Roanoke Tea Party

Many of our Roanoke Tea Partiers were in attendance for Representative Bob Goodlatte’s Town Hall meeting last night in Roanoke.

The hall was filled beyond capacity, and Mr. Goodlatte spoke and answered questions for more than two hours. A wide range of opinions were shared, but we were heartened to note that not only was the overwhelming majority of the crowd opposed to the bills currently working through the Congress, but that the Congressman was opposed as well.

He warned about governmental interference in insurance choices and voiced grave concern about the fiscal disaster facing Medicare as the baby boom generation begins to reach retirement age.

Here is a video report from Carson Krislov on WDBJ.

We can’t say whether Ms. Krislov did so with any agenda in mind, but she did go through the audience and hand-pick people who had posed questions to the Congressman for her to interview.

The Roanoke Times has coverage of the meeting online that struck us as very accurate and complete. It included this list of suggestions from Goodlatte:

That prompted Goodlatte to cite some of the “targeted changes in our laws” that he’d like to see:

• Leveling the tax playing field to offer the same incentives for individuals that are now offered to large corporations.
• Tort reform that would reduce operating costs for doctors, as well as “defensive medicine” that results in unneeded tests and procedures.
• More transparency of health care information and costs.
• Expansion of pooled coverage that would allow individuals and small businesses to band together and take advantage of economies of scale, even across state lines.

WSLS also aired a report, which included an interview with Chip Tarbutton, a member of our interim Board – though they did misidentify him as “Tearbutton.”

If anyone has their own photos or video from this event, please contact us.