Senator Claire McCaskill (D) held a town hall in Concordia, Missouri at the Community Center Gymnasium on Tuesday, August 10th. Approximately sixty people attended.
The first part of the transcript for the audience question and answer session follows:
....Question: Hi, Senator McCaskill. Thanks so much for coming out today. I was just wondering, with oil spill wreaking havoc in the Gulf, what do you propose to do to make sure that a disaster like this never happens to us again?
Senator Claire McCaskill Um, there will be a, um, the question was, uh, with the oil that has spilled into the Gulf, what are you gonna do to make sure that a disaster like the BP disaster never happens again? Um, you, I see your t-shirt. You probably aren't gonna like this answer, some parts of it. Uh, we will not be considering a bill this year to place a price on carbon. And these ladies in the green t-shirt are almost as unhappy with me as [redacted] in that I have disappointed them because I refuse to be supportive of a, a price on carbon. I've, I've been, I have been, um, reluctant to support a price on carbon, um, for a cap and trade bill. On the other hand there is gonna be an energy bill that we will debate when we get back in September that will do three things. The first is accountability for BP, making sure that there's not an artificial lid on what they would be responsible for in terms of the clean up. My job is to make sure taxpayers do not pay for their mistake. And so we want to make sure we remove the lid so BP has no artificial limit on what they would be required to pay to clean up the Gulf, to make those business whole, to make sure the families down there have not suffered because of their carelessness and negligence. Uh, it does some other things, like making sure that the companies that are doing offshore drilling have relief wells before they begin. Um, this problem was, it was never a relief well required. Truth be known, the oversight of oil and gas drilling in this country kinda was in a coma. Uh, and this goes for both administrations. They had not really been doing an aggressive job. And there has been a complete housecleaning over at that, in that regulatory area in the Department of Interior. So, we'll be happy to get you all, you probably have it, as active as you are, you may have all the details of what's in that bill as it relates to oils company accountability for negligence in offshore drilling that's in the bill. The other thing that's in the bill is a incentive to convert eighteen wheelers from, uh, diesel to natural gas. And the final part of it is a homestar provision which provides incentives for homeowners to weatherize their homes. Allow them to do things that will make their homes more efficient and spend less on their utility bills which is a win-win, uh, in terms of carbon emissions and also win-win, obviously, for homeowners in their electricity costs. Those are the three things that will be in the energy bill that we will debate before the end of the year. But I do not believe that the price on carbon will be coming up.
Being that nationally known author and ever-present progressive David Swanson has already picked up on our Melanie-Care for All Act in his article "Single-Payer Healthcare Coming to Missouri", I've decided to include the original statement here. ~ Byron
A report released Thursday entitled, "Lives on the Line: The Deadly Cost of Delaying Health Reform," sheds light on the real moral issue at the heart of America's national debate on health care: people needlessly dying because they don't have access to preventive or primary medical care.
At a current rate of 68 deaths each and every day, the Families USA report cautions that without immediate action on health care reform, the body count will grow to a shocking 84 people a day in 2019: this is over 30,000 dead each year; a far more conservative estimate than the well-known Harvard study claiming 45,000 unnecessary deaths are happening each year.
Bottom line: not only are we facing an economic emergency in regard to our need for health care reform, but with this level of inhumanity and carnage associated with the status quo, for political actors to not face this head-on shows a certain moral depravity and unwillingness to break out of a political death spiral. As Republicans dissembled at the summit, they continued on their way down.
Within hours it had gone semi-viral with over 3000 hits on the web. Progressive Democrats of America posted it on their home page and I cross-posted at Show Me Progress and Polizeros.
The winning HJR is HJR 57, beating out HJR 48 (Sponsored by Cynthia Davis, backed by Nieves, Ruestman and McGhee) and HJR 50 (backed by Doug Ervin). HJR 57 was "introduced" by Timothy Jones and cosponsored by 75 of 87 House Republicans. So that's 76 right there.
It's easier to publish the names of the Republicans not currently sponsoring this amendment than to publish the cosponsors.
The 11 non-sponsors are Jason Brown (termed out), Gary Dusenberg (termed out, running for the Senate), Doug Ervin (termed out, sponsored HJR 50), Steve Hobbs (termed out), Denny Hoskins, Scott Lipke (termed out), David Sater, Tom Self (termed out), Ryan Silvey, Maynard Wallace (termed out), and Billy Pat Wright.
Oh yeah, HJR 48, HJR 50, and HJR 57 are the exact same bill.
The Senate Bill SJR 25 probably the exact same too, but House and Senate duplication is to be expected.
Three identical versions of the same amendment? Wow. Hope the lobbyist and/or thinktank member who wrote this amendment gets his credit too.
The Amendment needs 82 votes in the House and at least 17 in the Senate (the Senate bill has 18 members aboard and the Senate is 23-11 Republican). No Gubernatorial approval is necessary.
Roy Blunt just won't stop twittering; most recently:
Made case on the panel that cap & tax, govt-run health care, failed stimulus will be big issues in MO & across country. People are fed up.
Damm straight, Roy, I'm fed up!
Fed up with cute little slogans like "cap-and-tax" and the coy fools who use them.
Fed up with politicians who refuse to acknowledge reality.
And you better believe I'm fed up with Republican lies and obstruction ... and by the beneficiaries of big bucks lobbyists who try to manipulate the fears of the terminally ignorant so that they can go on congressional panels and talk about all the trouble that will be stirred up if legislators actually try to do the people's business for once.
November 5 is the Kickoff to a National Week of Action on Health Care:
Please call Congress today! A toll free number is 1-877-323-5246 and write
a letter about why health care reform is so important to you!
In addition, many national organizations have partnered in the fight for Health Care Reform.
The vote in the House, which should come on Saturday, Nov. 7, is very very tight - right now the votes may not be there. Consequently, each state has been analyzed by the partners and specific legislators who need a push have been targeted. Congressman Ike Skelton is the target in Missouri. PLEASE call his office today and make your voice heard as a Missourian.
Remember - President Obama always said he needed us to get things done so let's do it!
Judith Parker
Consultant, MO Alliance for Retired Americans
I've been down the rabbit hole. Monday evening, I attended a town hall hosted by Cynthia Davis, with Todd Akin as her guest, and attended by 25 or 30 of their true believers. What had been billed as an opportunity for constituents to get answers to questions actually turned out to be lotsa lecture by Mr. Akin--but no one seemed to mind.
Both lawmakers had a chance to hold forth, and each differed as widely in personality as in height. Davis is merry and disarming, with more than a touch of ditzy thrown in. Akin is more serious.
And he is smooth. He never raises his voice or evinces anger. Never. Indeed, aside from the fact that much of what he says is misleading or demonstrably false, you'd swear he was the soul of rationality. Many voters trust him implicitly because he is so gosh-darned sincere and able to cite (questionable) statistics.
He spoke at length about health care (as well as cap and trade, which I'll cover in a later posting). I couldn't help but notice that, on health care--as well as on other topics--no matter how reasonable the facade, no matter how soothing the voice, he indulges in the usual Republican scare tactics. Get a load:
I won't even dignify the anonymous letter about dirty European hospitals with an answer, but I will comment on his allusion to the high cancer survival rate in the U.S. He didn't cite the statistics he promised, but conservatives have been touting the idea that the U.S. has the highest breast cancer survival rate in the world. M-m-maybe. According to at least one study, the Concord Study, we do; but the authors of the study point out that the differences among the top nations are small and could vary depending on the methods and biases of the questioners. They also note that the U.S. outcomes may be inflated because the U.S. registries don't take 100 percent of the population into account, whereas the registries of other countries do.
Akin makes full use of such misleading arguments to bolster the notion that we're number one, instead of number 37. He implied that the "hard left" wants to wipe out this medical paradise beloved of Saudi princes, by destroying insurance companies. Would that I dared to hope for a public option that effective, in other words, one as good as Medicare--you know, the health insurance program that even conservatives over 65 ... want to stay in.
The Congressional Budget Office, an independent non-partisan Federal agency, gave health-care reform an important leg-up Wednesday. Obama's promise of not adding to the deficit was confirmed by the CBO's analysis, while expanding coverage to millions of Americans without insurance. The cost predicted over the next ten years was set at $829 billion -- $71 billion dollars less than President Obama's pledge of $900 billion over the next decade delivered in a pivotal speech before Congress last month.
The health care rally in Jeff City Wednesday was an all-state affair: people from all nine Congressional districts attended. Talk about bused in activists, it was Bused-in R Us. I'd say there were 250-300 of us. The crowd came armed with enthusiasm and emcee Robin Acree of GRO took full advantage. She sandwiched all ten speakers with chants and songs and even a Forrest Gump skit. And she could sing! In fact, she finished the meeting with this boffo solo, a camp rendition (lyrics "adapted") of "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?"
In between the fun that Acree provided, were five current or ex state reps--Judy Baker, Paul LeVota, J.C. Kuessner, Rebecca McClanahan, John Bowman--and four citizens with their own health insurance stories to tell.
The theme of the day grew organically from what all of them had to say, and it was: That ain't right. When Rebecca McClanahan informed us that every day health insurers in this country cover 14,000 fewer lives, the crowd responded "That ain't right." Activist Rich Blakely pointed out that there are death panels; they're called HMOs. They're the heartless bastards who'll withhold catheters or batteries for wheelchairs. That ain't right. Minority leader Paul LeVota told the story of one of his children's classmates, Cindy, who has leukemia and doesn't have health care.
Cindy is ineligible for SCHIP, even though we had an opportunity to increase the number on SCHIP in Missouri. But she didn't have that opportunity. So what did we do? We got together as a community and had a chili dinner for her. That's not right.
ACORN had a few workers spending Friday afternoon in front of the Culture Cafe on Delmar in St. Louis, buttonholing passersby to see if they wanted to sign a petition in favor of the health care legislation. When I was there around three this afternoon, the owner of the cafe, who favors such reform, had a grill set up on the sidewalk and music was planned for later.
Glenn Burleigh, the St. Louis head organizer for ACORN, (bottom picture) set up the event to spread information and stymie teabaggers. He figured, how are they going to target us when we're here from noon til seven, just a few of us? He said one teabagger showed up early on with a camcorder, apparently planning to kick up a fuss and post something on his angry blog, but he couldn't drum up any friction. The workers just ignored him.
Burleigh told me what he wished Missouri congressmen would plan to promote health insurance reform. If they're going to have town halls, he told me, they need to do it like Joe Sestak did in Pennsylvania: plan it far in advance so that H-CAN has time to organize a strong enough progressive presence that the naysayers are marginalized and just look foolish. That takes about three weeks.
What's fast, though--and H-CAN people have been urging Claire to do it--is a teleconference call. It's easy to organize and easy to control.
The most effective tool for making Americans understand what the legislation is about, according to Burleigh, would be a direct mailing. But that's very expensive, and right now Democratic deep pockets are pretty well tapped out. They put their money into the election and then into funding H-CAN. Maybe the DNC could come up with the cash. The chain e-mail is a start, he thinks, but lots of people don't get their news off the internet. Or if they do, they might not happen to get the e-mail anyway.
I think that if every voter read that chain e-mail, the teabagger's lies and hoopla would sink like a barrel of stolen tea, because the e-mail succinctly explains what's going on. That's the nub of the problem, though: how do we get the word out?
In case you haven't yet seen the White House chain e-mail letter, here it is:
Dear Friend,
This is probably one of the longest emails I've ever sent, but it could be the most important.
Across the country we are seeing vigorous debate about health insurance reform. Unfortunately, some of the old tactics we know so well are back - even the viral emails that fly unchecked and under the radar, spreading all sorts of lies and distortions.
As President Obama said at the town hall in New Hampshire, "where we do disagree, let's disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations that bear no resemblance to anything that's actually been proposed."
So let's start a chain email of our own. At the end of my email, you'll find a lot of information about health insurance reform, distilled into 8 ways reform provides security and stability to those with or without coverage, 8 common myths about reform and 8 reasons we need health insurance reform now.
Right now, someone you know probably has a question about reform that could be answered by what's below. So what are you waiting for? Forward this email.
Thanks,
David
David Axelrod
Senior Adviser to the President
P.S. We launched www.WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck this week to knock down the rumors and lies that are floating around the internet. You can find the information below, and much more, there. For example, we've just added a video of Nancy-Ann DeParle from our Health Reform Office tackling a viral email head on. Check it out:
8 ways reform provides security and stability to those with or without coverage
1. Ends Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.
I'm about to see Gov. Dean in a health care townhall at Netroots Nation. No, I'm not going to liveblog this - I'll post video when it's available - but post your questions in comments, and I'll ask him as long as it's reasonable.
This video provides the full breadth of what happened at Senator Claire McCaskill's town hall event in Hillsboro, Missouri.
I must make one thing clear, it is not the intention of this video in any way shape or form to blame the actions of the police officers. They were doing their job and this video is intended to highlight the discrepancies between what was covered by the media and what was not. In addition to how biased those in attendance were towards the 4 black females. If they were fair then they would have shown the same displeasure towards the 3 white audience members holding the "Don't tread on me" flags, which were held up the entire town hall event.
...a late entering African American woman breaking the "sign rule" is an outrage upon civilized society and is pointed out instantly. It is enough of an outrage so that some jerk can jump out of the stands and try to rip it away (for God's sake, it was a Rosa Parks poster). Yet, a bunch of people can stand after that with their "Don't Tread on Me" flags and there's not a whisper from the crowd...
This individual was across the field house from the other two individuals. She's standing in front of the media riser at the end of the field house opposite the podium.
You think all those upset people in the stands at the field house couldn't see those "Don't Tread on Me" flags because of all the noise? Nah. Apparently loud, obnoxious, and rude behavior are indications for colorblindness in the yellow spectrum.
"How dare you? How dare you criticize those dear sweet insurance companies who've been shafting us royally?" say the teabaggers. "How dare you utter a syllable against them for quintupling their profits over a seven year period?"
Claire pointed out that the ten largest health care insurers made a profit of $2.4 billion in 2000 and $12.9 billion in 2007. Oh man, those stats made the wingers' blood boil. Not against the greedy bloodsuckers driving some of us to bankruptcy and the rest of us to shopping Target instead of Macys. No,no. They screamed at Claire. A man near me yelled, "Why do you get to decide what's a fair profit margin?"
And when she said the average health insurance company CEO makes $10 million a year, they knew, knew that she was out to destroy their way of life. Not so, said Claire. "I'm not against capitalism." That brought the roof down.
Claire stopped and looked at them for several seconds before saying, "I'm so disappointed."
Take a look at how much sympathy that garnered her:
Keep in mind,though, that the noise came only from the baggers. Not only did I fail to capture a single progressive--and there were many in the audience--screaming at the wingers or screaming at Claire for backing away from the public option, I also failed to capture any of the undecided-on-the-issue voters kicking up a fuss. They weren't hollering their frustration with trying to make sense of this ungodly complicated, still evolving legislation that could make the difference for them someday between bankruptcy and still owning a home after they've had cancer treatment. So, no, I did not film the undecideds venting in any way, but they were there. I walked around for fifteen minutes before the event asking people about their views. Although I later learned that the the other side of the gym was almost solid with the angries, still I found plenty of them on my side. And about the same number of pro-reform people. But what I found most was "I'm just here to get information. I don't know what I think yet."
They weren't making any ruckus, and they probably got plenty of useful info. If they could hear Claire above the din.
This is the only video of what actually happened at the event this afternoon. The news only showed the woman being escorted away by the police. What happened was the women walked in with signs, the crowd booed and yelled at the women. The women rolled up their posters and put them down. A photographer/reporter approached the woman on the end and wanted to see what the poster was. As the woman went to show the photographer/reporter what the poster was, a man from the bleachers stood up and snatched the poster from the woman and photographer/reporter. As the woman went to retrieve her poster the police stepped in and escorted the woman and the man from the building....
One individual decided to take on the physical role of sign enforcer.
I spoke with Maxine Johnson outside the field house after the event was over:
Show Me Progress: So, what happened? What happened, did, after you sat down?
Maxine Johnson: When I sat down I put my sign in the chair in front of me. It was rolled up. And the reporter kind of, news reporter crawled over there, she was standing up and she asked could she take a picture of the sign. We unrolled the sign laying down in the chair. And she was taking a picture of Rosa Parks. This man comes out of the crowd, snatch my sign, I stood up, they said he pushed me. I don't remember anything 'cause you know by that time my adrenaline going everywhere...All I'm thinking about is getting my sign back. I got up in...to proceed, go get my sign back. 'Cause he was crumbling it up. I said, "Give my sign back!" When I said that, next thing I know I had four police officers on me and one on him. I'm the victim here, [laugh] you know. And then as I say, "I'm pressing charges!"...I said, "Obama, Obama!" So, you know what, you know like I said Rosa Parks fought for our freedom back then, now I'm fighting for our freedom now...So we're fighting for the next generation...
After yesterday's two hour long open forum on health care at Jefferson College in Hillsboro Senator Claire McCaskill (D) took questions from some of the media in attendance:
Senator Claire McCaskill: Hi guys.
Voice: Hi Senator.
Question: What was your reaction to the crowd today?
Senator McCaskill: You know, I, I wouldn't, let me say it this way. This is hard, but, I'm proud of, overall, the people that came out today and that most of them wanted to stay through it and ask questions and answer questions. I think it is a healthy thing for Democracy. And I, I wouldn't want to do it every afternoon for the rest of my life [laughter in room] because it was obviously contentious. But that's okay....
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill has been a prosecutor, a state legislator and Missouri's chief fiscal watchdog.
But she drew on family to set the tone and win over a potentially antagonistic crowd at a health care forum Tuesday in Jefferson County.
(...)
After several rounds of initial boos and more than a few interruptions, the crowd seemed to warm to McCaskill's mix of frank talk and tough love.
In the end, McCaskill presided over the two-hour forum mostly without incident - there was one arrest - and left to collegial applause.
The crowd who believe that "Obama is a Nazi who wants to kill your grandma and make you pay for abortions"; who booed Claire for pointing out that states with strong tort reform, like Missouri and Texas, still suffer from rising health care premiums; who jeered when she said that V.A. and Medicare recipients like their care ("It's a broken system!") did not, excuse me, "warm" to Claire McCaskill.
Rude, loud, and obnoxious. And to think that there wasn't a dirty anti-war hippy anywhere in sight.
After driving five hundred miles (in eight and a half hours) round trip I had time to reflect and process the event at Jefferson College in Hillsboro. The seemingly impotent rage coming from some of the people in attendance was stunning in its force.
They're pissed that Obama is president. They're pissed that McCain isn't. They're pissed that Jim Talent isn't their senator. They probably voted for George W. Bush twice (and probably his daddy twice). They'd probably be pissed if you pointed out that dubya is and was a monumental screw-up - it reminds them that they made that particular choice. They didn't vote for Claire. They'll never vote for Claire. They're outraged that their sense of entitlement about calling the shots in what others should believe and even how the open forum should have been run isn't accepted or catered to.
To them a late entering African American woman breaking the "sign rule" is an outrage upon civilized society and is pointed out instantly. It is enough of an outrage so that some jerk can jump out of the stands and try to rip it away (for God's sake, it was a Rosa Parks poster). Yet, a bunch of people can stand after that with their "Don't Tread on Me" flags and there's not a whisper from the crowd.
They're pissed that Claire asked how many of them were on Medicare (several hundred) and then asking how many wanted off (a handful) -
pointing out the crowd's hypocrisy about government health care. No matter what anyone does they'll be pissed and stay pissed. And they
ain't voting for any Democrats. Ever.
Roy Blunt just won't stop twittering; 
ACORN had a few workers spending Friday afternoon in front of the Culture Cafe on Delmar in St. Louis, buttonholing passersby to see if they wanted to sign a petition in favor of the health care legislation. When I was there around three this afternoon, the owner of the cafe, who favors such reform, had a grill set up on the sidewalk and music was planned for later.
Sestak did in Pennsylvania: plan it far in advance so that H-CAN has time to organize a strong enough progressive presence that the naysayers are marginalized and just look foolish. That takes about three weeks.
