Dissenting voices listen quietly during Wasserman-Schultz town hall

In a tightly controlled environment, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-FL, held a town hall meeting in downtown Fort Lauderdale Monday night. As the meeting start, it was evident the crowd was just as evenly divided as our nation seems to be, some in favor of the current administration’s moves with others against. Outside, the streets overflowed with signs and crowd cheers of ‘Yes We Did’ and ‘Obama’s gotta go.

At 7:30 p.m. the crowd settled in to listen to Wasserman-Schultz, who represents a large swatch of South Florida in Washington D.C. from inside the commission chambers of Fort Lauderdale as well as outside the building and up stairs in watching areas.

Schultz first gave the crowd an overview of recent legislation before she took questions from both groups who approved of her and those opposed to her views, though constituents weren’t allowed to hold the microphone and debate was limited as was commentary that didn’t include questions.

According to a slide show she initially presented, she said she felt that Congress helped turn around the American economy and is creating good jobs as well as “making common sense reforms to how Wall Street does business, launched a clean energy jobs revolution and made quality health insurance affordable for all Americans.

“We’ve had changes in the last two years—in January 2008, we were bleeding jobs. In Feb. 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act began,” said Wasserman-Schultz, adding that early numbers showed the country had gained jobs in March. “We’re on the right track again with tax cuts for 95 percent of Americans, money for police, teachers and firefighters, we’ve invested in infrastructure, green jobs and energy efficiency, we’ve extended unemployment and Cobra subsidies.

“One year later, we’re seeing job growth,” she added, saying out of 167,000 jobs added in March, 123,000 were in the private sector and that the economy grew 5.7 percent in the last few months of 2009.

Wasserman-Schultz said 112,000 jobs had been added in Florida since the end of 2009, and that to date, Florida has received 444 Recovery Act contracts, 2,358 Recovery grants and 2,168 small business loans, with 190 awards in her district, 7 contracts and 69

Plantation resident Susan Johannesmann address Cong. Wasserman-Schultz.

small business loans.

“We still have a long way to go clearly—Florida is the center of the foreclosure crisis with 48 percent of homeowners under water,” she explained.

The Home Affordability and Modification program was one effort she cited to help homeowners as well as the Hardest Hit Fund–$1.5 billion in grant funds for innovative solutions in the five hardest hit states in the homeowner market. Florida is one of the five allowed access to the funds to implement strategies statewide to stem the foreclosure tide.

Wasserman-Schultz spent a large amount of time discussing the recently passed health care reform bill and the reconciliation bill that followed shortly after.

Wasserman-Schultz said constituents can expect “employee-sponsored insurance premiums should stay the same or drop up to three percent, saving $1900 a year.”

Other examples Wasserman-Schultz cited to show how the health insurance reform would affect residents were:

–A family of four that made $70,000 could keep their plan if they liked it, or could switch to the Exchange. Individuals with employer-based plans or individual insurance do not pay deductibles or other out of pocket for preventive care services

–A single mom with two kids making $40,000—making too much to be eligible for free government insurance, but too little to purchase could work with her employer who would get a 35% tax credit or buy from the exchange now at lower prices.

–Would improve Medicaid by extending solvency for ten additional years, close the Part D donut hole over the next ten years while providing seniors with immediate $250 payments for prescription drug cost relief as well as free wellness and prevention checkups;

-An unemployed couple can buy coverage in the high risk pool at affordable rates, but that by 2014, that same couple could be eligible for Medicaid or get a tax credit for insurance.

-24-year-olds can now remain on their parent’s plan until their 26, get an employee plan, participate in the insurance exchange or buy a catastrophic policy.

-Employers with less than 10 employees will get a 35-50 percent credit. If insurance costs a small business owner $70,000, in 2010, the employer will get a 35 percent, or $24,500 tax credit while by 2014 he will get 50 percent or $35,000. Benefits to businesses are on a sliding scale, with the credit phasing out after 25 full-time employees and/or $50,000 average wages. Businesses with less than 50 full time employees will be exempt from requirements to contribute towards employees’ health coverage

In addition, Wasserman-Schultz claims the plan will cut $143 billion in its first ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office as well as create four million new jobs.

Then came the questions.

Kathy in Davie: Are we getting more regulation (in the financial world?

Wasserman-Schultz: “We are creating a consumer financial protection agency, and are working to put protections in place so AIG won’t happen again.”

Dan in Weston: At the last meeting, I asked why Congress will not have the same plan. So why are they exempt from the bill?

Wasserman-Schultz: “We don’t keep the coverage we have—we automatically go to the exchange in 2014 when it’s in full effect and I’m entirely comfortable with that.”

Michael Raymond (summarized): When with the federal government look into legislation that will look in discrimination for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities?

Wasserman-Schultz- Not soon enough.

Yolanda Lopez of Weston: When are we going to look into the Medicare/caid fraud issue included in the bill—when will it be implemented?

Wasserman-Schultz: There are significant provisions that crack down on fraud/abuse. Funds saved through cuts to Medicare advantage will be used to cut down waste, fraud and abuse.

Pedro Delgado: We’re trying to get it repealed, trying to get you fired. How would you Democrats feel if we repealed?

Wasserman-Schultz: I don’t support repealing this bill.

Susan Johannesman: What happened with the back room deals

Wasserman-Schultz: There were no such deals. We passed good legislation and now it’s law—I’m not here to discuss the process—this is a law and this is a town hall to talk about the law that will benefit Americans.  For people concerned this process was fair, we had 1,000 town halls, 3,000 hours of committee review.

Gary Rogers: Who gave you the right to decide whether or not I have to purchase health insurance.

Wasserman-Schultz: You’re not required to have health insurance, but there will be a category on your tax return similar to if you have a child or not, or married or not. It will reflect in your tax category. You are not required to have health insurance.

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Posted by Andrea Freygang on Apr 5 2010. Filed under Broward County, Federal Government, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.