warmed-over soapboxesclever would be nice

Democracy, town-hall style: part 1

§ August 27th, 2009 § Filed under politics § Tagged cathy mcmorris rodgers, healthcare, Town hall meeting, Walla Walla § 3 Comments

Following is what happened at the town-hall meeting with Cathy McMorris Rodgers at Walla Walla Community College today, Thursday, Aug. 27. All quotations are imprecise, inexact unless quotation marks are used. Hey, I’m not being paid to do this.

I arrived at WWCC at about 2:30 p.m., camera and reporter’s notebook in hand. And coffee — iced coffee. Outside the building was a small Planned Parenthood demonstration; I saw no right-wing demonstrators. I was interviewed by a reporter at Whitman, so I’ve got my fingers crossed tight that I make it into the Pioneer. I heard a few people say that the demonstrators were bused in from Seattle, but a reliable source said they’re a local group.

Inside, the gym was covered with sound-proofing fabric. A small stage was set up, and in front of it were two long rows of chairs (approx. 50 chairs per row), and then bleachers. I’d say there were roughly 400 people there.

Audience observations:

• Probably 66% of the audience was seniors.
• Definitely 99.9% of the audience was white, and I mean pasty white — I think I may have been one of the few with dark hair and skin (thanks, sunshine! I has a tan!). I saw two other people who may have been ethnic minorities.
• The first two rows of chairs filled quickly, and let me say that it was poor thinking to have seniors sitting on bleachers. Bad, bad planning.
• Probably 75% of the audience was politically conservative and/or Republican, but there was a very vocal, albeit much smaller, liberal crowd.
• My initial thought was that the questions were evenly weighted, with perhaps slightly more (55%?) questions from pro-public-healthcare constituents.
• The constituents who asked questions seemed to range in age from about 20 to precisely 92 (a charming WWII vet), with a large number under age 65, rather disproportionate to the audience age range.

Anyway, that’s what I saw. I could be mistaken in some observations — I was sitting quite in the middle, so couldn’t see everyone well. Oh, I should add — it wasn’t ever referenced, but on stage was that crazy flowchart Republicans have been using to mislead — er, inform? — constituents:

It was also available in handout form, although god bless the conservatives, they save money by printing in black and white. Anyway, the women in front of me were looking at it and one said, “This is how our healthcare is gonna flow.” (Actually, ladies, by the looks of it, you’re on Medicare, so I’d say no, your healthcare won’t flow that way. In fact I rather doubt that anyone’s will.) She went on: “Look, Medicaid is up here, and Medicare is all the way down here.” (Because yeah, that spatial relationship is a reliable indicator….)

The meeting opened with a welcome from some person, followed by some remarks from Mike Hewitt, who first told some joke about how he and CMR aren’t politicians, they’re just “lawmakers” because they haven’t been to jail yet (ba dum-dum ching?), and who wanted people to know the following:

• There is currently no check and balance in Congress. (I think that he thought this was a bad thing?)
• Washington state is outspending the money that is coming in, and that, too, is a bad thing. Federal stimulus money helped stopper that this year, but we can’t expect that in years to come.
• Apparently, this state is moving toward a “one-payer” health system, which is news to me since I tried to get on Basic Health but can’t because there’s a wait list.

Hewitt also had the distinction of making the following joke about how much we agree or disagree with  politicians, saying that it’s kind of like marriage: maybe you only agree 70% of the time, or 80% of the time. To illustrate this, he added, It’s like your wife saying (and quotes here are word-for-word), “Honey, I don’t like the way you voted,” and me telling her, “Well I don’t like the way you do your hair.”

[chelsey's jaw falls open as she tries to swallow the irony in that particular line of reasoning]

This was followed by CMR giving a speech, and I wish we were playing Right-Wing Talking Point Bingo because I would’ve won in one minute. Following are some highlights:

• We do need healthcare reform, but we need to do it right.
• You want to do the right thing, not just “something.”
• Current plan will “jeopardize doctor/patient relationship”
• It will “put a bureaucrat between you and your doctor”
• We don’t want to ask bureaucrats to make our decisions
• The plan increases costs and will cause $400 billion in cuts to Medicare
• The plan will force millions off their private insurance
• The plan will be paid for in one of two ways: (1) raising taxes, and/or (2) rationing care.
• The federal gov’t is cutting reimbursements to providers
• Something about how medical liability costs need to be reined in (tort reform, I think)
• We need to help small businesses afford health insurance for their workers
• We need portable health insurance you can carry from job to job and state to state
• We need to take personal responsibility for ourselves

And now, Lucy needs the bathroom and Matt wants to work on the fence. One of these things will happen. I’ll publish a second installment with the Q&A in a bit.