Elections Today
- Pennsylvania
Recent Projections
| State | Candidate | Delegates |
|---|---|---|
 Donald Trump | ||
Pennsylvania |  Joe Biden |
Passions flare up at health care forums
SOUTH BOSTON, Va. -- Rep. Tom Perriello loosened his shirt collar and inhaled the humid air outside a local high school here after three hours of having more than 100 of his constituents pound away at him during a town-hall-style meeting on health care. He insisted that this was exactly what he wanted.
"I like a debate like that," he said after the Friday session.
A freshman Democrat who won his seat by 727 votes last year in a district that President Obama lost, Perriello participated in what he called "a revolt" by Democratic conservatives to stop party leaders from passing health care legislation before the summer recess. Perriello, 34, told his constituents here he thought August should be "a national town-hall meeting" on the bill.
That's what it's turning out to be, but not all Democrats may be as enthusiastic as Perriello.
In the past two weeks, Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett was shouted down by an angry crowd; Michigan Rep. John Dingell's town-hall-style meetings required police intervention, and Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., said he got a death threat from a caller upset that he's not holding an August forum.
Republicans aren't exempt, as Rep. Charlie Dent, discovered Thursday night when he waded into a packed bingo hall in his eastern Pennsylvania district. The third-term lawmaker told his constituents the Democrats' plans for overhauling the health care system will create "a European-style welfare state." Even so, some in the audience wanted to make sure he got the message about keeping the government out of their lives.
"Stay out," they yelled, waving copies of the Constitution.
Democratic congressional leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, say Republican activists are hijacking lawmakers' town halls and spreading disinformation about the health care legislation. On Friday, former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin charged that Obama's bill would result in a "death panel" that could deny care to disabled persons such as Palin's youngest son, who has Down syndrome. Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh's website featured the image of an Obama health care logo morphing into a swastika.
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