By SUSAN BLOWER
Indiana Correspondent

NEW CASTLE, Ind. — Like many other Town Hall meetings throughout the country, the meeting between Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and his constituents in the Sixth District at New Castle last Friday was packed with emotional people who were attentive and vocal.

However, unlike some pictured on television, the crowd of about 140 was respectful of Pence, who set the tone with his quiet voice and respectful listening.

In his opening remarks, he called the size of the crowd “remarkable at the end of a busy week.” He highlighted Veteran’s Day by speaking of President Barak Obama’s decision of whether to send an additional 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, as requested by his generals on the ground.

“We are getting in front of the security challenges (in Afghanistan),” Pence reported. “They are not as dramatic as Iraq in 2006. The President is right in refocusing on the Taliban.”

Pence also said that upon his return to Washington on Monday, he looked forward to a detailed examination of the Fort Hood shooting, in which 13 soldiers were killed. This was met with the first of several enthusiastic rounds of applause from the room.

Health care reform
But the biggest issue on most people’s minds seemed to be the health-care reform bill, passed by the House of Representatives, 220-215, recently and headed to the Senate for ratification.

“We are a long way from the issue being completed,” Pence said. “With the narrow margin (of victory), the partisan lines, and the decidedly liberal approach of the bill, it doesn’t have much future in the Senate.”

That comment pleased a vocal majority of the audience.
“But the (debate) continues to be alive and well. I expect there to be tense debate between now and Christmas, and Indiana’s two senators will loom large in the debate. Most of the action will now be in the Senate, and (Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.) are two key players,” Pence said.

“Sen. Lugar doesn’t have his equal for the kind of respect he commands on both sides of the aisle. He has taken the position that until the economy is moving again, we need to set aside this issue.”

Pence called Lugar a “leveling influence” on the debate. Pence said that he would describe the current House health care bill as a victory for those who wanted universal coverage and a defeat for others like himself who are fighting to lower health insurance costs so that more Americans could afford it.

The successful bill mandates that all Americans purchase health insurance or face criminal penalties, such as fines and imprisonment, Pence said. He said the bill also creates 111 federal programs, partially subsidizes some health insurance companies, and provides government-owned health insurance, also known as the “public option.”

The bill would be funded by a tax increase and a $500 billion cut in Medicare, which would “eviscerate” the Medicare Advantage program, which has been popular in Indiana, and throw those participants back into the regular Medicare program, Pence said.
Pence said the alternative Republican plan would allow people to purchase insurance across state lines, small businesses to pool with similar businesses across the country to lower costs of purchasing coverage, place caps on punitive damages awarded in malpractice suits, and provide an affordable program for those with pre-existing conditions not typically covered by insurance.

Pence entertained questions from the crowd for nearly an hour covering topics such as health care, cap-and-trade, nuclear power as an energy source, the up-coming New York trial of the terrorist who planned 9-11 (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed), legalizing gay marriage, and how he stayed grounded while living in Washington D.C.

Government takeover?
When one in the room, Scott Conley, complained that the government was trying to control health care, Pence appeared to agree.

He said that with the “public option,” employers have the option of canceling their insurance program by paying 8 percent of their payroll to the government.

“Most employers pay 12-15 percent of their payroll for insurance ... With a tough economy, employers are going to look at (the savings of canceling their program). The rolls (of the public option) will swell; it will be a pathway to the government takeover of insurance.”

Pence said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) supported the current bill because he said it was the quickest way to get to a single-payer system; i.e., government-owned health insurance.

In response to another question about the criminal penalties in the current bill, Pence said, “I don’t see where in the Constitution the federal government has the right to tell me to buy insurance.”
Another person in the crowd disagreed: “We have to buy auto insurance; why not health insurance?”

Pence said that driving a car is a privilege, in which a person has a choice, but no one has a choice of whether they are born in this country, which would require them to attain health coverage.
He said the commerce clause in the Constitution forbids the federal government to interrupt commerce.