In one of the most heated exchanges of this August's town hall meetings, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) ripped an audience member on Tuesday who asked him why he supported the "Nazi" healthcare plan by responding "on what planet do you spend most of your time?"
Seemingly taken aback by the question, Frank said, "when you ask me that question I am going to revert to my ethnic heritage and ask you a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time?"
Raising his voice at the end of his answer, he said "having a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table, I have no interest in doing it."
The fifteenth-term Democrat also focused on a picture of President Obama altered to look like Hitler held by the audience member.
"It is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated," he said forcefully.
Frank held his town hall yesterday in Dartmouth, Mass.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday said that "nothing has changed" regarding the Obama administration backing of the public health insurance option. Yesterday, the White House took a lashing from liberals after Sebelius and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on Sunday that the public option was non-essential.
"Here's the bottom line. Absolutely nothing has changed. We continue to support the public option that will help lower costs, give American consumers more choice and keep private insurers honest," Sebelius said in a speech today.
"The public option is a very good way to do this," she added.
The former Kansas governor, however, did not take a dogmatic position, saying that the primary goal was to ensure competition and consumer choice.
"If people have other ideas about how to accomplish these goals, we'll look at those too," she said.
Sebelius' comments represent the second round of the White House's push-back against charges that they were abandoning the public option. Influential Congressional Democrats stood strongly behind the public option yesterday after Gibbs and Sebelius' initial statements.
Sebelius echoed comments made yesterday by Gibbs during his press gaggle aboard Air Force One. "I got to tell you, this is one of the more curious things I've ever seen in my life," Gibbs told reporters as the president flew back to Washington from a Western trip.
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said "leaving private insurance companies the job of controlling the costs of healthcare is like making a pyromaniac the fire chief," and insisted the president would lose 100 votes in the House if the public option was removed.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also issued a statement backing the public option on Monday but did not reference the Obama administration's comments specifically.
At least one liberal House member was heartened by Sebelius' backing of the public option today.
"White House clarified that it has NOT abandonned (sic) the Public Option. Great! Send thanks to WH and HHS Sec. Sebelius for real reform," tweeted Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)
Tempers again flared at a congressman's health reform town hall meeting underscoring highly emotional debate over the proposed overhaul of the nation's healthcare system.
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) told an anti-health reform audience member at his meeting to "knock off the bull" after he made heated remarks. Grayson then noted that his three children were in attendance.
"I'm not saying I know everything," Grayson said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. "But I'm pretty familiar with this bill. Let's be respectful."
The freshman Democrat held his town meeting inside a union hall filled with more supporters than critics. A large number of protesters demonstrated against the bill outside the building. The Sentinel reported that the hall could hold 120 people.
The public town hall was held right after a meeting of local Democrats, many of whom stayed in the scant number of seats for the healthcare meeting immediately afterward.
During the meeting, Grayson said that he would vote for the bill and stood behind the public option, which some White House officials labeled non-essential on Sunday.
"This bill cost half what the war in Iraq cost," Grayson said. He added that while "no one would be required to be in the public option," it would provide the best competition against exisiting private insurers.
One of the more liberal members of the House Democratic Caucus took to Twitter on Monday to push back at the Obama administration's efforts to back away from a public health insurance option.
Time to defend Public Option in health care reform. HHS Sec. Sebelius, HHS, said PO was "not the essential element" of reform. Yes it is!
The Minnesota Democrat joined a chorus of liberal Democrats who criticized remarks made by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs that suggested that a public option is not the "essential element" of healthcare reform.
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said that "leaving private insurance companies the job of controlling the costs of healthcare is like making a pyromaniac the fire chief." Weiner also said the president could lose as many as 100 votes on the health bill if the public option is not included.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) issued a statement backing the public option but did not specifically address the administration officials' comments.
Both Gibbs and Sebelius made their comments on Sunday talk shows this week.
President Barack Obama spoke along similar lines at his healthcare town hall meeting in Colorado on Saturday.
"The public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of healthcare reform," he said. "This is just one sliver of it. One aspect of it."
House GOP Whip Eric Cantor wants his conference to keep up the good work and continue hosting town hall meetings, according to an email obtained by the Hill on Monday.
Cantor's weekly recess whip letter to GOP lawmakers included news items on the increasing number of town hall meetings that his colleagues have added to their recess itineraries. Thus far, the Republicans have been hearing from like-minded disgruntled constituents opposed to the president's landmark healthcare reform plan.
In the email, freshman Rep. Lynn Jenkins (Kan.) - a deputy whip - lists a several "town hall best practice" ideas:
Focus your opening remarks on Republican solutions; invite panelists with local expertise on health care to help lead the discussion and promote the event with their member organizations (e.g. state medical society, state hospital association, hospital CEO, surgical center administrator, and local doctors); in addition to inviting press to each event, give your local paper the option of having the congresswoman/man stop by to talk before or after.
Here is the actual memo:
To: Whip Team Contacts
Re: Weekly Whip Team Recess Email
Reminder: If you and your boss are willing to share your recess activities, press coverage, or a best practice (i.e. something that has worked well at a town hall), please let us know. This week, we've included a "Whips in the News' section to the weekly best practices below.
WEEK OF AUGUST 17: WHIP TEAM EMAIL CONTENTS
1.
1. This Week's Schedule
2. This Week's Policy
3. This Week's Best Practices (includes "Whips in the News")
A group of protesters thought they were attending one of Sen. Blanche Lincoln's (D-Ark.) town hall meetings, instead they showed up to a fundraiser to which they didn't intend to flock.
40/29 TV in northwest Arkansas reported on Sunday that "an e-mail from Washington" was sent to Arkansas residents announcing the meeting.
When the protesters arrived on the scene on Saturday, they found Lincoln, who is a centrist Blue Dog, speaking to the Benton County Democratic Summer Rally. People wanting to attend had to pay $5 and were not allowed to carry in signs.
Fundraiser attendees said the event was always intended to be private, but that didn't stop some of the 100 protesters from voicing their disappointment at the e-mail.
"We were first told it was going to be a town-hall meeting, and then at night it changed. And so we found out this morning it was in a different place and in a different venue," said protester Rebecca Floyd.
"I came here today to speak to my congressman, and she has ducked me for the last several months," said protester Thomas Alsobrook.
Lincoln apologized for the confusion after the event. She told 40/29 News "I think it was just a misguided e-mail that confused people."
It is unclear if Lincoln will hold town hall meetings over the recess. She has held other events about healthcare reform in August.
Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Monday continued to express hope that a wide swath of Republican senators would support a final version health reform legislation.
Grassley's announcement comes after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs expressed that a public option is now not an essential part of President Obama's healthcare agenda.
The Iowa Republican said that he would "presumably not" be one of three or four Senate Republicans to vote for the health bill on MSNBC's "Morning Meeting." Though Grassley said he would not vote for a bill with narrow GOP support, he expressed hope that a bipartisan solution could be reached.
He reiterated that the bill ought to be done in a "consensus sort of way" and that any deal he cut with the rest of the "gang of six" in the Finance Committee "isn't a good deal if I can't sell my product to more Republicans."
"I'm negotiating for Republicans and if I can't negotiate something that gets more than four Republicans, I'm not a very good representative of my party," he added. "We're talking about healthcare, that's life or death for every American."
Regarding the potential elimination of a public health insurance option, Grassley said he would favor a wide range of alternatives such as healthcare co-ops, market exchanges, or selling insurance across state lines.
"As an alternative...it does offer options and it does it in a way that's consumer and patient oriented," he said of the co-ops.
When recess ends, the Finance Committee will have a one week window to meet chairman Max Baucus' (D-Mont.) September 15 deadline to finalize their version of the bill. Some Democratic Senators indicated they would be willing to push ahead with a party line vote if the committee cannot reach its deadline.
Baucus himself downplayed reports of a deadline earlier this month.
Signals from the White House that the president might drop the public health insurance option from a refrom bill have provoked a stern reaction from liberal Democrats, including former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean.
"I don't think the president should sign a bill which puts $60 billion of taxpayer's money into the private health insurance industry," said the former Vermont governor on MSNBC's "Morning Meeting." "That's what this bill would be without a public option."
If the bill does not include a public entity to provide coverage to the uninsured, "then don't call it health reform," Dean added. He said that co-ops do not work and would be an unsatisfactory solution.
The 2004 presidential candidate said that without the public option, Congress should strip funding from the bill and focus on "insurance reform" that would correct problems in the market.
But in the end, Dean asserted that the bill would include a public option.
"I think the public option is going to pass and it's going to be signed by the president," he said.
Dean argued that the negotiations would boil down to a back-and-forth between centrist Blue Dogs and liberal Democrats, saying that Republicans would offer nearly universal opposition to the bill to "hurt the president."
If the health reform bill comes to a floor vote, Dean said "Blue Dogs are not going to vote against a healthcare bill, they can't do that."
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) on Friday afternoon backed down from comments he made on Twitter accusing Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) of spreading "myths" about "death panels."
Senator Grassley is not available on the phone today, but I will talk to him as soon as possible to clarify his position on living wills.
I believe it is appropriate to council people on their choices, but no one should tell anyone else
what to do about health care near the end of their lives.
Specter seems to have moderated his comments on the end-of-life provisions included in some versions of healthcare reform legislation.
Earlier on Friday, Specter accused Grassley of spreading fear that the government would create a "death panel" if health reform passed, an assertion former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) first made this week.
Grassley never used the phrase himself, but said yesterday that such decisions 'ought to be done within the family. We should not have a government program that determines if you're going to pull the plug on grandma."
After reading Specter's remarks, Grassley tweeted:
Specter got it all wrong that I ever used words "death boards". Even liberal press never accused me of that. So change ur last Tweet Arlen
The Senate Finance Committee, of which Grassley is ranking member, removed an end-of-life clause from the committee's version of the bill that provided incentives for doctors to consult with patients on care in case of a terminal illness or other life-threatening ailment.
The Iowa Republican said the committee removed the provision "because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly."
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said on Friday that protests against health care reform legislation at town halls across the country are simply a "moment" and not a full-blown "movement."
"Well, I don't think it's a movement. I think it's a moment," he said on NPR's "Morning Edition."
"There's one universe of voices. Maybe some didn't like the results of the last election who are very vocal. But there is a very significant universe who understands that even for those who have healthcare insurance" they are spending a larger chunk of their income on it, he added.
Menendez, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said that healthcare supporters represent a "great majority" of Americans who may not be as vocal as the town hall protesters.
The New Jersey Democrat also called "outrageous" claims that health reform would create government "panels" that decided end-of-life issues.
He said that some versions of the bill contain provisions that encourage care providers to have discussions with patients about their preferences for end-of-life care.
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