US healthcare battle turns nasty
12 August 2009, 09:54
Lebanon, Pennsylvania - "One day God is going to stand before you and judge you," shouted a fierce opponent of US President Barack Obama's healthcare plans, his voice trembling with anger.
August, normally a sleepy month in the Washington political calendar, has been anything but in 2009 with Obama lieutenants confronted by a deafening clamour of abuse as they try to sell his sweeping health reforms.
The man quoted above was yelling right in the face of Democratic senator Arlen Specter on Tuesday at a supposedly intimate "town-hall meeting" in his home state of Pennsylvania.
Similar scenes have played out across the country as Congress's August recess has set the stage for a battle over Obama's flagship policy to cover nearly 50 million uninsured Americans.
He has dispatched senators and congress people to school gymnasiums, public libraries and fire halls across the land, only to see them largely shouted down by uproarious crowds.
Healthcare reform has bedevilled many administrations, including that of former president Bill Clinton who tried, and very publicly failed, to change the system.
Republicans are loudly fretting over the cost of Obama's plans, with some branding it "socialism" and warning that the soaring US budget deficit will skyrocket if the president gets his way.
A 35-year-old woman won a standing ovation from the rowdy gathering in Lebanon, Pennsylvania when she called on Obama to return government to its limits as prescribed by the US constitution.
"The government has the right to control our life from pre-birth to death," she said, angrily accusing Specter and Obama of seeking to transform the United States "into Russia, into a socialist country."
This is an oft-heard cry from the Republican right who have been stoking fears that the president and his allies are plotting a government takeover of the private US healthcare system and will raise taxes to boot.
Opponents also claim the result would find the federal government dictating healthcare choices and ultimately lowering the standard of coverage for people who already have insurance.
Democratic allies allege an orchestrated campaign of disinformation, including plots to disrupt the lawmakers' "town hall" discussions.
Top Democrats in Congress Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer have criticised protesters for drowning out opposing views and described the boisterous displays as "simply un-American."
Some of the shouting has been quite extreme.
Rush Limbaugh, the conservative star of one America's most popular radio talk shows, compared Obama's healthcare logo on Thursday to the Nazi swastika, drawing a furious response from Jewish groups.
Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin wrote in an Internet post that Obama was seeking to create a "death panel" where government bureaucrats would supposedly "decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of healthcare."
Palin, a darling of the Christian conservative movement in the United States, wrote: "Such a system is downright evil."
The Obama administration has begun fighting back hard over the last week.
Taking aim at what it described as "rumours and scare tactics" aimed at derailing reform, the White House unleashed a strategy adapted from his 2008 campaign trail, using a website to counter supposed smears.
At a public forum on Tuesday in New Hampshire, the president singled out conservative leaders and right-wing media outlets for spurring the confrontations, saying those "who want to keep things the way they are will try to scare the heck out of folks."
Obama said his political opponents had sought to "create bogeymen out there that just aren't real."
The healthcare battle was not expected to ease when lawmakers return in September, with Democrats desperate to meet Obama's deadline of enacting the overhaul by the year-end.
A legislative defeat for Obama could derail his whole change agenda and see a hefty chunk of his political capital eaten up within his first year in office. - AFP
August, normally a sleepy month in the Washington political calendar, has been anything but in 2009 with Obama lieutenants confronted by a deafening clamour of abuse as they try to sell his sweeping health reforms.
The man quoted above was yelling right in the face of Democratic senator Arlen Specter on Tuesday at a supposedly intimate "town-hall meeting" in his home state of Pennsylvania.
Similar scenes have played out across the country as Congress's August recess has set the stage for a battle over Obama's flagship policy to cover nearly 50 million uninsured Americans.
He has dispatched senators and congress people to school gymnasiums, public libraries and fire halls across the land, only to see them largely shouted down by uproarious crowds.
Healthcare reform has bedevilled many administrations, including that of former president Bill Clinton who tried, and very publicly failed, to change the system.
Republicans are loudly fretting over the cost of Obama's plans, with some branding it "socialism" and warning that the soaring US budget deficit will skyrocket if the president gets his way.
A 35-year-old woman won a standing ovation from the rowdy gathering in Lebanon, Pennsylvania when she called on Obama to return government to its limits as prescribed by the US constitution.
"The government has the right to control our life from pre-birth to death," she said, angrily accusing Specter and Obama of seeking to transform the United States "into Russia, into a socialist country."
This is an oft-heard cry from the Republican right who have been stoking fears that the president and his allies are plotting a government takeover of the private US healthcare system and will raise taxes to boot.
Opponents also claim the result would find the federal government dictating healthcare choices and ultimately lowering the standard of coverage for people who already have insurance.
Democratic allies allege an orchestrated campaign of disinformation, including plots to disrupt the lawmakers' "town hall" discussions.
Top Democrats in Congress Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer have criticised protesters for drowning out opposing views and described the boisterous displays as "simply un-American."
Some of the shouting has been quite extreme.
Rush Limbaugh, the conservative star of one America's most popular radio talk shows, compared Obama's healthcare logo on Thursday to the Nazi swastika, drawing a furious response from Jewish groups.
Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin wrote in an Internet post that Obama was seeking to create a "death panel" where government bureaucrats would supposedly "decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of healthcare."
Palin, a darling of the Christian conservative movement in the United States, wrote: "Such a system is downright evil."
The Obama administration has begun fighting back hard over the last week.
Taking aim at what it described as "rumours and scare tactics" aimed at derailing reform, the White House unleashed a strategy adapted from his 2008 campaign trail, using a website to counter supposed smears.
At a public forum on Tuesday in New Hampshire, the president singled out conservative leaders and right-wing media outlets for spurring the confrontations, saying those "who want to keep things the way they are will try to scare the heck out of folks."
Obama said his political opponents had sought to "create bogeymen out there that just aren't real."
The healthcare battle was not expected to ease when lawmakers return in September, with Democrats desperate to meet Obama's deadline of enacting the overhaul by the year-end.
A legislative defeat for Obama could derail his whole change agenda and see a hefty chunk of his political capital eaten up within his first year in office. - AFP
Johannesburg
