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By Mac McLean
Bristol Herald Courier
BRISTOL
Stephen Rimer tried calling his senators' offices during a Tuesday night rally so he could tell them to vote against President Barack Obama's health care plan.
''I don't think the government is capable of overseeing health care with any fiscal responsibility at all," said Rimer, who hails from Duffield, Va.
But Rimer couldn't get through to U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb, D-Va., when he called their offices from the rally. Instead, he said, he got messages reporting that all lines were busy, the voice mail inbox was full and he should call back later.
''That's a good sign," Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips said at the rally, which drew a crowd of 70 people to Cumberland Square Park despite the evening rain. Phillips said the encumbered phone system meant Warner had already received plenty of calls voicing opposition to the president's health care plan.
With chapters in 24 states, including Virginia, AFP is a grassroots group that advocates for fiscal and regulatory restraint. Phillips said the group scheduled Tuesday's rally long before any of its staff knew Obama was due in Bristol to talk about his health care plan at the Midway Street Kroger this afternoon.
The national group is working closely with local activists to ensure that the president, his staff and the national media expected for today's event know that not everyone in town agrees with what Obama has to say.
''We just want to let him know that we are not happy with his program," said Strother Smith, president of the 10th Amendment Foundation, a local non-profit group pushed for the support of that amendment and is opposed to the president's health care plan.
Smith's group and AFP have been organizing a counter-rally to Obama's visit since the trip was announced Saturday night. While they still have some details to work out, the two groups said they plan to kick off the event at 3 p.m. today either outside the Kroger or in a nearby church parking lot.
Smith predicts the people who are expected to turn out against Obama's plan will outnumber those who turn out in favor of it by 10-1.
AFP's Virginia State Director Ben Marchi said today's event will blend perfectly into a statewide bus tour that his organization has been running to urge Virginia's lawmakers to vote against Obama's health care plan.
''We view this as the biggest power grab by government in our lifetimes," Marchi said when asked what he thought about Obama's health care plan.
He said AFP's top problems with the plan are the public option -- a government-subsidized alternative to private health care coverage -- and a proposed requirement that people over 65 go through end of life counseling sessions. Marchi said a growing number of Virginian's share his organization's stance on the issue. Similar rallies held Tuesday in Stuart and Wytheville drew crowds of 100 and 150 people, he said.
At each of the stops, rally participants were encouraged to call their representatives and senators in Washington, D.C., to voice their opposition to the plan and to sign a petition that Marchi said has already received thousands of signatures.
The bus tour has stops scheduled in Gate City and Norton today before it heads back to Bristol for the Obama protest this afternoon, Marchi said, adding that the president's coming and "we're going to tell him to take these bad policies back to Washington."
Marchi's group is not the only one planning a rally in the wake of Obama's visit. The Service Employees International Union's Virginia Change that Works Campaign is planning an event to support Obama's health care plan -- at 1:30 p.m. today at the former Krispy Kreme Doughnut shop at 20 Wagner Street, a location just two blocks from the Midway Street Kroger. The event will feature a life-size graph indicating what health care could cost if Obama's plan fails to pass, campaign spokesman Jason Bane said.
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Waiting for more.
My family is a family that has WIC assistance and would use others means if they were available. We are not all out to defraud the GOV't. I have worked for my company for 14 years now. My family is a blended family my wife and I have 6 children, custody of them all due to deadbeat parents. I provide health insurance though my company for my step children as well as my wife and my kids and me, yea they could be on medicare but I choose to cover them. Neither of me and my wife's ex's actually pay child support. They are required to do so but we have not seen a dime in over a year now, yet social services is in no hurry to address it. Since my company switched to a HSA health insurance program to their benefit our health care hasd suffered greatly. I resent the way people look at others on wic/food stamps or what have you. I am also in college and have received many raises in recent years these all pay only for the horrible health coverage we now receive. We cannot get ahead and yes we are trying our best to purchase a home. Good people are deserving of assistance. There should be a look into people mistreating the system and those who actually need it should receive it. My wife and I
If...
If what you say is true, you should be the first to be repulsed at the rampant abuse of the very system that you rely upon. Every time I see someone swipe one of those cards, they are yacking on a cell phone, buying junk food/sodas and get into the bass booming expensive BMW or SUV in the parking lot. I have seen it way too many times to believe it is just a few swindlers in a crowd. This abuse is absolutely rampant. Conning the system 101 is alive and well in our society and only due to get much much worse with Duhbama at the helm.
We think about the "millions who don't have..." blah blah blah
we are reminded about them everday by Uhbama! And everytime we see able bodied men and women swiping an EBT card or using WIC vouchers or collecting "social security" checks all the while they live in subsidized housing or while we drive from job to job and see them standing around doing nothing. These programs really would be great if they were a means to an end but they have become a huge fraud. Someone please explain to me why you are calling me (and other hard working income earning men and women) greedy again and not the people who collect all the above...please? My portion of my health insurance is $100/week my employer pays the other half and I work for a small company that would be greatly impacted (negatively) by Uhbama and his COMRADE CRONIES' schemes!
mm, What are you saying?
"…if you want good affordable health care, go to school, get a good govt job and work hard to provide for your family. It's the American way."
I thought the American way was to work to start your own business and actually contribute to the GDP, and not be paid by our taxes.
You prove a point about our health care system. It is only good for those who draw a government paycheck.
Party Politics vs Team America
You're right. "Party politics" is a charade designed to keep us yelling at each other and cheering on "our team" while the state and the special interests that run it go about their business. The truth is that we average people do not have a "team" representing our interests. It's all about money and power. Even in the struggle for a basic healthcare plan, those who reap billions off of the brokenness of what passes for a medical system influence the debate with ideological fearmongering to maintain their profits. Many here are taken in by them. There is plenty to criticize in the Obama plan but being against any plan is not in the interests of most Americans. Our challenge and duty as citizens is to play a constructive role in the struggle for a good plan that best serves all our interests. We could do that for a fraction of what we squandered in Iraq!
party politics
Party politics is destroying this country. When I say demand honesty, I mean from both sides of the aisles.
When the people of this country start really looking at policy and not party then we might have some real change. As things stand now too many people follow talking points without doing any research on their own.
This fiasco is doomed to fail because it really is not about doing what is best for the people it is about scoring points and wielding power.
counter-productive nay-saying
What makes me scratch my head about those wailing about how Obama-care is that the alternative that they would prefer is hardly a model of patient choice. What kind of freedom is it to face bankruptcy because you got cancer? What kind of freedom is it when you put all your health-care payment decisions in the hands of a massively bloated middle-man who stands to profit from denying you health care, instead of in the hands of your doctor? Liberal, conservative, libertarian, whatever. These are silly talk show labels for people who are easily hoodwinked by Glenn Beck's or Keith Olbermann's theatrics. The health care model in our country is saturated with so much "choice" that doctors spend half their time filling out paperwork instead of being doctors. Regardless of what political label one applies to themselves or others, I'd like to think we could all recognize that going bankrupt if you get sick is a bad thing. I'd like to think we could all recognize that your doctor not being able to spend more than 8 minutes assessing you because of the insurance overhead created by our freedom loving health care system is a bad thing. In the single-payer VA medical system, a PSA test costs $18
Naysaying II
In the private insurance system it costs anywhere from $80-120. I guess that extra $60-100 worth of freedom is worth it for some people, but I can't figure out why.
I guess I shouldn't underestimate the power of wishful thinking which sweeps so many Libertarians off their feet. If they've got a better solution than Obama's plan, let's hear it, but right now all it sounds like is counter-productive nay-saying.
Obama Out Of Control
Look at what Big Government has done to SSN, Medicare, and Medicaid. All have their own fraud and corruption. This Health Care Bill will just create more fraud and corruption. How much more will be taken out of our paychecks to pay for the greed and mistakes of the politicians who bow to the special interest groups & lobbyist and push bills out the door with hidden paybacks and thank yous for helping put me in office. Obama has done nothing but add to the madness of his predecessors, something he accused his predecessors of doing when he was campaigning for office. Instead of cleaning house his first 6 months in office he has added to this madness. His first Stimulus package was riddled with paybacks and thank yous and has failed to lower unemployment as he predicted. Now he and his liberal colleagues are contemplating a second stimulus package because not enough money was spent on the first. Like the railroad (Conrail) our governemnt tried to run and failed, Obama is a train out of control.
Republican propaganda and fear mongering ...
As well as complicated and conflicting proposals are causing a lot of confusion, but the fact remains that most Americans recognize the need to reform a health care system that even the AMA believes is broken.
In a recent poll, 49 percent of respondents said they supported fundamental changes to the U.S. health-care system while 33% said the health-care system needs to be completely rebuilt.
Good government is the solution to many problems that are simply too large for individuals to solve on their own. And, with so many Republicans getting tossed out of office in recent years, we are moving closer and closer to good government.