The crowd at Rep. Tom McClintock's town hall meeting in Grass Valley Friday night was vocal and resolute. Photo for The Union by John Hart.
More than 1,000 people crowded into the Grass Valley Veterans Hall to ask McClintock questions and get answers about health care reform being pushed by President Barack Obama’s administration. Because of the mass participation, McClintock held a second town hall immediately afterward, allowing for as many people to have their voice heard as possible.
The 4th District congressman opened the gathering with comments on how vital town halls are to America’s democracy.
“Whenever we sense our country’s in danger, we rise to the occasion,” McClintock said. “We become actively involved and ultimately, we set things right.
“There are very serious problems with our health care system that must be addressed,” McClintock told the crowd. “But … I am skeptical that a government that pays $400 for a hammer, $600 for a toilet seat and runs a $1.6 trillion deficit within a single year is somehow going to be successful keeping down our health care costs.”
Because of the relatively little shouting and civil disagreement among the crowd, McClintock was able to swim through his third forum in the district, answering questions from supporters, detractors and opponents fairly easily.
Editor’s note: Read the full story in The Union. Check out more videos from The Union at www.theunion.com/videos or on YouTube.
Anna
/ September 5, 2009re “a distinct lack of the vitriol that has plagued similar town halls”, there may be a structural bias at work here – there’ve been reports, and it’s credible, that mtgs that aren’t vitriolic ones don’t get much coverage.
Zuri, do we have an email address for McClintock?
Zuri
/ September 5, 2009His e-mail is mcclintock@tommcclintock.com.
“there may be a structural bias at work here – there’ve been reports, and it’s credible, that mtgs that aren’t vitriolic ones don’t get much coverage.”
Point me in the direction of these credible reports. I’d be glad to talk to any folks with grumblings. Just send ‘em my e-mail or tell him to call me in the office (530-477-4244).
And just a point of clarification, there was a distinct lack of vitriol at the town hall in Grass Valley as opposed to the one in Thousand Oaks and others across the nation where there was much more shouting, fighting and, as has been reported, biting. If you call that structural bias, you’re not identifying the context of the story.
Anna
/ September 5, 2009sorry, I didn’t mean local reports.
Anna Haynes
/ September 6, 2009Apropos -
Whose America? by John Kenneth White in SFChron today