours later, Senator Grassley incorrectly tells his constituents at his own Town Hall Meeting that everyone should be very afraid because the current House proposal on health care would "pull the plug on granny". Apparently, Senator Grassley must have taken a call from the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists who probably said, "Senator, if you want another $2.4 million donated to your campaign, you´d better forget this bipartisan crap."

Of the few Republican Town Halls that I´ve seen, all that they are presenting is more support for those that are showing up at the Democratic meetings, yelling out against a "government public option" while holding signs like "Obama Lies, Grandma Dies". Or screaming at the Democratic meeting attendees while holding posters with pictures of President Obama in a storm trooper uniform with a Hitler mustache. What is really frightening is that the woman that had the Obama Storm Trooper poster has a mother currently on US government Medicare and a sister that was born deformed, who is also on full-time Medicare.

Even the black, US Representative, David Scott, (D-GA), was vandalized with a four-foot swastika painted on his government office sign. It is believed that the swastika was done by local southern whites in response to the representative´s earlier comments where he accused protesters of trying to "hijack" one of his Town Hall Meetings.

It´s understandable that health care is a very important and complicated social issue, and everyone should be aware of how a new program will affect them in the future. And everyone deserves the right to protest or to ask question regarding such a major issue. But they should at least, also spend the time necessary to first confirm whether what they are hearing is good information.

Unfortunately, the right wing is really pulling out all the stops for planting lies and false information. And what is the largest issue, is that most of the false statements are targeted at preventing those individuals that the new health care changes would benefit most, from understanding the positive changes.

Yesterday, a Democratic representative was giving a presentation during his Town Hall Meeting and he was answering questions when an elderly woman using a walker, with tears in her eyes, approached the representative. Upon acknowledging her, she asked him if it was true that she was going to be "put on an ice floe to float away and die". The representative later learned that the woman had heard on a right-wing radio talk show where the host stated that the new government health care plan would be "putting elderly people on ice floes to float away and die when their health care had become too expensive."

In another meeting, a woman on Medicare asked when the individual from the government was going to be "coming to her house to ask her how she wanted to die". When asked, this woman said she had heard this piece of information from "multiple individuals on Fox News".

Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), was giving her Town Hall Meeting presentation to hundreds of Missouri residents, many of which were very rude and were carry signs or yelling that they didn´t want a government take-over of their health care. When she asked those on Medicare to raise their hands, many of the attendees in the very large meeting room raised their hands. When asked, they also agreed in unison, that they were very pleased with their current Medicare program. Yet many of them seemed totally dumbfounded when the Senator announced that Medicare was in fact, "a government run health care program". Most of the older attendees apparently had no understanding that Medicare was a government program.

Senator McCaskill also stated that the current private health care industry profits had increased over 400% over the last 7 years. She then asked the group "How many of you with a private plan have had your health care premiums lowered?" Not one hand was raised, but many did complain that their premiums had been increased.

At another Town Hall Meeting, a woman announced that she was so happy that she was going to be 65 in a few months. She said she would then be dropping her current health coverage and moving to Medicare. She was going to be very happy because with government Medicare, she would be able to choose her favorite doctor whom she was not allowed to see with her current private HMO program.

On the other side, there are a number of media types today that are trying to plant the idea that most or all of this demonstrated rage is not due to the health care issues, but is instead due to those people that are unable to accept the fact that a black man is now in the White House.

However, if you look at the poll results for those that are part of the latest, so called "Birther Movement", (those that don´t believe that Obama is a "real American"). And if you look at the polls of the small group of religious conservatives that still call themselves "Republicans". The different states that show the concentration of these individuals is almost identical to the divisions of those states that were part of the original Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. The population of those states that believe in these ideas is very small and they are mostly those referred to as the most seriously "misinformed US citizens".

The majority of the country and the majority of the overall US population agree that Obama is a "real" American and that he is the rightfully elected US president. But, as the old cliché states, "It only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole barrel." And even though, when compared to the Democrats and Independents, the Republicans today are a smaller minority, they do have the money, the support and the political machines that have the long-time experience of planting false information in places where it can fester and grow.

Today, Fox News is the conservative´s main TV outlet for misinformation. (And Fox´s viewers are in the demographic that would benefit the most with comprehensive health care reform.) But there are many groups, organizations and political action groups that spread these "untruths" such as Dick Armey´s very active FreedomWorks lobbying organization. Think Progress, Century Strategies, Alexander Strategy Group, Vets for Freedom, DCI Group and Rick Scott´s Conservatives for Patient´s Rights are just a few of the other GOP lobbying groups that are spreading all the false information and out-right lies regarding the proposed health care reform. These are the organizations that print and distribute the directions on how to interrupt the Democratic Town Hall Meetings. Their goal is not for Americans to receive good information for making well informed decisions. Their goal is to disrupt the meetings and to keep American citizens from receiving answers to their health care questions and concerns.

I hope that all the Americans realize how very ironic it is that in the last three Republican administrations, the only support for all American citizens and their health care issues was the highly bogus Medicare Plan D prescription plan. This is the plan that was passed in the House, in the late hours, after illegally keeping the House vote open for 3 hours until the Republican leadership could muscle the necessary votes. (And this plan was not being paid for, so we are paying interest on its cost today as we speak.) The bill was also literally written by the lobbyists and therefore, the plan does not allow the government to negotiate prescription drug prices with the manufacturers. That is why the same drugs in the US are 50-70% higher in cost than when they are purchased in Canada.

When the Republicans ran the White House and they controlled both the House and the Senate, they could have easily rammed through an American health care plan of their own design. But instead, the party of "No", spent money like a drunken sailor (no offense to drunken sailors), deregulated us into a mortgage and Wall Street debacle, started an unnecessary war that will be costing us trillions of future dollars and fortunately they failed at trying to privatize Social Security. Had they been successful, they would have destroyed Social Security during the recent economic downturn.

The new administration is trying to fix what they inherited and they are trying to achieve what the GOP´s Teddy Roosevelt suggested back in 1903. They will make some mistakes, but the health care issue is the Democrat´s crown jewel that if successful, some believe could keep them in office for years to come. The GOP will therefore stop at nothing to stop President Obama and the Democrats on health care reform..

A comprehensive health care plan was attempted by a Republican in 1903, and years later by a long list of previous Democratic administrations to no avail. Up to today, the GOP has been able to stop the Dems. I am hoping that this time the American public understands that they are being raped by a private industry that currently pays their CEO´s $100,000 PER HOUR, and it´s finally time for a change.

Let´s all hope that it´s time for the American citizens to win.

Copyright G.Ater 2009

Follow me on Twitter: gater01