From Daily Planet Staff Reports

Those who oppose President Obama’s proposal to reform health care turned out for several programs, rallies and protests around Asheville in August.

These included a John Locke Foundation program featuring a panel of speakers, and separate protests sponsored by the Carolina Stompers and the Asheville Tea Party in a parking lot next to Rep. Heath Shuler’s Asheville office.

The Carolina Stompers rally was held late afternoon Aug. 11 immediately after a heavy rainstorm, which organizers blamed for the lackluster turnout. About 20 people attended. Along Biltmore Avenue below, about five people held signs supporting the reform proposal.

The JLF program, titled “What Business Owners Need to Know About Health Care Reform: Why Consumer-Driven Health Care Is the Only Way to Reform U.S. Health Care,” drew about 65 people on Aug. 12 at the Holiday Inn Asheville-Biltmore West.

Meanwhile, the ATP Recess Rally drew about 150 people to a mock town hall in the parking lot beside Shuler’s office on Aug. 22. The event, moderated by Gary Shoemaker, an ATP leader, offered citizens an opportunity to address an empty lectern from which Shuler was missing to ask questions about health care.

The Recess Rally featured dozens of citizens expressing their concerns about what they perceived as the likely skyrocketing costs of government-run health care in shaky economic times — and the danger of allowing government to control people’s lives by controlling their health care.

In an unexpected twist for rally attendees, Arden resident Jesse Junior spoke in favor of considering Obama’s health care refrom proposal, sparking catcalls from the crowd. As he turned over the microphone, Shoemaker chastised Junior — briefly — for being out of line with the intent of the rally. Junior disagreed and hung around in the back row, exchanging his viewpoint peacefully with various attendees.

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About 150 people attended an Aug. 22 rally against the proposed health care reform legislation next to Rep. Heath Shuler’s Asheville office. Daily Planet Staff Photos

The Stompers rally featured a skit in which former Florida talk-radio host Mike Thompson played the part of a cigar-chomping gangster/Chicago politician opposite someone dressed as “Chicken Man,” a slap at Rep. Heath Shuler for not attending the gathering next to his office.

The Chicagoan would ask a question and “Chicken Man” would squawk in response.

Immediately preceded by a thunderstorm, Don Yelton said, “Chad and I are sad we had a little bit of bad weather that probably kept 60 or so people away ... You dance with the ones who come.”

Thompson, in character, concluded the program and prompted much laughter from the Stompers crowd by stating, “Remember, Obama loves you. Obama knows more ... Fall on your knees before it’s too late. Now go home — and sin no more!”

Meanwhile, the JLF program featured keynote speakers Joseph Coletti, a fiscal and health care policy analyst at the Raleigh-based conservative think tank; and Beth Donner, president of Diversified Planning and a leader of the National Association of Health Underwriters. Later, a panel of experts presented their experiences and answered questions from the audience.

Coletti and Donner presented the case for a consumer-driven health care system and warned of cost and control issues involved in a government-run health care system.

On Aug. 11, Obama said private insurers “don’t need to worry about the public option because FedEx and UPS have done well competing with the Post Office,” Coletti noted. “Well, if that’s so” — that the service will be as poor as the Post Office’s — “why even try the public option?” The crowd cheered and laughed at Coletti’s observation.

Donner addressed Health Savings Accounts, noting that they include a high deductible and allow tax-advantaged savings.

“In my opinion, people are as addicted to co-payments (on their health care) as some are to cocaine,” she said. “We know what a house costs, a car and groceries cost, but because of co-payments, people in the United States don’t know what medical (procedures) cost.”

Under the plan she and Coletti proposed, people would have more incentive to take better care of themselves and become more conscious of costs. In general, Donner said, “It goes back to personal responsibility” with consumer-driven health care, versus the Obama plan.

The third local opposition program to the current health care reform proposal, billed as the Recess Rally, was part of a series of similar gatherings held nationally by Tea Party groups.

Gary Shoemaker, who led the rally, lamented that Shuler and many other congressmen had held town hall meetings over the telephone and he said those do not qualify as town hall meetings. “We wanted to have the real thing,” he said.

While Shuler was invited to the meeting, he did not attend and, instead, a lone lectern stood near the microphone as a symbol of the congressman’s absence. A Shuler spokesman said the congressman was busy that day, but had met with members of the Tea Party recently and was aware of their opposition.

Shoemaker said the group plans to send the congressman a videotape of their questions and concerns that were directed to the empty lectern.