Miami Herald: Crowds expected at Delray Beach town hall on healthcare reform
Aug 20, 2009
BY BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com
Aug. 20, 2009 — HAND OUT Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings, of Miramar, will be at the town hall meeting on Thursday. Deluged with calls for weeks, the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans (FLARA) turned its annual public forum in Delray Beach into a ticketed event. That means the 500 seats will be mostly filled by members of the liberal, union-affiliated group that favors a healthcare overhaul. Organizers are requiring questions in writing, hoping to avoid the screaming matches that have disrupted town halls across the country as Congress contemplates sweeping reforms.
But outside the South County Civic Center, protesters are planning a show of force. Yelling and screaming will be encouraged. Hostile signs will be waved. A group called the South Florida Tea Party plans to burn AARP cards in a rebellion against the retiree group that wants Congress to act.
“They’re trying to create chaos, and I don’t think that serves anyone well,” said FLARA president Tony Fransetta, who is expecting CNN and other national media.
Several members of Congress representing Broward and Palm Beach counties were invited to Thursday’s town hall, but only Democrats Alcee Hastings of Miramar and Robert Wexler of Boca Raton agreed to come. Other Florida Democrats, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston and Ron Klein of Boca Raton, are scheduling telephone town halls on healthcare that will keep their constituents at a distance.
The Palm Beach County Republican Party is calling Thursday’s forum a “sham” because FLARA turned down hundreds of ticket requests. The result: a political call-to-arms race, with groups on both sides of the debate urging their members to show up — even if they have to stand outside — for fear they would be outnumbered by their opponents.
“We must seize this opportunity even if the representative is not in your district,” cried one e-mail pressing GOP activists to show up.
On the other side of the political spectrum, AFL-CIO members have been mobilized to make sure “our retirees are SAFE, SECURE and are able to attend this event, just like they have in the past without FEAR, INTIMIDATION and not SUBJECTED TO UNRULY behavior,” read one e-mail. An arm of the Democratic national party is calling for “making sure the most powerful voices in this debate are those calling for real reform.”
Fransetta said about 15 sheriff’s deputies will be standing by.
Support for the Democratic administration and its healthcare agenda is eroding in Florida, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. Less than half of the voters, 47 percent, approve of President Barack Obama — down from 58 percent in June. Most Floridians oppose enacting healthcare reform if it will “significantly” increase the federal deficit.
“At least in Florida, the protests against the proposed healthcare overhaul that have been surfacing at town meetings held by members of Congress have struck a chord with the public,” Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown said in a news release. “Voters approve of the demonstrations and they overwhelmingly disagree with the view expressed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that these protests are `un-American,’ ”
Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wrote in a recent newspaper column, “Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.”
The rally in Delray Beach starts at noon, and the meeting is scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m.