Thursday, October 29, 2009
Almost a year after President Barack Obama’s election, some of the volunteers who worked in Waco to put him in office are regrouping in the hopes of building support for the administration’s top domestic priority — health care reform.
For the past two weeks in a small office at Columbus Avenue and North 10th Street, one paid employee and a group of volunteers have been calling members of the community to talk about health care.
The group, Waco’s branch of Organizing for America, a political committee run by the Democratic National Committee, has been holding phone banks Tuesdays and Thursdays, which volunteer Jan Forney described as part advocacy and part education.
A roomful of volunteers on cell phones were engaged in conversation Tuesday afternoon, supplied with talking points listed on a large piece of paper on the wall about reform proposals, the Obama administration’s position and the existing state of health care in Texas.
The volunteers have been urging area residents on the phone to call their members of Congress — Rep. Chet Edwards and Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison — to support health care reform.
“It’s clear that the (2008) election was one piece of it, but it wasn’t the whole picture,” said Forney, who worked for the Obama campaign last year.
“It’s an effort to really piggyback on the momentum we had during the election.”
During the summer as Congress went on recess, conservative groups and Tea Party groups, including Waco’s chapter, pushed back against Democratic-led health care reform efforts. In town hall meetings across the country, members of Congress were met by sometimes raucous audiences that included sizable contingents of people who called reform efforts fiscally irresponsible.
Concerned about the fate of health care reform and by what he described as misinformation that was dominating what should have been a more objective debate, Ta-Wei Lin, 26 and a recent Baylor alumnus, decided to temporarily drop his plans to get a degree in public health to intern at the Waco Organizing for America office.
Lin said he’s motivated to do his part to reform health care before he delves into the field professionally, pointing to issues like insurance companies denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions as just one of the glaring problems with the U.S. system.
He said he’s particularly concerned with the tone of the debate, singling out the level of discourse at town halls over the summer.
“It’s an issue that’s become highly politicized, and I wish it wasn’t,” Lin said.
Republican County Party Chairman Chris DeCluitt is on the opposite side of the health care debate, though he echoed Lin’s calls for respectful discussions.
“There’s room for firm, calm debate,” DeCluitt said, “but the party is very concerned with reform and the potential dismantling of our entire health care system.”
If anything needs reforming, he said, it is Medicare and Medicaid, entitlement programs that both have been projected to grow dramatically in the coming decades.
Battle lines in Washington mirror the differences between local Republicans and Democrats in Waco, with politicians mostly aligning with their parties.
But Edwards, who has six Republicans lined up in a primary to unseat him, is so far an exception. Edwards’ spokesman, Josh Taylor, described the Waco Democrat as neutral on a Democratic health care bill that had not yet been unveiled late Wednesday but was set to be rolled out this morning.
That means for Forney and other volunteers at the Waco Organizing for America office, the mission becomes that much more clear, she said: “to let Rep. Edwards know there are people out there who care about health care reform.”
mshapiro@wacotrib.com
757-5707
Comments
By Chris
Oct 29, 2009 11:21 PM | Link to this
Vicki, The Democrats Health-care reform plan is just a way to get someone rich. It's nothing more than a law forcing all to purchase health insurance, much like we are required to by car insurance. I am a former Republican, but not a Democrat. While health-care needs to be fixed and Obama is partially correct, the current bill is just nuts. The government is not qualified to perform this task. They failed at Medicare and Social Security, the only reason these programs are still operating is because the government borrows the money through the sale of treasury bonds to primarily the Chinese government in order for recipients to receive their check. Eventually the system will implode. Both the Democrat and Republican party could care less about the people. I suggest voting for INDEPENDENTS or another 3rd party. Green Party or Reform Party ect.
By Vicki
Oct 29, 2009 11:09 PM | Link to this
The Obama administration is working to make sure health care is affordable and that everyone has access to decent care. Nothing about that is awful or scary. If you listen to republicans who never cared about anyones health care other than their own, you will be scared by what they say. The GOP keeps people uninformed and worried because they have no solutions and have no intention of improving anything unless it is for big business. Did they want you to worry when Bush was spending billions on the Iraq War that was not necessary? Democrats are working to improve just about everything that has been of no concern to republicans. Thank goodness we have a caring President working hard to fix the mess the country was left in after eight years of Bush's corruption and wickedness.
By coffeelover
Oct 29, 2009 9:27 PM | Link to this
Chris, I respectfully disagree, and don't believe you can speak for all Central Texans, but personally, I hope that he will refuse to cave to partisan politics, one way or the other, and seriously consider the bill in its entirety.
By Chris in Lorena
Oct 29, 2009 4:33 PM | Link to this
Thank you, Donna. I believe that Chet, for once, is feeling the heat from Central Texans. We must hold him to his word and let him know we will remember at the ballot box.
By eye in the sky
Oct 29, 2009 4:27 PM | Link to this
Wow Rosie. How long did it take you to come up with that acronym? On a scale of 0-10, 10 being most difficult, I rate it a .2............Gig em Aggies....giggity.
By coffeelover
Oct 29, 2009 3:57 PM | Link to this
The United States will be even more broke if the broken health system isn't resolved, and soon. Asking them to do it themselves is like asking Wall Street to resolve their money-making exploits with their own rules and on their own terms.
And Donna, I'm pretty sure everyone, Chet, Republicans, Dems, Obama, realize that the public option is one component of a bill, and not the entirety of it. I think a lot of people confuse public option with universal health care access.
Baylor is the world's largest Baptist school, and it's an independent education institution. However, if you don't want to go to a public school, there is UT or A&M, which are public options. They're cheaper, and some would say just as good. There are quite a few schools Texans and Americans can be proud of, and some are public options.
By Rosie
Oct 29, 2009 3:49 PM | Link to this
A better name for ObamaCare is BOWEL Movement . . .
BARAK
OBAMA'S
WORLD OF
ESCALATING
LIABILITIES
. . . AND MAN, DOES IT STINK!!!
By Rosie
Oct 29, 2009 3:45 PM | Link to this
ObamaCare is nothing but a BOWEL Movement:
Barak
Obama's
World of
Escalating
Liabilities
. . . and man, does it stink!!!
By eye in the sky
Oct 29, 2009 3:39 PM | Link to this
get to work, you are not even a good stereotyper or a good racist. What's up, did the clan revoke you racist pass? Your little comments are played out. Health care reform will pass. Get used to it or leave the country. You may have to depend on a government check one day...if you don't already. The best thing you can do is remain in central Texas where you can get by being stupid and acting like an idiot. Anywhere else, you won't make it. Yellow daisy, I disagree with you. The U.S. isn't broke. President Obama is just righting the wrongs that he inherited from a previous administration. I guess you were expecting him to pull a kangaroo out of his hat and get the country up and running in 30 days? I guess you also think Waco is in good shapre right? Just for reality's sake, I'm gonna say it once more...President Obama. Didn't that just make a lot of people upset...
By Citizen
Oct 29, 2009 3:39 PM | Link to this
Dear Lord, I ask of you in the name of all things holy please let one of the volunteers call me to discuss this matter. Oh how I want them to know the feelings of a small business owner....
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