Mr. Frank at the COA

Our Congressman, Mr. Barney Frank, spoke last night at a meeting of the Democratic Town Committee. The Council on Aging hall was the venue and it was packed with people. The crowd overwhelmed the air conditioning on a hot night. The heat was not contained to the room temperature as some participants were visibly angry with the Congressman. Unfortunately, some who attended were raucous and disrespectful of common courtesy throughout the evening, hooting and shouting while the Congressman was trying to speak. Apparently Lyndon Larouche supporters turned out in force and peppered the representative with inane questions about the legality of the Federal Reserve system. One young woman even accused the Congressman of supporting a Nazi agenda! Mr. Frank, who is Jewish, took some understandable umbrage at the characterization. Throughout the evening, some of those in the room interrupted Mr. Frank's answers but the Congressman maintained a relatively calm demeanor. Some of the items that he answered questions about included:

-His thoughts on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their regulation (He sheparded legislation through which increased oversight after 2007 when Democrats controlled the House)
-That illegal immigrants will not be covered by the proposed health care reform bill (He quoted the section which disallows those not legally in the country from participating)
-That the bill provides for payment to health care providers for voluntary end of life counseling not "death panels".
-That the public option was an important component of the reform to control costs and would not be subsidized by taxpayers but would have to compete on its own with the revenue from premiums (Mr. Frank noted that it was inconsistent to maintain that the government can't efficiently run a health care program and to also claim that people would flock to the public option.)

More after the jump

-That he is covered by a government single payer system that he likes (Mr. Frank is 69 years old and is covered by Medicare)
-That the additional coverage of the nearly 50 million people under the new plan would not lead to rationing of care to those now covered (He noted that those without health insurance are treated now but in the most inefficient and costly place, emergency rooms. He felt that more nurses and doctors should be trained and that the bill has provisions to encourage that)
-That the program would be paid for from additional taxes and savings within the system (He cited loopholes which allow corporations to claim profits offshore, a reduction in the amount of deduction allowed for those making more than $325,000, savings through more efficient delivery of services, concessions from insurance and pharmaceutical companies)
-That he favors a single payer system but there are not the votes to pass that

On other issues, Mr. Frank stated his opposition to our continued presence in Iraq.
He is working on legislation to establish a financial services consumer protection agency that would take over some functions now left to the Federal Reserve.
The forum was televised by DCTV channel 18. They may rerun it at some point but I could not find it on their listings.