Waxman 'town hall' anything but open

August 25, 4:16 AMLA Headlines ExaminerTad Cronn

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A small grassroots group of conservatives turned out Friday at UCLA to let Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Van Nuys, know that they oppose congressional plans for a global warming tax on businesses and to take over the nation's health care system, but Waxman wasn't listening.

T-shirt-wearing CalPIRG members were among "grass-roots" groups shipped in by Democrats for Rep. Henry Waxman's invitation-only "town hall." (Courtesy of Valerie Saiag)

Holding a selectively advertised "town hall" meeting where all the seats were reserved and several participants later said they had to submit to a questionnaire intended to screen audience members, Waxman apparently didn't care to hear any opposing views on the "cap-and-trade" bill that would require businesses to pay a tax or buy "carbon credits" if they don't match federal pollution standards based on global warming fears.

Excluding the opposition is a tactic that's been repeated at Democratic-held "town halls" around the Southland, including one held over the weekend by Rep. Maxine Waters, and reported in the Los Angeles Daily News and other MediaNews papers throughout the state under the headline "Maxine Waters health-care town hall draws cheers."

The few members of the San Fernando Valley chapter of the Tea Party Patriots group who were present Friday to counter what turned into a pro-President Obama rally were drowned out by a group of about two hundred screaming Democratic protesters, many of whom arrived by bus.

Despite Democratic claims that Republican opponents of Obama's health care takeover and cap-and-trade plans are funded by lobbyists, it was the pro-Obama camp that was clearly organized, sporting T-shirts and scores of mass-produced signs mixed among the handmade placards.

While having required both groups to take out permits to demonstrate, UCLA officials declined to interfere as pro-Obama activists filled up the area marked for the Patriots group, covered the group's signs and ridiculed the conservatives with signs and catcalls of "Crazy," "You're Nazis" and "Where's your AK-47?"

Most members of the Patriots group honored organizer Karen Kenney's call for a "silent protest" and ignored the liberals' taunts, including one particularly wild-eyed man who elicited laughter when he charged the barricade, shouting, "Nut cases!"

The Democrats were led in chants of "Yes we can," and "What do we want? Health care," when camera operators for CNN and other news outlets appeared on the scene.

Ari David, a Republican candidate opposing Waxman in the 2010 election, held his own town hall meeting afterward. Unlike Waxman's, it was open to anyone.

David outlined 10 proposals for fixing health care, including tort reform, disallowing exclusions for pre-existing health conditions and health vouchers.

The cap-and-trade and health care bills being considered by Congress mean "the Democrats become the party of big business," David told the sparse audience, which included only one reporter, who walked out when an audience member expressed opposition to letting medical schools admit students based on racial quotas rather than talent.

One woman in the audience, originally from Great Britain but now a U.S. citizen, told of her doctor father who finally retired in disgust at that country's socialized health care. She also told of a relative who had spinal stenosis but had to wait six months for an MRI and two months for the results before finally mortgaging his home to pay for an operation by the same surgeon he would have had to wait another six months to see under the public health system.

The woman said her family was told that her relative would have likely been paralyzed if he'd had to wait any longer. She ended by pleading with audience members not to allow the government to take over health care in this country.

David added that government involvement in private health decisions "turns people into product."

"This is a massive takeover," he warned the audience.