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Dingell forum rowdy; Peters' office protested
U.S. Rep. John Dingell was greeted with jeers and cheers Thursday as he tried to explain why changing the nation's health care system -- as he has advocated for more than a half century in Congress -- makes sense.

Despite what some protesters said, "there will be no payment of taxpayer funds for abortion," Dingell, 83, told the crowd.
But you aren't in charge ...
As Dingell opened the forum, Mike Sola of Milan interrupted the congressman as he pushed his son, Scott, in a wheelchair, to the podium. He said proposed changes wouldn't help Scott and called Dingell a fraud.

Even before the Romulus town hall began, opponents engaged backers. "You may be dead in five years!" shouted Val Butsicaris, 60, of Taylor. "They may euthanize you!" She referred to concerns of government rationing of care for elderly people.

Mel Hoffer, 67, of Monroe, a retired Ford quality control worker, said he supports reforms because the country needs it. There's no assurance autoworkers will continue to get health care they now have. "We don't know what's going to happen."

Earlier in Troy, several hundred protesters gathered outside the office of U.S. Rep. Gary Peters.

The news release announcing the town hall wasn't issued until Thursday morning, but by 6 p.m., when U.S. Rep. John Dingell's meeting in Romulus began, the word was out and hundreds of people showed up, many intent on disruption.

Scott Hagerstrom, the Michigan director for Americans for Prosperity -- a group opposing President Barack Obama's health care initiative -- said that after he learned about it, he sent an e-mail alerting 18,000 members in southeast Michigan.

Dingell, 83, the dean of Congress and a man passionate about changing health care in America since first being elected in 1955, wasn't deterred by protests that had occurred at similar events around the nation, including one in Petoskey on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred 2009-08-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=276306