On Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:32:34 -0500, thunder
wrote:

On Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:21:59 -0400, Wizard of Woodstock wrote:
I'm off to a discussion group at the moment - curiously enough, it's
about this very issue. Should be very interesting - lots of really
smart people on both sides of the aisle who respect each other's
opinions and can discuss and debate rationally.

Perhaps, you can give us a synopsis of the discussion.

It was interesting to say the least.

What I found most interesting is that nobody, other than myself and
two otehr people there - one a tax accountant, the other a local
doctor, had actually attempted to read the bill.

I left after the congressional staffer for my rep, the AARP
representative and two other people (I don't remember who they worked
for - Dodd or Lieberman) said that they couldn't answer specific
questions about the bill itself - they could only discuss "policy
issues" related to the health care bill.

I did manage to get a question in, but the answer was as stated above
- they would not and could not answer specific line item questions
about the bill - only about the genral over view of the bill and how
it would affect Americans.

And we found out that our Rep is not going to be addressing health
care in individual forums but will be conducting an "open" town hall
conference call. WTF?

~~ sigh ~~

It was interesting as I was chatting with some of my former
counterparts in town government that, in general, this is not being
very well received even among Democrats.

Should be an interesting August.