Spokane7
41°
August 19, 2009 in City
Public excluded from McMorris Rodgers meeting
Protest held nearby in support of public-option health plan
Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers speaks with the media Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)
While U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers travels across Eastern Washington discussing health care reform, one of her only stops in Spokane was a closed affair Wednesday in a Browne’s Addition church with invited members of two special interest groups.
Across the street in Coeur d’Alene Park, nearly 200 people, organized by MoveOn.org, rallied in support of a public health care option that McMorris Rogers opposes.
“It is the biggest leverage we have to change private insurance practices,” one of the demonstrators, Hope Busto-Keyes, a family nurse practitioner, said of the public option, a proposed government-run insurance program, like Medicare, that would be open to anyone.
Busto-Keyes said she and her physician husband, both in private practice, pay about $1,300 a month for health insurance.
McMorris Rogers spoke at All Saints Lutheran Church to about 50 people representing the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association and the AARP, the national advocacy group for people 50 and older.
Although the media were not allowed to attend, a few people who did said afterward that health care was the primary topic of discussion and that a woman in the audience who spoke in favor of the public option received the loudest applause.
One MoveOn member, Cynthia Hamilton, questioned why McMorris Rodgers would not hold an open meeting in the biggest city in the 5th Congressional District.
“I think she’s nervous about it. Everything on her Web site is right out of a Frank Luntz memo,” said Hamilton, referring to the conservative political consultant who has advised Republicans how to fend off Democratic health care reform.
In a news conference after the meeting, McMorris said she favors health care reform but not government-run health care, which she believes would result in people fleeing private insurers by the millions.
She said the Democrats are offering a “one-size-fits-all” plan that would come at the expense of Medicare.
As far as the 47 million uninsured in America, McMorris Rodgers said that number includes illegal immigrants and 18- to 35-year-olds who can afford insurance but just don’t bother.
One of those who attended the McMorris Rogers event was Susie Seher, of Colbert, who recently lost her job with a small Spokane business that did not provide health insurance for its employees.
Seher said even after being laid off she managed to afford catastrophic insurance coverage for $175 a month. But after Group Health raised her rates by 43 percent, she had to drop it. Now she’s uninsured.
“That’s why I want a public option,” she said.
In a meeting with The Spokesman-Review editorial board on Wednesday – her other Spokane visit – McMorris Rodgers said she is often asked about health insurance provided to members of Congress. The federally funded system offers several choices. McMorris Rodgers chose Blue Cross/Blue Shield and pays $400 monthly for health coverage and another $200 monthly for dental and vision care. She said she actually received better coverage when she was a member of the Washington Legislature.
McMorris Rodgers offered no prediction on what Congress may eventually do about health care reform, but she acknowledged the confusion.
“It’s impossible for anyone to know everything,” she said. “There are so many versions.”
Arrests end jailbreak 
WSU Text-to-Win Contest 
EWU Text-to-Win Contest 
Enter to win tickets to see Adam Carolla at the Knitting Factory 
liarsinnews on August 19 at 6:45 p.m.
I`m not sure if the city of Spokane took a page of of Cathy`s book or she took a page out of Mayor Verner`s. Don`t you just love SECRET meetings?
schleufer on August 19 at 7:54 p.m.
easy fix fix this…vote her out of office. she is just another republican who has hers so screw the rest of the people, elderly and kids included. vote her out of office…
mdriftmeyer on August 19 at 7:58 p.m.
I look forward to voting her out. With all the R&D going on at WSU in the hard sciences is their not one who feels they could knock her off and actually discuss bringing the highspeed heavy freight/high speed light rail Inland Empire Hub to the fore front, then the much needed leverage of the Internet2 pipes and Data Center options in Spokane to draw in companies from Silicon Valley?
Silicon Valley is a great place to work, but growing up here it’s clear the opportunities are being missed to bring in serious Engineering and advanced R&D to a region crying out for it.
Stop voting in technically stunted individuals, regardless of party affiliation, and start voting in those who want to see the synergy of Engineering and advanced assembly solutions for the future.
Without the return of a Rail Hub this Port area ripe for expansion will continue to crawl at a snail’s pace.
Glen on August 19 at 8:04 p.m.
I am 51 yrs. old. I am fighting for my life over this health-care issue. I have no health insurance. sole proprietor of a small business. in Wa., in my county, there are two choices. M-life and BL-cross neither of which are affordable or adequate. thanks to everyone who went to the city park and expressed “Our” view. whats obvious lately is how out of touch some of our so-called “representatives” are with the people. we may be the working poor but , we know lies when we hear them, now we are looking for the truth as we know, prevails.
1960 on August 19 at 8:22 p.m.
Interesting comment thread tonight considering how conservative Spokane is. In my opinion America needs a public option and soon. Our economy will be bankrupt if we do not get reform.
JCotton on August 19 at 8:30 p.m.
Representative McMorris-Rodgers, are you listening? Your constituents are hurting and asking that you support the public option. Please listen.
Lulubelle on August 19 at 8:55 p.m.
Yes we need true Health Care Reform that includes a public option and as importantly, we need a representative that listens to ALL her constitutients. I don’t understand how Eastern WA can continue to elect this woman……she has not one original thought in her head…..she’s a “birther, deather, and climate change denyer all rolled into a nice neat little Republican toady package.
Lucky us.
lbbnjsharpe on August 19 at 8:57 p.m.
This BS is why we need to take the money out of politics. The GOP is afraid to meet face to face with the citizens at large. Without real health care “reform” the middle class will disappear & we’ll be faced with rampant deflation. Meanwhile the two “PRIVATE” parties will finger point while waiting to move into their K Street dream jobs. The Tea baggers will scratch their heads and wonder how the for-fathers dealt with greedy corporations. And the “Family” on C Street will have continued worshipers praising hypocritical old men.
No worries…
It’s all good…
MichaelCathcart on August 19 at 9:32 p.m.
It’s amazing that you can all criticize Rep. McMorris who has held publicly open Town Hall meetings in Spokane as recently as May, June, and July, but obviously you were not interested in attending any of those, perhaps because moveon.org had not instructed you to showup, but now with Patty Murray and Cantwell canceling event after event because they are so afraid of the large numbers who will show up to protest their support of the bankrupting of our country you don’t even say a word.
Perhaps Rep. McMorris should have altered her schedule to fit in a Spokane Town Hall, but I do know that her schedule is typically set weeks if not months in advance. Personally, I think she should have worked one in, but I also think that the Silent Majority (WHO ARE NO LONGER SILENT), those of us who just want to live in peace and prosperity and without the government on our back, should have been showing up to any and all of Senator Murray and Cantwell’s events going back to the point when they were elected. Perhaps they would make better decisions if they were being held accountable.
zelda on August 19 at 9:54 p.m.
My bet is that McMorris-Rogers won’t have a townhall meeting because it would serve as a showcase for all of Spokane’s nutjobs. Links to the YouTube videos would spring up on blogs and Web sites everywhere. She is the fourth ranking Republican in Congress and has further political ambitions. She and the GOP want all of her audiences to be hand-picked and custom-tailored to shape her future.
Why run the risk of having a townhall meeting you can’t control even if the attendees are all rock-solid conservatives? Get a bunch of people waving Fuhrer Obama signs calling the president a simultaneous Communist/Nazi/fundamentalist Muslim and she would be obligated to agree with them. That’s her base. Spokane looks freaky enough with its two waterboarding psychologists on the front page of the NY Times without providing further evidence that our potted plants can walk and talk. Sure, there are nutjobs everywhere, but Spokane has an embarrassing reputation for harboring fringe groups. The city can’t recruit top-flight scientists and engineers to work here unless they’re white and conservative. They aren’t the ones with advanced technical degrees. Think about that the next time you wonder why most of the technology companies here have pulled up stakes.
The last thing Spokane’s economy needs right now is to parade our lunatics on national TV. Even the chamber of commerce knows that reality is bad for business.
Dazzeetrader11 on August 19 at 10:05 p.m.
Rep McMorris has had plenty of open meetings. Plenty… and the protesters could have come to all of her meetings. The MoveOn types were simply using this meeting and this comment section to forward their own political agenda which is driven by an appetite for government control of our lives. McMorris is just a convenient target this time.
I’m surprised the article is so biased. I was in the meeting and it was far more businesslike with good question and answer. It wouldn’t have been that way had the sign carrying types who came to raise hell been allowed in…… Disrupt anything and everthing conservative. Whoever made the decision to close the meeting should be congratulated.
In the struggle for health care, MoveOn and the liberals have exactly what they want. They have Obama and his plan which will likely be implemented. So what’s the rub? Why come criticise when they have what they want? No reason…nothing to gain. Just disruption. So disrupt they did….over in the park. Their rights are protected. Equation is solved.
mdriftmeyer on August 20 at 12:12 a.m.
Zelda Krup:
As a Non-conservative, White Mechanical Engineer and Computer Scientist with work history for NeXT, Apple and others the lack of infrastructure investment through the backend [WSU in Spokane] is the main reason, not because people must be White, Conservative and love Hunting.
I grew up hunting, fishing and a reasoned mind from a hard working family who valued advanced science degrees and more.
Cathy represents none of these.
Spokane trades power reigns every 25 years between a small group of entrenched companies and families. Having a family history that goes back to Spokane’s inception it’s been that way for far too long.
Cathy couldn’t draft legislation to drive such investment because she has ZERO experience or background education to know where to begin, but she’ll keep coddling the farming community until people wake up and end her time.
The 18-35 don’t willfully choose to not buy health care. She’s an ignorant woman. Apple had Aetna and my care was 80/20 at the time.
Flash forward just 10 years and the plan pales compared to what I had. Everyone had health care at Apple. There was a large cluster of 18-35 year olds and they weren’t just too lazy to pick it up.
Cathy is truly an ignorant, polite, but ignorant woman.
Betty on August 20 at 7:26 a.m.
I can think of three prominent women who came from the same box of candies—this one—McMorris-Rodgers, and Sarah Palin right down to our very own McLaughlin are all airheads and of the three I can’t believe that one I know of has a higher education, but they all act like junior high prima donnas unprepared for any public service but their own private service. Glad the one was a quitter and we can easily vote the other three out. And no, I am not being led around by any organization, just my own observations over the span of their ‘service’ to the public. When it comes to paying attention to the will of the public, they will go for following the Big Man on the Campus every time like a silly teenager.
Betty
George_Sands on August 20 at 7:44 a.m.
I am 56. Male. Caucasion. Veteran of 29 years. I cant get medical care at the VA because most of my service was as a Reservist (albeit a few callups for Kosovo, Sarajevo, Desert Storm etc. etc.).
I use a food bank.
My choices are. Eat, have electricity, a roof over my head or Medical Insurance. You pick my choices.
Lulubelle on August 20 at 7:51 a.m.
Regarding Ms McMorris-Roger’s “plenty of open meetings”……ever been to one? Any questions asked are required to be in written form and pre-screened by staff to make sure they fit a talking point she has “studied up” on. They are usually held mid-day to attract mostly old retired people like me that are taught to be polite and not to question “authority”. She has no original thoughts or ideas and only parrots those of her Republican house leadership…..which is precisely reason she gets so much support from her colleagues and monied lobbyists.
As Spokane limps towards a more open progressive city, we will see even less of her…….she can’t answer probing unscripted questions, or back up any of her stances with examples of fact-based thought process.
Although now that she’s purchased a house across the street from Manito Park……..may be there will be a Cathy sighting in the produce section at Super-1. Get your questions ready.
mlk on August 20 at 10:35 a.m.
I was in both places. I went inside, was given a little hassle about not being a member of AARP or FRAPE, but was allowed to stay. At that time there were about 10 people in the room including at least 3 Democrats. Before the meeting started, about 50 more people filtered in. I would venture that they had come from across the street because I recognized almost all of them. So the 60-member audience was made up of at LEAST 50 pro public option people. We were allowed to write up questions for Cathy to answer. Interestingly enough, there was also a small stack of smaller sized papers which Cathy McMorris Rodgers read first. Those questions were very easy for any Republican talking heads to answer. When she got to the nitty gritty questions, (the ones on the bigger card stock) the time was up.
The only reason that she had to answer a specific question on public option was that someone in the audience managed to orally ask it. Cathy will NOT support any form of public option because of her fear of “big government.”
It became painfully clear to me that Cathy is NOT interested in what her constituients have to say. We need to just write her off, work with the Dems, and get them to pass REAL healthcare reform which includes a strong public option. Anything less is a miniature bandaid on a badly burned body.
DocTom on August 20 at 11:49 a.m.
My wife and I are age 63, disabled, and have no health insurance. We had Basic Health, however with the budget problems, it went south. Therefore we have no coverage and cannot afford the $1000.+ per month cost. I look at Canada that has the program that Mr. Obama is proposing. The “average” Canadian is in a 78% tax bracket. If they need a serious surgical procedure, they come to the U.S. where they can obtain the treatment. Thank about it. If you believe that the insurance companies are disgusting, then ponder for a moment what the “government” will do. If this doesn’t scare you, then ponder again what a 78% “average” tax bracket will do for your standard of living. The Congresswoman may not be to your liking, however she is only one in 535 members of Congress! Hello is anybody looking at the costs, well alone the facts of this Obamation? Oh by the way, I’m not political - period.
Dazzeetrader11 on August 20 at 4:12 p.m.
I wonder why Obama continues to use the Canadian Health System as a model. If the Canadian system is so good, perhpas a few works from the Director of the system might be in order. She was asked about it last weekend and here’s her assessment:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jbjzPEY0Y3bvRD335rGu_Z3KXoQw
I wonder why the MoveOn people want a socialised system.
JCotton on August 24 at 2:03 a.m.
Daisy, first off you must understand there is no “Canadian Health System.”
“What Canada has is a National health insurance program which is implemented via (thirteen different) provincial and territorial health insurance plans, according to the guidelines of the Canada Health Act…”, http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/canada.asp
DocTom, the highest tax rate in Canada is not 78%, as you state. “The highest federal income tax rate is 29% (for persons with annual taxable income over $120,887), and the highest provincial income tax rate in British Columbia is 14.7% (for those with annual taxable income over $95,909).” Snopes, again.
DocTom, as for wait times, it depends on the urgency and which of the 13 particular plans that you have. Here is a first-hand account “from someone who is ‘both a health-care-card-carrying Canadian resident and an uninsured American citizen who regularly sees doctors on both sides of the border.’” Specifically, you may wish to read item 3.
http://www.ourfuture.org/node/21313
Isn’t it time to stop spreading misinformation that is scaring hell out of our populace? Can’t we have an intelligent conversation based on facts?
Rep. McMorris-Rogers, should you not be taking the lead and facilitating the discussions? Holding an open townhall meeting in Spokane at a time and place to accommodate a large group of working people would be most helpful. That is the least we expect from our Congressional Representative. We, the people, want the opportunity to let you know what our concerns are, to see that you hear us, to ask you questions directly, and to hear your response.
Let’s not let the fear-mongers prevent us from having an open and honest dialog. Rep. McMorris-Rogers, don’t you agree with that?