Partisanship Finds an Outlet: Oakland County Government Resolution Against Obamacare Brings Supporters and Opponents Out

Today the Oakland County Board of Commissioners debated a resolution that would state that the County is opposed to the healthcare reform bills currently supported by the Democrats in Congress. As is my habit, I was at the meeting, and was surprised to find the meeting packed- apparently the Democrats organized a large turnout, and the Republicans responded with their own late email asking people to come in. You could tell who the the Democrats were- they all wore the same sticker (Health Care Reform Now or something).

Before the Resolution was voted on, the floor was opened up for public comment, and 30-40 people came in front of auditorium and spoke for 3 minutes each. There were maybe 100 people in the audience, so a good percentage of the people there got to comment on the issue. In the name of journalism, I'm going to record some of the comments below, but for those of you who do not regularly attend meetings and who don't follow the political scene that closely, this might be a good chance for you to hear what sorts of comments are made by both sides.

One generality that I want to point to is that almost every speaker who supports Obamacare and spoke out against the resolution began their speech with comments about how America sucks, how our healthcare system is one of the worse ones in the world, and that the reason it is so bad is because evil insurance companies are involved in a grand conspiracy to cheat people out of their wealth. Almost every single supporter of Obamacare repeated this mantra in their speech, as if by saying these things would make them true.

Another comment I enjoyed from a supporter of Obamacare was (and I quote) "Republicans need to stop taking marching orders from fat loud-mouthed drug addicts." Apparently being 'fat' is something to attack someone personally about, and so are struggles with drug addictions. This kind of sensitivity and compassion is what you can soon expect from liberal government bureaucrats who are going to be making your healthcare decisions.

Another supporter of Obamacare said "Obama won the Presidential election overwhelmingly and he campaigned for exactly the type of plan that he is pushing for now so no one in this room has the right to oppose any of his policies." For fun, count how many wrong assumptions are in that statement. Also, I have seen this guy around- a couple years ago he was loudly speaking out against President Bush and the War on Terror in Iraq. Hypocrisy, liberal is thy name.

One women plaintively expressed the following comment "How can people even think about being against free healthcare for everyone- I don't even understand how you could oppose that." This is the depth of logic and reasoning that marks the left in our nation, a group that voters let take over on multiple levels of government.

Another gentlemen expressed the following sentiment "Insurance companies are full of evil people and the government needs to go after them with the full force of the state and drive them all out of business." I'm still quoting actual comments from people who support Obamacare.

After one guy stood up and gave a speech against Obamacare, there was shouting and cries of "you lie". People sat quietly through speeches in support of Obamacare (with only an occasional quiet laugh or chuckle at the foolish statements these people uttered) but almost every single person who spoke against Obamacare was yelled at, swore at, and shouted down. Free speech for liberals is only for those who say what they want. At one point the police even came in the chamber to keep order because a liberal wanted to physically fight everyone who disagreed with him- a bully just like his hero Obama.

Logical fallacies were present in almost every liberal proponent of Obamacare- one girl said "There is nothing right now stopping the free market solving the healthcare problem- the free market had its chance and failed and now the government needs to step in." There is no free market in healthcare- there is a direct correlation between increasing government involvement in healthcare and the rising cost. Healthcare is very far from 'free market' and thus it is a problem- the more government you inject into an issue the worse it gets, and that's not an argument in favor of more government, that is an argument against government in the first place.

After someone stood up and gave a great speech about America being founded on the ideas of freedom and liberty, several speakers stood up to reject those ideas and said that "America was founded on equality and altruism, not freedom and liberty"- these people who support Obamacare obviously have little knowledge of the history of our nation. Or perhaps they are mixing up the French Revolution with ours and support the ideas that led to terror and dictatorship in France as opposed to the ideas that led to greatness and law in our nation.

Some people wondered why the Oakland County Board of Commissioners took up a resolution such as this anyway- after all, what contribution can a county board make to this debate. The problem with this very important debate on healthcare is that it is not being debated in the open- it is being done behind closed doors by elites who wish to hide their actions from the light of day. And people on both sides, for and against Obamacare, want to speak on the issue, want to exercise their rights, want to petition their government, want to gather and assemble and battle it out in the forum of ideas, and this is being denied to them by the Democrats who seek to rule us. That is why the Oakland County Board discussed this issue- to give people a forum and a voice and an outlet to their thoughts, feelings, and frustrations.

The Resolution by the Oakland County Board of Commissioners stating its opposition to the Democrats healthcare plans passed by a majority vote.