As the debate over health care reform has followed Congresspeople to their home districts, some of the conversations have gotten ugly. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democratic congressman from Texas, held a town hall where constituents became unruly. He joins The Takeaway with his thoughts on why this issue is becoming ever-more-contentious. One factor: Max Pappas. Mr. Pappas is the vice president for public policy at FreedomWorks, a conservative organization that is encouraging its members to challenge Democrats on health care reform. Some members of FreedomWorks were part of the crowd that shouted down Senator Arlen Specter at a health care meeting in Philadelphia last weekend. Mr. Pappas helps us understand his motivation.
To see how ugly a town meeting can get, especially in Texas, watch the video of Rep. Doggett's health care town hall:
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Comments [1]
The show ended 15 minutes ago and I'm STILL wincing. Amy Holmes might be interested to know that this passionate grassroots movement she's so impressed by is "Freedomworks," a pro-corporate right-wing lobbying group run by Dick Armey. These groups have plenty of other connections to big business and right-wing politicians but I don't have all that information at hand right now, BECAUSE I'M NOT A REPORTER. If I was shooting my mouth off on NPR I'd probably look into this stuff a little more thoroughly.
And I loved the bit about how "concerned" Americans are about the Democrats' nefarious plans. 75% of the populace supports a public option. That means that, on this issue, the country is to the left of the Senate Democrats, but this Holmes person is gonna sit there and tell me that a bunch of lobbyist-funded screwheads sent out to disrupt town hall meetings represent some kind of populist uprising?
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