The “Hands off my Health Care” tour bus made its final stop Saturday at a hardware store in Raleigh, where more than 1,000 protestors turned out to voice opposition to President Barack Obama's efforts to reform health care.
The bus traveled 1,370 miles across North Carolina over the last six days, reports Ray Martin. It made 30 stops, collected more than 10,000 petitions and encouraged more than 25,000 phone calls to Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, said Dallas Woodhouse, program director for Americans for Prosperity, an organization that promotes free-market ideas.
Woodhouse said Saturday’s crowd was one of the largest.
Teenagers, young adults and senior citizens cheered and held up signs that denounced socialism, higher taxes and the national deficit.
Read more after the jump.
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Brent Ellmers, a 46-year-old surgeon from Dunn who has made several stops with the bus, said their goal is to oppose the current health care proposals and suggest alternative methods of lowering insurance costs.
"There is nothing in the current plan about malpractice tort reform or insurance reform to make insurance more affordable,” he said.
“There is nothing about tax incentives for employers. The cost for the current plan is tremendous. People from all over the world come to the U.S. for care because we have the best in the world. We don’t need Washington bureaucrats telling us what kind of care we can have and when we can have it.”
Comments
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 10, 2009 - 11:52am — GiggleBoxBitter starts honking when he leaves the driveway. Sadly, there is no input orifice to counter his output, which is why I support the March of Dimes. Besides he's running to replace Michael Steele, so let him get his platform out.
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 10, 2009 - 11:37am — greenswampCan anyone offer to teach Bitter history or are we going to just let him be?
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws a guy on Internet
August 10, 2009 - 11:31am — GiggleBoxAnd at least 28 percent of the posters in this thread. But BitterEx has your back I see.
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 10, 2009 - 11:30am — greenswampAnybody can just go around chanting three words and interrupting people. We have the same thing on a smaller scale at local town hall meetings. This is just a segment of our population that is looking for some action and confrontation. I could name about a dozen people I know that would just love to be a part of that scene. Multiply that by 100 counties and there's your 1,000. Do they know much about what they're angry about? No
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 10, 2009 - 11:26am — BitterEXdemocratIn the 1930s Leftwinger Adolph Hitler took over healthcare in Germany. Jewish Drs were banished, abortions decreed by Hitler,etc...controlling the people BEGINS with CONTROL of their healthcare! NO THANK YOU, Obama!
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 10, 2009 - 10:02am — PaulTerrellnonlocal? Last time I looked i was local. And aren't we talking ABOUT national healthcare? I mean seriously, are you digging at the bottom of your proverbial barrel for attacks on moderates and conservatives.
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws (non-local) crowd!!!!!!
August 10, 2009 - 10:00am — PaulTerrellYou do know that peaceful assembly is embedded in our Constitutuion and is a right under that Constitution. Just a thought but if people are protesting against a government takeover of healthcare or ANYTHING for that matter is evil and wrong. Then all of those protests against Bush and the wars are also evil and wrong. Or as i say, both are right and legal as long as tbey are peaceful and we clean up before we leave.
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 10, 2009 - 9:57am — PaulTerrell3%? Please state your source. I stated the source of the poll I quoted. What is your source?
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 10, 2009 - 7:48am — BeccaJI am glad that AFP offered a forum for concerned local citizens to go and voice their opinion since our elected officials won't do townhalls to allow us to ask them questions. I wish I could have made the rally and know many, many more individuals who feel the same way.
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws (non-local) crowd!!!!!!
August 10, 2009 - 7:18am — domewatcherI got to agree with JoeGovernment.
These rallies were full of non local protestors. I went to one and walked through the crowd. I never heard one person speaking English. I bumped into several people and it turned out that they were those inflatable dolls! Several people who had been propped up were dead bodies (I saw the hearse parked out back that had brought the bodies there-shocking). And we all know that many of them worked for the insurance companies as I was sold four more healthcare policies!
So I know first hand what was going on. I felt shame. I was sick that these right wing mobs would stoop so low to disrupt democracy!
P.S. I was there as an ACORN rep registering voters. I registered all of the inflatable dolls and most of the dead people. I made $127.00 plus tips.
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 10, 2009 - 7:07am — GetSeriousWhere were all these conservative health care/insurance plan reformers when Bush was in office? Eight years of benign neglect empowered the profit-hungry health care industry. Consumers treated them like the gods they think they are, the lobbies were strong, and Americans basically just took whatever spoonful of medicine the pharmas, hospitals, and insurance companies dished out. The people who have insurance now would like to keep the status quo, even though greed and corruption are rampant in today's programs (government and private) and cost ALL of us more than we can afford. Socialism sounds subversive, so that has become the battle cry. Are these people going to go after Medicare next? I would like to see more efficiency and NO corruption of the existing programs, but to keep them intact would amount to more socialism. I assume that the next Republican administration would be honor bound to eliminate the stain of socialism wherever it appears, which would bring harm to a lot of vulnerable Americans. Makes those old-age consultations that some people are in such a panic about look like a walk in the park.
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 10, 2009 - 6:02am — JoeGovernmentWo...Americans for Prosperty,= U.S. Chamber of Commerce Patsies, AFP opposes anything that IS FOR The good of working people. Their Rallies are full of Non local protestors.
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 9, 2009 - 1:23pm — AgentPierce...."Listen directly to the politicians on all sides, look at their work, and form your own opinion. Don't let someone else tell you what to think."....
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YIKES !!!!! Didn't the Wizard of Oz try that line. "Ignore the man behind the curtain. Just listen to ME - The All Powerful OZ" .....
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 9, 2009 - 3:54am — mhrivnakPaulTerrell writes: "Why won't the Dems answer these questions?"
Are you listening to them? Lots of Dems have been speaking at great length about it recently. The President himself has been traveling around answering questions to large crowds.
The fact that you think a plan is being forced proves that you aren't listening. NOBODY has proposed that. Nothing like that is even being considered.
I wish people would stop demonizing their opponents. Neither Republicans nor Democrats are bad people. Politicians on both sides have good intentions and are trying to do good things. The Democrats are trying to make health care more affordable and more accessible to everyone, which is a good thing!
Republicans are being skeptical, which provides balance- another good thing!
Crazy people on TV and the radio are saying outlandish things that are far from the truth, and lots of good people end up misinformed and polarized. Skip the sensational news! Listen directly to the politicians on all sides, look at their work, and form your own opinion. Don't let someone else tell you what to think.
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 8, 2009 - 9:33pm — marcedward1PaulTerrell states ' We do not get insurance rates down until we have tort reform.' - that's just silly. Lawsuits and Malpractice insurance amount to 3% of the cost of health care. Certainly there are better ways to handle the cost of malpractice insurance, but it has nothing to do with the problems with health insurance in the USA.
PaulTerrell states 'Latest rasmussen reports poll says 68% of people rate their insurance plans good or great' - oddly he neglect to add that rasmussen also noted 'More than two out of three Americans (68%) rate health care in this country as fair or poor'. Oops! Maybe you ought to read a report you quote!
PaulTerrell also whines about somebody 'reading a bill' - Sir, there is no bill at the moment. There won't be for a while. The House and the Senate have to agree on a bill before anybody can 'read the bill'. Does Paul Terrell even follow the news?
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 8, 2009 - 9:03pm — PaulTerrellThe Democrats have been untruthful in their rhetoric for one reason. The issue in the country is reforming health insurance and the lawsuits through tort reform. We do not get insurance rates down until we have tort reform. Insurance companies are heavily regulated by the states and the national government. So I throw Pelosi right in there with those evil "insurance companies" since she helps decide how much money they make along with the states.
Latest rasmussen reports poll says 68% of people rate their insurance plans good or great. And i would like to make a couple more points about Obama and the Democrats credibility. One it took the President 6 months to decide on what dog to get and they want to shove this down our throat in 3 weeks without fully reading any of the bills. What do we pay them for? And second, why isn't the Democrats in Congress voting to put themselves on the health plans they are forcing down our throats? Why won't the Dems answer these questions? As I have heard, READ THE BILL, ALL OF IT!
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 8, 2009 - 6:52pm — PACK_MIKE77John_Burns..Why is Woodhouse wrong? What part of the plan is so good? Be specific by pointing to an exact line in the house version of the bill. Do you know what FPL is? That is how they are going to determine the rates you pay for your healthcare. Do you know how they are going to make sure they get that percentage? I have done the math. There is nothing in the bill that says how they are going to make sure people are going to pay the premiums. Don't you think that is kind of important? Sorry for being such a cronie.
Re: "Hands off" health care rally draws crowd
August 8, 2009 - 5:44pm — John_BurnsAre they protesting the real health plan, or the one Woodhouse and his cronies have made up out of whole cloth?