What exactly is a Town Hall Meeting? I checked with Professor Wikipedia and learned:
A town hall meeting is an informal public meeting derived from the traditional town meetings of New England. Similarly to those meetings, everybody in a community is invited to attend, voice their opinions, and hear the responses from public figures and elected officials.
Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s talk about President Obama’s “Town Hall Meeting” yesterday.
The idea was to discuss Obamacare in an open forum where people could voice their opinions and ask questions. BUT it turns out all of the question-askers (and attendees, actually) were hand-picked, pre-screened Obama supporters. Even if you wanted to attend as a member of the voting public, no such luck.
Some of Obama’s questioners Wednesday were from friendly sources, including a member of the Service Employees International Union and a member of Health Care for America Now, which organized a Capitol Hill rally last week calling for an overhaul.
So much for being open and transparent and encouraging participation from the public…
Debby Smith, 53, told Obama of her kidney cancer and her inability to obtain health insurance or hold a job. The president hugged her — she’s a volunteer for his political operation — and called her “exhibit A” in an unsustainable system that is too expensive and complex for millions of Americans.
I have a lot of issues with this. One: Not only could she not obtain health insurance, but she couldn’t hold a job. Is Obamacare going to give people jobs too? I had no idea the plan was so magical.
Two: Does the president hugging her mean she was miraculously cured of cancer? I’ve heard that hope and belief in change can really work miracles in our lives. I don’t mean to be insensitive but hugging cancer patients really isn’t my idea of a solid plan for healthcare in America.
Three: A campaign volunteer!? Really?? Couldn’t Gibbsy or whoever planned this shindig have found a cancer patient who didn’t work on the campaign? It really just kills any hope one might have had for a genuine town hall meeting.
BONUS: Clearly this whole failed “town hall” concept has me really pissed off, but I wasn’t the only one…
Check out this awesome footage from the press conference before the “town hall.” Chip Reid and Helen Thomas decided to take on Gibbsy over the issue of transparency. Serious love to Helen Thomas — that woman will not be denied.
Hat tip to Deceiver reader Barney Snakes.
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Nothing this thing does anymore surprises me. The election was a fake (Hi, ACORN!) and his presidency is one huge sham. And we’re only six months in! Good thing he hasn’t had anyone trying to repeal the 22nd Amendme…oh. Wait. He has.
It’s interesting that she had time to volunteer for a campaign, but not time to get a job.
It kills me every day that I wake up and realize that this man is president of this country. The great mess he has created in 6 months makes me so sad. Come on, it took Jennifer Granholm 5 years to make Michigan that bad. I guess you must give him credit for his efficiency.
…So glad there is greater transparency in this administration…
One issue I have with universal healthcare is that when I was younger and without a family I declined the healthcare offered by my employers all the time. I was young and never needed to see a doctor, why waste the money? Now that I have a family and am much, much, much older I am working for a company that has good healthcare coverage because it was the second thing I looked for when job hunting.
Oh and for anyone who thinks my situation is special or different. I have no college degree and have a criminal background that I must disclose (drug related…ancient history but they always find out which severly limits my job options).
One last thing – Debbie Smith does not qualify for Medicaid or disability?
This guy scares me so much. The things he continues to get away with…
I bet he likes imitation maple syrup flavoring on his waffles and shredded cheddar cheese flavored topping on his nachos.
The hug could be some kind of “Dead Zone” thing where he sees how much longer she’s going to be useful to his campaign. Or he’s transferring all of his precancerous lung cells to her.
rob: I was wondering the same thing. Does she not realize that some establishments will pay her to stuff envelopes and answer the phone?
What he failed to disclose was that if he did give her healthcare she’d just rot and die anyway, the same way, since we need to thin the population out or WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE from global warming and overpopulation. And if she’s going to die anyway, why doesn’t she just pay for the services while she can? I mean, if it’s death or debt, I’ll choose the debt for a while.
I agree, D—-, that a big problem is that people run to the doctor whenever they get so much as a papercut. The only reason I keep my insurance is because I’d be sunk if something major happened to me (and as much as I drive, I’m just waiting). Otherwise, I don’t need a doctor.
If this sounds familiar…
To the poster: you’re reaching. Yes, the “town hall meeting” was set up, contrived, and full of softball questions. Basically, it’s politics as usual. I’m not saying its right, but I’m not surprised to see a politician act like this. I for one didn’t expect Barack Obama to be the “great messiah” who was going to single-handedly fix politics, I just figured he’d be a little different than Bush, and he has.
As for the woman with cancer: He hugged her because its a sign of sympathy shown from one human being to another. He hugged her because he felt something, which is 10x better than George W Bush and his miraculous “magic wand” responses.
The woman didn’t have a job because she didn’t have time, she didn’t have a job because SHE HAS CANCER, which I would imagine makes getting a day job rather hard. Plus, working at Walmart really doesn’t put a dent in cancer treatment bills, does it?
I understand criticizing people for legit reasons, we all do it, and we should. We should question our leaders, but making an entire article criticizing a hug and a cancer patient is just asinine. When he screws up, criticize him to no end, but this is no controversy. It’s grasping at straws.
I am so sick and tired…no I don’t need a doctor…of hearing about the wonderful thing called socialized medicine.
My family lives in a country with socialized meds and let me tell you, debt is better. My grandmother was too old at 70 for angioplasty. My cousin needed at CT Scan after a accident and was wait listed. My uncle needed chemo, he to was wait listed, because of his age and where he lived. (He was 38.) When the cancer finally spread to a point of no return the doctor told him he had been on a wait list for 1 1/2 years but did not qualify. He has been dead a long long time.
My Grandmother was given medicine for her “lung infection” – which was diagnosed without an x-ray – the medicine has been banned in this country for over 50 years because of the mortality rates.
Just last year the BBC exposed the fact of “location, location, location” with regards to medical service and benefits available.
The question is debt or death? I choose debt.
Woops, I forgot the extra “o” on too. And just so you know, my cousin was 22 at the time.
“To the poster: you’re reaching. Yes, the “town hall meeting” was set up, contrived, and full of softball questions. Basically, it’s politics as usual. I’m not saying its right, but I’m not surprised to see a politician act like this.”
Dude, you’re missing the point. This is a site dedicated to hypocrites and this is about as textbook an example of hypocrisy as I’ve ever seen. It WOULD be politics as usual, indeed, as we’ve come to expect. The point lies in the fact he ran on a platform of openness and transparency and is now operating like any other politician. That makes him… well, to put it bluntly, full of shit.
“The woman didn’t have a job because she didn’t have time, she didn’t have a job because SHE HAS CANCER, which I would imagine makes getting a day job rather hard.”
Again, but she had time to work on his campaign? Sounds like priorities might be part of this woman’s problem.
“When he screws up, criticize him to no end, but this is no controversy. It’s grasping at straws.”
He’s trying to force national health care on a nation that doesn’t want it based on a hyped-up emotional appeal, and this chick is helping him do it, that’s controversy 101. What, you think they ACCIDENTALLY invited the dying cancer patient to try to illustrate their point that people can’t get health coverage? She may have been a pawn, but that doesn’t make her involvement any less intentional.
What they fail to leave out is that she’d be dead under national health coverage anyway – the only differences would be that she’d die on a waiting list and we’d get the privilege of paying for it.
There you have it.
Another thing about the cancer patient: this is a recurrence of a cancer for which she had been previously treated. Under rationed health care (and that is what will happen with a government plan), that alone would probably disqualify her. After all, she already had her chance to beat the cancer! (Please note the sarcasm.)
In some ways, socialized medicine is far more Darwinian than the free market system.
As someone who has very deliberately paid insane amounts for COBRA insurance to make sure I was covered and had no gaps in coverage, I would love to have cheaper care. However, reality states that you generally get what you pay for. If insurance is truly a priority for you, you find a way to pay for it. Yes, there are a few people who cannot get coverage because of preexisting conditions. Yes, the current system isn’t perfect. But how many people really want medical coverage like Medicare/Medicaid? Even the federal officials/employees get insurance from private companies, and there is a reason for that! All that talk about the health plan for members of Congress? It may be paid for by the government, but you can bet that the private sector is actually providing the care.
Obama felt something all right… the government growing even bigger as it sucks up all our money. That’s about all he felt during that staged hug. Bush was by no means good, but he was genuine enough not to have these silly, foolish, childish, emotion-driven displays of staged nonsense.
Ugh. Want free market medicine. Seriously. Doctors. Compete on price and quality like everybody else.
And whenever I say this, the first assumption is that I’ve always had insurance or been ridiculously well off….when I was a child, no one in my family had health insurance. At all. My parents still don’t have it. Most people don’t realize how much the process of dealing with insurance companies (among other things) inflates the cost of health care.
It should not cost $1100 to go to the emergency room for a pretty scary allergic reaction to an insect sting only to have the doctor give you 2 Benadryl and send you home.
Totally agree, Pearce. If the government got completely out (medicare/medicaide) that would be a big step. The next step being people and doctors working together directly. Oh, and doctors not being selfish pigs like so many have become. Amazingly enough there’s a clinic somewhere in SoCal (sorry, don’t remember exactly) where the doctor doesn’t take insurance and it’s far less than $100 per visit. I’d give a lot to sneak into one of these meetings and ask him about that… hoping for an answer from TOTUS.
One other thing that would reduce the cost of private health care is “cafeteria” care – which lets you pick and choose what coverage you want and then you pay accordingly.
By California law, if you get insurance you MUST be covered for EVERYTHING. Somehow, I don’t think I’m ever going to get ovarian cancer…but I’m paying to be covered for it.
Oh, wow. I just watched that video for the first time. Does anyone else want to seriously punch Robert Gibbs right in the face. His snarky little replies as he dodges the issue and his condescending little giggle…there goes my fist, clenching up again. I mean, geez, where’d they find this guy? He acts like an adult still living in his mom’s basement that was just made moderator of an online fantasy RPG and has totally let the power go to his nerdy little head.
Good point, California Dave. Being a woman, my insurance is automatically higher because of the potential costs: birth control, pregnancy, covering the baby’s visits, etc. Yet, I am single and not on birth control, and I see my PCP rather than an OB-GYN. I’m actually saving my insurance company money.
I get the “spread the cost around” idea, but I do wonder what would happen if you had “build your own” plans. Maybe it would up costs, but maybe it would lower them.
One thing that would lower health care costs is to put caps on malpractice awards. I certainly think that malpractice victims should be compensated, but driving up the price of malpractice insurance (thus driving doctors out of specialties that are expensive to insure) to fund ridiculous awards hurts everyone. Many doctors don’t go into the OB-GYN field because the insurance is so high, because juries award victims obscene amounts of money to “punish” the doctor. Problem is, it isn’t the doctor who pays out, it is the insurance company. In the end, it is the patients who pay, through higher fees and fewer doctors.
But Fearless Leader doesn’t support caps on malpractice awards, just on carbon. Clearly, the man supports whatever policy will hurt the people most.
Even more smoke and mirrors from the Obama administration. I noticed one of my Obamabot neighbours removed his Obama sticker from his car. Regret much?
C.D. There are a lot of clinics in lower Michigan doing the exact same thing. One down the street from me is offering a “family” of four – and you even get to choose your family – unlimited medical care for $50/month. There is no way you can get insurance for 4 at the price of $600. If clinics are starting to do this on their own, albeit to increase their profit margins, why do we need the government stepping in? I am sure this trend will catch on quickly and lets face it $600 for four is not a lot of money, especially when it is made in monthly payments.
That is the single most concise and on-target assessment of B. Ho’s plans I’ve ever seen.
I have Stage IV Kidney Cancer. I was approved for Social Security Disability in less than ten days. I still had to meet the five (or six) months without working rule, but I started drawing a check fairly quick.
I think she said something about getting health care in nine years. A Stage IV Kidney Cancer patient is eligible for medicare in two years.
We don’t need to revamp the entire health system for these situations, just reduce the waiting times before benefits kick in.
Robert Gibbs is so smarmy and creepy in this video. I’m so sick of the blind allegiance to this administration. It nice to see the media turning against such tactics.
When Helen Thomas is against you and you are a Democrat then you know you screwed up majorly. In fact if you listen to the other reporters around them when they finish you can hear a number of them thank them for standing up to Gibbs.
PEBO needs to be brought down to earth.
Oh, Poobah. I’m sorry to hear that. About the cancer, I mean.
I think the fact that for the first time in my almost 42 years, I am not hating Helen Thomas but rather cheering her on, indicates that Jesus is for real on His way back.
I despised Helen Thomas for being so snarky. however, when I saw this clip the other night on the news, I wanted to hug her. When the MSM and Democratic loving media starts getting pissed off, then you know you are in trouble. As for Gibbs, he reminds me of a weasel, just like his boss.
the last thing I want is for the government to tell me when to go to a doctor and what will be covered for me. And no, this is not Bush’s fault.
He’s being transparent with his…untransparency?
Was this the town hall during which B. Ho pointed to California’s sparkling, thriving economy as a paragon of economically-sustainable greenness? Because that was comedy gold, right there.
I made the mistake of watching the video above and am in need of my blood pressure medication. The more I hear this person speak, the more I want to smack him around a bit. Would anyone be willing to help bail me out of jail if I do us all a favor and knock him out. Seriously? Is this the best the White House could do for a speaker?
AAW, I’ve gotta save up all my duckies for light bills, but I’ll bake you a nice cake. Widda file in it.
Kanye West interrupts and disses taylor swift at the VMAs saying Beyonce should have won the award.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss7kcgQ8ke0
AND THEN APOLOGIZES HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBuKWSpCLNM
http://www.NoMoreKanye.com