November 5, 2009 6:27 PM

Anger Fuels Anti-Health Care Rally

By
Stephanie Condon
Topics
Health Care
(AP)
WASHINGTON – This much is undeniable: These people are angry.

Angry about the state of the economy. Angry about the possibility of losing health care benefits under a wide-ranging, complex piece of legislation. Angry at the thought of losing control over their future.

Thousands of these angry people gathered at the Capitol building on Thursday to protest what they've dubbed as "Obama-care" or "Pelosi-care." They were encouraged in their effort by conservative legislators focused on killing Democrats' health care proposals.

The protesters on the National Mall revealed varying degrees of knowledge about the issue, as well as wide-ranging political perspectives on other issues. Nearly all, however, displayed simmering resentment towards the current leaders in Washington.

"Bring out Pelosi!" the crowd outside the Capitol Building chanted during today's hour-long rally, spearheaded by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who is quickly becoming the face of the conservative branch of the Republican party. They furiously booed the mention of "Pelosi-care" and, prompted by the crisp notes of a bugle, yelled "Charge!"

"It is not Michele Bachmann's fault" the activists are angry, Bachmann reportedly said on a conference call Wednesday night. "It is [House] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi's."

The protesters were fueled -- literally and figuratively -- by lobbying organizations like Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, the groups behind the August town hall protests and "tea party" events. Freedomworks promoted this week's event on their Web site DontKillGrandma.com with recommendations for protest tactics. Americans for Prosperity brought protesters from areas like New Jersey and North Carolina to the rally on buses, free of charge. Once there, they were happily passing out donuts to the crowd.

(Stephanie Condon, CBS)
Bachmann began promoting Thursday's rally days ago on Fox News. She and numerous other Republican legislators addressed the Noontime rally, which took place just days before House Democrats plan to vote on their health care package.

"The Republicans don't have the votes to kill" the bill, Bachmann said. "We knew we were limited, but what was unlimited was the voice of persuasion of the American people."

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told the crowd "Pelosi-care" represented "the greatest threat to freedom that I have seen in the 19 years I've been here in Washington." He said that Democrats aim on "taking away your freedom to choose your doctor, the freedom to buy health insurance on your own."

After the rally, protesters headed to the neighboring congressional offices to directly confront their representatives. A large crowd gathered outside the building in which Pelosi's office resides, chanting, "We want Pelosi!" About a dozen demonstrators in the building were arrested, according to U.S. Capitol Police.

"It's About Control"

The Democrats' bill is "not about health care, it's about control... controlling people's lives," said Ira Goldberg, an optometrist from Long Island, New York. Goldberg took the day off work to drive down for the protest. "Once you have your hands around someone's neck, they're stuck."

Goldberg was ready to defend his position with scores of facts about prescription prices in competing insurance plans, the workings of Medicaid coverage his state, and other topics. He lamented that "95 percent of the population knows nothing because they watch shows like CNN."

The government, Goldberg said, is "artificially increasing demand for health care" by getting involved, thereby raising prices for others. Yet when asked if is opposes Medicaid or Medicare, he said, "Of course not."

"There are people who really need it, but then again, there are people who don't need it as much, but they're getting it anyway," he said. The bottom line, Goldberg said, is "I don't like government spending what they don't have."

Tom Fishbeck of Greenbelt, Maryland said that "people support Medicare because their money's already gone, and they want it back in the form of services." As for the expansion of government programs or subsidies for health care, Fishbeck said, "Robbing my neighbor to help me is not right."

(Stephanie Condon, CBS)
A health care bill offered by House Republicans follows this logic, offering solutions that could potentially lower premiums but leave tens of millions of Americans uninsured. By contrast, some proponents of the Democratic legislation insist there is a moral imperative to extend coverage to the uninsured.

"Health care is not a right," said Deborah Douthett, who traveled to the rally from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. "It's disingenuous to say people are dying in the street. They can walk into an emergency room."

Douthett and her fellow Bucks County resident Linda Mannherz said they would prefer to see legislation that tackles tort reform and allows for the purchase of health care across state lines, two of the main ideas touted by Republicans in Washington.

The Democrats' plan "is a total ruse," Mannherz said. "It will increase the deficit, and it is not going to help the uninsured."

Mannherz carried a petition with the names of 60 Bucks County residents opposed to the Democrats' plans, which she and Douthett brought to the office of their representative, Patrick Murphy, a member of the moderate Blue Dog Democrats. Murphy was not in his office, but the women were aware of that -- they called in ahead of time.

Once inside Murphy's office, they politely and thoroughly quizzed his staff, asking whether Murphy had read the bill -- even the most recent amendments. They asked whether he continued to insist that the bill must be deficit-neutral, and whether or not he has revealed how he will vote on it. He hasn't.

The two women were upbeat and cordial Thursday afternoon, invigorated by their civic participation, but they could not avoid exchanging words with a supporter of the Democrats' plans who ended up next to them in line to get into the halls of Congress.

There were other confrontations throughout the day as well. The group Billionaires for Wealthcare -- who made headlines by bursting into song at a health insurance industry conference last month -- showed up at the rally, keeping up their act as billionaire insurance executives.

"What part of the 2,000-page bill are you in favor of?" one genuine protester snidely asked the group.

"The ones we wrote!" one "billionaire" responded, cigar in hand.

Add a Comment See all 134 Comments
by doctorg100 November 13, 2009 5:38 AM EST
"I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in

OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision]. I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing."

?Representative Barney Frank, September 25, 2003

It was six years ago that Mr. Frank announced his famous line... Post this in your office... Make sure the world knows the kind of people who destroy our economy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs Armando falcon try to save us with Rep.R Baker(R) and E Royce (R) .. Guess who got Bigger contribution from freddie and fannie.. Dobbs and Senator Obama....



Pass this out

The Fannie Mae Dice Roll Continues
Losses of $400 billion are increasingly possible.
"I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision]. I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing."

?Representative Barney Frank, September 25, 2003

It was six years ago that Mr. Frank announced his famous dice roll on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the name of affordable housing. Mr. Frank got his wish, and the losses keep rolling in, with no end in sight as Washington finds new ways for the companies to serve political purposes.

Last week, Fannie Mae posted a quarterly loss of $19.8 billion?which believe it or not was an improvement on the $29.4 billion that it lost a year earlier. Last quarter's results came with yet another request for government aid?$15 billion worth. That brings the total tab for Fannie and Freddie to $111 billion since they were put into conservatorship in September 2008.

It would be bad enough if Fannie and Freddie's continuing losses were merely the product of bad bets made amid the housing bubble in 2006 and 2007. But the latest red ink is in large part the result of a deliberate choice to run their businesses at a loss over the past year to support White House housing policies.

The most recent losses include $22 billion of what Fannie Mae calls "credit-related expenses," which in English means foreclosure costs and losses on loans that are "worth" more than the house. Of that amount, $7.7 billion comes straight from Fannie's support of the Obama Administration's mortgage-modification program. Fannie and Freddie have been buying mortgages out of the securities they were bundled into and are then modifying the terms, which invariably means taking a loss on the loan.

Through this program, taxpayers are directly subsidizing homeowners who borrowed more than they could afford, or more than their house is now worth, or both. The government is doing this under the cover of losses at Fannie and Freddie because Congress and the White House know these programs are both expensive and unpopular with the poor saps still paying their mortgages on time.

The dynamic duo's delinquency rates also continue to climb, even on modified loans and on mortgages on which Fan and Fred have chosen to forbear from demanding repayment. The $400 billion that Congress has appropriated to keep Fan and Fred afloat, in other words, has quietly morphed from emergency aid into a $400 billion housing subsidy program. On current trends this will all be spent before President Obama is up for re-election, and, judging by the results so far, taxpayers will have little to show for it.

Having ruined the U.S. mortgage market, Fan and Fred have become the tools for its continued nationalization and a never-ending bailout of mortgage borrowers. This is one reason we advised former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to put the companies into receivership and leave them in run-off mode when he had the chance.

Instead, Mr. Paulson placed them in conservatorship and sent them out to lend more and more. In the past year, they have all but erased the private mortgage market, at great cost to both the taxpayer and the integrity of the private financial system. They will roll snake-eyes for taxpayers for years to come.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A20




FROM THE FEDERAL RESERVE WEBSITE:


http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/mbs_faq.html

FAQs: MBS Purchase Program


The following frequently asked questions (FAQs) provide further information about the program to purchase agency mortgage-backed securities (agency MBS) that was announced by the Federal Reserve on November 25, 2008. On Wednesday, March 18, the FOMC announced the expansion of the Federal Reserve's program to purchase agency MBS up to $1.25 trillion by the end of the year. On September 23, 2009, the FOMC announced that the Federal Reserve will purchase a total of $1.25 trillion of agency mortgage-backed securities and gradually slow the pace of these purchases, anticipating they will be executed by the end of the first quarter of 2010.
Reply to this comment
by TARMANCER November 11, 2009 11:11 PM EST
Most of the people at those rallies cannot even spell. You can watch a video on Youtube of the abundance of illiteracy on those signs. I would bet many of those people were on welfare checks and Medicaid in that crowd of loonies.
Reply to this comment
by Avotingamerrican January 19, 2011 4:05 PM EST
You are right Tarmancer: I have seen some of the most offensive and insulting comments coming from these type of people all over blogs on the internet. In most cases, they can only spew out hateful and senseless rantings.
by TARMANCER November 11, 2009 11:06 PM EST
I just saw on news that Bachmann could be charged for misuse of taxpayer money for funding a rally that she tried to pass off as a press conference. Public servants are not even allowed to use a postage stamp for such things.
Reply to this comment
by kiee156 November 7, 2009 2:41 AM EST
We must show our congressmen and senators our outrage , write them email call lets on Monday tie up[ the computers the phones in Washington this weekend let us start a email campaign , lets show the health care company people power , email President Obama remind him we work for change, our voices said yes we can. and we can show congress we will not allow them to be in bed with the insurgence company. Email Michelle Bachman the waste of skin who organized the thud in DC yesterday tell her how she is spreading the lies of the insurers hope they have bribed her well. Lets do it.!!!!!!!
Reply to this comment
by ianlou November 6, 2009 1:43 PM EST
I wonder what percentage of these protesters are making money or are employeed by the health Insurance Industry.

I wonder what Percentage of these protesters do not have health insurance.

I wonder what Percentage of these protesters wished that the athorities could have shut down Cindy Shehans past demonstrations.

I wonder what Percentage of these protesters have anything more than a high school education? After all, their heros (Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity) do not have a college degree between them.
Reply to this comment
by johndevinejr November 6, 2009 1:04 PM EST
It is not anger that fuels the protestors, it is stupidity.
Reply to this comment
by lightningF November 6, 2009 12:23 PM EST
It is not anger that fuels the opposition to health care legislation.It is common sense and the fact that we the Tax Payer are tired of the government run programs that do nothing but cost us more and more.Allowing illegals and paid for abortions to be covered under this bill,along with the loss of jobs,we have. Now the government wants to Tax,Spend and borrow more to pay for this bill,while cutting Medicare,what is wrong with the Democrats?
Reply to this comment
by earlysaid November 6, 2009 12:42 PM EST
The anger is wasted and you are being led around by the richest whitest elite bunch of republican fanatics who championed every corrupt, horrible, evil policy Bush and Cheney ever wanted. These very wealthy republicans have no concern about health issues for themselves, so they don't care what is happening to people who don't. You can keep going down with the health care republicans love so much, or you can give President Obama a chance to improve health care for you and me and all of us.
by velma179 November 6, 2009 1:57 PM EST
I am a tax payer. Don't you dare lump me in with your idiocy.

You are being USED. Yes, you certainly are. Who do you think paid for those buses taking you into to D.C. ?
I'll tell you who... people that will "throw you under the bus" as fast as they can ... IF they succeed in their efforts to thwart the will of the MAJORITY of Americans, who voted for the current Congress and President with health care reform at the top of our list.

But they WON'T succeed.

Why? It's because of people like you who are so tired of "government run programs" all the while using each and every one that you become eligible to receive. Their hypocrisy AND yours seals your loss!

(OH -- but these "grassroots" done by millionaires groups will be coming around for the 2010 elections, get your bus passes now... and keep those elastic pants loose, there will surely be more doughnuts.)

sheesh
by earlysaid November 6, 2009 12:22 PM EST
If you are in the top one to five percent of wage earners making over $250,000.00 you will pay more taxes to help fund health care reform. People who make thousands, millions and billions will pay more taxes and that is the right thing for them to do. All the GOP has to do is be against taxes that really only apply to a very few richer than rich people and they have all the selfish republicans who make chicken feed blubbering against taxes. If you are an average earner you are not going to be paying for anyone else's health care, just your own.
Reply to this comment
by earlysaid November 6, 2009 12:14 PM EST
These republicans may be angry because Glenn Becker and Sean Insanity said they should be. War is fine for these republicans because the GOP says so. Greed is really great because the GOP are the wealthy white elite who like to be in power so everythng gets done their way. When these republicans start thinking for themselves America will be a lot better place. The GOP string along the loons who vote religiously for them as long as they stand for their guns, values and against abortion. There is a lot more at stake right now after Bush and republicans did what they wanted and brought us to economic crisis with their financial policies. We will be in this sad condition until President Obama and the Democrats turn things around. There are few if any republicans in the government working to improve things. You should ask yourselves why are republicans only for big business and only big business. They never care about jobs, health care, the environment, financial stability or honesty in government. It is all about lobbyists and greed. Not a very worthy side to be on.
Reply to this comment
by Empire-George November 6, 2009 12:10 PM EST
I hope all of you uninsured guys have an extra couple thousand dollars laying around, because the Democrats have written into the legislation FINES and "up/to" imprisonment (for not paying fine) for NOT HAVING HEALTH INSURANCE

Fines !!! for not doing what THEY DEMAND !
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