There is new video (a CNN feed from 10 Connects) from last week’s shoving and shouting match at the door to a town hall on health care reform featuring Congresswoman Kathy Castor in Ybor City. (h/t to Pushing Rope)
By Mitch Perry
PoHo contributor
Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio
Thursday night’s Town Hall Rally on health care with Congresswoman Kathy Castor in Ybor City has been dissected throughout the country thanks to YouTube.
The atmosphere both inside and outside of the Children’s Board was as intense and, at times, incendiary as the days after the presidential election in Florida in 2000. (I’ll never forget Day 3 of the 36-day recount in West Palm Beach, when I saw Democratic Congressman Robert Wexler sprint for safety into a trailer from incensed Republicans after finishing a live interview with then CNN anchor Greta Van Susteren).
Although the failure of both houses of Congress to vote on health care legislation before the August break was initially viewed as a loss of momentum for President Barack Obama, the fact is that the American public does need to sit and discuss what is in this once-in-a-generation legislation.
Unfortunately though, through the first week of the Congressional recess, the Town Hall format ain’t the place where that’s happening (and probably won’t , as more members of Congress can use footage of Tampa, St. Louis and Detroit to blow off further encounters).
The summer recess of Congress has sent politicians back home into their districts and straight into the guerilla theater that has overcome reasonable discussion about how to reform the nation’s broken health care system.
Witness: Hundreds of angry conservatives and anti-Obamacare people (a few violent) turned up at a town hall organized by state Rep. Betty Reed in Ybor City last night with one mission in mind — some with one mission in mind: disrupt the forum and get headlines.
They succeeded.
Driven by right-wing media nutz such as Rush Limbaugh (who mentioned Kathy Castor’ appearance at the forum during his Thursday radio show, bemoaning that she would be surrounded by “union goons”), the state and local GOP and Glenn Beck’s 9-12 movement, the anti-Obama crowd banged on windows and doors in an attempt to get into the overcrowded Children’s Board meeting room.
10 Connects reported:
As people were asked to leave, several screaming matches erupted between participants. One man’s shirt was even ripped open.
By Mitch Perry
PoHo contributor
Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio.
Last Friday afternoon’s soaring (and dizzying) deficit numbers produced by the Congressional Budget Office were the last thing the Obama administration needed. Between that and what can only be labeled bailout fatigue that has exploded after the AIG debacle, there is a fear that one of the President’s most ambitious and far reaching goals of his presidency – reforming health care – could be on life support before the specifics of the plan are already announced.
Tampa Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor today released a copy of a letter she sent to President-Elect Barack Obama in which she asks for a “breath of fresh air” in our long-stagnant relations with Cuba by lifting some travel restrictions. The Cuban Embargo has prohibited most trade and travel to the island nation 90 miles south of the Keys since February 1962:
Your historic elections provides an opportunity to make important changes both here at home and abroad. I respectfully urge you to breathe fresh air into our relationship with our neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean and to modernize policies relaating to Cuba. I encourage you to lift the restructions that limit family travel to Cuba and limit the amount of remittance that families may send to relatives in Cuba through an executive order soon after your inauguration in 2009.
The embargo (el bloqueo) allows family members to travel back to Cuba only once every three years and limits the amount of money that can be sent to relatives there to $300 a year.
The restrictions have proven ineffective in altering the political situation and interfere with fundamental family relations and human rights. By lifting the burdensome restrictions, we can provide relief to families while maintaining the pressure for human rights and change the island needs.
You can download the full letter here.
From her press spokeswoman, Kathy Castor’s statement in the wake of the failure of the $700 billion bailout plan in the House:
After thoughtful consideration and review, I voted against President Bush’s $700 billion bailout. The Bush plan does not provide sufficient help to middle-class families in the housing squeeze or taxpayer protections.
I assisted hundreds of Tampa Bay families at my foreclosure workshops this summer and I understand the need for direct, immediate action. The Bush plan failed to provide such action.
I will work to ensure that this freewheeling deregulation that has brought our great country to this serious day does not happen again. I strongly support the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigations which begin this week, and will push for accountability for those responsible for the damage to our communities.
Congress should go back to the drawing board as soon as possible this week to tackle the issue.
Congresswoman Kathy Castor, who has helped lead the fight in Congress against oil drilling off Florida’s Gulf coast, released this statement today, which I present in full:
“The Bush/McCain proposal to severely expand drilling for oil in the coastal waters of the State of Florida is a political gimmick that will not lower gas prices for consumers but will have real and tragic consequences for Florida’s economy and natural environment.”
First, let us examine the fallacy of the argument that this policy would lower gas prices. Currently, 68 million acres of leased federal lands and waters are currently open to drilling but are not being tapped. Most offshore oil and gas reserves are already available. Since President Bush took office in 2000, the number of wells in federally-leased areas has increased exponentially, but gas prices have risen just the same. In fact, gas prices have more than doubled since President Bush took office in 2000.
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