The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Storming the Capitol

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Thousands of protestors gathered on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol today and lined up outside House and Senate office buildings to protest Democrats' health care legislation. The crowd, chanting "Kill the Bill," "Throw Them Out," and "Hear us Now," listened to speeches by Rep. Michelle Bachman, who organized the event, as well as Reps. Tom Price, Eric Cantor, Michael Burgess, John Shaddegg, Marsha Blackburn, Joe Wilson, talk show host Mark Levin, among others. Here's a sampling of some of the photos I snapped at the event.

Here's an example of the angry, violent, mob element that dominated the gathering. It's amazing I made it out of there in one piece without bringing a gun.

This sign was my personal favorite.

After the speeches tailed off, protestors moved to Congressional office buildings to lobby their representatives to oppose Democratic health care legislation, and the lines snaked around the buildings and down the block. Here's a photo I snapped of one of several entrances to the Cannon House Office Building, all of which were jammed.

View all comments (29) | Leave a comment

Rank and File| 11.5.09 @ 3:40PM

Wow, look at all the carnage! All the property damage, physical intimidation, and all the "assembly."

Looks pretty scary.

I'm just glad I've been inside with all the doors and windows locked.

Good for Michelle Bachman! Good for US!

nathan bedford forest| 11.12.09 @ 10:49AM

obama will destroy this nation by not doing the right thing for the people. we need less government, less taxes, more personal freedoms, and gold back in our money system. end the federal reserve system. remove all aliens mexicans and others from our land. let us be free again.

Pete2| 11.5.09 @ 3:54PM

My youngest daughter(25) is there. She flew out early this morning and will be returning late tonight. Paid for out of her own pocket, also. She went to the 9-12 rally also and worked the Hoffman campaign . That is an example of some of the young people who are active in this. Too bad we live in Vermont because talking to the 3 stooges representing us is useless. Amazing that the show "V" happened to come out at this time. Wake up America, the lizards want you for breakfast.

Lazarus Long| 11.6.09 @ 9:45AM

Live in VT also. Any communication with the Trois Stooges that goes against their preferences or agenda is whistling in the wind.

JohnD| 11.5.09 @ 4:00PM

Those racist, neocon, Teabaggers!

Seriously, here's my health care reform plan:

(1) Allow sale of policies across state lines;
(2) Allow the underwriting of healthcare insurance policies without minimum coverage requirements; don't require chiropractic or hypnosis, don't make elderly males pay for infant delivery, if you don't want HIV coverage, or alcoholism treatment, you don't have to opt for it or pay for it; let individuals decide what type of coverage they want. Just hospitalization coverage? Fine.
(3) Cap punitve malpractice awards; pick a number, but cap them at some level.
(4) Allow individuals to deduct the cost of their health insurance premiums dollar for dollar like employers do.
(5) File an anti-trust suit against the AMA for limiting the supply of doctors;
(6) Allow doctors to form HMO/Co-ops and sell their services in a bundled package for a flat rate (determined by them)
(7) Encourage doctors and nurses from overseas to emigrate to the U.S. (there are ways to do this through special visa programs)
(8) Convert medicare into a payor of insurance premiums for the private insurance policy of choice for seniors and the indigent; let the private insurers combat waste, fraud and abuse.

The use of the marketplace, boosting the supply, restoring consumer choice, will put downward pressure on costs. Capping punitive malpractice awards will lower malpractice insurance premiums, further lowering costs.

Problem solved.

victor| 11.5.09 @ 10:01PM

That's too bloody simple.
Plus you left out all the lawyer-ese.
You know you can't write laws in Plain English.
That would mean that Regular Americans would be able read it without a billable hourly rate.

JohnD| 11.6.09 @ 1:08AM

I am a lawyer (no longer practicing) and I could write the long version in "lawyerese." This is just a summary.

jeff| 11.6.09 @ 7:39AM

John D - great reform program! You threw in a couple of excellent ideas I hadn't seen before (like suing the AMA).

motley| 11.5.09 @ 4:48PM

Wow!!!!!! John D. This is the best plan proposal I have ever seen. It is good because it does not infringe on constitutional rights. It is ridiculous that the RINO's keep presenting their own version of a health care plan which misses the whole point. The country does not need one!

And, Sir, that is why your plan is RIGHT ON. (plus it is a 'reform', which means it corrects where attempts at having a healthcare plan in this country has failed and totally messed things up. You plan takes us back to BSI--Before Socialist Invasion.)

JohnD| 11.5.09 @ 7:32PM

Thanks Motley!

If I left anything out, I invite anyone to suggest other provisions. Just one caveat: It should not involve reducing costs, not shifting costs and risks to your neighbor, or shift control from people to government.

jeff| 11.6.09 @ 7:44AM

JohnD - do you want to add a Health Savings Account to your list? The idea would be to let folks buy a catastrophic policy and use pretax dollars to pay for usual medical expenses.

Also, you need to address a small population of seriously and chronically ill folks who cannot get insurance. Long term - there might be a market to buy insurance against developing a "pre existing condition." Furthermore, if you decouple insurance from employment that will mitigate the problem of job lock. But right now, we need to do something with these folks, because they are the hard cases that make bad law, so to speak. My impression is that Medicaid isn't tailored right for this problem.

Michael| 11.6.09 @ 8:52AM

I would change (4) to allow individuals to deduct the cost of health insurance (or co-ops or whatever) and medical expenditures. That way if someone wants to just save up their money and spend it on medical stuff as-needed, they also get the benefits.

Stan Redmond| 11.5.09 @ 5:44PM

Where are all the people supporting this? I keep hearing from liberals that this is a fringe group and Obama hisself [sic] said the overwhelming majority of Americans support his plan. Well if that is true where are they? Why aren't they the ones storming the gates to get this monstrosity passed?

Pete| 11.5.09 @ 7:24PM

Pete2,

Just want to chime in to say how impressed I am that you were able to raise a daughter to think for herself with all of the uber-liberal influences she must have encountered growing up. My daughter is 5 and I can only hope to do as good a job raising her. Kudos.

Pete2| 11.5.09 @ 9:21PM

Thanks...I also have another daughter married to a navy officer, who is quite conservative and a son who is a political editor for a christian news service. He has his own radio program through onenewsnow.com. And I live in Vermont....

Pete| 11.5.09 @ 10:30PM

All the more impressive. I am no fan of the northeast, though to be fair, I have never been to Vermont.

Pete| 11.5.09 @ 7:43PM

By the way, was that lizard sign generic and just related to the TV show, or was it a direct dig at Pelosi? Just wondering.

JamesJ| 11.6.09 @ 8:42AM

John D, a lawyer for tort reform, WOW! Instead of caps, I'm for loser pays

whyyeseyec| 11.6.09 @ 2:11PM

Notice there is never any violence at Tea Party protests. Nothing gets out of hand. However, there is always violence at leftists protests.

Patriodoc| 11.6.09 @ 5:51PM

John, I like your ideas. I would add "loser pays" to the malpractice reforms. I would like to see the cost of everything spent for the patient have at least a little cost to the patient's pocketbook, so there is questioning and caring about what things cost. With electronic medical records, this would be easier to answer.

I don't think bundling is a good idea since I am no longer as much of a patient advocate as a primary care doctor, if I am paid more to limit spending on the patient. This is why the "gatekeper" concept failed. Doctors need to be pt. advocates.

I left the AMA 6 years ago because of their complete liberal, inside the DC beltway mentality. However, I'm not sure if they are responsible for limited doctors being produced. I have read it was a total miscalculation by government bean counters years ago, who did not take into account the dramatic rise in life expectancy of the past few years. When my Internal Medicine group tried to recruit a new primary care internist last year, we had dozens of applications from foreign medical grads with very heavy accents, and we felt our patients would not be able to communicate with them. We found a wonderful Indian trained internist who has been here over 10 years and has minimal accent, after a 6 month search. England has had a terrible time with shipped in foreign docs with heavy accents and limited training, and that we don't need here.

Patriotdoc| 11.6.09 @ 6:13PM

I was there yesterday, riding the bus from NC with 2 busloads of tea-partiers on Wed. night, returning Thursday night. It was an awesome experience. There were about 80 to 100,000 people there, in my estimate. The speakers were great, and I appreciate all of them thanking us for coming. When we walked over to see our reps, the buildings quickly filled up, and thousands were standing outside waiting. Apparently, around 1:30 or 2, Congress was reconvening and the reps had to come outside and walk over to the Capital. Every one who looked like a congressman or congresswoman would walk down the steps and was greeted by a very loud chant of "Kill the Bill", from about 1,000 of us in front of the Cannon building. I think we made an impression!

The congressional staffers were very polite and helpful. Rep. Kissel's office sent 3 staffers outside to talk to our group of about 25 after we could not get inside for our appointment. Rep. Kissel is a Democrat who decided to vote against the bill 2 days ago when he saw that it would take $500 bilion from Medicare.

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