Angry Voices in N.H. Over Health Care Reform

By: Kimberly Dozier
Topics: Health Care

(CBS / Kimberly Dozier)

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- They lined up on both sides of the road to Portsmouth High School -- several hundred opponents, fairly evenly divided, for and against health care reform. The common denominator was volume.

"You're gonna bankrupt this country," shouted Sam Cataldo, of Farmington, NH. "We don't need Obama and his crew telling us how to die."

Another protester held up a sign saying "no death panels for Americans." He was referring to one of the proposals (not yet passed) which would offer senior citizens the option to seek reimbursement for advice on how to fill out a living will.

"They're ignorant," said a stonemason on the opposite side, who was explaining how he couldn't afford $1,000 a month healthcare payments. He'd just been diagnosed with a long-term illness, so he was stuck.

"I need help," he said, behind dark sunglasses and looking very much like a guy not accustomed to asking for help.

It was a scene the president will only see on TV -- his motorcade came a different route for safety. It's just as well, it seems to me, considering there was only a narrow two-lane gauntlet separating the two sides of protesters, the police keeping them apart with yellow tape and stern glares.

There was even a section set aside by the police for those carrying concealed (or unconcealed) weapons. It was populated by at least one man proudly showing his pistol off, proving he was exercising his right to bear arms, though I'm told he didn't have much of an opinion on the healthcare debate. Can't imagine the Secret Service okaying driving the president anywhere past that.

None of the rancor outside found its way inside, though a couple self-identified Republicans did, who said they had some hard questions for the President. But they asked them respectfully -- none of the shouting the White House had partly feared, and partly welcomed, as showing open disrespect to a sitting president in a public forum could have played into the message war in a win-win way for the White House.

As it was, President Obama had to actively seek tough questions from the crowd -- and never really got any go-for-the-jugular types like I heard from the crowd outside. Best quote, in Mr. Obama's attempt to refute reports of that the House healthcare plan would institute aforesaid "death panels"?

"The rumor that's been circulating a lot lately is this idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted for "death panels" that will basically pull the plug on grandma because we've decided that we don't -- it's too expensive to let her live anymore," he said, adding shortly after, I'm not for that.

Obama: I Don't Want "Death Panels"

Healthcare reform supporters and opponents lined the street leading to a N.H. high school where President Obama held a town hall meeting. CBS News digital journalist Arden Farhi spoke with demonstrators.

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by majordhadow December 25, 2010 9:40 AM EST: Stand
Hold your head high
You wait and see
They will bury themselves under all of those lies
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3MxZcls24o; Reply to this comment


by nh4ronpaul August 15, 2009 10:16 PM EDT: Dumbocrats going down down down... no one wants totalitarianism.... Democrats are purposely destroying this country and don't want anyone to have freedom.

They will find out when we vote their ***** all out!; Reply to this comment


by jamjholmes August 13, 2009 3:30 AM EDT: Unreal the ignorant comments here. It isn't repub vs democrats it's freedom vs. tyranny in this country. Learn up. Both repubs and democrats are working together to destroy what was once a good country. They work for the lobbyists not the citizens. Learn up SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.; Reply to this comment


by jab232 August 12, 2009 8:54 AM EDT: You could disrupt every town hall meeting in the nation with a very small minority of the population. That's why the GOP is using the tactic. In 2008 the average Fox network viewership was 2.2 million. The population of the U.S. is over 304 million.

When we spend all our media time and space writing about yelling and name-calling at town halls, we are catering a very small minority.; Reply to this comment


by jab232 August 12, 2009 7:10 AM EDT: You could disrupt every town hall meeting in the nation with a very small minority of the population. That's why the GOP is using the tactic. I would like to see rational discussion, not yelling, fist fights, calling people Nazis, and (in a few cases) carrying guns in crowds.; Reply to this comment


by swin5 August 12, 2009 5:13 AM EDT: Some ways to reform health care without a government takeover:

1. Stop the advertising of prescription drugs again. When advertising began, we just became a nation of pill-poppers. Remember when ADD or ED didn't exist?

2. Write into ALL health insurance policies a clause that gives the doctor the unquestioned final say on all health decisions.

3. ALL insurance policies are to have a minimum deductible of $3000. That way your insurance just covers the catastrophic cases. When the consumer is responsible for the first $3000 he will become a shopper and will act on his own to hold down costs.

4. Eliminate group coverage - this decreases the cost of health insurance for people in the group, but then raises it for people not fortunate enough to be in that group. My rates shouldn't be more because I work for a company that has 40 employees and not 40,000.

5. No health coverage for boob jobs, Frankenstein medicine, botox treatments, facelifts, Michael Jackson makeovers, abortions, and other such nonsense.

6. Illegal aliens are given treatment to stabilize them only and then are sent back to their native country, along with a bill for services rendered.

7. Grant to members of congress health care coverage equal to the AVERAGE of the working people of this country.

8. Eliminate NAFTA and other so-called free trade agreements that eliminated in this country the good paying jobs that allowed people to have their own health coverage.

9. Allow companies to charge rates for health insurance on a risk basis, just like auto insurance. Smokers, overweight people, people with 30 DUI convictions, drug addicts, etc. should pay more because they deliberately behave in a way that increases their risk of health problems. These are behaviors under a person's control and not pre-existing conditions.

10. Get Obama, Reid, and Pelosi out of office at the next election.; Reply to this comment


by swin5 August 12, 2009 4:52 AM EDT: Repeat after me:

Health care reform and government taking over the health care industry are not synonymous.

Repeat:

Health care reform and government taking over the health care industry are not synonymous.

Got it?

To reform health care, you look for free market solutions - not big government solutions.; Reply to this comment


by swin5 August 12, 2009 4:42 AM EDT: This just may be the defining issue not just of Obama's presidency but of this age. Will a nation founded on the principles of self determination, self responsibility, individual freedom, and limited government continue it's gradual slide into a socialist state? Or, have the people begun to finally smell a rat and are they beginning to realize that their government has gotten too big and too out of control and has taken over too great a part of their lives? Will we stop this socialist slide here and now, could we perhaps even turn the clock back and restore our country back to it's Constitution, or will we go the route of Russia or Cuba? Will we actually become what we spent an entire generation fighting against? Jeez, look at China - even they came to realize that socialism doesn't work and the degree to which they have adopted free market principles is the degree to which they have experienced astounding growth. China looks more and more like what this country must have been like in the 1800's through the 1950's, with its phenomenal growth and rising standard of living. Our experiment with socialism started with the New Deal in the 1930's and it took awhile for the mindset to take hold and for the government to really grow, but by the 1960's the slide had begun - and it continues to this day.

Here's the bottom line folks. It isn't that people can't afford health care and don't have health coverage because the government hasn't taken over the health car industry yet. It's because we've created an economic system based more and more on socialism that just doesn't provide people with the wages and the wealth to afford it themselves.; Reply to this comment

by kansas1946 August 11, 2009 11:50 PM EDT

One more instance of Republican scum and lies.
*****************************
The Arizona Republican Party has come across a new, potent propaganda weapon in the war against health care reform. It is an image of President Obama, looking somewhat haggard, a cigarette dangling from his lips.
*********************************

Of course there is one problem with their "photo" The picture was doctored to put a cigarette in Obama's mouth. The original photo had nary a butt. This is the level that the Republican party has stooped to. They can't criticize Obama's policies, or offer alternate plans, solutions, or anything else. All they can do is lie, manufacture fake birth certificates and fake photographs of Obama. Maybe instead of the Republican party, they can call themselves the National Inquirer party. Most fitting.

Reply to this comment


by tautomer August 12, 2009 1:11 AM EDT: So are you saying that Obama doesn't smoke?


by mars7578 August 11, 2009 10:47 PM EDT: Junior is having a temper tandrum just to get attention.They spread lies because they reject the truth.The republican party response is as ignorant and disgraceful as possible.This foolishness should be enough of a demonstration to add congressional support.Who want to claim to be swayed by lunatics?If their points were so valid ,why would they be afraid to make them known and debated so AMERICAN can decide which side to support?The truth is they had nothing to offer but lies and fear,so they chose to be disruptive because they want to keep the faithful under control.; Reply to this comment