Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that he will hold a town hall meeting that will decrease the likelihood of a protest breaking out; he is conducting a tele-town hall.
"Not only does this format allow us to reach far more people all over the state than a single town hall, it also provides a respectful environment where all sides can be heard," Reid said in a statement.
Town hall protests have been a controversial subject for Reid; yesterday he called them evil-mongers.
Fox 5 Las Vegas reported that Reid will hold the tele-town hall on August 28. People who would like to participate must enter their phone numbers on a list on Reid's website, then his office will dial the numbers on the day of the phone meeting.
Figuring that a town hall that a small meeting hall would not hold the expected large crowds, Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) is moving his town hall meeting to a minor league baseball stadium.
The Everett (Wash.) Herald reported that the city's Memorial Stadium will host Larsen's town meeting on Wednesday night. The fifth-term Democrat saw over 600 people attend his last meeting, which was triple the capacity of the meeting hall.
"While there has been a lot of negative publicity about town halls in other parts of the country, in Mount Vernon, I think we had a very civil conversation," Amanda Mahnke, a Larsen aide, told the Herald.
For all you seamheads out there, Memorial Stadium is home of the Everett AquaSox, a short-season A-ball farm team of the Seattle Mariners.
Here is a photo of the stadium and soon-to-be "town hall:"
Yesterday, Briefing Room reported that protesters on both sides attending Sen. Ben Cardin's (D-Md.) town hall would not be permitted to bring signs into the protests and would be restricted to sidewalks outside the event.
Many attendees who oppose the healthcare reform legislation secured seats to the first-come-first serve event on Monday and voiced their opinions to Cardin.
WBAL Radio Baltimore captured videos of the protests outside the event and the town hall meeting itself. View them below.
Protesters planning on attending Sen. Ben Cardin's (D-Md.) town hall meeting on Monday at Towson University will not be able to bring signs into the meeting and will be restricted to sidewalks away from the building.
"Towson University will not allow that at any of their facilities," Cardin spokeswoman Susan Sullam said. "This is a town hall meeting. It's not a rally and it is not a protest."
Sullam told the Towson Times that 1,600 people have indicated they will attend the event at the suburban Baltimore campus and that many of them will protest against health insurance reform legislation.
A pro-health bill group has also organized a counter-protest at the town hall.
According to the Times, the meeting's venue can only accommodate 500 people and has no standing room.
The trend of controversial town halls contiuned on Friday when Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) questioned the authenticity of President Barack Obama's birth certificate and referred to a White House "enemies list" at a meeting in Tulsa.
"This is a scary time in Washington," he said. "It's a very frightening time. I see Barack Obama is creating an enemies list of people who oppose this miserable health care plan. I think that's frightening. That's from a guy that can't even show a long-form birth certificate. I think we all ought to be prepared to fight that."
One audience member at the Tulsa Republican Club didn't think that was enough, berating Sullivan for not doing enough to uncover Obama's citizenship, the Tulsa World reported.
The man was shouted down by other audience members after about one minute.
Several Republicans have accused the White House of forming a health reform "enemies list" after it called for supporters to turn in "fishy" information about the health bill.
The White House has denied such charges, saying that press officials only want to respond to anti-health reform rhetoric.
Rep. Barney Frank said that passing healthcare legislation that includes a public option health insurance option could lead to a more expansive single payer system in which all Americans would receive government health insurance.
"I think if we get a good public option it could lead to single payer and that's the best way to reach single payer," Frank told a member of Single Payer Action, an activist group in favor of the universal government plan.
Frank called himself a "big sponsor" of the single payer system but reiterated his support for the less-comprehensive public option.
"The best way we're gonna get single payer, the only way, is to have a public option to demonstrate its strength and its power," Frank explained in defending his support of the current House bill, which includes the public option.
The Massachusetts Democrat made his remarks while entering the National Press Building on Monday.
Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced that hospital associations have agreed to contribute $155 billion over the next ten years to help pay for healthcare reform.
Speaking at a press conference, the vice president said the White House and congressional Democrats are making progress on the Obama's goal of signing healthcare reform by the end of the year.
"Folks, reform is coming," he said. "It is on track. It is coming."
"We have never, in my entire tenure in public life, been this close," he added.
The money comes from hospital associations agreeing to lower Medicare and Medicaid payments.
MoveOn.org has gone after plenty of Democrats the group deems insufficiently liberal when it comes to healthcare reform. This time, they're setting their sights on President Obama.
That's right: Just days after a Washington Post report that Obama didn't like liberal activist groups attacking Democrats for not supporting the so-called public option, a proposed government-run health insurance plan close to the hearts of liberal reformers, MoveOn.org went on the attack against another Democrat: Obama himself, or at least his highest-ranking aide.
"We shouldn't be focusing resources on each other," Obama said, according to the Post. "We ought to be focused on winning this debate."
Well, MoveOn.org is focusing resources on organizing a grassroots campaign against comments White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel made in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
The campaign may be focused on Emanuel, but when you tell people to call the White House, you're clearly telling them to send a message to the president.
Emanuel said that Obama is open to compromises on the public option plan favored by liberals as part of healthcare reform. Specifically, Emanuel indicated that Obama has not ruled out a proposal that the public option would only "trigger" if private insurance failed to cover enough people under reform. Liberals are not fans of that trigger, something the White House undoubtedly knows.
As MoveOn.org has demonstrated time and again this year, anything less than strong, unqualified support for the public option is apostasy in its eyes.
"Emanuel's remarks will only embolden conservative opponents of reform. He should be standing with the majority of Americans for a strong public health insurance option - not disastrous half-measures like the 'trigger,'" the MoveOn.org email says.
"Can you call the White House switchboard and tell them you're disappointed in Chief of Staff Emanuel's comments supporting the 'trigger?' Tell them voters want a strong public health insurance option - not half-measures like the "'rigger.'"
The president apparently wasn't happy with Emanuel's comments, either.
The White House quickly walked back them back this morning in a statement attributed to Obama, who is far, far way in Russia. "As I've said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices, and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest," Obama said.
- Jeffrey Young
Here's the entire email sent out by MoveOn.org Political Action Campaign Director Nita Chaudhary:
Read more...
Reacting to a report on Tuesday that he may be prepared to use the public option as a bargaining chip for healthcare reform, President Obama issued a statement reaffirming his support for a public insurance plan.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said it was more important that healthcare reform create increased competition among private insurers than implement a public plan to facilitate that competition.
In the statement, Obama reiterated his preference for a public option.
"I am pleased by the progress we're making on health care reform and still believe, as I've said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices, and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest," Obama said. "I look forward to a final product that achieves these very important goals."
Here are the the grafs in the Wall Street Journal story that are likely bothering the White House.
One of the most contentious issues is whether to create a public health-insurance plan to compete with private companies.
Mr. Emanuel said one of several ways to meet President Barack Obama's goals is a mechanism under which a public plan is introduced only if the marketplace fails to provide sufficient competition on its own. He noted that congressional Republicans crafted a similar trigger mechanism when they created a prescription-drug benefit for Medicare in 2003. In that case, private competition has been judged sufficient and the public option has never gone into effect.
The timing of the statement could also be related to the fact that the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is about to resume marking up its healthcare bill, which, for the first time, now officially includes a public option. It could also be related to the fact that a bipartisan group of Senate Finance Committee members is continuing talks to develop a compromise package that probably won't include a public option. (The House bill has one.)
Read more...
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had a stern message for his Republican colleagues today regarding the new 60 seat Democratic majority. He tweeted from Sen. Al Franken's (D-Minn.) news conference today:
Just welcomed Al Franken to Senate. That doesn't abdicate Republicans' responsibility to work w/us, address challenges facing our country.
The top Senate Democrat seemed to warn Republicans that the supermajority is not an excuse for Republicans to double down on partisan opposition to Democratic legislation.
Reid's comments were also intended to cover his bases because it is not guaranteed that the Democratic majority will stay intact on every vote.
The Nevada Senator may need Republicans support to push through controversial measures on healthcare reform, climate change, and a second stimulus if the Senate votes on these pieces of legislation.
Franken is set to be sworn into the Senate tomorrow after being declared the winner of the election versus former Sen. Norm Coleman last week
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