Forty ninth District Congressman Darrell Issa’s health care town hall meeting Wednesday night was attended by 3,200 of his North County constituents, including a respectable contingent from Valley Center—although most of them came from Vista, where the meeting was held.
It was very warm in the packed auditorium—much warmer than the outside, where the program was also piped.
Not one of the audience members insulted the congressman. No one pulled out a noose. No one was burned in effigy. There weren’t even any hecklers packing Hecklers (as in Heckler and Koch).
Radio talk show host Rick Roberts was the MC for the event, which was held inside and out of the Rancho Buena Vista High School’s basketball auditorium—and it was a Rick Roberts kind of audience since he had been hawking it on his show for several days.
It was a respectable and a respectful crowd and when the congressman expressed the hope that people would applaud sentiments they agreed with, but would refrain from booing those that they disagreed with, his wishes were honored.
Tickets with the names of people who wished to asked Issa a question were put into a barrel and name were pulled out at random.
Issa used the opportunity to plug his proposal (H.R. 3438), that would grant the American people access to the same health care benefit plans that members of congress and federal employees receive.
He poked fun at the current 1,100 page health care proposal that is now before the House.
“One of the conclusions I’ve reached is that we shouldn’t throw this away but we should recycle it,” he joked.
“The answer is to mend the existing system and drive down the costs,” said Issa.
Over the course of the evening, in answer to individual questions, Issa revealed that his proposals for cutting costs in health care insurance include:
• Putting a cap on how much doctors can be sued for procedures that go wrong, by having the government guarantee the procedure, much as there are limits for Veterans Administration doctors. “We need to make it affordable to make a mistake,” he said.
• Making insurance portable, by government taking some of the risk associated with pre-existing conditions on the government’s shoulders.
• Cut the costs of new drugs being approved for public use by the FDA.
• Mandate that different payers cannot pay different costs for the same procedures. “The lowest prices should be for cash customers.”
Asked how he would insure everyone without the so-called “public option,” Issa said, “Thousands of people are living in fear because they can’t get health insurance. We already put a lot of money into the pot. There are a lot of question about those who don’t have insurance. How many don’t choose to have it. How many would if it were made affordable?”
VC residents who were at the event included Wayne Hilbig, Allen & Barbara Olson and Monica Jauregui. Alex Carr, our high school reporter, took a video that we hope to post on the newspaper’s Web site: www.valleycenter.com/
Although no VC residents got to ask a question of the congressman, Jauregui came close. According to an email that she sent to Penny Blazej (who forwarded it to us), Jauregui said, “It was exciting last night for me because I never attended a Town Hall Meeting. It was conducted really well. I was four rows from the stage. I was given a ticket for a lottery call for questions. My question was going to be: Would he be willing to present a bill allowing us to purchase insurance policies across state lines.”
In fact, Issa answered that question and the answer is yes, he does favor that reform.
The Q&A continued for over two hours. According to Kurt Bardella, the congressman’s press secretary, “We had a very positive feedback.”
Valley Center is a community divided. Not by the health care debate—but by the fact that it is served by two congressmen.
This divide, which has gone largely unnoticed by most residents, was brought to many voters’ attention by the recent town hall meeting that Darrell Issa (R-49th District) held. Some voters called what they thought was their congressman’s office, only to learn that they live in a different district.
If you live in Valley Center and are not in Issa’s district, then you are in the 50th District of Rep. Brian Bilbray.
In many cases the dividing line between the two districts is Valley Center Road itself.
Of course both congressmen are rib-rocked members of the GOP, as are about 70% of the district, so there is no disconnect there. Both can be relied on to vote about the same on most issues.
But it does create some confusion.
According to Fritz Chaleff, who handles public relations for Bilbray, “We do get a number of calls with people saying, ‘I don’t know what district I’m in. I live in North County but don’t know what district I’m in.”
However, he said that most people simply go the Registrar of Voters Office to figure out which office to call. He added, “There are a couple of weird ones that we haven’t been able to figure out yet.”
Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for Issa’s office told The Roadrunner, “I can’t say that it’s that much of a challenge. We always make sure that whoever contacts us is directed to the correct agency.”
Contact information for both
congressmen is listed below:
Congressman Darrell Issa, 49th District:
http://issa.house.gov
Riverside County Office
Temecula, CA
phone: 951-693-2447
San Diego County Office
1800 Thibodo Road, #310
Vista, CA 92081
phone: 760-599-5000
fax: 760-599-1178
Washington D.C. Office
2347 Rayburn House
Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
phone: 202-225-3906
fax: 202-225-3303
Congressman Brian Bilbray, 50th District:
http:www.house.gov/bilbray
Washington D.C. Office
U.S. Representative Brian Bilbray
2348 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: 202-225-0508
Fax: 202-225-2558
District Office
U.S. Representative Brian Bilbray
462 Stevens Avenue, Suite 107
Solana Beach, CA 92075
Phone: 858-350-1150
Fax: 858-350-0750
Dale Primus, a veteran firefighter of the Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Dept., cooks bratwurst at the annual fire barbecue over the Labor Day weekend as he has every year for several years now. See more photos on our Web site at www.valleycenter.com/
California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is scheduled to rule Thursday, Sept. 10 on whether San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E) can go forward with its Emergency Power Shut Off (EPSO) plan that would turn off power in the Backcountry when high winds, low humidity and several other conditions are present.
SDG&E has already promised to appeal the decision and to ask for a rehearing, whether it follows recommendations given by Commissioner Timothy Alan Simon or that of Administrative Law Judge Timothy Kenney.
The PUC was given a split decision by the administrative law judge and PUC commissioner that it assigned to hold hearings and give recommendations. It must choose between the two this week.
Commissioner Timothy Alan Simon’s proposed decision was on the order of “Yes,” but with conditions.
Administrative Law Judge Timothy Kenney’s proposed decision was more like a definitive: “No.”
SDG&E of course would object to being told “no” but it also opposes some of the conditions that Simon proposes, including:
• SDG&E provides notice and communicates with Cal Fire and the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services 12 hours before shutting off power. If either of them object, it can’t shut the power off.
• Instead of giving customers six hours notice of a shut-off, it would have to give a minimum of 12 hours.
• The pilot ESCO project would only remain in effect until Dec. 31, 2009, and be reevaluated after that time.
SDG&E feels that the first condition would give the County a veto over the imposition of the shut-off.
Both the County and Cal Fire also object to the Simon’s proposal. An attorney for the County last week filed a petition with the court saying that giving the County this power would, in effect, share liability for any ill effects of the shut-off between the County and the power company. Cal Fire has filed a similar objection.
The plan is opposed by San Diego County and by a consortium of several water districts, including Valley Center Municipal Water District, which are suing to prevent the plan from being implemented.
Two weeks ago the PUC issued a restraining order to prevent the power company from going ahead with its plan in advance of the PUC decision.
Chris Marszalek, long known to residents of the Backcountry as Chris the Woodcutter, is making a name for himself in the big city.
The Palomar Mountain resident, whose home, along with many years of wood sculptures, burned in the Poomacha Fire of 2007, is on the road to recovery and recently was asked to join the San Diego Sculptors Guild.
Marszalek is the featured artist this month at the guild, whose studio is located in the Spanish Village Arts Center in Balboa Park. A reception was held for him over the weekend at the guild.
Sculpture is always on exhibit at the sculpture gallery and it is for sale. Visitors can see sculptors at work on their pieces and it is often possible to buy a piece that you saw being worked on hours before. The artists also do commissioned work.
The Sculpture Guild is a juried association; application is open to all local sculptors. Artists use the indoor gallery and outdoor garden as places to sculpt, hold workshops and meet.
San Diego Sculptors’ Guild is located at 1770 Village Place, San Diego. You can call them at 619-238-0522.
The San Pasqual Casino Development Group, Inc. has announced that Bruce Howard has been appointed general manager of Valley View Casino. Howard previously served as general manager of Valley View Casino from 2003 to 2007, when he left to work as general manager of The M Resort in Las Vegas.
“It is our pleasure to welcome Bruce back to the Valley View Casino family,” said Joe Navarro, president and CEO of the San Pasqual Casino Development Group, Inc. “We have experienced great success under his leadership in the past and we look forward to even greater accomplishments in the future.”
With over 23 years of gaming industry experience, Howard most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of the Ameristar Casino Hotel Vicksburg in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Howard began his career in the casino industry in 1985 as assistant director of food and beverage at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. He then went on to oversee the grand opening of the Players Island Resort in Mesquite, Nevada as the vice president of food and beverage. His résumé also includes positions as director of food and beverage for Bally’s Hotel & Casino, vice president of food and beverage at the Aladdin Resort Casino in Las Vegas and assistant general manager of the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, Missouri. During his previous time at Valley View Casino Howard helped open a $114 million expansion and remodel of the casino culminating in April 2007. Looking forward, Howard will play an integral role in strengthening the high-end position of Valley View Casino and in the opening of the casino’s Four-Diamond luxury hotel that is currently under construction and scheduled to open in mid-2011.
“I am very happy to be joining my friends at Valley View Casino,” said Howard. “I look forward to working with this outstanding team in raising the bar on the Southern California casino experience, and embracing the Valley View Casino culture of superior guest service, friendly team members, cutting-edge technology, creative marketing and advertising, delicious dining and an exciting gaming floor.”
By DAVID ROSS
The party of infanticide at one end of life and euthanisia at the other end wants me to care greatly about the quality of life in the middle of existence.
With Ted Kennedy gone but the capstone of his life’s work remaining to be completed, we will no doubt hear Vice President Joe Biden calling for Congress to “throw out a life preserver to save healthcare! Do it for Ted!” But will Congress listen?
Forty-two million people don’t have health insurance. I have health insurance and I don’t want to risk losing it or any part of it to pay for someone else getting health insurance.
That may sound heartless to liberals who are used to thinking about every political issue with their hearts instead of their brains, but that is at the core of why so many of the grassroots is against Obamacare, not that we really know what that IS exactly.
Millions of people don’t have a car. I have a car. I wouldn’t be willing to pay more for my own car just so someone else could have a car. I also would not be willing to pay any more for my house in order to buy a house for someone else.
That’s because I don’t think that things like health care, cars and houses are somehow, “rights” that the government can use its taxing powers to ensure that other people have.
Right now I can’t afford a new computer and I very badly need a new TV because mine in on the brink of ceasing to work altogether. Too bad for me! My wants or need for these electronic devices doesn’t mean that it is someone else’s responsibility to provide them to me.
But, Ross, you say, “Health care is a basic human right!”
Who says so?
Just because you put your hand on a rock and declaim that something is a “right” doesn’t make it so. I refuse to debate on an issue where it has already been determined that health care is a right. Liberals far too often get to set the debate on their own terms by making claims that “people have a right to work,” or “working mothers have a right to take family leave with pay” or “children have a right to preschool” and many of us will look blankly and concede the point, when what we ought to do is hold out our hand, palm up, and say loudly, “Hey, wait a minute!”
There was an article earlier recently in RealClearMarkets.com by economist Bill Frezza that begins, “What is the moral foundation of your economic beliefs?”
He points out quite correctly that whatever “moral” beliefs we apply to economics will help shape our political beliefs. If we think that capitalism is basically an evil heartless, dog-eat-dog system that unfairly victimizes the innocent and uplifts the undeserving, or, at best, rewards the “winners of life’s lottery” to a disproportionate degree, then we will take the position that people who can get health care (substitute anything else you think is a “right”) owe it to make sure that everyone can get it.
We live in a capitalist system. In such a system, not everyone can afford everything they want or need. That does not create an obligation among the rest of us.
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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