Health Care Reform Town Hall Meeting with Congressman Henry Cuellar

by Shaine Mata

photos copyrighted by Contempo Magazine

The Democratic U.S. Representative representing a majority Hispanic and Democratic constituency along the Texas-Mexican border clearly backtracked on his earlier support of the Democratic House plan saying he could not vote for it in its current form.

Yesterday, Congressman Henry Cuellar held a Town Hall Meeting at the McAllen Convention Center. The event was organized by the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. They expected around 400 people to attend. This quickly swelled to 700. An overflow room was opened up to allow the additional attendees to observe the meeting.

Attendees were required to register and pass a security check prior to entering the ballroom. No weapons, signs, banners, publications, flyers, noise-makers, sound amplifiers, or food were allowed. The Chamber wanted to ensure civil discourse between the Congressman and the audience. There were some protesters at the entrance of the convention center; but not a large quantity of them. The weather was probably too hot.

Prior to this event, representatives of the Rio Grande Valley have been hesitant to have a town hall meeting in the region, claiming that they often hold town hall meetings in other locations. Congressman Cuellar deserves credit for taking the plunge by having a meeting in South Texas. Previously, he had a Teletown Hall Meeting in which he fielded questions from throughout his district. There was no way of knowing how such an event would turn out. The Rio Grande Valley is generally a democrat-controlled area; however, there has been a growing movement by the tea parties in South Texas.

Prior to the event, I expected to see the factions turn out to skew the perception of the community. If the Democrat groups could pack the house; then the questions would seem to favor health care reform. If the conservative groups could pack the house; then the community would seem to disfavor health care reform. Given the volume of people who showed up and the predominant age group, the turnout may very well have been representative of the community with respect to political bias.

From my point of view, many of the questions seemed to come from a conservative standpoint. The questions were often very direct, like how the Congressman would vote. He answered that he would not vote on the bill the way it is now; he would like to see some changes made.

Congressman Cuellar did get some tough questions from the crowd. To his credit, the Congressman was able to skillfully address those questions by giving the four criteria that form the basis of his decision. There were a couple of occasions where the crowd expressed dissatisfaction with his answers; but they let him know and he clarified his position. Cuellar often expressed his values, which he uses to make decisions on how to vote.

Walking around the room during the town hall, you could feel the energy in the crowd. They were there to have questions answered. The audience had a mix of people of different ages; however, the majority were clearly older people, who typically are more interested in politics and are more likely to vote. It did seem that many of the people selected to ask questions came from Mission, Texas. After a while it was a bit of a joke where we would chuckle every time somebody identified themselves as being from Mission. The moderators made it a point to make random selections of those wishing to ask a question.

The entire event was very well executed by the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. They were well organized and kept everything under control. If you really, really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find something objectionable, it would be the time. Most families, had to attend to their children on their first day of school. Many older people already have some medical coverage through Medicare or Medicaid to various extents. What is in question is healthcare for those of us who are younger and have children; presumably we have more at stake being the ones who will be affected by the legislation and burdened by the taxes for a much longer time. However, if a better time were chosen, we could have possibly had too many people show up; meaning the Chamber would have been criticized for that, instead. The key is that we at least had an opportunity to speak to our Representative, whereas there were no opportunities before this.

One thing Congressman Cuellar mentioned is that he has had town hall meetings in the past; but they never turned out such a large crowd. He expressed surprise that the issue of health care reform has generated such an interest by the public. This is significant because it demonstrates the level of apathy the public generally shows when it comes to Washington, D.C. It takes something major and unsettling as health care reform to get people motivated enough to go talk to their Congressman. And they did.

As citizens, we are motivated to action when there is something historic to support; we are also motivated when there is something life changing to oppose. In a Legislature and Executive office completely controlled by the Democrats, health care reform should have been a slam dunk before the public knew what hit them. The pause in pushing the reform through may be indicative of the public’s reaction to the proposed legislation. Whether you think that health care reform is merited or not, it is important for our leaders to listen to the public. Congressman Cuellar has likely increased the respect from his constituents for coming out to listen to their concerns. Who knows, the experience may even serve him to better represent us when the bill comes to vote.

Thank you for reading Contempo Magazine blog with Shaine Mata who writes about politics, technology, and social media for McAllen, the Rio Grande Valley, Texas and America. He is a co-founder of Advantj Media Consortium

photos copyrighted by Contempo Magazine