Published: November 06, 2009 10:06 am      

Demonstraters weigh in on health care debate

Group finds Boren's office closed

A group of area residents gathered on Thursday in front of District 2 U.S. Rep. Dan Boren’s McAlester office, anxious to let him know their feelings haven’t changed about the up-coming House vote on health care.

Many of the group have been involved in the Taxed Enough Already, or TEA Party protests. They weren’t very happy to see they wouldn’t be able to deliver their messages in-person to Boren’s staff.

They found a locked front door and a note that informed them the office would be closed on Nov. 5 and 6 and that in case of an emergency, visitors could phone the Muskogee office.

“They heard we were coming,” someone said.

“They’re afraid of us,” said another.

They had wanted to make their feelings known once more about higher taxes and massive government spending in general and about their opposition to the health care revisions the U.S. House is slated to vote on Saturday.

The protesters, who included Lonnie Anderson, Sherry Barnes, Lela Morgan, Minnie Turnbow, Cheryl Demarest, Mark Wood, Bob Reeves and others, decided to stick around outside the office awhile. Many of them held signs and broke into a rendition of “God Bless America” at 11:30 a.m., something other TEA Party protesters had also planned to do across the nation.

Contacted in Muskogee by the News-Capital and asked why the McAlester office had been closed on Thursday and today, Boren’s District Rep. Ben Robinson said it had not been to avoid the TEA party protesters.

“No. We would drink tea with them,” Robinson said. “We don’t run from conflicts.”

He said the McAlester office had been closed because one member of the staff had just become a new grandmother and another had to go to help out at another office.

Several of the TEA Party protesters had wanted to learn whether Boren, who said during town hall meetings that he had been opposed to provisions in House Resolution 3200 might have changed his stance.

“He only said he was opposed to 3200,” one protester said. Since then, a number of bills had surfaced, she noted.

However, Boren reaffirmed his opposition late Thursday afternoon.

In a statement issued from Washington, Boren noted that he had already made his concerns with the legislation known.

Boren said he had pledged then that he would not support a health care reform bill if it raised taxes on small businesses, put burdensome mandates on Oklahoma companies, and included a public option.

“While I support improving health care access for all Oklahomans, just as I told constituents in August, I cannot vote for the health care bill that is currently before the House of Representatives,” Boren said in his statement. “The worst thing we could do during a recession is raise taxes and this bill does just that.

“I also believe the public option would ultimately lead to a single-payer health care system,” Boren said.

“Finally, I do not believe that the possibility for tax-payer funded abortion has been clearly and emphatically removed from this legislation,” said Boren.

“Although I support eliminating health insurance companies’ ability to deny applicants coverage based on pre-existing conditions, this 2,000-page and $1 trillion bill, is just not the answer to America’s health care problems.”