Rep Louise Slaughter tries to connect with Constituents
Rep Slaughter’s office has a post of over at dkos basically lambasting the right’s disruption of real Town Hall meetings.
Here is what she says -
But recently, we’ve seen how a vocal minority, which in some cases may be trained and supported by health insurance industry lobbyists, are pursuing a strategy not merely to have their voices heard but to block others from speaking at all. These unconstructive disruptions have made it counterproductive to hold one of America’s oldest democratic traditions – the town hall meeting.
Luckily, our current age of technology allows us to conduct an honest and open conversation online. I am planning a tele-town hall later this month to talk directly with my constituents. My hope is to post the recording once we’re done so you can hear what we talked about. I believe that this format will allow all viewpoints to be heard, but in a respectful manner that does not let a minority seek to drown out the supporters of reform.
Look that is all well and good - I think our readers know how we feel about tele-town halls. County Exec Brooks’ tele-town halls meetings come to mind (need to find our link) .
Personally a single teleconference for Health care? Rep Massa has 3 in person Health Care forums. Rep Maffei? A couple - Rep Lee might after he gets back from Israel.
Why are we letting the ‘disruptors’ dictate terms?
Finally - I have to say I liked this paragraph
For example, one infamous refrain by opponents, echoed by many prominent conservatives, is that government should not become involved with Medicare. Medicare is a single payer government health care system, one that is so successful and popular that every conservative on the Energy and Commerce Committee who voted against the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act also voted against repealing Medicare.
What she is talking about is Rep Weiner who is leading the fight for a single payer system and calling GOP hypocrisy as he sees it. He told the GOP to put up or shut up.
So - the next question for Louise is would she favor extending Medicare to everyone - especially if it is sooo successful?
Maybe that is a question for her tele-conference
(thanks to RT alum Sahar for the dkos link)
Related posts:
- Louise Slaughter & Christopher Lee agree: Town Hall Meetings? No Thanks!
- Has Rep Louise Slaughter taken a specific Health Care position?
- Massa will vote for his constituents -
- Rep Louise Slaughter on Health Care - Frankly, IMHO, she isn’t helping
- The D&C covers our local Reps approach to communicating about Health Care reform
Well, its nice that Slaughter is trying to connect, but her teleconference is a bit of a cop-out and her support of “reform” is still very poorly defined, which is exactly what she wants: speak in favor of health care reform generally so she is still free to negotiate it all away in support of the industry in the Rules committee.
And why do we have to find out about this on dkos?
Why is she so distant? Not good enough Louise. Not good enough at all.
But you are moving in the ethical direction.
Keep moving.
[...] Gee, we’ve been saying almost the same thing. [...]