Another GOP lawmaker's town hall heats up over Ryan plan

GOP Rep. Lou Barletta's (Pa.) local town-hall meeting got heated on Wednesday night over his party's proposal to overhaul Medicare. Earlier this week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the architect of the plan, was booed at a town hall in his district.

Barletta, a freshman who voted for the proposal, offered a lengthy defense of Ryan's plan to change Medicare benefits for new entrants to the program, saying it will make the program financially solvent in the long term.

But the congressman was questioned at length by a 64-year-old woman, who is reportedly the president of a local Democratic group. She said that the plan would turn Medicare into a voucher program that would put seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry. 

"I won’t destroy Medicare, Medicare is going to be destroyed by itself," Barletta replied, according to the Allentown Morning Call. 

After that, members of the audience devolved into a shouting match. 

Barletta's town hall hasn't been the only such event to get raucous during this congressional recess, the first since the passage by the GOP-controlled House of Ryan's 2012 budget.

Ryan was booed at a town hall in his district while defending another key facet of his plan — extending the Bush-era tax rates for the wealthy.

Democrats have targeted Republicans over their support for Ryan's budget plan and are drawing attention to town-hall incidents in the way Republicans did during the healthcare debate in the summer of 2009.

At Barletta's town hall, a pair of men in the room started yelling at the woman to sit down. Another man defended the woman and, in turn, accused the men of acting like "little boys."

"You know what, why don't you tell me to sit down? She's an American citizen ... why don't you show some manners and let her talk? Why don't you grow up and stop acting like little boys?" he asked, according to an audio clip provided by Morning Call.

"Sit down," another man said.

"Make me, make me," the third man replied.

Barletta also received heat for voting in favor of the 2011 budget deal brokered by the House GOP, Senate Democrats and the White House.

One of the men who yelled at the woman to sit down reportedly said, "You disappoint me."

One individual was escorted out by police, according to the reporter's Twitter account.