The Michigan Townhalls

This morning I've been listening to a Detroit local talk show (WJR), Frank Beckman, and the discussion is the various townhall formats held by Michigan representatives, Thaddeus McCotter (R) and John Dingell (D). McCotter really sounded more concerned about disruptions than hearing out his constituency. If I were a Republican living in his district, I'd give him the boot just based on the interview I heard this morning. And of course, being from Michigan he loves the cash for clunkers program, even though the sales seem to be helping the foreign car dealers more. (It's really a hurt-the-poor, green-go plan in my opinion, not a stimulus bill.) McCotter decided on a telephone townhall--wimp out. Dingell actually appeared at one, but apparently was more interested in listening to himself rather than the people who showed up. One woman caller said the only organized group she saw at the townhall were the pro-ObamaCare, Dingell people, and everyone else was polite and patient, with the exception of one man whose child had CP, and he was very concerned about losing his private insurance. Dingell was evasive, and noted that an amendment had been added to cover his situation. It was obvious to the callers to the show, and the host, that the bill has many modifications since they first tried to ram it through--so what's the rush? Why, if a very small percentage of poor AMERICANS, do not currently have insurance (they all have access), what's the rush?

This has been answered many times, in many ways by Democrats, from Obama on down through his former Clinton staffers who remember what happened in the 90s when people had an opportunity for input.

"Ram it,
jam it,
scam it,
don't let'em slam it
while the President's numbers
are high.
Of course, Obama's numbers are falling fast as Americans smell another high priced clunker like cap and trade rattling down the Obama pot hole scarred, torn up, out of date road to socialism which will continue to eat away at the prosperity of the middle-class.

Dr. Donald Palmisano of Protect Patient Rights and formerly head of the AMA was also interviewed. Maybe "Anonymous" True Believer in Obama needs to go to that web site, instead of this one?

Dingle Dangle Dingell

The letter from Henry I. Miller was buried in the letters column--would have been better as an op-ed, but is still available on-line. Miller writes about (D-Michigan) Rep. John Dingle's Inquisition Politics, saying that his defense of the auto industry was the least of his faults.

"Mr. Dingell was a master of the politics of personal destruction. In acrimonious hearings, he made vile and untrue accusations against prominent scientists, university administrators and business executives, relying on his congressional immunity to avoid being sued for slander.

In performing his committee's oversight role over the FDA, Mr. Dingell acted as a kind of self-appointed grand inquisitor. He and his staff often summoned agency officials to humiliating and abusive hearings and demanded that they produce mountains of documents on unrealistically short deadlines. His investigators even helped themselves to FDA files that contained confidential business information, a clear violation of federal law.

Mr. Dingell lost track of the constitutional division of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government. His actions were often grossly inappropriate."

Why do we have so many Dingells of both parties in Congress? This behavior is certainly not limited to him. A prize example of why we need term limits.

Henry I. Miller, M.S., M.D., is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where his research focuses on public policy toward science and technology, including pharmaceutical development, the new biotechnology, models for regulatory reform, and the emergence of new viral diseases. He headed the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Biotechnology from 1989 to 1993.Link. Twenty five cents of every consumer dollar goes to a product regulated by the FDA, an agency he says is dysfunctional, a swamp in need of draining, according to a recent article he wrote for the Washington Times.