RALEIGH – There was no shouting or shoving, but residents of a ritzy retirement community in north Raleigh still had stern words yesterday for North Carolina Rep. David Price during a private question-and-answer session on President Obama’s plan to overhaul the nation’s health-care system.
About 100 seniors packed a clubhouse room in the gated Cypress community to ask questions to Price, a Democrat from the state’s 4th Congressional District. Many of them wound up giving North Carolina’s second-longest-serving congressman a piece of their mind instead.
“There is nothing wrong with good, vigorous debate,” Price told the crowd during a 20-minute opening statement. “There is something wrong with shouting each other down and with excluding anybody from the debate.”
The event, which was by invitation only and closed to the general public, comes on the heels of growing criticism aimed at members of Congress who have refused to conduct public town hall forms to discuss health-care reform.
Democratic lawmakers say that Republican Party operatives, along with representatives of insurance and pharmaceutical companies are disrupting public meetings during the August recess. Participants say they are ordinary Americans concerned about the country’s direction.
Recent forums have degenerated into shouting matches, and some have turned violent as conservative protesters and union members have clashed.
As Carolina Journal reported last week, almost none of North Carolina’s congressional delegation initially planned to hold public town hall forms, but that stance appears to be softening as pressure from constituents mounts.
Democrats Bob Etheridge (2nd District) and Brad Miller (13th District) joined Price at a private event Monday in east Raleigh. Last week, Miller met privately with about 10 constituents behind closed doors. After reportedly receiving a death threat, Miller refused to hold public meetings, a move that prompted several hundred protesters to gather late Friday outside his downtown Raleigh office.
Etheridge is slated to attend a public town hall tonight at Central Carolina Community College in Lillington. The State Employees Association of North Carolina, the state’s affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, which favors Obama’s plan, is sponsoring the event.
Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-1st, also conducted a town hall meeting last night at Parker Middle School in Rocky Mount. It was open to the public.
On the Republican side, Reps. Patrick McHenry (10th District) and Sue Myrick (9th District) plan to have town hall meetings this month. Several Democratic lawmakers, including Price, Miller, and Heath Shuler (11th District), have scheduled teleconference town halls with constituents. (In a press release issued Thursday, Shuler said he opposed the current version of H.R. 3200, the health-care bill passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee July 31.)
During his event yesterday, Price alluded to the controversy over lawmakers refusing to meet in public forums with their constituents. He argued that the country needs open dialogue, and “that’s what we’re having across the country right now.”
After opening up the floor to residents, Price had to field queries on topics ranging from the stimulus bill to czars to national security in a dialogue that occasionally turned hostile. Most of the discussion focused on health care.
“I have one question: would you and the congressional people and the president give up your health care for this plan?” asked one woman.
“There is not a single plan,” Price responded, referring to the generous health-care package available to congressmen and their families. “I have a plan that has options that I choose, and that’s the way it would work for the general public.”
Another resident probed whether the proposed health-care overhaul would ration care for the elderly in order to save money. Price did not address the issue directly, instead opting to criticize the Bush administration for deficit spending on the Iraq war, which he said contributed to the current fiscal mess.
In addition to questioning the president’s health-care reform agenda, residents criticized lawmakers, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, for not reading legislation before voting. Conyers drew criticism in late July for making light of those concerns.
“What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you’ve read the bill?” the Michigan Democrat said.
Price distanced himself from those remarks, saying he would not answer the question in that way. “Do we analyze the bill? Do we understand it? The answer is yes,” he said.
Price also fielded questions on the president’s multiple “czars” — as many as 16 special assistants placed in charge of White House policies ranging from the auto industry to health care to Guantanamo detainees to climate change to domestic violence. None of them has been vetted or confirmed by Congress.
“If I were you, I would evaluate that on a case-by-case basis,” Price said. “I happen to think in some areas the president has done exactly the right thing to appoint such people.”
David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.