A Sad Hour

(If you can, read this whole long entry. Some of it may be enlightening.)

Last night about 7:10 p.m., I received an automated phone call. Virginia 6th District Congressman Bob Goodlatte was holding a "Tele-Town Hall Meeting" - if I wanted to listen or join in, just stay on the line.

I stayed on the line. This seemed like something I shouldn't miss.

This was, I think, the second such session the congressman has held. I received a call on the first one also but I was on my way to an appointment and could not listen. I don't know how the calls went out - was it a list from folks who've written in? Random? Everybody in the phone book?

People are desperate for assistance, particularly with health care. When I joined in, Goodlatte was espousing on energy use, so I missed whatever was being said about that. In the ensuing hour, about 14 people called in. Listening to them broke my heart.

I shall paraphrase some of what was said. (And before I am berated and accused of being a leftist liberal or whatever, I will come clean and say I have voted for this congressman in the past. That was when he said he would only serve two terms. Once he broke his word, he lost my vote forever.)

From Lexington: a state employee wondered how to keep the cost of health care from eating up her retirement benefits.

Goodlatte's answer? Not my problem, call your state representative.

From Waynesboro: What can be done about the high cost of nursing care? A loved one has been in a nursing home for three years and it's taking all the remaining spouse's resources. How will she live?

Goodlatte's answer? Qualify for Medicare/Medicaid (which as I understand it means you have to use all your assets up first). Find a cheaper place (?!?) and oh yes, this is all the fault of government regulations because the states/feds require that the person in the nursing home have adequate care and don't lie there in their own feces covered in bed sores.

From Fincastle: How about the federal government mandating a Living Wage (as opposed to a minimum wage) so people can actually afford to live?

Goodlatte's answer: Oh, it's a Free Enterprise System (he mentioned "Free Enterprise System" several times) and we don't want to interfere with *that*. It's bad enough we have a minimum wage. It's "damaging to our economy" (i.e., it makes the corporate profits smaller), so of course we don't want to do that. He also, using logic that eluded me, tied this to illegal immigration. I guess he was implying that if we were all working third or fourth jobs as apple pickers things would be so much better.

From Fincastle (same person): How about tax breaks for converting homes to "green" uses.

Goodlatte: He supports tax credits for that.

From Goshen: A 32-year-old man wondered if he would ever see any payout from Social Security.

Goodlatte: Fixing Social Security requires a balanced budget (this from a leader of the party that has us billions and billions in debt?). He acknowledged that Social Security as implemented isn't broken. What *is* broken is the way the federal government has robbed the Social Security system of its funding to pay for other things (you know, unwarranted wars, bridges to nowhere, that type of thing...) . If the government had left Social Security alone, there would be plenty for everyone.

Goodlatte segued here into a one-way conversation about the Child Health Insurance program and how terrible the Democrats are for wanting to essentially raise the poverty line from barely able to eat to possibly making the house payment.

From Troutville: This poor man is a Veteran who has found that increased surcharges on his medicines and the payments he must make to the specialists he needs for heart and lung conditions are too much for him. He cannot afford his medicine anymore. I had no idea that the VA system was so broken, but apparently it's been as mismanaged as the rest of the government in the last seven years.

Goodlatte's answer: Check out the new low prices for drugs at Walmart.

From Natural Bridge: My Social Security benefits are going down and it's all the fault of the illegal immigrants. Can we put up a big electric fence on the border?

Goodlatte: Well, maybe not an electric fence, but we're putting up a fence.

From Staunton: A disabled Veteran three years ago was put in a new category that took him completely out of the VA system. Apparently he had enough private resources to pay for his health care so he could go someplace else, according to the government. I was never clear if his disability was service related but it sounded like it was.

Goodlatte's answer: Some kind of obsequious political posturing that boiled down to "tough", I think.

From Goshen: A former nurse who is now on dialysis wondered if there was any way the government could create a death benefit for the families of folks who donate organs. She's on the waiting list for a kidney and there aren't enough going around. Medicare would save a lot of money if transplant operations could actually take place because dialysis is expensive.

Goodlatte: Hospitals and insurance companies should look into that. And also we don't want people killing themselves to get the money.

From Waynesboro: Can't we do something for drug addicts so that they get the help they need for rehabilitation? It's so expensive now that only the rich can afford to get help.

Goodlatte: Um. No. (He didn't say that but after you lose the political obtuseness, that was the answer.)

From Daleville: What about this housing/mortgage crisis? I sure don't want the government paying for it like Hillary Clinton just suggested.

Goodlatte: People should talk to their bankers and it should be done case by case, and the Free Enterprise System shall reign. And he can just imagine what Hillary Clinton offered up! (I see Bush is offering up something today, but I haven't read it yet...)

From Covington: What can we do about losing jobs in our area? The industries are shutting down and people are unemployed.

Goodlatte: We'd like to help, really we would. It's the Free Enterprise System, though. Our hands are tied.

From Fincastle: In 1942 the Americans destroyed a synthetic fuel plant in Germany. I want to know why, if the Germans were making synthetic fuel in 1942, can't the US make synthetic fuel for vehicles now?

Goodlatte: I've never heard of synthetic fuel. I've heard of synthetic oil additives to make your car run better. (I can answer this myself - I've read that many of the technologies such as this were destroyed because the big corporations didn't want the competition. The US public has been snookered by its government and corporations for nigh on a 100 years now. It is all about the Free Enterprise System - i.e., the money. It ain't about you.)

From Staunton: Who are you endorsing for president?

Goodlatte: Nobody yet.

From Staunton (same person): I'm an assistant pastor and I want to stand in my pulpit and tell people who to vote for. Can I do that?

Goodlatte: I don't give legal advice.

During this hour, Goodlatte also took a survey. The question was what should Congress focus on - making your energy costs less, lowering your taxes, or cutting government spending.

The responses (keyed in on the telephone) were 18 percent wanted lower taxes, 30 percent wanted something done about energy costs, and 52 percent wanted the government to stop spending.

Note, of course, that there wasn't any suggestion as to what the government should stop spending money on, and I believe the government is currently working hard to stop spending money on the people who need it most - that would be the folks above who are desperate for health care, the elderly who need nursing homes, the fellow who is out of a job in Covington. No, it's far better to give the money to Microsoft and Exxon.

What a sad hour it was. My heart broke for all of those poor people with health problems. I wanted to reach out and hug them all.

Goodlatte just sends them to Walmart.