Congressman holds town hall meeting on health care

By Colby Dunn
News Writer

U.S Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) came to town last week, bringing with him his well-practiced, notebook-dropping show and a host of interesting ideas about health care.

The congressman held a town hall meeting in downtown Madison's James Madison Conference Center last Wednesday, prompting a turnout of over 250 local residents, many looking for information and answers about President Obama's proposed health care reform.

After a local bluegrass band took the stage, Broun got the real entertainment going as he took the microphone and dropped two notebooks full of the proposed health care bill, HR 3200, onto the floor, telling the audience, "I want you to understand very clearly what I think of this bill and Obama care."

Broun then launched into a presentation, detailing his opinions about the bill, the state of health care in America and what he wants to do about it. Broun, who is vehemently opposed to HR 3200, a 1,017-page bill from the House of Representatives that proposes a health care overhaul, cited high cost, increased government control and supposed lower care standards under non-private health care as his central reasons for standing against the bill.

"We've got to stop the outrageous spending that's going on in the U.S. Congress," he said. 

Claiming that Obama is seeking to create a police dictatorship and offer health care to illegal immigrants, and that Nancy Pelosi and others are "communists and socialists," he fired up the crowd, some of whom responded with supportive shouts, before starting a speech on his own plan for fixing the health care system that he, himself, said was "broken."

The central features of that plan included offering full tax deductability to individuals for health insurance costs and expanding health care pools across state lines, so more people can access a pool of health services at lower costs.

Some spectators then lined up to fire questions at the congressman on his plan, the Democrat-backed house health bill and other current political issues.

Apart from one outspoken UGA law student, who started the question time with a short, fiery speech against illegal immigration, all of the questioners were local. Some wanted to know what their family members could do when they couldn't get health insurance because of pre-existing conditions, to which Broun repeated that his plan would open more health care pools.

Pam Jones, a Rutledge resident and business owner, told the congressman: "I don't want anybody to come between me, my children, my grandchild, my parents or my grandparents and my doctor," and Broun told her the answer to this was saying 'no' to HR 3200.

When asked if he would support term limits by Steve Arminio of Madison, Broun responded, "we technically have term limits, they're called elections," before moving to the next question.

While angry protesters were in short supply, there were several signs - one declaring that Americans would lose freedom like Germany under Nazi rule by January 2011 - and some in the crowd weren't shy about voicing their displeasure with the President and other Democrats in Congress.

After fielding his last question, Broun ended the meeting by urging audience members to write Democrats in Congress, opposing the health care bill.

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