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CONGRESSMAN’S ATTEMPT TO SPIN SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE GETS HIM ‘BARRETTED’
South Carolina’s wackiest member of Congress got a harsh wake-up call Thursday night at a town hall meeting in which he unsuccessfully tried to spin a plan to turn private health care into a massive, government-run, bureaucratic nightmare.
At the meeting, held in Boiling Springs, 4th District Rep. Bob Inglis desperately pleaded with his constituents to see things his way and consider President Obama’s trillion-dollar proposal that would tax the uninsured, cut or destroy Medicare, and all but end private insurance.
“Here’s what I suggest, turn that Glenn Beck off,” Inglis said to the crowd in a YouTube video of the event, referring to the FOX News Channel host who has become a staunch opponent of the health care “reform” plan.
Inglis was immediately and resoundingly booed by the crowd. Many simply got up and walked out.
“You’re going to lose your job,” shouted one lady. “We’re not afraid,” yelled another man.
It was only a matter of moments before the crowd became too much for Inglis. Seconds after the outraged constituents overtook the meeting, Inglis shut off his microphone and left.
Spartanburg Herald-Journal reporter Jason Spencer called the group a “verbal firing squad” and said “the Beck comment was the last straw for what was left of the 350-plus people who had come to the town hall – the seventh of 12 Inglis is hosting.”
Inglis apparently didn’t learn from neighboring Congressman Gresham Barrett, who was mercilessly booed by thousands in Greenville at an anti-Tax Day Tea Party in April.
Barrett’s support for a $700 billion federal bailout and a massive government stimulus package drew a reaction similar to that received by Inglis Thursday.
For his sake, Inglis should probably ditch what appears to be support for the ObamaCare plan and use his remaining five town hall meetings to repair what could be a fatal blow to his re-election bid next year.
Wow. A Republican congress who chooses to NOT follow the fear mongering is shouted down – and it warned with being thrown out for wanting to make sure health care reform gets is due and far coverage. I feel sorry for the people who actually had real, personal questions about the reform who were outnumbered by these wing-nuts.
You are calling those againste nationalized healthcare Wing-nuts? And Joe Biden is saying we have to spend to prevent the United States from going bankrupt. isn’t that special. The Government can’t even handle cash for clunkers..how are they going to handle this?
People come to the United States to recieve medical treatment, not the other way around. Yes we need to make major changes, but having the government run our health care system is absolutely lunacy!!!!!!!
I would say “fear mongering” is more along the lines of collecting names of citizens who dare to oppose the bill, or sponsoring a bill that includes euthanasia counseling for seniors. The Chicago gangstas are democrats.
As for “real, personal” questions, there are plenty of forums to get those answers. And who could possibly argue about health care getting due and fair coverage? Its all over the news. Get your facts straight.
[...] supporting ObamaCare and that did not go over well in his very Republican district. According to The Palmetto Scoop people began walking out and that pretty much ended the [...]
Once again, I would like to remind everyone that Adam relentlessly used the Palmetto Scoop to promote the $700 billion bank bailout last fall. If his bosses could figure out how to make money from ObamaCare, I wonder if he’d turn his back on conservatism to support that as well.
People are realizing our country has been stolen out from under us without anyone’s permission.
This is democratic republic.
It is still a democratic republic regardless of what these powers that be think
There are MORE of us than there are of them
lets get them to remember that.
We pay their salaries folks.
FIRE THEM ALL
opposition to government sponsored health care shouldn’t be construed as fear mongering. Based on past history, the national government does not manage social programs well. The government takeover of the health care system is bad for me, it’s bad for my community and it’s bad for the country. If Bob Inglis doesn’t believe that to be so, then he doesn’t represent me well and I’ll seek some who does.
[...] 08/07/2009: Inglis shouted down at ObamaCare town hall [...]
From Spencer’s blog post:
“[Inglis] criticized the current health care bill for not specifically including language that would prohibit taxpayer-funded abortions, and put forth the belief that a public option would drive private providers out of the market. He had, after all, a 16-point list of reasons why he was against the very health care bill that much of the fervent crowd had come to voice their opposition to.”
I can’t believe you’d leave that part out, Wheels. Maybe you think your self-proclaimed title of “Editor” means you’re supposed to edit out the facts of a story?
[...] Hall meetings are getting heated. Americans are, in a word, pissed. They want real answers. Specifics. Not platitudes, or [...]
Imagine that you are an elected official. You have to represent the best interests of your constituents. Your constituents are being bled dry by a health insurance industry with no accountability, and the middle class is paying with blood. What do you do? Advocate publicly for reform to ensure basic health care for all citizens, without materially disrupting the existing system, and without additionally burdening the middle class. This is what is promised, and I cannot fathom why every person in the country isn’t enthusiastically in support of an attempt like this- I have been without insurance before, have been uninsurable before and it is d*mned scary. The elected officials are begging the public for a rational, unemotional dialogue about the critical issues in advance of further legislative sculpting in September. Why are there a bunch of loudmouths disrupting this? Don’t you realize that this is the opportunity to make it happen? If you knock this down, expect a continuation of spiralling health care costs. I am 30 years old and perfectly healthy. I pay $500/month for me and my wife, who is also healthy. My employer pays 4x this amount to allow us access to $20 copays. It’s insanity and I’m terrified to imagine if I was 60 and got cancer, how quickly my life savings would be depleted, and I would become a burden on my loved ones. It’s unnecessary, and every person in the country stands to gain from it being done right.
I keep hearing people moan about socialism and taking their country back, and that we pay their salaries. Yes, we do. They are being paid to alter our laws, in order to provide basic services to the citizens of the US, which is exactly what they’re doing.
It is clear that Rep Inglis has been in DC far too long…12 years of being wined & dined in the Beltway sure does make one forget South Carolina. Voter-imposed term limits are really needed in the 4th district. If the folks in Greenville/Spartenburg don’t come up with a REAL conservative to challenge Bob Inglis in the primary, a Libertarian or even a good conservative Democrat can win easily in the District. Six terms in congress is more than enough…as they say, enough is enough. Bye-bye Ingis!
By the way, Rep. Inglis was on “Hardball” with the liberal commentator Chris Matthews, who asked whether Inglis would vote for a version of Obamacare and he said “yes.” That should be enough to turn the entire state against him!
Hey, District 4, start shopping around for a fresh new conservative candidate.
Man, now the Republican nutters are eating their own. I cant wait till 2010 when the GOP will have to run on the Birther, Deather, Secessioniss platform just to get through a primary. The only thing sinking faster than Obama’s poll ratings are the GOP’s grasp on reality. Hopefully the health care bill includes mental health benefits because it is obvious the GOP is in serious need.
Since when does an ELECTED official get permission to tell me what to watch? Oh yes, several have tried. Do we have to name that group? Leave Beck alone. The public votes for News shows through ratings. Who ratings are sinking? Lets poll for Inglis’ popularity.
Is this supposed to be a news article? It seems to be just more blatant spin of the kind that inspires these misguided mobs in the first place. I also notice there is no author attributed to this ‘piece’, which is a situation I encounter more and more as I find these diatribes that advocate the position of the health care industry (namely to demonize any kind of reform with misleading labels or fear-mongering lies). What should be the real story here is that protesters at a health care debate forum are far more interested in being cheerleaders for a Fox news pundit than actually discuss health reform. Even the author gets it wrong on Inglis’ position on Obama’s plan, but I guess that’s the point: why wait to hear the truth when you can just make up your own?
[...] Bob Inglis is in the middle of a dozen meetings, including last week’s event where he was booed out of the room for essentially saying he supports the health care [...]
[...] trying, but he probably should have paid closer attention to the throngs of angry constituents that shouted him out of the room at a recent town hall [...]
[...] a woman reportedly sent a letter to the White House stating in no uncertain terms, … Inglis shouted down at ObamaCare town hallBob Inglis desperately pleaded with his constituents to see things his way and consider President [...]
[...] Democrats’ government-run health care reform option dubbed “Obamacare” has drawn very vocal criticism from citizens who are concerned about adding trillions of dollars to the U.S. debt to fund [...]