Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) gets today’s Golden Fleece Award for using nearly $14,000 in taxpayer money to fund a November Tea Party event in Washington DC.

Bachmann and other political opportunists fired up a group of teabaggers by railing against high taxes and out of control government spending and all along, they intended for taxpayers to pick up the Tea Party tab.

Expense reports from the November’s Tea Party rally in DC show that congressional money funded the event, with the money going to sound and staging equipment. Money was supplied to Bachmann’s rally by the taxpayer-funded accounts of Rep. Todd Akin (R-Miss), Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga), and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).

But the leaders of the Tea Party movement feel just scant remorse for wasting our tax dollars on assisting a bunch of lunatics with their conspiracy theories about death panels and elusive birth certificates:

Learning that taxpayer funds were used did strike a note of discomfort with Twin Cities Tea Party co-founder Deanna Boss, who arranged for more than 100 Minnesotans to attend the rally. Boss said she would have preferred that private donors had financed the event, given her and other activists’ criticism of excessive government spending.

While no laws were broken, sunlight remains the greatest disinfectant when it comes to discretionary spending by our representatives in DC. This was not only a highly partisan event, it was an event with no redeeming values. It was staged only to demean the President, discount the Democratic Party, and to spread vitriol across the country.

And, as a person who’s not a member of the Tea Party movement, I’m demanding that Reps. Bachmann, Akin, Price, and King, pay back the taxpayers their $13,600.

Happy Tax Day!

Lewis became nationally known during his prominent role in the Selma to Montgomery marches, where he marched side-by-side with martyred Nobel Peace Prize recipient Dr. Martin Luther King. During the first march, Lewis and other peaceful protesters were beaten mercilessly by the notoriously racist Alabama police. Lewis’s skull was fractured and his wounds are still visible today.

In 1986, Lewis was elected to Congress where he serves as a lion of civil liberties. He was the first member of Congress to call for the impeachment of George W. Bush and he is a staunch opponent to the Iraq War. Lewis has been one of the strongest proponents of health-care reform in Congress.

Just yesterday, Lewis made a short, but compelling statement that Congress must act now on healthcare reform. In his speech, Lewis said:

The time is always right to do what is right. And that time is now. The spirit of history is upon us. We must pass healthcare. There are those who have told us to wait. They have told us to be patient. We cannot wait, we cannot be patient.

The American people need health care, and they need it now. Will we stand with the American people? Or will we stand with the big insurance companies? We have a moral obligation to make health care a right and not a privilege. We cannot wait a moment longer. We must pass health care and we must pass it now.

Also honored at the dinner will be several local educators, NAACP mentors and the Haverstraw Town Board. More details to come soon.

The 90-year-old folk singer and tireless activist will be joined by Grammy Award-winning musician, singer-songwriter and storyteller Tom Chapin in performing at the park’s gazebo. Other musical acts will be announced shortly by the rally’s organizers.

The event has also added sponsors. Currently, The Fellowship of Reconciliation, Rockland Progressive Dems, Nyack NAACP, WesPAC, and Organizing for America are sponsors.

The Rally will take place from 4:30 pm-7 pm. For more information or to volunteer, call (845) 512-3261.

About a dozen conservatives, including Republican Orangetown Supervisor candidate Paul Whalen, attended yesterday’s Organizing for America (formerly Obama for America) meeting at the Pearl River Library last night. Many of these right-wingers went on to heckle the Obama organizer and disrupt the meeting.

The hecklers interrupted the meeting by shouting down those that support health-care reform, with taunts, and with generally disrespectful behavior. One of the hecklers stood before the crowd with a menacing look and a sign that said, “Obama’s healthcare and other policies will take care of us like Teddy took care of Mary Jo.”

Another agitator insisted that the meeting was actually an ACORN meeting and manically shook a DVD box of the science-fiction movie Soylent Green in front of his face. Others were a somewhat more respectful; some just stood outside the library, smoked cigarettes, and carried anti-Obama picket signs.

Many of the blathering wing-nuts unwittingly tipped others off that they were associated with and mobilized by insurance-industry lobbying groups and the Christian conservative movement. The disruptors used media and talking points supplied by the National Center for Policy Analysis, an organization funded by the insurance-industry and the Liberty Counsel, a conservative, “family values” group begun by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. 

Whalen, for his part, did not participate in the heckling, but did nothing to stop his fellow conservatives as they tried to disrupt the meeting. Later, I approached Whalen about a pickup truck that several of us have witnessed that carries one of his campaign bumper stickers next to a Confederate Flag. Whalen chuckled, “I guess I’ve got fans all over, North and South.” I informed Whalen that I found this to be an unfortunate juxtaposition and asked him what he thought about having supporters who are open racists. Whalen huffed away without answering and left the meeting.

In the end, the disruptive element failed and did nothing more but embarrass themselves. I’m not sure what Whalen’s role at the meeting was. Was he supporting the hecklers, or does he support the President’s health-care reform? In the end, the OFA organizer was able to get the productive members of the audience to break down into groups and work together in trying to create a canvassing strategy for the county. The hecklers failed, and very few reform supporters appeared shaken by them.
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The news and diaries posted on the Rockland Progressive Dems site are the individual opinions of the members of the Rockland Progressive Democratic Caucus. They appear on this Web site to provide a progressive forum for Rockland County residents. While the Executive Committee of the caucus may edit some of these posts for clarity, length, and accuracy, it does not necessarily endorse the contents of each post. All members of the Rockland County Democratic Caucus are invited to share their viewpoints and comment on those viewpoints on this site.

Ball narrates an incident from his childhood that sowed the seeds for his passion. “My godmother was personal secretary to Joseph Kennedy, the father of Jack Kennedy. As an infant I had cat-scratch fever, and Jean Kennedy- Smith, Jack Kennedy’s sister, asked my parents to take me to a hospital. When my parents said they couldn’t afford it, she said she would take care of everything. And, within five minutes, there were 10 doctors around me. I think those little interactions that I had as a kid with that family in particular showed me how well power could be used.”

He feels that people should use their abilities to impact others positively, because there is both good and evil in this world. “Evil exists, and we have to fight it at every turn.”

I must say, what a compassionate clan the Kennedy family has been, and despite their wealth they took it upon themselves to care for a small baby who was, at the very best, tenuously connected to them. And this interaction with the Kennedy family taught Ball to demonize a healthcare system with a public-option? I’m not sure how such compassion teaches someone to be so selfish and uncaring.

What’s even more amazing is that Joseph Kennedy was dead for some eight years before Greg was born in 1977, but the compassionate Kennedy clan, according to Ball, cared enough to keep in touch with their deceased patriarch’s secretary’s godson. Had not Ball’s blue-collar family had this distant connection, what would they have done?

And what a great bit of irony, considering that Greg is now campaigning against American families getting the health care that they need with his so-called town halls, which are nothing but homespun demagoguery, fake outrage, and misinformation directed at the people he hopes to serve.

Unforunately, I, like most every American, don’t have connections to the Kennedys or any other ultra-wealthy family.

My son, who is on the autistic spectrum, has had more than $30,000 in medical bills that two health-insurance companies refused to cover. It put my family on the brink of financial ruin. Assemblyman Ball and his family should feel blessed to have such friends to pay for his health care when he was a child. Wouldn’t Greg Ball want every child to have an opportunity to have to see a doctor when their health is imperiled without bankrupting their families?

I think it’s time that this Congressional candidate did some sincere soul searching before he spreads more fear and lies about the health-care reform that Ted Kennedy so wanted for all American families.

Tonight I attended a forum on health care with Greg Ball, NYS Assemblyman who is challenging John Hall in the 19th Congressional district in 2010. 

Mr. Ball opened the meeting by stating that he was there to hear all perspectives on “government-run” health-care.

The first speaker stood up and began to rant –quite inarticulately- about how socialism was evil. She mentioned no specifics or facts that related to any of the five health care bills presently in Congress. 

The next speaker did the same. This continued for forty-five minutes. Again and again, individuals –mostly elder- would stand up and do anything from rant against socialism to complain that illegal immigrants were covered in the bill (“Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States,” taken directly from section 246). Many complained that abortion would be mandated in the bill (also untrue) and whined about the high cost, despite the fact that the bill is deficit neutral. Others complained about government rationing, seemingly and conveniently ignoring the fact that individuals can keep their private insurance under the new plan if they desire. More made comparisons to the English and Canadian system, ignoring the fact that the proposed bills implement a public option, not a single payer system. Others whined that the bill would destroy small businesses by mandating that they insure their employees, despite the fact that this mandate applies only to small businesses with a payroll of $500,000 or more. Others skipped concrete complaints altogether, and merely rampaged against President Obama and his perceived socialist agenda. 

After forty-five minutes of this, I stepped outside. There I saw Bob, another man who I knew was on one of the local Democratic committees but couldn’t name, and Jonathon Jacobson, the Chair of the Orange County Democratic Committee. They were all talking about how terrible this event was, and Bob mused that he didn’t realize “how many morons lived in Orange County.” I mentioned that somebody had to say something at least relatively rational- we could not afford to legitimize these radical and extremist opinions by forwarding no response of our own. There was mumbling, and it was obvious nobody was stepping up to the plate.  

I walked back inside and got on line. I wrote a few notes in my cell phone, trying to find where I could possibly start, how I could possibly break down a sea of misinformation, anger, and confusion and counter what was unfolding before my eyes with rational remarks founded in fact. I waited on line for about twenty minutes while searching for the answer.

Medicare seemed to be a good place to start. The crowd was overwhelmingly composed of senior citizens, and there had been much complaining about cuts to Medicare. I knew that the truth is that individual Medicare plans won’t be touched- the $500B savings over ten years that President Obama talks about is derived from the increased leverage that the federal government will have to negotiate rates with pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and doctors as a result of the increased number of people under government jurisdiction in the public option. Yet I knew that was too complex to explain, and that I would be cut off before I could even finish.

Finally it was my turn. As I took the mic, I looked out at the crowd. “My name is Sam Sussman,”* I said, “and I live in Chester. May I see, by a show of hands, how many of you are on Medicare?” Almost everybody raised his or her hand. “OK,” I continued. “We have a system whereby health insurance for senior citizens is subsidized, because if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be able to afford health care. What would be wrong with doing the same for those who presently cannot afford health care?” 

The crowd went nuts. There was screaming and booing. Some yelled, “We worked for ours!” obviously missing the points that Medicare is subsidized, and that many people without insurance also work. 

One woman yelled out “It’s not our problem, it’s not our responsibility!” I was taken by the outrageous audience response, and was unable to speak over the noise for a few moments, but at this I began to speak again. “Oh, it’s not your responsibility?” I said, voice rising. “It’s not your problem? Guess what, people die in America because they don’t have health care. That’s wrong. It is our problem. It is our responsibility. We’re all Americans and we’re all in this together.”

The crowd kept going. They were yelling, screaming, booing. Many yelled out “Let him speak,” but others called for me to step down. One of Ball’s aides came over to me and asked for the mic until the crowd calmed down. I handed it to him. 

Ball, who had been sitting about seven to eight feet away from me, stood up and took the mic. “How many veterans do we have here?” he asked. Many hands went up. “OK,” he said, “you fought for this. You fought for freedom of speech.” Then he turned to me. “But you know you were the first person to get up here and yell, and you didn’t need to do that.” I was outraged. I had only raised my voice because the entire crowd of some 200 people were screaming and booing me in an attempt to drown me out. Jan Howe stood up and yelled something to that effect in my support (thanks Jan! 

Ball then handed me the mic and sat down.

I continued. “You mention veterans, sir,” I said, turning to him. “You served, correct?” He responded in the affirmative. “Thank you for your service, sir. We have single payer for our veterans through the VA. How do you feel about giving government-run health care to those who gave their blood, sweat, and tears for America?”

Ball responded by telling me that he knew a woman whose husband had died under the VA system, and that, therefore, they weren’t too happy with “government health care.” This has been a conservative style of argument since Ronald Reagan’s 1964 A Time for Choosing speech, and probably before that. Conservatives are great at pointing out one or two people who take advantage of the system, or one horror story in a government-run program, and then move from that single example to the conclusion that the whole system or program is flawed. These sorts of arguments are devoid of any logic and ignore the basic fact that no system is perfect and no program flawless. 

I motioned for the mic back. Ball hesitated, but finally gave it to me. 

“So then you support repealing the VA single payer system as it stands now?” I asked.

The crowd took over from here. One man in the front yelled out “This is not a debate.” Another man to my right started screaming at me. Many in the crowd were yelling at me to leave. (It should be noted that my remarks were much shorter than most other speakers, even with the back and forth with Ball, and that only one person was cut off the whole night, after a solid 15 minutes). 

Ball did not respond to my remark. The next few second are fuzzy in my mind, but there was more yelling and the aide indicated I should give up the mic. I handed it to the next man on line. He remarked that he was going to “give me a civics lesson.” I was still standing in front of the room, and I shot back at him, saying, “I just spent two months in Congress, sir.”

At the word ‘Congress,’ the crowd reacted with more anger than they had displayed in response to any of my earlier remarks. They hissed, booed, and yelled. To them, this was the obvious and heretofore missing explanation: I was a brainwashed Washington tool who knew nothing at all. Great irony exists in the fact that part of the reason I initially stepped up is that I have dealt with this issue intensely for two months and felt an obligation to share my knowledge with the crowd. But they weren’t having it. As the man had said, “this is not a debate.” Despite Ball’s promise, nobody in the audience –including him- wanted to hear anything but the myths and absurdities that they all clung to so tightly. Difference of opinion was not going to be tolerated. 

The man continued to talk as a few people came up to me. One man told me that my problem was that I evidently don’t watch FOX News. Another man came up to me and said, “I’m from Romania. I can tell you all about the evils of communism.” I’m sure he could, and I would have loved to hear, but I’m still trying to figure out how a public option fits into Marxism. Yet, because facts and history had not been skewed enough in one night, the woman after the man who followed me compared Obama to Hitler.. 

Afterwards, many people approached me. Some shook my hand and commended my courage. Others tried to argue with me. I attempted to explain calmly and rationally the truth behind many of the false and malicious rumors, ranging from euthanasia to Medicare cuts to the myth that all people can get health care in America. 

(This is important and warrants explanation. In 1986, Congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. This law states that emergency rooms cannot reject patients who are uninsured. It does not ensure medical treatment for the life-saving treatment that is often quite extensive, however, although the misperception is it does. For example, if you walk into an emergency room with cancer, you won’t be treated. Also, EMTALA does not cover surgery of any kind. So if you are uninsured in American and you get cancer, you die.) 

So this is what we are up against. Greg Ball is young, energetic, good-looking and articulate. He will excite Republicans in the 19th district with an energy that John Hall does not project. 

Ball is traveling around the district and using the fear and anger of the American people as a trampoline for his political career. It should be noted that Ball never corrected or clarified the words of anybody who spoke at the event, including people who said that death panels were included in the bill, the woman who compared Obama to Hitler, and the man who memorably and repeatedly called the bill “a license to kill.” If he were truly interested in talking about health care reform, and not just appearing as if he’s the man to save everybody from an evil government scheme that does not exist, he would not have allowed these insulting and untrue statements to go uncorrected. Greg Ball is an exploiter and opportunist who must be stopped. 

Yet who is going to stop him? The Democratic showing was weak. One party leader appeared for half an hour, said nothing, and left. Another high-ranking Orange Dem had courage enough to speak a few words on the side to a camera, but not enough to address the audience at large. Nobody else spoke out in support of a public option or single payer. 

Where are our voices? Who is going to stand up for the uninsured and underprivileged? What are we so afraid of? Screaming crowds of misinformed senior citizens? Please. 

We are up against the great challenge that the progressive movement has always faced: The fact that is that it is always easier to scare somebody who is satisfied into maintaining the status quo at the costs of others than it is to encourage those individuals, through rational argument and compassionate appeal, to support something that serves the greater good. 

We must be the ones to articulate the facts and the truth in support of our objective. And we must recognize that this can never be done through silence. SS. 

*These are obviously not my exact words, as I cannot recall them verbatim, but I estimate that they’re 90% word-for-word.

Engel told Politico: “Without that [public] option there will not be enough votes in the House to pass that bill.”

The Congressman, who represents parts of the Bronx, Westchester, and Rockland, also chastised Senate Democrats, particularly Montana Senator Max Baucus (D) for holding the legislative process hostage:

“The Senate needs to understand that they are one-half of the process, not the entire process,” said Engel. “This is not a matter of [Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max] Baucus or anybody else negotiating a bill, than coming to the House and saying, ‘take it or leave it.’ That’s not how it works.”

While Engel’s words are a strong warning to the Administration and Sen. Baucus, he is not among the 57 House members that sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week and 18 more that took a pledge stating that they would vote against any health care reform bill that didn’t include, at the minimum, a robust public option.

It is not clear whether the White House is shifting away from the public option, but the rhetoric has been softened as of late. President Obama said on Saturday that the public option is just a “sliver” of the overall package, followed by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius commenting that it wasn’t essential. However, administration spokespersons are now backtracking and saying that the alleged shift away from the public option is no shift at all and that President Obama still insists that the public option is the best way to provide needed competition with the insurance industry.

Along with Engel, representatives Nita Lowey (D, NY-18) and John Hall (D, NY-19), who also represent parts of Rockland, support the public option and according to Rockland Business Digest, all three will hold public forums on the health care plan. Spokespersons for Lowey and Engel say they plan to hold town halls sometime in late August, with times and venues to be announced. And although his staff did not confirmed it when talking with Rockland Progressive Democratic Caucus members, it is rumored that Hall will hold four town-hall style events across his widespread district.

This article is cross-posted at the Nyack News and Views Web site.

Ball is using this insincere forum to spread his own dangerous ultraconservative demagoguery. These misleading “town halls,” if we leave them to Ball and his supporters, will contain nothing but fabricated, bombastic, and inflammatory rhetoric. They are meant to be a dog and pony show staged for the local and national media to demonstrate that the constituents of the 19th Congressional District are rabidly against health care. Ball is shamelessly staging this chicanery to exploit an issue that is more moral than political to further his career advancement.

Whether you support a single-payer or public option universal health care plan, you must help stop Assemblyman Ball from making a mockery and political football out of such a critical moral issue.

I’m asking that those that stand for real health-care reform—especially those in the 19th Congressional District—attend one of these flimflam meetings to show our unity. Barrage Ball and his acolytes with thoughtful questions and educated statements, but do not heckle or interrupt the speakers as the Republican-paid activists have done.

It’s critical that we step up our efforts now for affordable health care and move toward universal health care. As our health-care system is currently structured, the system will become financially unsustainable in five to ten years. If you think the economy is in a funk right now, what will it be like when some 100 million people are without health care coverage and skyrocketing health care costs financially cripple those with insurance?

There is no issue so critical to our nation’s economic future as health-care reform. Please don’t allow the obstructionist Republicans to make a mockery of it.

Here are a list of events to attend below:

Greg Ball and Assemblywoman Annie Rabbit
Monday, August 17th, 7 PM (doors open 6:30)
Greenwood Lake American Legion Arthur Finnegan Post
40 Mountain Lakes Lane
Greenwood Lake

Greg Ball and Town Supervisor Oan Pagonez
Wednesday August 19th 7 PM, (doors open 6:30)
(Note new location)
Hotel Sierra Suites Conference Room
100 Westage Business Center Dr, Fishkill, NY 12524

Greg Ball and Cornwall Town Supervisor Kevin Quigley
Friday, August 21st 7 PM (doors open 6:30)
Munger Cottage – Cornwall Community Center
183 Main St.
Cornwall, NY 12518

“This is a bill that is still in a state of flux,” Hall said, noting he’s working to make sure small businesses are not harmed.

It’s not like all of our taxes will be raised to help pay for health care. Only high-wage earners will be affected, and then, this income-tax surcharge will be nominal:

The plan, which would impose a surtax on individuals making more than $280,000 and couples making more than $400,000, is part of a bill the House could vote on by the end of the month.

Hall, is of course, worried that the current plan might have negative effects on many of his constituents. The House Ways and Means Committee reported that some three-quarters of small businesses aren’t incorporated and some of those business owners will have to pay the tax surcharge. The committee estimates that a surcharge would affect 4.1 percent of small businesses. That’s a very small percentage of small businesses—I also find it odd that any small business would not incorporate, especially those making more than $280,000 a year.

Overall, this plan help the vast majority of small businesses, not hurt them. A public-option health plan will encourage entrepreneurship; people who have stayed in corporate jobs because they need health-care benefits will now be empowered to venture into self-employment. Small businesses that have not been able to provide health-care coverage for their employees will now be able to draw from a deeper talent pool as potential employees won’t have to weigh the option of entering into a job with out proper benefits. Thus, this health-care plan would stimulate small businesses, instead of dragging them down.

Furthermore, Rep. Hall should understand this tax surcharge on America’s top earners would be negligible. For example, a family earning wages of over $500,000 would pay just $1,000 in income tax. A great majority of families in Hall’s district make less than half that number. So I, for one, am a bit dumbfounded by Rep. Hall’s reservations.

I may be reading too much into the Journal piece, but I’m still worried about Rep. Hall getting cold feet. Please call  him at (202) 225-5441 and let him know it.

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The news and diaries posted on the Rockland Progressive Dems site are the individual opinions of the members of the Rockland Progressive Democratic Caucus. They appear on this Web site to provide a progressive forum for Rockland County residents. While the Executive Committee of the caucus may edit some of these posts for clarity, length, and accuracy, it does not necessarily endorse the contents of each post. All members of the Rockland County Democratic Caucus are invited to share their viewpoints and comment on those viewpoints on this site.

Thousands of these videos were submitted, but only a few were answered, so that’s some achievement. President Obama called Steve’s question “terrific.”

I think Steven did quite well, and I’m still torn between the single-payer and public-option models.

Steven’s question for President Obama