This article is an excerpt from The Fount online news "U.S. Senator David Vitter Visits Arcadia"

Senator David Vitter met a larger than anticipated audience at Arcadia's Town Council Meeting Hall this past Tuesday, August 18 at 4:00 p.m. The meeting lasted just over one hour as scheduled, as Senator Vitter spelled out his opposition to President Obama's Healthcare Reform plan to his constituents.

Senator Vitter began the meeting by letting it be known out of the 170 town hall meetings he has conducted as U.S. Senator, "We have never seen the turnout and the passion and the interest and the focus that we have in the last 3 weeks, and that's a good thing."

He attributed such turnout to the heightened concern of conservatives who oppose the current healthcare reform proposals in Washington D.C., and apologized for this contributing to the standing room only situation.

He started the meeting off by saying the town hall meeting's agenda was about the concerns of all present, and he welcomed comments and suggestions as to what his constituents believed he should be focused on while representing them as their senator.

His initial statement drew much laughter and applause: "Let me start off by saying it this way. Nancy Pelosi may consider you to be an un-American mob." He asked for questions to be filled out on forms and made the following opening comments:

"I think there are certain specific targeted things that we need to fix and improve with our healthcare system. And I think we can do that in a targeted way and not throw out the baby with the bath water. And #2, because of that approach that I have, I am very much opposed to President Obama's plan which I think throws out the good with the bad and would cause a lot of harm particularly to those who have insurance now who are reasonably satisfied.

So I want to take a much more focused and targeted approach with specific things like lowering prescription drug prices through generics reform and reimportation of prescription drugs.

Like association health plans which allow small businesses to pool together across state lines to create much bigger buying pools, and lower insurance premiums that way. And reforms like tort reform, medical liability reform where you can get a lot of costs out of the system without sacrificing or changing your care.

So that's what I'm pushing, I'm not pushing for this complete overhaul because I think it threatens with government takeover and domination of healthcare. (Applause) Another big issue which we'll be addressing in the senate when we go back into session in September is energy, and cap & save, which I call cap and tax, and I am completely opposed to that proposal. (Applause)

First of all, I am very dubious about the so called signs behind it. Secondly, even if you accept that, countries like China & India have said 'we are absolutely not following suit.' So therefore what we do through this bill, we deep six our economy, we ship millions of jobs overseas and in the meantime it has absolutely no impact on the worldwide issues. So I'm very opposed to that.

Then finally, let me just mention that I very much enjoy working with mayors and parish leaders on the need particularly for transportation and infrastructure in the area. That is a key economic development. That is one thing that really the government can do is building basic infrastructure like roads and highways. And that does open up job creation and economic development. So I'll continue to partner with the people here to get those dollars for roadways to be built and other infrastructure."

Senator Vitter then took many questions, some previously filled out on forms and towards the end, a few from the floor. The first question came from a Ruston man named Stan who Sen. Vitter recited: "Be specific. What reforms do you support that will bring down the cost of healthcare and will pass in congress."

Senator Vitter responded to Stan's question by saying "I'll tell you what I'm for. I'm not gonna say these will pass in congress because this is a VERY liberal congress which will not pass a number of the things that I'm gonna mention, which doesn't mean they're not the right idea. But one is tort reform or medical liability reform.

There's an enormous amount of cost in the system which if we do tort reform right we can save, we can take out without hurting medical care at all. Now will it pass this congress? Absolutely not because trial lawyers are the single biggest financial fundraising arm of the National Democratic Party. But it's the right thing to do and I'm not gonna stop working on that.

Another idea is the reimportation of prescription drugs which allows Americans to buy safe, cheaper prescription drugs from elsewhere through places like Canada, and thereby breaking down the system
that we have worldwide where drug companies charge internationally different prices for the same drug to different countries.

I'm a true free-market person. There should be a world price. And if there were, our U.S. price would come way down. Because right now, we're paying for all the R & D (research and development) costs... and we need to change that system."

Another specific reform Senator Vitter discussed is an association health plan which would change federal law to allow businesses in a specific industry like restaurants across the country to pool their resources to come together for larger buying power like Apple Computer has, or Toyota. The senator said this would make a big difference in the reduction of premiums.

One question that drew immediate applause came from Susie: "I'm totally against government run healthcare and I'm also against government co-ops. Can we not stop this mobbish takeover of our nation?" Senator Vitter jokingly responded by saying: "I'm not sure which mob you're talking about. I agree with you in terms of healthcare and I am very suspicious quite frankly of this co-op idea."

The next question was "Please explain how Medicare Advantage will be affected by the current Democratic proposal." Senator Vitter said: " This proposal by President Obama has been designated by the congressional budget office (which is non-partisan) to cost between 2.2 and 2.4 trillion dollars over 10 years, and then it goes up from there. So one obvious question is how do you pay for that?

And one proposal is to make a 1/2 a trillion dollar cut in Medicare. That 1/2 a trillion dollars is not to shore up Medicare which is going broke over time, but to take it OUT of Medicare to pay for this brand new cost.

So how does that affect Medicare Advantage or any part of Medicare? It's obvious Medicare would suffer, they would cut Medicare Advantage first, pure and simple. That would be first on the Medicare chopping board."

The issue of the President's czar appointments who are not confirmed by the Senate was brought up twice and it was asked how much power do they have, how much are they costing the U.S. taxpayers, and how can they work a single day without being voted in by congress.

Senator Vitter stated he agreed with that assessment, and called it "absolutely an illegal end run around different constitutional hat trick. The problem is to put an end to that, congress and the senate have to stand up for it's role, and the majority party are not doing that."

A question regarding the reversal of the stimulus package was asked, and the senator said that congress can pass it, and the congress can "un-pass" the stimulus package, but that this congress won't do that.

The senator's next statement also drew much applause: "The first rule of politics is to change bodies rather than change hearts and minds. We're living with the consequences of the last election. Elections have consequences. We just need to make sure the NEXT election has positive consequences."

Senator Vitter went on to say that he voted against the stimulus because of his concern it would only pass on huge amounts of debt to our kids and grandkids, and it's not doing productive things in the economy. He then quoted a poll statistic of how "57% of Americans don't believe the stimulus has done anything in their lives or pumped up the national economy."

"The basic rally cry with the stimulus was: 'pass it now, read it later' and they were telling that same rallying cry with this healthcare bill. That's why my biggest short term goal working with other conservatives in these last 6 weeks was to slow that train down and make sure we didn't pass anything before the August recess because we wanted it to be out there for the August recess so we could have this national conversation. And I think we are because it's been a very positive turnout."

Senator Vitter said his first amendment to the healthcare reform bill that he drafted says that whatever government run option is in that bill no matter what it's called (co-op, etc.), every member of the senate, congress and all of their immediate family members have to be in that plan with no other choices. This also drew much applause from the audience. "That means no special attending physicians in the capitol, no special privileges at military hospitals, none of that" said the senator.

The audience also appreciated Senator Vitter's report of how he drew up a bill that gets rid of automatic pay raises for congress. He said the bill has passed in the senate and is waiting to be passed in the congress, and that he is a leading proponent for term limits in congress.

The senator reassured certain ones who asked questions as to whether Republicans were coming together to combat the liberal agenda by saying that there are at least 3 or 4 major Republican proposals on healthcare in the senate that are brand new and relatively unknown at the present time due to what he called "the media filter." He then referred people to his website for copies of those proposed bills.

One older woman drew many laughs when she asked the question "Is it fair to say that somebody put too many democrats up there?"

Senator Vitter later talked about how elected officials forget who they represent when they go to Washington sometimes, and said the same thing happens with national organizations like AARP. He also said "The AMA is a great example of that because they've completely lost touch with real working doctors."

The next question was if illegal immigrants would be covered under the Obama healthcare plan. Senator Vitter answered the question by talking about how the number of "47 million" uninsured people consisted of 25% illegal immigrants. He said in his opinion, this is a law enforcement problem, not a health insurance problem.

He then said another 25% of that "47 million" are younger people who hardly ever get sick and don't need the insurance even though they can afford it, and they spend their money elsewhere. He pointed out that due to those factors, the "47 million" number that keeps getting discussed is an unrealistic figure when you talk about those who are excluded from insurance coverage due to pre-existing conditions.

The discussion of enforcement to stop the flow of illegal aliens into the country began to occur. Senator Vitter acknowledged the seriousness of the problem, and talked about the need for a national data base by which all employers would have to verify an employee's citizenship.

The senator then addressed another concern regarding citizenship by alerting the audience how present law requires that all illegal aliens must be counted in a census. He said that congressional reappointments are to be formed from those numbers, and that he has a bill to oppose that present law. He again reminded the audience that those illegal aliens can be counted in a congressional district, but they can't vote.

He also mentioned that the controversial organization known as ACORN is now an official partner with the U.S. Dept. of Commerce in the 2010 census. "Is that legal?" one gentleman asked, as many people in the audience began to talk amongst themselves, shocked that such a thing could happen. The senator said it is legal, and that he drafted an amendment to block that action on the senate floor but it got defeated by party line vote.

The senator acknowledged the service of military veterans present in the audience by thanking them and asking the audience to acknowledge them as well. Senator Vitter again addressed their concerns about medical benefits being cut by the Obama healthcare proposal by saying "There's nothing in the bill that directly impacts or threatens that. The question is, if it costs 2-1/2 trillion dollars over 10 years, that's gonna impact and threaten the entire federal budget, including every other part of it, including tri-care, including VA."

"The non-partisan congressional budget office has said that the Obama plan will not bring costs down, but make it worst, it will bring costs up" said Senator Vitter. He suggested that those costs would be controlled by a government panel similar to how things are done in England, and that certain procedures just simply would not be allowed, especially as one ages.

As the room temperature grew warmer and warmer, the senator went on to say: "To me, that is really scary and really offensive and really worth standing up against. That is a fundamental aspect of government run healthcare. It is that way in Britain and a lot of other places."

A local senior citizen Catherine Bodie asked the senator if he had actually read the 1,000 page Obama proposal and asked him to vote against it because she was very pleased with her current plan.

The senator responded by saying "I have a pretty significant legislative staff divvying it up along with me, we're all reading sections and we're gonna put our notes together. That's how we're beginning to look at it because it's not just 1 - thousand page bill. There are about 3 different versions right now of thousand page bills. So that's what we're doing. And Catherine, I share your concerns.

You know the first rule that doctors learn is what - 'do no harm.' Well that should be the first rule for members of congress, particularly on this issue.

President Obama has said over and over, if you have insurance that you like, you can keep it. I'm sorry, that's a lie. He should read the bill because it's patently obvious a bunch of people who have insurance that they like are gonna get kicked off.

I'm gonna give you just one of many reasons. In the senate version there's a provision that mandates a business provide insurance OR if they don't they pay a penalty to the government equal to $750 per employee per year.

If you can provide health insurance for an employee for anything less than $5,000 per employee per year - so if business has that choice, the national average is actually $5,400 per employee per year or $750 per employee per year, do you think somebody might lose their insurance? I think a lot of people might lose their insurance."

As the meeting began to wind down, a question came up regarding energy production, and Senator Vitter responded: "Under this administration and this congress, they're trying to cut down and tax
away. In addition to cap and tax, there are 8 different provisions in the tax code that they are trying to change that would essentially raise taxes on domestic oil and gas production.

Now the way I see it, we need MORE domestic production, not less. We need MORE alternative energy, I think we need more new technology and more new fuels. But it's not 'either-or' in my opinion, it's all of the above. And I think this administration is stuck in this 'either-or, gas & oil is evil' mentality. But that's clearly their direction which I'm trying to resist and fight."


As the meeting came to a close, one gentleman made a statement from the floor regarding his objection not being as much about healthcare, but more so of being about "plain old government control." Senator Vitter responded by saying this was a major concern around the country, and that this was one of the main reasons the healthcare debate has exploded the way it has.

"Healthcare is darn important and it's personal to us. But the second reason is, this isn't being proposed in a vacuum. It's being proposed as part of a trend and people are connecting the dots.

And they're connecting the dots from the taking over of banks, taking over of insurance companies, the controlling of car companies, the hiring and firing of car (company) executives,.. to the point where they control about 1/6th of the U.S. economy, so people are connecting the dots, and that's a huge concern" said the senator.

As the meeting came to a close, other elected officials present were introduced to the audience; Arcadia Mayor Eugene Smith, Simsboro Mayor Willie Hendricks & Arcadia Town Council Member E.J. Ratcliff. This ends our coverage of U.S. Senator David Vitter's Bienville Parish Town Hall Meeting, Arcadia LA.