Does anyone have a transcript for Dennis Rehberg's Bozeman town hall? Here's the interesting part:
Cara Wilder of Bozeman sparred with Rehberg - pressuring him to support the public option - and the crowd, which booed her when she called Rehberg, Republicans and Fox News a bunch of liars. A charge of "socialist" rang out from the crowd.
"Oooh," Wilder retorted. "The town hall mob."
Rehberg defended himself against the liar charge.
"You don't have to agree with me," he told Wilder. "But my motives are pure."
Certainly on health care, the Republicans and Fox News have been lying about health care. What did Rehberg say before Wilder called him a "liar"? Did Rehberg, you know, actually lie about something? Now that would be news, wouldn't it?
Still, I'm going to give Montana's lone Representative the benefit of the doubt. Much to his credit, he hasn't - as far as I know - adopted Tea Bagger rhetoric, never tried to stoke the mob with the fear of a "death panel," never, as far as I can find, referred to Congressional health care reform as a "single-payer" solution or accused Obama of wanting to institute "socialized medicine."
Here's about as detailed a summary of Rehberg's views on health care reform, which comes from the Havre Daily News. In it, he certainly showed that he's on-board with the GOP plan to kill reform - the ol' "let's slow this down" line is a euphemism for killing the bill.
Another, somewhat antiquated line, is his advocacy for allowing consumers to buy insurance over state lines, something McCain espoused in the election, and which would, in effect, allow insurers to set up shop in the states with the least insurance regulation, a trick the credit care industry learned long ago. (Wonder why they're all based in Delaware?) Without national insurance regulation - such as a community standard that forbids insurers to discriminate against the ill - such a law would make insurance even less reliable than it is today.
I'm intrigued by this: "He added that legislation recently was proposed to allow people to join the federal employee pool - he said he carries Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana, but is part of a 1.8-million-member pool - but that was shot down in committee on a party-line vote." Never heard of this. Anyone care to elaborate? Sounds fishy...like there's something he's not telling us here.
And, of course, our old friend, tort reform. Tort reform, by the way, has had no discernible effect on the rising cost of malpractice insurance in the states where it was enacted. In short, it caps what insurers pay out, but has no cap for how much insurers charge. Boondoggle for insurers. Punishment for trial lawyers, the deep-pocketed nemeses of Republicans everywhere.
All-in-all, a series of stale, ineffective proposals that would directly benefit big business and hurt consumers. That is, the usual for Rehberg. What is noteworthy, however, is how the Congress crittur avoided discussing any details of the current plan, instead choosing to simply state that it's not a good bill. And that's why I'd like to hear his exact response to Wilder's question on the public option. So far, all I can find is the usual vague references to government bureaucracy, etc.... |
