08-09-09 – 4:23 p.m. – The invitation that went out from the Columbia County Democratic Committee for Saturday morning’s “Congress on Your Corner” town meeting at Golden Harvest in Valatie urged Democrats to “come out and support your Congressman as he fights for the Public Option that is the heart of [health care reform].” It warned that the gathering might be targeted by right-wing activists who wanted to “’rattle’ and intimidate the elected official, preventing an intelligent debate.”

The town meeting at Golden Harvest definitely drew a crowd. Both sides of Route 9 approaching Golden Harvest from either direction were lined with cars, while the occupants of those cars gathered in the large parking lot south of the building, many carrying signs declaring their positions on or fears about health care reform.

If the Columbia County Democrats were preparing for rowdiness and unpleasantness, the entourage that accompanied Scott Murphy, Congressman from New York's 20th District, to the meeting indicated that he wasn’t especially concerned. Along with the usual cadre of young aides were Murphy’s wife, Jen; their three young children, Duke, Lux, and Simone; two nieces, Danielle and Jessica; and Simone's friend Emma. After introducing his family, Murphy explained that when he became a Congressman, he and his wife decided that the family would spend every weekend together, and if that couldn’t mean that he was at home in Glens Falls, his family would be with him at events in the district.   

At the start, there was a foretaste of the shouting match that the gathering could have become. The mention of the word stimulus brought cheers and applause from one part of the crowd and booing and heckling from another. Murphy’s response was nonjudgmental and effective. He pointed out that if people were going to react to everything he said, it would waste time, and “We’ll never get through everything.” Murphy’s equanimity defused some of the tension and established the tone for a fairly civil exchange of ideas and opinions.

Murphy began by recounting highlights from his first hundred days in office. First mentioned were economic development projects: a new store that opened in Glens Falls with help from the Small Business Administration; Local Ocean, the innovative fish farm starting up in Greenport; the groundbreaking for the Global Foundries semiconductor plant in Malta. He touched on the achievements of credit card reform and mortgage reform and talked about his work on the Congressional Armed Services Committee—specifically the recently passed defense spending bill which eliminated funding for the controversial F-22 fighter—and on Agriculture Committee—specifically the dairy crisis, the fundamental solution to which he believes is “to let the market work.”

Turning to the topic on everyone’s mind—health care reform—Murphy began by outlining the process by which a bill will be adopted. Three different Congressional committees and two different Senate committees are currently working to develop different bills to be presented to their respective bodies; bills considered by one full body then move to the other. He then summarized the current state of health care in U.S.: the United States is able to provide the best health care in the world yet 40 or 50 million Americans have no access to that health care because they have no health insurance. Murphy’s statement about the number of uninsured Americans brought heckling from some members of the crowd, who protested that the number was exaggerated.

Before inviting comments from the audience, Murphy stated his own priorities for health care reform:

Choice  Calling choice “a fundamental American value,” Murphy stressed that people should be able to keep the health insurance they have or choose something else.

Requirement  Just as drivers are required to have automobile insurance, every American should be required to have some kind of basic health insurance plan.

Affordability  Health insurance must be affordable for every American.

Administrative reform  There needs to be standardization of insurance claims procedures nationally.

Then Murphy invited members of the audience to line up at the microphone to make comments and ask questions, and for the next hour, a long line of people did just that. A woman who was happy with the coverage provided by her employer wanted to know why the media always characterized those opposed to heath care reform as “rowdy and disruptive.” A man on Medicare came to the microphone to declare his satisfaction with his government-provided coverage. A supporter of universal health care asked Murphy if he would support a single player plan, and in response Murphy reiterated that choice was important to him and a single payer plan did not offer choice. Another woman complained about the “doughnut hole” in the current Medicare prescription drug coverage.

Many of the comments and questions, however, struck common themes: distrust of government interference with health care, and fear of skyrocketing taxes to support any plan to provide health insurance for all Americans.

At the end of the meeting, which went on for nearly two hours, Murphy polled the audience by asking them to respond to five options for health care in the United States:

•  No government involvement in health care— including eliminating such existing programs as Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Health Administration benefits and services

•  Leaving things as they are now

•  Reforming the current health care system

•  Providing a public option for health insurance

•  Adopting a single payer health insurance plan

The options at either end of the spectrum elicited the greatest responses, although to this observer the supporters of eliminating all government health care programs seemed to be fewer but more vocal than the supporters of a single payer plan, many of whom simply raised their hands without shouting, cheering, or whistling.