Yesterday, the day after the headline making town hall meeting in
nearby Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Senator Arlen Specter called the
area's largest newspaper, the Harrisburg Patriot-News,
to request time with the editorial board and local reporters.
Specter faced off yet again yesterday with an angry crowd over
health care, this latest one in State College, home of Penn
State. "Good morning" said one student. "Is it?" Specter snapped.
A transcript of the later editorial board meeting was published
today.
Beginning by saying "we have to acquaint the American people with
the facts" and that "there are a lot of rumors," he answers the
second question by zeroing in on Rush Limbaugh and talk radio,
later adding that the raucous town hall meetings across
Pennsylvania have in fact "influenced" him and that he "didn't
expect" what went on in Lebanon.
The question asked by the Patriot-News was: "What
message is not getting out correctly to Pennsylvanians?"
Specter replied:
"The message that is being circulated is filled wit h rumors and
influenced very heavily by talk radio. Rush Limbaugh can reach
more people than your editorial today. What can be done to
acquaint (the) American people with the facts?"
For a moment he appears to endorse a "requirement" that "every
insurance plan" have a provision for an "annual exam paid for by
the insurance company." Immediately, as if realizing he is
already in the troubled waters of government mandates on the
private conduct of individuals, he backtracks: "Not mandatory,
but voluntary and paid for to encourage people to take it."
Having been pounded relentlessly on Tuesday with talk of death
panels and euthanasia, he says: "Nobody ought to decide for
anyone else what kind of medical care they get in the final days,
weeks or near end of life. But people ought to be informed. I got
informed by my wife years ago about a 'living will' and I said
'yes, ma'am' and we had a living will."
Praising the savings this could generate, he is asked if this
could be enough savings "without increasing taxes." Specter:
"Yes, without increasing taxes."
Asked if his town hall meetings were "poor timing," he responds
by saying he's done them for 30 years and the current round was
"scheduled long ago." But he added: "I didn't expect what went on
in Lebanon."
Patriot-News: "Have your views shifted at all based upon
the comments you are hearing at these town hall meetings?"
Specter: "It has influenced me. Even though they may not be
representative, they are significant, and the temperature is
boiling.…The people who are going to these meetings are on the
edge of the ledge. Even if the whole country isn't this way, if
this many people are feeling this, we have to take it into
account. And you don't know that if you sit in the Senate Office
Building. If you stay inside the Beltway, it's a great cocoon."
Asked what advice he would give President Obama "based on what
you are hearing at these meetings," Specter says: "The principal
piece of advice I would give -- and I intend to pass this on
personally, not just to you -- is to specify how he is going to
fulfill his statement of no addition to the deficit. Tell us what
the programs are going to cost to insure the 47 million…what are
the president's figures….If we could deal with the deficit, there
would be a lot more acceptance."
Specter ended this way, in a response to the question "Is there
anything you can compare this to in your career?"
Specter, who as a young lawyer served on the staff of the Warren
Commission investigating the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy, answered with a wry reference to the man who killed
presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald:
"No…Maybe questioning Jack Ruby."
