had a great time at the social security town hall meeting [View All]

[mopinko]

yesterday at loyola. organized by jan schakowski, with barack obama and dick durbin.
they had a huge crowd. i could not get into the main room, which my hubby, loyola alum, but not good at estimating much of anything, says holds 800-1000 people. there were 2 other rooms where they put the overflow, which probably added up to another 150 people.
a couple of the best lines- from jan-
the real social security crisis is the bush plan.
they thought that by not touching benefits for people over 55 that seniors would go along with the plan. they forgot that seniors care about their families.

from dick durbin-
what the ownership society really means is that we are all in this ALONE!!

from barack obama-
a quote from daniel patrick moynihan. during a debate on social security under reagan, a republican senator was bloviating on, and moynihan disagreed with him on a point. the senator replied that he "was entitled to his opinions." to which moynihan replied that he "was certainly entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts."


they all took the time to come downstairs, and talk to the people in the overflow rooms.

i hung around at the end, like a little groupie, so that i could shake jan schakowski's hand, and thank her personally for standing up for the truth about what happened in ohio, and tell her how brave i thought she was. what a thrill. (i also shook durbin's hand, and touched barack as he walked by.)

jan says that republicans that are out doing these town hall meetings are getting their heads handed to them. i am catching a slight wiff of the foul smell of frying republicans on the third rail. yummm. makes me hungry.
the seniors were out, and they are fired up. they are absolutely not being bought off by their little exemption of those 55 and over.

they are hoping to put the video of the hearing on their website-
http://www.house.gov/schakowsky/