Larsen health care reform forum - no grand slam but scores a few runs

August 13, 9:18 AMSnohomish County Progressive ExaminerChad Shue

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Some 2,000 people filled the home of the Everett Auquasox baseball team to exchange questions and comments with Congressman Rick Larsen (D-WA2) on the issue of health care reform. The forum was originally scheduled for an upstairs meeting room at the Everett Transit Center with a suggested capacity of 300. After seeing crowds of up to 1,000 turn out at his previous town hall forums on Whidbey Island and Mount Vernon, Larsen made the decision to move to the larger outdoor venue. While the crowd was at times challenging and loud; Larsen was able to establish and enforce a set of rules for civil engagement. He began the forum by explaining he would only be addressing House Bill 3200 and was hoping to receive constituent input that he could apply to the congressional debate which will ensue as new amendments are brought into play in "refining" the final legislation to come out of the House. He said that he was convinced that the status quo was not acceptable and that reform was needed sooner rather than later. He spoke of specific reforms such as eliminating age, race, and gender discrimination that exist in the current system and putting an end to the practice of not covering pre-existing conditions. He then set out the ground rules for the remainder of the forum. He would be taking questions and/or comments from random members of the crowd by having two of his aides walk from one end of the bleachers to the other with a single wireless microphone. He said that he was willing to stay until the sun went down or everyone had had their chance to speak and warned everyone that disruptive outbursts would only deprive their fellow citizens of the the opportunity to be heard or to receive an answer to their question while the sun would still be going down.

Congressman Rick Larsen - listened to the concerns of his constituents 

The questions ranged from,"Why are you moving so fast on this?" to, "Can you name one government run program that has worked?" to, "Will you sign on to Ron Paul's bill to investigate the Federal Reserve?" (Larsen's answers: "We have been debating this issue since Truman and we need to make changes now."; "Medicare"; and "The Federal Reserve was established to be an independent agency, free from political interference. It is already audited by the GAO.") There were questions about "single payer" universal health care (Larsen is opposed to both the current bill-HR676 as well as the total concept of the total government control of the system); and a question about the constitutionality of any government involvement in health care. Larsen said that, while there is no specific constitutional "mandate" for government involvement, ultimately constitutionality is decided by the Supreme Court and that Congress has an obligation to meet the needs of the people. Swinging back and forth between the pro-reform and anti-reform groups, the forum went well past the original one hour time frame to about 2 1/2 hours with Larsen offering each person who was called on to fully express themself and doing his best to give an answer - often by citing specific sections of the house bill. Where he was not able to provide a specific answer or when his answer was challenged by someone citing a different section of the bill, he said that he would do his best to get a more in depth answer back to the questioner. Aside from an occasional admonishment to some who were drowning out a questioner - demanding that they show their fellow citizen proper respect for their right to ask a question - Larsen remained cool and professional despite the occasional booing, shouts of "Liar!" and even challenges to his own personal integrity based on questions of his campaign contributions from the health care industry (a charge that he rebuffed by suggesting that his contributions came more from private individuals who work in the industry rather than industry PACs and invited folks to check out the FEC website for the names and addresses of those indiduals.)

The highlight of the event for me was when, responding the the question of constitutional mandates, Larsen stated that there was no constitutional mandate for the Air Force. A 'gentleman' behind me insisted that there was and I had to turn around and inform him that there were not even airplanes at the time the Constitution was written. He sat down and remained fairly quiet thoughout the rest of the event.

Peace,
Chad Shue