Murphy hears it from both sides of issue

At two public events on Saturday, the hot topic was health care reform.

The plan was for Congressman Patrick Murphy to discuss health care reform and other hot-button topics with his constituents on a one-on-one basis.

The plan didn’t last long.

Minutes into the first of two scheduled “Congressman on Your Corner” sessions Saturday afternoon at the jam-packed Concerto Fusion restaurant in Morrisville, shouts from an impatient, frustrated crowd forced Murphy and his staff to reconsider the format of the event.

“You’re concerned about the format. We’ve changed the format,” Larry Glick, Murphy’s director of outreach, told the crowd. “The congressman will talk to you as a group.”

Murphy’s about-face (in his opening remarks, he specifically told a woman “this was not a town hall meeting”) resulted in a 90-plus-minute, frequently contentious Q&A session with voters clearly emotional about health care. But the congressman kept his cool, listening to people’s concerns and defending his plans while occasionally asking hecklers “to be respectful.”

The revised format was repeated later in the day in front of the produce department at the Acme in Levittown. Emotions ran high at the second gathering as well, although the crowd seemed more evenly divided politically at the supermarket than the restaurant.

The meetings were the 78th and 79th “Congressman on Your Corner” events of Murphy’s two-and-a-half years in office.

“The great thing about Bucks County is that people really can be very passionate,” Murphy said as he left Acme. “So that’s why I don’t flinch and give them their chance to talk while most of my colleagues are putting their heads in the sand.”

Of the change in format, Murphy said, “We called an audible. Driving over (to Morrisville), I was told there were 25 people there. When we showed up, there were about 150.”

Any doubts about the political leanings of the crowd in Morrisville were put to rest when Murphy, explaining that he works with, not for, President Obama, added, “I happen to think he’s doing a pretty great job.” The restaurant erupted in a chorus of boos and catcalls. It was the Murphy line that got the most vocal reaction at either location.

The congressman spent much of the two sessions explaining why the current health care system was “unsustainable,” a word he used repeatedly. He stressed that he supports a public option – in which people can choose between government-run health care and existing private insurance companies – rather than the “single payer” plan that more liberal Democrats endorse.

Asked in Levittown if he and his family would take the public plan, Murphy said, simply, “yes.”

He defended, to a point, the national health care bill that was passed, 31-28, by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Friday, setting the stage for a floor vote in the fall.

“I had a lot of concerns with it,” he told the crowd in Levittown. “I wasn’t happy with how it was originally written. I’m going to do the best I can to make it a better bill.”

He tried to soothe the fears of elderly voters who questioned if they’d still be alive under the bill, vowed to aid small business owners who are struggling to provide health care for their employees, talked of better health benefits for children and insisted that the plan would not result in higher taxes for those making under $1 million a year.

Murphy described the government’s role in the health care issue as that of a “referee” – a role he occasionally played himself Saturday when members of the crowd tried to shout each other down.

“A national healthcare bill would rob us of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Gary Gibson of Newtown claimed at the Acme.

“You’ve had your say. Now shut your mouth,” a supporter of the bill interrupted.

“Let him speak,” Murphy said, proving he was open to hearing opinions on both sides.

Regardless of political opinion, people at both locations seemed pleased with the revised format – even if they didn’t always get the answers they were looking for.

“Deciding to open up the question to the full crowd was a good idea,” Jim Mossholder of Lower Makefield said after the Morrisville session, “but I think many people are still confused as to what the bill is trying to accomplish. The question is, what type of health care will be available to citizens, and at what price?”

Bill Appleton of Levittown said he supports the single-payer system but he doesn’t think the United States is ready for it. He thought Murphy did a good job handling the crowd on both sides.

“If I was in his shoes, I don’t think I could have done it,” Appleton said at the Acme. “He was very respectful and did a good job trying to keep tempers down.”

Murphy’s bottom-line message at both locations is that health care reform can’t be the government’s responsibility alone.

“We’re trying to get everyone involved to come to the table: patients, doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies,” he said. “This is an American challenge. It’s a defining moment in our country’s history, and it’s time to get it right.”

 
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