10,000 chant to Congress: 'Hands off our health care' and 'Kill the bill'
Posted: November 05, 2009
9:12 am Eastern
By Anita Crane and Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
U.S. Capitol
WASHINGTON – A crowd of at least 10,000 has descended on the Capitol to protest the trillion-dollar health-care bill and demand meetings with members of Congress.
The throng steadily grew as buses unload for an "Emergency House Call on Congress" to stop the House from passing the bill.
A group of legislators led by Reps. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., hosted the emergency town-hall meeting. House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have presented a nearly 2,000-page bill, combining different versions drafted by three House committees, which is projected to cost at least $1.1 trillion.
Send Congress a message – no government health care, or you're outta there – through WND's exclusive "Send Congress a Pink Slip" campaign!
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he expects the House take the final version to the floor on Saturday.
But thousands of enthusiastic Americans have packed the Capitol grounds, chanting loudly: "Hands off our health care," "Kill the bill" and "You work for us!"
Many attendees are wearing patriotic clothing, carrying U.S. and "Don't Tread on Me" flags and waving signs that say, "You lie," "No socialistic health care" and "Politicians lie, patients die." They arrived as early as 8:30 a.m., coming by bus, car and plane from from all across the country, including states such as Oregon, Ohio, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky and Texas.
Patsy Bailey, protester from Durwood, Md., told WND she believes lawmakers should be subject to their own health-care plan.
"Nobody knows what's in the bill," she said. "Are they going to sign up for this?"
Carolyn Bowman of Germantown, Md., had her own message for Congress, "I'm totally against government controlling our health care. Stay out of our lives!"
Eric Johnson, an attendee from Richmond, Va., said the issue is bigger than health-care reform.
"Along with standard reasons – like we can't afford this, and don't meddle in our lives – the biggest thing is that I know the people messing with this don't care about health care," he said. "It's a power grab, money grab mostly, for the Democratic Party. I'm fed up with the Republicans, too."
Protester Della Ellar of Richmond, Va., described herself as a proud WND reader. She plans to ask Nancy Pelosi why she won't accept the same health-care "reform" she is imposing on America.
(Story continues below)
Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, a group that helped bus 10,000 Americans to the Capitol, said, "Obama, Pelosi and Reid refuse to listen to American taxpayers who have clearly demonstrated through rallies, phone calls and congressional visits that they don't want to pay for a trillion-dollar, government-defined health-care plan."
Missy Smith, president of Women Against the Killing and Exploitation of Unprotected Persons, or WAKE UP, told WND she is leading a sit-in protest outside Pelosi's Washington office.
"We're protesting because the bill would provide taxpayer funding of child-killing," she said. "We will crumple the massive bill one page at a time and leave it tattered on the floor. We are deeply troubled that Nancy Pelosi wants to fund the murder of innocent babies under the guise of health care. She's a Catholic, and she should know better."
As a post-abortive mother who has counseled many others through the injuries and haunting sorrow of abortion, Smith said she's ready to be arrested if that's what it takes to stop this legislation fraught with danger to women, babies, the disabled and the elderly.
As WND reported, Rep. Bachmann urged citizens to come to Washington today and "pay an emergency House call to Congress."
"This is the most effective way we have to kill socialized medicine," she said. "Nothing is more effective at reaching a congressman than having a citizen come to Washington, D.C. – not asking for a handout, not asking for tax money, not asking to take some liberty away from somebody else, but just asking for freedom."
Actor John Voight and "Liberty and Tyranny" author Mark Levin spoke at today's event. Dr. Betsy McCaughey, former New York lieutenant governor and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, spoke as well.
Bachmann noted that Pelosi may have garnered the 218 votes necessary to pass the legislation Saturday.
Hoyer told reporters today, "We certainly have well over 218 people who say they want to vote for the bill."
Bachmann asked citizens to bring video cameras, office numbers and phone numbers of their representatives so they can find them and "get them on video saying how they will vote." The bill, if adopted, she said, "will be a disaster. It is unconstitutional. We need the help of American people."
WND editor Joseph Farah urged citizens who could not attend the rally to send "pink slips" to every member of Congress.
Bachmann said Americans are sending a crucial message to Congress today, making it clear that they do not support the Democrats' health "reform."
"We Republicans can't stop the passage," Bachmann said. "But with resistance from the American people, I am fully confident it can be defeated."
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