Nationwide Anger Erupts Over Healthcare "Overhaul" Plans

Eschewing the political apathy for which Americans have become known, folks around the nation have been showing up at speeches and town hall meetings to assail their representatives over what they see as a doomed healthcare overhaul plan. Senator Arlen Specter, Democrat – Pennsylvania, was taunted and jeered at a speech yesterday, but noted that he thinks that such actions are "not necessarily representative of America." We suspect he was not referring to Americans’ typical apathy, instead apparently indicating that the bulk of Americans support President Obama’s healthcare overhaul. Whether that’s true or not is open to debate.

Said Specter, "It’s more than healthcare. I think there is a mood in America of anger with so many people unemployed, with so much bickering in Washington, with the fear of losing their health care. It all boils over." Perhaps, but clearly many Americans are choosing the pending healthcare bill as the launching point of that anger. One man in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, for example, fearing that the healthcare "reform" plans would leave a bureaucratic mess, yelled at Specter, "You’ll be gone, by God the bureaucrats will still be here." For those who recall that the national income tax was supposed to be a temporary measure, any sweeping action by the federal government can be a scary thing indeed. And, it appears, Americans are fully prepared to try to avoid that.

In Georgia, Congressman David Scott saw a swastika painted on a sign outside his office, indicating just how angered people are. Said Mary Ann Fieser of Hillsboro, Missouri, "If they don’t let us vent our frustrations out, they will have a revolution." A revolution? Yes, it appears that, more than any other issue in recent memory, the issue of healthcare has Americans hot and bothered. If the discontent continues, President Obama could not only see a pet project fail, but his presidency could be marked as that of a "divider" rather than a "uniter," to borrow a not-so-eloquent phrase.