BFIA contributor Jerry DePew attended Congressman Latham's Town Hall Meeting Friday in Emmetsburg. Here is his first-hand report.by Jerry DePew
A few wingnuts knocked at the door of Tom Latham’s town meeting in Emmetsburg today, but Latham did not come out to play. One woman in a Patriot Party t-shirt greeted arriving voters with a handout listing ways to stockpile food for the coming disaster. It did not say what disaster she was expecting. One man wondered how long before the government starts implanting computer chips into our bodies. Another wondered if the Congressman could go to the floor of the House and read the Constitution aloud to his colleagues. Of course there were the usual sneers at Speaker Pelosi and Senator Kennedy, but I don’t think the name Obama was mentioned by anyone. Latham deflected all these ideas and insults without offending the people who injected them.
The audience of about sixty people – mostly senior citizens – asked more than twenty questions. Nearly all were about health care legislation. One working woman cried while saying she could not afford her health insurance which had skyrocketed to be 150% as much as her mortgage payment. But generally the talk was about dispassionate details of Medicare re-imbursement rates, government boards, the public option, the various bills, interstate insurance competition, pre-existing conditions, malpractice lawsuits and the number of uninsured today. There were no questions about Iraq, Afghanistan, the economy, immigration, Wall Street reform, torture, falling farm prices, or the flu scare.
Congressman Latham said the concern about the health bills was really a generalized fear of too much change and too much government activism. He cited the Wall Street bailout, the stimulus bill, the supplemental spending bill, and the climate change bill, as all responsible for the fear. He added that bills come up without members getting to read them, that no amendments are allowed sometimes and that conference committees may completely rewrite bills anyway. He did not say that these practices were largely developed by former Republican Majority Leader Tom (the Hammer) DeLay. So he essentially helped feed the fear that he says is motivating voters. Luckily, his listless style undercuts his fear-mongering about losing our future and our freedom, leaving his audience to feel disempowered.
He characterized the various health bills as a complete takeover of the entire health care system, a falsehood. Doctors won’t be employed by the government under any of the bills, for example. And he claimed that the 47 million uninsured included any person who went without insurance for even one day while changing jobs, an argument debunked just today on NPR.
Latham indicated support for people who could not afford their insurance or had pre-existing conditions that could not be insured, as well as the need to prevent bankruptcies when insurance runs out. All these ideas would appear to drive up government spending which Latham usually opposes. His only ideas on how to reduce costs were to curb malpractice lawsuits and to allow small businesses to band together to shop for policies.
The Congressman said his own federal employees health insurance costs him $356/month and offers him considerable choices. It is a Blue Cross/Blue Shield policy “like everybody else has,” he said, thus inadvertently noting that BC/BS has a near monopoly in Iowa. He did not say if his policy covers any dependents or has any co-payments or deductibles.
Latham’s unflappable style makes him a master of town meetings. He said today’s event was his 489th since taking office in 1995. He said we should not ignore our health care problems and asserted that they could be fixed in a flash if Democrats just consulted with Republicans about the few minor changes that are needed. He did not say why Republicans failed to make those changes during the 12 years they controlled Congress.
Overall, it was another dull town meeting in the 4th district. Mostly Latham fans turned out, as is usually the case. It did not appear that anyone had organized the attendees to combat health care reform, but opponents were the most vocal group.
Jerry Depew is a farmer in Pocahontas county. Check out his blog, IowaVoters.org
