Carney listens at noisy town hall meeting

Opponents attack healthcare reform

By TOM KANE

HONESDALE, PA — They had to turn away about 100 people at Congressman Chris Carney’s first town hall meeting during the August recess.

In all, around 300 crammed into the court room at the Wayne County Courthouse on Monday, August 17.

The majority of the questions centered on the proposed Health Care Bill that is moving through Congress.

“I’m proud that I’m a Blue Dog in Congress because we are the Democrats that are slowing down this rather complex process,” Carney said. He said that the final legislation was far from finished.

The Blue Dogs are a group of Democratic senators and congressmen who are considered more conservative than their Democratic colleagues.

The crowd was dominated by people who rejected the reforms that President Obama favors, cheering when there was any reference criticizing him or his plan.

A show of hands indicated that about two thirds of the attendees were against Obama’s position. About a third favored it.

Carney voiced strong support to the idea that serious reform of the system was needed and even vital. His attempts to explain why reform is needed were met with hoots and boos from the opponents.

However, the meeting never got out of hand as in many other such meetings held by members of Congress elsewhere in the country.

People had to pick a number if they wanted to speak and the numbers were taken out of a hat. Practically all of the speakers were from the group of opponents.

At one point in answering a question, Carney said he would not vote for the bill if it contained a provision to spend public funds on abortions. Great cheers met this statement.

The opponents voiced many of the long-standing criticisms that have been heard on several talk-radio programs or appeared on conservative television programs: fear of a federal take-over of health care, opposition to health care for illegal immigrants, fear that older citizens will not get the fullest kind of care that was possible, the need for tort reform in which juries award exorbitant judgments against insurance companies and doctors, scorn for statements that the health care reforms will not increase the deficit, and numerous other objections.

“We simply can’t afford Obama’s plan; it’s too expensive” said Walter Jennerich of Honesdale who attended the meeting.

“The Republicans lost the election and they’re still mad about that,” said Vietnam veteran Jeff Smeltzer of Susquehanna County, who attended but didn’t have an opportunity to speak. “That’s what a lot of the opposition is about.”

There were no speakers who supported healthcare reform.

Carney urged the people to read the proposed legislation, House Bill 3200, either online or by asking his staff to send them a copy in the mail. His office number in Clarks Summit is 570/585-9988.