August 7, 2009: Liberal Congressman: Much Easier for Anti-Reform Protesters, Lawmakers to ‘Just Say No’

Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY), who represents one of the more liberal districts in the nation, reflects on a much less contentious town hall meeting on health care reform he held the evening before at a Queens senior center. Weiner says the calmer crowd “shows you a little bit what’s different between the left and the right. You know, we have this notion that if we talk about issues and we discuss the challenges, we can reach conclusions. The other side just literally is yelling no. They do it on the floor of Congress and now, they’re doing around town. But for the most part, you know, people have legitimate questions. These are tough issues and I feel very strongly—for example, I said… you know, the single-payer plan like Medicare for everyone. [A “single-payer” system would eliminate private health care and centralize all health care provision through the federal government.] Yet, still, there were seniors there who were standing up, saying, ‘I want you to leave your hands off my plan and don’t touch it and by the way, I don’t want the government involved.’ And, you know, I had to remind them Medicare, like 40 percent.… Well, a lot of them were reading and hearing some of the things they hear on angry, shouting radio shows, and they were parroting them back.” Weiner notes that because inertia is such “a powerful force in Washington,” conservatives and Republicans feel they have an advantage in merely trying to stop health care reform instead of “try[ing] to do something” (see August 11, 2009). “So, I think the Republicans have made the analysis that if we can just stop the governing party, the Democrats, from getting anything done, then we’ll be OK. [T]his is tough sledding in large part because the Republicans and the conservative right have a much easier job. They literally just have to stand in front of us and yell at the top of their lungs, and they will have succeeded with their day’s event. And that’s going to be difficult for us.” [MSNBC, 8/10/2009]