Herrera Butler's September jobs fair was less controversial than a town hall she held in May. AP Photo
By TIM MAK | 10/19/11 9:36 AM EDT
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) asked a local paper not to publicize her town hall meeting out of concern that it would attract protesters, a new report says.
One of Herrera Beutler’s staffers contacted the Washington newspaper The Chronicle to invite them to cover a town hall meeting. However, the office requested that the newspaper not announce the details in advance of the town hall, according to another local newspaper, The Columbian [ http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/oct/18/politician-didnt-want-event-touted-herrera-beutler/ ].
The Chronicle declined that request and published an announcement in Saturday’s paper.
Herrera Beutler’s office justified the move by saying that they were concerned that publicizing the event would attract protesters, especially from outside the district.
“In our experience, when we put out a press release and announce such events well in advance, interest groups — often from outside the district — use the information to organize and follow the congresswoman from event to event to dominate the conversation, and local residents lose out,” Casey Bowman, Herrera Beutler’s communications director, wrote in an email to The Chronicle.
Bowman also stressed in that same email that they did not screen for favorable constituents to invite to meetings.
“Our focus is on giving everyone in Southwest Washington a chance to say what’s on their mind to their representative in Congress. Recently, we’ve stuck to phone calls to invite people — but we do not screen who we invite within a community. Period,” he said.
Herrera Beutler faced a loud and divided crowd in a town hall meeting in May 2011. The meeting involved hostile questioning on her vote on the Paul Ryan budget plan and her views on the federal debt limit, which led to both applause and boos in the crowd, according to a The Columbian [ http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/may/16/herrera-beutler-town-hall-if-im-offered-the-option/ (second below)] report at the time.
It is my humble honor to represent Southwest Washington in the "other" Washington. My job is to take your voice to Congress and solve problems on your behalf. The biggest challenge facing our region is our need for jobs. By empowering job-creating small businesses, and reducing the crushing burden of our national debt, we can address this challenge. I have been working hard to advance these goals.
Crowd pulls few punches at Herrera Beutler town hall
U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler speaks at a recent town hall meeting in Vancouver. Photo by Troy Wayrynen / The Columbian
U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, right, stands with Bob MacGregor, a pastor at City Harvest Church in Vancouver, as he offers an invocation at the congresswoman’s town hall meeting Monday at Skyview High School. Photo by Troy Wayrynen / The Columbian
Protest signs line the entrance to Skyview High School, where U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler held her first Vancouver town hall Monday. Some protesters disagreed, strongly, with the congresswoman’s votes to restructure Medicare and to end federal funding for family planning. Photo by Troy Wayrynen / The Columbian
By Kathie Durbin Columbian Staff Reporter Monday, May 16, 2011
U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler faced a boisterous, partisan crowd Tuesday evening at her first Vancouver town hall, where she fielded sometimes hostile questions about her vote to restructure Medicare and her reluctance to support raising the federal debt limit.
The Camas Republican had her supporters too, who applauded her vow to continue fighting to cut federal spending. She drew both boos and applause when she said, “If I’m offered the option to raise the debt limit with no strings attached, I would vote no.”
Several hundred people showed up at Skyview High School for the session. They passed a couple dozen protesters near the entrance who hoisted signs saying, “Save Medicare: Tax the Rich” and “People not Profits.” Several supporters of Planned Parenthood wore pink T-shirts to protest Herrera Beutler’s vote to end federal funding of family planning services.
Winning reproductive rights “is why I spent the 50s and 60s burning my bras,” declared Celia Louderback of Vancouver.
Herrera Beutler, sensing that it could be a rough crowd, urged the audience in her opening remarks to “make sure we respect everyone’s opinion.”
Skepticism on Medicare
Saying she wanted to “share with you what I walked into” when she entered Congress, she spent the first 40 minutes of the 75-minute session on a power-point presentation with graphs and pie charts that showed the projected increase in Medicare spending by 2020, the breakdown of discretionary and nondiscretionary federal spending, and the increase in the amount of U.S. debt owed to foreign governments.
“My first priority is to preserve and protect Medicare for the present generation and for future generations,” she said. But when she insisted that the Republican budget blueprint for 2012 “protects Medicare,” a chorus of boos and catcalls and shouts of “liar” erupted in the auditorium.
Unfazed, she repeated her argument that the budget blueprint written by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., which would convert Medicare to a voucher program and let seniors use the vouchers to buy insurance on the private market, actually ensures that Medicare will be there for future generations.
She compared the Ryan plan to the health care coverage members of Congress receive. ‘You get to choose your plan. It’s really that simple,” she said.
But the audience was openly skeptical.
Herrera Beutler also touted her energy record, noting that she has voted on three bills in the past three weeks to increase the nation’s energy independence. One of those would require the Interior Department to speed up the processing of new applications for oil drilling.
Budget crisis, bikers
The chance to question the congresswoman was decided by lottery.
When it came time for questions, a Vancouver man who identified himself as Scott won a standing ovation when he said, ”We didn’t have a deficit in 2000, but since then we’ve had two wars and tax cuts. If we end the wars and roll back the tax cuts,” that would solve the nation’s budget crisis, he said.
Herrera Beutler did not directly address why she has supported making the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy permanent. But she said she does favor taking a hard look at military spending and supports ending subsidies for big corporations like Exxon and BP.
“I’m not going to ask middle-class Americans to pay more than their fair share,” she added, and she pledged that she would never support rolling back the federal income tax deduction for home mortgage interest.
Asked by Steven Palmer of Hockinson whether she supports renewable energy, Herrera Beutler said she does, but added, “My concern is that Congress doesn’t get out in front and pick winners and losers,” as she believes the federal government did in boosting the ethanol industry.
A contingent of bikers showed up to ask whether she would support legislation pending in the U.S. Senate to prohibit Congress from funding motorcycle check points. The Washington Legislature recently passed a bill prohibiting police profiling of motorcyclists.
Herrera Beutler said she would. “I support your right to ride profile-free,” she said.
Public radio, health care
Eric McGrady thanked her for voting to end funding for National Public Radio, a comment that provoked a roar of opposition from the audience. Herrera Beutler allowed that, “I’ve enjoyed programming from NPR,” she said, but maintained that the government is broke and can’t afford such discretionary programs.
A man who identified himself as Dave asked her to stop confusing the need to raise the debt ceiling with her own political agenda of cutting federal spending. Those are two different things, he said.
“The debt ceiling is telling creditors, ‘Yes, we know we owe you money, and we will pay our bill,’” he said.
The congresswoman was asked why she uses the term “Obamacare” instead of “affordable health care for more people,” and why those who criticize the federal health reform bill don’t offer alternatives.
Herrera Beutler agreed that Republicans need to come up with their own solutions to the health care mess.
“We have to have an honest replace bill,” she said. That should include allowing workers to have medical savings, permitting association health plans, and allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines.
She’s advocated those programs for years, she said, “but the major media won’t pick this up.”
The latest sociopathic effort from the Tea Parties is "I Am The 53%" (#IAmThe53, the53.tumblr.com), a response to the Occupy Wall Street ("OWS") protests. The 53% is a reference to the fact that just 53% of Americans pay federal income tax, and it features pictures of those in the 53% holding up signs describing how they became successful (per them) on their own. The effort was co-founded by Erick Erickson of Redstate (see those links), Josh Trevino, and Kevin Eder.
Their 53% statistic appears to be accurate, and there's nothing wrong about pointing it out. What is wrong is what this is actually about:
* Their tag line is "Those of us who pay for those of you who whine about all of that... or that... or whatever." That's not accurate: those who don't pay federal income tax pay a multitude of other taxes, directly or indirectly: property taxes, sales taxes, gasoline taxes, and so on. And, many of those contributing to the site are probably not paying that much in taxes; when all is considered their net contribution if any to any of the protesters is probably very small. Note that some who aren't familiar with politics might be confused into falsely thinking that the 47% don't pay any taxes at all, when that's not at all true.
* Those involved pretend that they became successful on their own, when that isn't true: all of them had the benefits of (as Elizabeth Warren [!] might say) the common infrastructure: roads, schools, bridges, educational institutions, communications, police forces, military forces, and on and on and on. Put those involved in #IAmThe53 down in Somalia with just a knife and the outcome for almost all of them wouldn't have such a happy ending.
* The effort puts those involved in the position of apologists for the banks and Wall Street. For an example, see Erick Erickson's image: "I have a house I can't sell. My family insurance costs are outrageous. But I don't blame Wall Street. Suck it up you whiners." That and other images would enable those who actually have large amounts of money to skate on malfeasance. The OWS people would blame everything on the banks and Wall Street; #IAmThe53 would blame nothing on them. They're the mirror image of each other, and both are wrong. According to #IAmThe53, people should just ignore large-scale attempts to rip them off, and instead blame everything on themselves.
* None of the images that I looked at are hopeful and helpful; all that I saw are accusatory. All of those basically accuse others (the 47%) of being lazy welfare cheats mooching off their betters in the #IAmThe53. OWS is anti-American to the extent that they're blaming everything on 1% of the U.S.; #IAmThe53 is anti-American with a much larger number: they have little or no regard for 47% of the country. The #IAmThe53 are implying that the millions of unemployed are simply unemployed due to their own personal failings.
* If one thinks that OWS whines, the correct response isn't more whining. Those accusing OWS of being whiners are themselves whining about their lot instead of counting their blessings and trying to improve the situation in the U.S.
* Those involved are minor functionaries in the Republican Party sphere, and it's very bad politics for the GOP to be associated with a group of sociopathic Randroids who are demonizing almost half of the country. Most of those in the 53% will no doubt be sympathetic to those in the 47%; efforts like this are a good way for the GOP to reduce themselves to using the #WeAreJust20Percent tag.
* Ironically, the parents of many of those protesting probably pay more in taxes than some #IAmThe53 leaders. Or, at least they would if not for all the loopholes that those in the #IAmThe53 leadership sphere have carved out for them.
* Many of those submitting photos are smart (or at least attended college or graduate school) and are entrepreneurs. They pretend that everyone can be like them, despite that obviously not being true. Only a small percentage of Americans have what it takes to attend graduate school, and only a small percentage are cut out to be entrepreneurs. Their effort is not in touch with reality: most people have to be employed by someone else. The #IAmThe53 present that as a moral failing, when it's everything but that. The #IAmThe53 think everyone can be like them, when they can't. They simply aren't in touch with reality and they don't have grown-up policy proposals that will work for the wide spectrum of Americans.
* With millions of Americans unemployed, it's un-American to demonize those in dire financial straits as lazy welfare bums. Those involved in #IAmThe53 aren't working night and day to try to free up jobs for Americans, they're just implying that they're less worthy than those in the 53%. That's bad for the U.S., and it's also bad politics. Especially since the plan at the last link would not only help get many Americans working, it could also be used to make the Obama administration and the Democratic Party look bad. Instead of doing that, #IAmThe53 has no solutions other than smearing their fellow citizens. Instead of pulling together and helping free up jobs, all the "53%" can do is demonize their own fellow citizens who are struggling through tough economic times. Theirs is a foreign spirit, not a pro-American spirit.
Unless the GOP wants to reduce their appeal to millions of Americans even quicker than they have over the past few years, they need to disassociate themselves from sociopathic, blame-Americans-first libertarians and Randroids.
ADDED: Several other points could be added, but it needs to be noted that large numbers of those in the 47% are poor or close to it. In September 2011, the Census Bureau announced (link) that 46.2 million people were below the poverty line. That's 15.1% of the U.S. population, highest since 1993. And, in 2009 10.4 million U.S. residents were "working poor" (bls.gov/cps/cpswp2009.pdf). Instead of helping them, Erickson et al demonize them. On a sidenote, when I posted about this issue at RedState (before I was banned, see the link) I got no help at all and pushback from their contributors such as "Vladimir".
10/14/11 UPDATE: The current top tweet in a search for #IAmThe53 is this:
...... @kesgardner Conservatives don't think that unless government provides charity, people will starve. We are generous, benevolent people.
Not all conservatives support ending government "charity" as do the libertarian/teaparty sociopaths. And, that's also incredibly bad policy as I briefly discussed in the third paragraph in the post about another instance of their sociopathy: Teaparty shouts "yeah!" to just letting the uninsured die. Another point that could be added is that what "kesgardner" and those of his ilk support would lead to "free riding". Many people who can afford it don't give much to charity, but under the teaparty/#IAmThe53 plan they'd benefit from the social impacts of those who do.
10/18/11 UPDATE: Somewhat scarily, rightwing hack Jazz Shaw partly agrees with me, and at Pajamas Media no less (link):
...... Another conservative effort seeks to beat the drum of “We Are the 53%.” This misanthropic effort allows for a clear distinction between barely more than one half of the public and another massive segment who not only get to vote, but might have otherwise sympathized with you... When it comes to the 47% of people who pay no federal income tax at the end of each year, it’s difficult to think of a worse target to select. I’m not sure what Erick Erickson was thinking when he cooked this up, but a significant majority of these folks are either students, the infirm, or - to a vast degree - seniors on fixed incomes. If there is a worse demographic soup to pour political poison into, I’m at a loss to name it. This ignores the fact that these same voters enjoy these benefits largely because of initiatives primarily sponsored by the GOP to begin with. Further, pretty much all of those people pay other taxes at various levels. Nobody is getting off for free. The less said about this the better.
HORROR STORIES! .. with the SCREW the economy and SCREW the middle class policies .. anything to take, Obama, down, it really is all close to treason without reason ..
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