Recess Roastings: Constituents Roast Mitchell on Healthcare, Spending Votes

Constituents Roast Mitchell on Healthcare, Spending Votes

Arizonans Protest Dems’ Government Healthcare Takeover and Out-of-Control Federal Spending

Democrat Operatives Claim Government Healthcare Takeover Is a Political Winner, Despite Obama’s Plummeting Approval Ratings

Said a Democratic official: “If Republicans think this is a political problem for us – they’re sorely mistaken. The American people want reform and Republicans are standing in the way for the sake of partisan politics. That is a political problem for them. We are going to cause havoc for them.” (Ben Smith, “DNC targets 33 Republicans on healthcare vote,” Politico, 11/09/09)

“A double punch of persistent economic discontent and growing skepticism on health care reform has knocked Barack Obama’s key approval ratings to new lows, clouding his administration’s prospects at least until the jobless rate eases.” (“Health Care, Economy Sends Obama to New Lows in Approval Ratings,” ABC News, 12/15/09)

Recess Roasting: Scottsdale Protestors Rally Against Mitchell’s Healthcare Vote: “Give Harry the Boot”

It is a cool breezy afternoon in Scottsdale, Arizona, just hours before the President’s State of the Union address on Wednesday. And across from P.F. Chang’s and Goldwater Bank on East Camelback Road, a merry band of approximately 30 “Tea Party” activists, upset with politicians of all stripes, but especially liberals, waved signs against health care reform and out-of-control federal spending. The conservative protesters unfurled their banners and hoist placards that read “Give Harry the boot” (with a real boot as prop; and that would be Harry Mitchell, the local Democratic congressman) and “Stop the Corrupt HealthCare Bill”…

Earlier protests by the Tea Party Patriots of Scottsdale have drawn more than 100 people, according a spokesperson for Mitchell, who was elected in 2006 to represent the 5th District just east of Phoenix… “There is giant passion on both sides of the health issue and real angst about the economy,” says Mitchell. A moderate Democrat who voted for the final House bill, he believes the current health care status quo is unsustainable.

Still, the Tea Party folk are fervent. The group’s event coordinator Judy Hoelscher is relatively new at all this and has the enthusiasm of a convert. When she was living in California she voted for Gray Davis, a Democrat, for governor. Now she paints signs and has a website (angryrightwinghousewife.com). The mother of three says, “Obama and the Democrats have not addressed the economy at all.” She believes the stimulus bill was nothing but a “slush fund.”…

“I don’t think the politicians have been listening,” says Jerry Licata, a 61-year-old retiree who left New York for Phoenix 37 years ago. “The taxpayers have not been vocal enough before. They are just spending our money.”…”I want the politicians to represent the people and not the special interest lobbying groups,” Hoelscher says. “That’s the real issue for me. I am afraid for my children’s future. My children absolutely deserve the same life style as my parents.”… (Kevin O’Leary, “On Scene: With the Tea Party Patriots of Scottsdale,” Time 1/31/10)

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