December 15, 2009 4:32 PM

Conservatives Rally to "Kill The Bill"

By
Amanda Sterling
Topics
Health Care
(AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)
Conservative coalition High Noon for Healthcare staged a "Code Red Rally" this afternoon on Capitol Hill to protest what the group calls "the Washington takeover of health care."

Protesters carried signs bearing messages such as "Congress is America's #1 Enemy" and "Don't Tread on Me." Speakers included Republican senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Richard Burr of North Carolina and Johnny Isakson of Georgia.

Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann, radio host Laura Ingraham and officials from conservative organizations also spoke against the Senate's health care reform efforts.

"We gather today with a very simple message for this president and for Majority Leader Harry Reid," said Tim Phillips, president of conservative group Americans for Prosperity. "Keep your hands off our health care!"

Later, Bachmann said that the current health care proposal would create an "iron ceiling" on wages for middle-class Americans. She called for the public to protest the bill until the Senate dropped it.

"Was Joe Wilson right?" she asked, as the crowd roared back in the affirmative. "Let's tell them once and for all: kill the bill!"

The speakers made a number of comparisons in discussing the health care situation. Bachmann referenced a Tennyson poem, "The Light Brigade." Burr paraphrased and added a twist to a famous FDR quote, saying, "You only have one thing to fear: Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid."

Ingraham likened Harry Reid to the Grinch who stole Christmas ("I have a story to tell you. It's called 'How the Democrats Stole Health Care,'" she said), before appropriating a poem about Nazis.

Former House Republican leader Dick Armey of the lobbying group FreedomWorks and a pair of Tea Party Patriot coordinators also spoke at the protest. The tea party's planned "die-in" this morning apparently didn't go quite as planned, though the group did perform a unique number, "12 Days of Obama," a spin on "12 Days of Christmas," for the media.

Republicans are hoping to harness the enthusiasm of grassroots conservatives in their efforts to win back seats in the 2010 midterm elections. In the meantime, group leaders at the rally urged the public to take action and fight government involvement in the health care industry.

"If we stop this health care bill we can stop [Obama's] takeover of the American economy," DeMint said. "And we cannot fall for anymore of these promises that he has not kept… This health care bill is important but it's not just about health care."

Add a Comment
by mjlewis6 December 15, 2009 7:22 PM EST
Demint? Demented! ! !

There is no economy for the people to take back from Obama...this is the economy of the Bush Administration legacy....Wake up ! ! !

This is the same kind of hate-mongering HITLER started with his Munich group that was racially motivated and slanted all views to one of a narrow extremism.

Let's hear something constructive out of Demint instead of spewing hate.
Reply to this comment
by FHMullane December 15, 2009 5:19 PM EST
These morons better hope they don't get some big illness and everyone they care about already has insurance. Such short sightness! They just want to get Obama and if they wind up without medical care for lack of insurance... they don't care cause they are too stupid to even think this through!
Reply to this comment
by ll2owt December 15, 2009 8:34 PM EST
lets hope these idiots DO get some big illness..preferably an incurable one..who needs crapola like sarah,billy O, limpdrug, das glen becht, etc.?
.

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