“During a deep recession and historic 9.5 percent unemployment, unaffordable health care only deepens the financial and personal crises many American families are facing today. Yet the Majority has produced a job-killing, government-mandated health care plan financed on the backs of every American family, senior citizen, small business and employer. With a price tag of over $1 Trillion dollars, the Democrats’ plan would cut Medicare options for seniors and raise taxes on any employer or individual who does not embrace a government-run health care program...What he fails to tell us, of course, is that he and every member of the House and Senate enjoy "government-run health care" that sounds sort of like what's being proposed--a menu of private insurance plans at a group rate that would spread out the risk pool by including everybody in the country. A public option would be included, to keep the private insurers honest, if nothing else, making them actually do what we pay them to do, instead of boosting profits by kicking sick people off the rolls.
Sessions Watcher Lisa, a self-identified political independent, wants to know what Pete Sessions would propose as a health care reform measure. She sends this message to fellow Sessions Watchers:
Is anybody going to one of Pete Sessions' town hall meetings when he gets back to the District? If so, can you ask him about health care? I don't want to, because Pete Sessions scares me!!lol! Lisa goes on to recount a time in 2006 when somebody asked a health care question:
It was a moderated town hall meeting with Pete Sessions and Will Pryor. It wasn't a debate, exactly, because they didn't talk to each other. They went one at a time, with people from the audience submitting questions for the candidates, which were read by the moderator. Pete Sessions went first. Towards the end of his time, the moderator read a question someone wrote, thanking Pete Sessions for the Family Opportunity Act, which allowed parents of kids with Downs Syndrome to buy into Medicaid. The moderator went on to read the rest of it, asking if he would also support a bill in Congress that would allow anyone to buy into Medicare...(The bill she's referring to is H.R. 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act). So what happened when Pete Sessions heard that question? Tell us, Lisa:
He went ballistic!! He turned all red in the face, and yelled "Who wrote that??" He stared at the audience like a teacher would if someone threw a spit ball or something. There was some nervous seat-shifting, but nobody spoke up! He went on a rant about how the Family Opportunity Act only benefitted low income families, how he didn't personally benefit--and whoever wrote the question never said he benefitted. He angrily denounced any program that would expand the Medicare program, and kept demanding that the person who wrote the question stand up and talk to him about it. Well, nobody was going to admit to having written the question after he blew up like that! The moderator kind of gave a nervous laugh, and suggested that the person who wrote the question could ask him about it in private at the close of the Town Hall. Pete Sessions agreed to do that, but he left! As soon as Will Pryor got up there to answer questions, Pete Sessions took off! I can't remember what Will Pryor's reaction was, but he took that question before taking the ones directed specifically to him, saying that he didn't know about the bill, but said that if he was in Congress, he's look at it and see if it was feasible, and so forth--you know, the way a real Congressman should answer a question, without getting all mad about it!!!!When Pete Sessions comes home during the August recess, Lisa would like for some brave soul among us to ask him what his plan is for healthcare reform. Lisa doesn't go to his town hall meetings anymore, because, as she said, she's afraid of him! One last word from Lisa:
Looking back, it's kind of funny, because at the time, Pete Sessions had just put this thing on his website calling Democrats "unhinged"! lol! I guess it takes one to know one. :)Volunteers, anyone?
6 comments:
Wish I could help, Lisa, but I'm done trying to talk to Pete Sessions. I'm not scared of him, I'm just tired of him because he's so hard-headed and doesn't seem to care about the same things we care about.
The last time I tried to ask him a question was at one of those meet and greet things sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. He made a speech, then we got to meet him afterwards and ask him questions. It was a couple of years ago, just after a big toy recall. I told him how hard it was explaining to my three-year-old why we had to take away his Thomas the Train because of lead paint from China, and asked what Congress was doing about these toys from China that kept having to be recalled. He said in a really snippy way that they couldn't do anything about that, because "we're busy protecting the country from terrorists." Then, he just went to shake the next person's hand and wouldn't talk to me! Maybe I'm just "unhinged," but I think it's a matter of national defense to keep our kids safe from Chinese lead paint, and I'd kind of like to have a Congressman who cared about stuff like that.
So I'm done asking Pete Sessions anything. That episode was so unpleasant that I haven't written him or called his office asking for anything since. Sorry, Lisa.
This just in, from Park Cities Democrats:
"Congressman Pete Sessions is holding a town hall meeting on Wednesday, the 5th. It will be held at Richardson Civic Center, Arapaho at US 75, starting at 7:00 pm. Please arrive at least 30 minutes early. This is our chance to publicly express our demands for true health care (insurance) reform. There will probably be media present."
Good luck to whoever attends!
I'll be there. I may videotape it too, but not sure.
JOhn
BTW, healthcare with a government option scares the crap out of me.
Having a player in the healthcare market that can set the rules, has unlimited funds, no need to generate a profit, and no need to be customer focused is a rigged game. If we have a public option in healthcare I'm worried they will eventually force the private insurers out of business. Then we might end up like the UK where they ration their healthcare.
Seems kind of unfair to make private insurance companies compete with the federal government's unlimited funds and lack of need to actually profit. I'm for universal healthcare, but not with a government option.
JOhn
Great, John, looking forward to your report and possible video tape.
About 70% of Americans are like you, John, wanting some sort of universal health care; wish we could get doctors, nurses, and real people like us in there writing the bill instead of the politicians.
To Lisa, Nick and others who have emailed saying they're scared of Pete Sessions, or feel alienated by him--come out anyway and think of his antics as cheap entertainment.
And, Nancy, bring your young Republican neighbor who's thinking about running for Congress some day. After seeing Sessions bluster and rant, he'll realize that he has a better personality for the job and could have given a better answer to any one of those questions.
I want to ask him why he gave money to that blimp company that never made a blimp before, and like David Smith asked what are we doing paying for a blimp anyway? What good is a blimp when we've got spy planes and stuff like that.
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