Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama told House Democrats that, once ”reform” was passed, their constituents would discover Obamacare’s hidden delights and calm down. Well, the deed is done and those representatives are now home on recess, but POLITICO reports that their constituents don’t seem to be following the script:
The raw emotion and mistrust emanating from last summer’s congressional town halls never really went away. Instead, the unrest simmered over the ensuing months only to return to a boil.
For example, Democrat Rep. Paul Hodes of New Hampshire got an earful from the voters of his district. At an event at a senior center last week, one woman was so furious with Hodes she wouldn’t even shake his hand:
‘I don’t want to shake your hand. You voted for health care, so just go,’ snapped Carmen Guimond, as she refocused on her lunch of roast beef and mashed potatoes and waved him on.
And it was even worse for Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, also of New Hampshire, who received boos and catcalls when she tried to defend her vote at a couple of town hall meetings in her district:
When Shea-Porter referred the health care legislation at one event as a bipartisan effort and noted 200 amendments by Republicans, several in the audience jeered, “What a joke! You have got to be kidding me!”
The vast majority of the people at Rep. Shea-Parter’s meetings were vehemently against Obamacare and mad as hell that it had been rammed though. Moreover, they were in no mood for canned talking points:
Her statement that “the bill is paid for” led to a hearty round of laughs that made it seem like she had delivered a joke.
The few pro-reform voters who showed up accused their anti-Obamacare counterparts of being insurance company shills, and Shea-Porter eventually became defensive, daring the crowd to vote her out in November:
The notion prompted claps and a promise from one man who thundered, ‘And we will.’
The day of reckoning draws nigh.
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