Town hall attendees boo GOP lawmaker for claiming public option would have prevented child’s birth.
Town hall attendees boo GOP lawmaker for claiming public option would have prevented child’s birth.
During a recent town hall meeting, Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) told the story of a woman who was repeatedly denied care for her unborn child’s heart defect. After “hunting down specialists,” the woman “found one guy in Detroit who said, ‘I think we can get it done,’” Olson said. Seventeen days after the woman’s son was born, the child received the heart transplant. Olson then said that a public option would have prevented the woman from finding someone to help her unborn son. Many in the crowd promptly booed Olson:
OLSON: Britney is convinced that her son would not have been born if there was a public option. She wouldn’t have had the choices to be able to go find a doctor she wants. […] For those of you who say it’s not true, don’t talk to me, talk to Britney.
ATTENDEE 1: That’s not true!
ATTENDEE 2: The insurance company turned her down, not the government! The private insurance turned her down, not the government! My gosh! … That’s not the government!
OLSON: Texans, I want to thank you all for coming.
Watch it:
(HT: Crooks & Liars)
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Yes need more of these people standing up calling out the lie>>>> and that was great calling the insurance company`s out for turning her down.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:56 amUp is Down. 2 + 2 = 5. War is Peace.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:56 amHeh. More!! More!!!
Call them on their lies.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:57 amYes.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:58 amMore persons need to calal them out on their sensationalistic lies.
typo – call
August 31st, 2009 at 10:01 amWhy let a little thing like facts get in the way? Everyone knows that facts have a liberal bias.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:01 amI am dumbfounded how so many so-called blue collar middle class workers can oppose a government run single payer health care system when they stand to benefit from it the most. It is like talking to children.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:04 amlarkohio says:
Why let a little thing like facts get in the way? Everyone knows that facts have a liberal bias.
and its good to see some of that liberal bias speaking up
YA
August 31st, 2009 at 10:06 amNot to mention that the current proposal is so far from socialism it is even a joke to call it that. Single payer health care is off the table, period. This current proposal is at best a center-right proposal. It is not a left wing proposal by any stretch of the imagination.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:07 amWatch for republicans to stop having town hall meetings now that Americans are standing up to them.
Just a few instances like this will undermine thier fallacies in short order.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:08 amIf you want to contact this bozo you will have to be in his district. He has on his contact form a place for your zip code and if it falls out his area he refuses your email.
this appears below the zip code box”
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Regrettably, I am unable to reply to any email from constituents outside of my District.
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Fields marked with a * are required.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:08 amOMG! There are Texans with common sense! Congrats are in order to Texans with common sense.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:10 amNow, if you all can get together and get Governor Perry and this moron to publicly sign a declaration of secession, we can arrest, try and hang them with due process.
Fred says:
Watch for republicans to stop having town hall meetings now that Americans are standing up to them.
___________
And for Fox news to start reporting on the new level of ugly liberal hooliganism breaking out at Republican town halls…
August 31st, 2009 at 10:10 amTHIS IS JUST UNACCEPTABLE, WHY DIDN’T THEY BETTER SCREEN THE CROWD.I’LL SPEAK TO THE RNC CHAIRMAN 2MMORROW THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN………..LETTING SMART PPL N……JUST DAM!!!!JUST DAM!!!
August 31st, 2009 at 10:10 am“The government would have turned her down if it were a public option.”
yeah, great logic. The current system that turned her down is great. The government option that would not be concerned with profit would be the problem.
The government system that doesn’t exist would have done so much worse. I bet the government would have come to the hospital and clubbed the baby before the heart transplant!!!
August 31st, 2009 at 10:10 amYou guys just don’t understand logic:
A = B and B = C then obviously A = Q.
Duh!
August 31st, 2009 at 10:14 amGood! Glad to see people calling a Rethug out on his lies.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:15 amDanCaveman says:
You guys just don’t understand logic:
A = B and B = C then obviously A = Q.
___________
A must stand for al…
Q must stand for Qaeda…
Ergo, Obama is a Muslim out to take over America and make it into an Islmosocialist Empire!
Oh Noooooooooooooooooooes…
August 31st, 2009 at 10:16 amrat618 says:
If you want to contact this bozo you will have to be in his district. He has on his contact form a place for your zip code and if it falls out his area he refuses your email.
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Gee…
***incredibly sincere expression***
And NO ONE here would ever just, huh, type in the wrong zip code by accident, huh?
August 31st, 2009 at 10:20 amIt`s about time they stood and called the re-pukes out on their lies.Me thinks some of these Texans are tired of the tenthers and the birthers and the LIARS.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:20 amIf brains were money, Texan politicians would be dead broke.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:26 amMost of the people at these meetings are senior citizens collecting their socialized single payer option. Everybody else is at work only seniors have all day to deprive others from receiving what they already get. I’m close to retirement myself but these people really piss me off.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:26 amThe Sun Also Sets says:
And NO ONE here would ever just, huh, type in the wrong zip code by accident, huh?
yes lets fine his zip and well flood his mail with like 100k more people then in his district then he might get it.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:27 amThis dumba$$ represents Sugar Land, TX. Here are the zip codes: 77478-79, 77487, 77496, and 77498
August 31st, 2009 at 10:28 amarbereshe says: #24
thanks will put a few to use here.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:29 amWho convinced her mr. olson? By what logic did she arrive at this illogical conclusion?
As usual, when a republican speaks, it raises more questions than it “really” answers.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:31 amShayne says:
I’m close to retirement myself but these people really piss me off.
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kind of… ummm… impressive, innit?
All these old folks demanding the govt leave THEIR Social Security and Medicare alone, and in the next breath demanding THEIR country back!
WTF????
August 31st, 2009 at 10:33 amThe Sun Also Sets says:
Gee…
***incredibly sincere expression***
And NO ONE here would ever just, huh, type in the wrong zip code by accident, huh?
I won’t speak for anyone else but, personally, I won’t even lie about something like that. I live just a few blocks outside of Crazy Shelly’s (InsaneR-Mn.) District and she has the same feature on her web site. And, even though I would like to inform her just how horrific I think some of her words are, she has the right to screen her email. I’m very old fashioned about matters of etiquette and protocol.
Besides which, it’s unlikely we would change the minds of those who don’t arrive at their conclusions logically in the first place. It’s not the speakers at these events we need to reach. We need to reach the people in the audience who sagely nodded and even clapped. Those who babbled on about death panels and tried to hush the truth. Then we need to vote out the remaining lying scum.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:33 amThe Sun Also Sets (@13 )says:
…
And for Fox news to start reporting on the new level of ugly liberal hooliganism breaking out at Republican town halls…
You are right, SAS.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:34 amFox will scold these people for being ‘rude’ too.
Fred says:
OLSON: Britney is convinced that her son would not have been born if there was a public option.
_______________
Someone also needs to explain to Britney, and Rep. Pete Olson (Imbecile-TX), what an “hypothetical” is.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:35 amIt is gratifying to see Republicans getting a taste of their own medicine.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:36 amThis is an example of why we need to get “For-Profit” out of OUR Healthcare.
It is the Sickness & Injury Insurance companies, with their “Death Panels” that approve or DENY care based only on their BOTTOM LINE!
Without a PUBLIC OPTION, there is NO health care reform!
“There is nothing so difficult in all human affairs as to change the established order of things….. Because those who have it are certain of what they will lose, and those who will gain are uncertain of their advance.” - President Bill Clinton – NetRoots
August 31st, 2009 at 10:37 amSo a pregnant woman had to run around all over the place and search for specialists to save her baby? What a horrific story. And thats suppose to be a great example of how amazing the American health-care system is??
August 31st, 2009 at 10:41 amOLSON: Britney is convinced that her son would not have been born if there was a public option.
After being refused by the private insurance company’s death panel, Britney desperately searched for a doctor to help her out of the charity of his heart. How in the world would a public option affect that in any way?! I have to admire Britney for her courage and fortitude, but does she have more than a 2nd grade education?
August 31st, 2009 at 10:42 amThese bozos will do anything to distract the public from recognizing that the public option would be an OPTION.
An option that would be attractive to people who have NO insurance option now.
An option that would be attractive to people who can’t (or can barely) afford what insurance options are currently available to them.
An option that would be attractive to people who are closed out of the private insurance companies because of a pre-existing condition. Or having used up a “lifetime maximum”. Or having been rescinded out of private insurance for whatever reason.
An option that allows a person to go to more doctors than any private insurer’s “preferred provider network” allows.
An option that is basically like “Medicare for the rest of us” — and Medicare is considered sacred by its insureds and politicians alike.
No — people like Olson will do anything to convince people that once we have a public option available (cue sinister organ music), everybody will be forced into it, everybody will be forced to go to the doctor the government determines for them, everybody will wait for years to get a hip replacement, everybody’s life will be reviewed by a “death panel”, and everybody will be turned down for every testing or surgical procedure they need.
Lies, lies, and more lies.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:43 amrat618, typical cowardly Republiklan…
August 31st, 2009 at 10:44 amWhat’s really pissing me off is the total lack of understanding of, and respect for, the medical profession. How often do we see stories of doctors who travel the world treating patients for free on their own dime? How many do more work with charities at home? Do these freaks really think that healers will abandon their vocation because the method of billing changes?
I don’t think so.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:45 amI just don’t understand what he was trying to say. I think I need to talk to Britney.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:45 ampete says
August 31st, 2009 at 10:33 am
I won’t speak for anyone else but, personally, I won’t even lie about something like that. I live just a few blocks outside of Crazy Shelly’s (InsaneR-Mn.) District and she has the same feature on her web site. And, even though I would like to inform her just how horrific I think some of her words are, she has the right to screen her email. I’m very old fashioned about matters of etiquette and protocol.
_____________________________________________________________
You are to be commended for your sense of honor. And, of course, you’re right.
One of the things that irks me to no end is corporate and PAC money, and organized mail campaigns from OUTSIDE a congressperson’s bean patch designed to influence that lawmaker and drown out the voices of that lawmaker’s actual constituents.
And in your current situation, you probably know a lot of people who actually do live in Crazy Shelly’s district. And I’m sure you do encourage them to contact her about how they feel about the issues of the day.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:49 amI’d be interested in asking her how she could offer up her baby’s life-or-death situation to be used as a political talking point.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:49 amYAY FOR THE SMART PEOPLE!!!!
August 31st, 2009 at 10:49 amThere are always other options:
Pete Olson for Congress
Office
8410 Hwy. 90 A, Ste 160
Sugar Land, TX 77478
P.O. Box 16381
Sugar Land, TX 77496
Campaign Phone: 281.342.PETE (7383)
Fax # 281.342.7384
Email Pete: Pete@Olsonforcongress.com
August 31st, 2009 at 10:50 amJust a reminder that Texans aren’t all crazy. Hopefully the DeLay gerrymandering can go away soon and they can get appropriate political representation for their state in the future.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:50 amThe Sun Also Sets says:
rat618 says:
If you want to contact this bozo you will have to be in his district. He has on his contact form a place for your zip code and if it falls out his area he refuses your email.
___________
Gee…
***incredibly sincere expression***
And NO ONE here would ever just, huh, type in the wrong zip code by accident, huh?
Me – I take it one step further, and use the address of their congressional office. ;o)
Heheheh!
August 31st, 2009 at 10:51 amMy eldest brother had hole in his heart.
At the time he was born, 1951 it wasn’t detectable. Growing up in Bermuda, then Bahrain and then India his condition remained undetected until my family moved to the UK in 1960.
The UK National Health Service would visit every school every two years and give every kid a check-up.
So on my brother’s first check-up the doctor noticed an arrhythmia and arranged for a more thorough examination at the local hospital. The hospital x-ray showed the hole in his heart which had grown as he grew and which was only going to get bigger (he was 12/13 by then).
My family was barely making it on my dad’s miserable wages–no car, no TV, no toys, I and my next eldest brother wore the hand-me-downs of our two elder brothers (only our shoes were bought new).
My eldest brother needed open heart surgery—a very rare procedure at that time. There was no waiting, and the pittance that everyone in the UK paid into the NHS paid for my brother’s surgery and a lifetime of annual check-ups. My parents never had to worry about a bill.
The proposed “public option” isn’t going to provide that kind of worry-free health care, but in the American health insurance system my brother would likely been denied his surgery because he had “pre-existing condition” or my parents would have faced medical expenses that they’d never be able to repay.
Europe equals America in its population and political diversity.
The UK and Sweden have the most socialist health care systems, the Germans and French use hybrid public/private systems, but what they all do is regard the health of their citizens as an ong-term INVESTMENT that serves the national interest, not as a commodity to be exploited for short-term private profit.
When Obama talked about finding a “uniquely American solution” to health care I nearly threw a coffee mug at my TV.
We HAVE a uniquely American system already, and precisely because it is “uniquely American” it is utter crap. No one in Europe is denied health-care, and no one is bankrupted by medical bills.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:53 ammisscoleopteramolly says:
pete says
August 31st, 2009 at 10:33 am
____________
Gee… I could have sworn I said “No one here would do such a thing…”
August 31st, 2009 at 10:54 amThe tide begins to turn.
The short attention span teabagger types have played all their “angry grassroots” cards, and are tired and have gone home to watch FokSnooze. Now, more rational, thinking people are coming out for real discussions of this crucial issue.
Hopefully, this trend will continue.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:55 amThis video is great. Notice how when the cameraman speaks the truth the audience gets all grumpy and tries to shush him?
We need more videos like this out there. The truth is a great thing!
August 31st, 2009 at 11:02 amIf we are going to tell stories, how about these?
Under our current system an uninsured child’s “persistent cold” goes untreated until he/she dies from a sudden asthma attack.
Under our current system a gal lets her back pain go untreated rather than pay her enormous deductible and co-pays. Her renal cancer is only detected after she collapses.
Under our current system people are limited, by their insurance, in the amount they can spend on drug/alcohol treatment and psychiatric counseling. Many of these people die and some of them take other innocents with them.
I could go on for days and the difference is that all of the cases I listed actually happened! Similar cases happen every freaking day. These are real problems that can be fixed and must be fixed and these boobs are trying to scare people with stories about “Brittany’s baby wouldn’t have been born“?
Puh-lease!
August 31st, 2009 at 11:02 amI love my congressman…he such a cute little GOPbot.
TX22 spans from Sugarland to Clear Lake (NASA)…
August 31st, 2009 at 11:06 amYeah, but that is socialism, and I heard socialism is a bad thing.
August 31st, 2009 at 11:14 amI wasn’t challenging you, The Sun Also Sets. You raised an interesting ethical question to which I’ve given substantial thought. I don’t encourage or discourage anyone else. I’m simply expressing my view. Plus, there are plenty of ways to contact a Congress critter besides their web page.
Crazy Shelly (InsaneR-Mn.) is a case unto herself. Her every word makes it plain that one couldn’t make an impression on her with blunt force trauma to the skull. (I actually heard a clip from her claiming that she’s received “nothing but supportive mail”!) I’ve abandoned trying to reach her and simply ask my own Congress critter to censure her when she crosses from goofy to treasonous.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to counter these freaks when the “librul media” fails to call them on their batscat.
August 31st, 2009 at 11:17 amBritney is convinced that her son would not have been born if there was a public option.
Is there some rule somewhere that if your name is Britney, your IQ has to be in the room temperature range. If Britney is “convinced” that her son would not have been born if there was a public option that does noting but prove how stupid she is and how susceptible she is to brainwashing.
August 31st, 2009 at 11:18 amFred says:
Watch for republicans to stop having town hall meetings now that Americans are standing up to them.
They won’t stop, they will just make them invitation only. This is already being done by most Republics.
August 31st, 2009 at 11:20 amMy stepdaughter is named Brittany and she is quite intelligent and a very nice person.
Maybe it’s in the spelling.
August 31st, 2009 at 11:22 amOnly in Texas. It must be the polluted air and rancid water that turns many of its residents into outer-space zombies.
August 31st, 2009 at 11:26 amBritney’s son did get his heart transplant. The donor was probably another infant whose parents didn’t have health insurance who died from some easily treated ailment because when the emergency room saw he didn’t have insurance they sent him home. This isn’t any less likely than Olson’s fabrication.
August 31st, 2009 at 11:28 amWhen did Texas become the home of the mentally retarded?
August 31st, 2009 at 11:30 amThe Sun Also Sets says:
And NO ONE here would ever just, huh, type in the wrong zip code by accident, huh?
Don’t do it by accident, do it on purpose. I do it all the time, especially with Harry Reid who doesn’t have a contact page for being our Senate Majority Leader whereas Nancy Pelosi does have a contact page for being the Speaker of the House.
To my way of thinking, if a politician is talking about issues that affect the entire nation, not just their constituents, we have the right to let him know what we think.
I just go to the contact page in one browser window and find the street address of the local office. Then I go to the contact page with the form in another browser window. I make up an address on the street, city and state of the local office to get past their censoring software.
August 31st, 2009 at 11:31 amThe part that I think bothers me more than anything is the number of people that shout down “Attendee 2″ after he makes his perfectly valid point, including the old woman who shushes him and the gentleman in front of him that angrily settles into his seat with that “I’m gonna punch him, that’ll show him how right I am” look.
These are the people we’re up against. Those who think ignorance is a virtue. In the words of Charles Pierce in Esquire magazine, “Welcome to Idiot America.”
August 31st, 2009 at 11:36 am“The insurance company turned her down, not the gov’t.”
“SHUSSSSH, be quiet . . .
I like hearing Olson LIE, come on Congressman, tell us more.”
August 31st, 2009 at 11:41 amIf Britney thinks the insurance companies did her a favor, she’s a fool.
Since she was there, apparently, I would have liked to see HER get up front and explain this little fantasy.
I wonder if she’s still paying for that surgery…?
August 31st, 2009 at 11:48 amBTW, it’s interesting to see in the video all those bobbing gray heads and clapping gnarled hands.
Hey, they’ve got their “non-government” Medicaid, f uck the rest of y’all!
August 31st, 2009 at 11:52 amNah, she just declared bankrupcy. Now, she and her son live in a refrigerator box.
August 31st, 2009 at 12:07 pmshoeless,
It’s uniquely American…
August 31st, 2009 at 12:20 pmI’m from other country with a single-payer government health care program. (I consider myself quite a socialist, by the way.) I’ve been carefully watching this health care debate in the U.S. and I got a question.
Full-blown government health care means the end of private insurance companies. Are you guys really ready for this? Despite all the good things that health care reform would bring to the U.S., I think you guys should keep your feet on the ground.
I would say the U.S. health care system has already passed the point where many problems could be solved by a system change.
I’m not in position to meddle in your issues but it’s time to think about what is really possible and what is not.
August 31st, 2009 at 12:38 pmI’ve stood in Britany’s shoes while I fought with the insurance company, and the large corporation that employed me. I received wrong information, misdirection, letters of denial, and several letters notifying me that I had no health coverage whatsoever. I even got one Christmas Eve, when I had to wait days before even being able to contact anyone to try straighten things out. It is stressful enough walking around pregnant with a HLHS baby, the added stress of wondering how I could try to save his life was debilitating. I cannot imagine anything that would have given me more comfort than to know his fate was not in the hands of a bunch of bureaucrats out to make a buck.
August 31st, 2009 at 12:41 pmYou’re absolutely right. You are happy with what you have but you think we should possibly stick to a system that is failing?
August 31st, 2009 at 12:44 pmOlson is such an a-hole.
Screw the repiggies, and screw the teabagger trash.
Let’s get the Public Option now.
August 31st, 2009 at 1:00 pmWay to go for the two attendees to speak out at Olsen’s townhall meeting. It is not wrong to agree or disagree on whether public option should be part of the healthcare reform. However, it is wrong for GOP Rep. to lie to the public on what public option is and to give a distorted story to back a claim that is a lie. Glad those two attendees spoke out against Rep. Olsen.
August 31st, 2009 at 2:05 pmI am surprised that more incidents like this have not happened in a lot of places. I don’t know anyone who has never had to deal with an insurance company. Most people have had problems with insurance companies and I should think that people would be hollering for this reform.
August 31st, 2009 at 2:33 pmLived in El Paso for a few years… it’s a pretty progressive town, but Texans I’ve talked to usually say “Aw, shoot, pard… El Paso ain’t Texas.”
Beginning to see the truth in the statement, albeit from the opposite perspective of these folks.
August 31st, 2009 at 2:54 pmchoejm says:
I’m from other country with a single-payer government health care program. (I consider myself quite a socialist, by the way.)
…
Full-blown government health care means the end of private insurance companies. Are you guys really ready for this?
It’s odd how the second part of what you said there proves that you’re lying to us in the first part. If you really were socialist-leaning and from a country where there’s single-payer, you wouldn’t be troubled by its impact on the health insurance industry at all. Nice try, wingnut.
August 31st, 2009 at 3:02 pmmore proof…….rethuglicans are nothing more than pathetic lying cowards.
September 1st, 2009 at 1:29 pmvery thanks for article!
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:33 am