U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, R-1st, of Johnson City, "preached to the choir" Friday evening at a town-hall-type meeting organized by the 912 project, a group that supports "restoring" the Constitution.

"Being here tonight is the most American thing I can think of," Roe told the crowd at one point, perhaps as an oblique reference to characterizations of people who have spoken out at other town hall meetings across the nation this summer as being "un-American."

Friday evening's event was the twelfth Roe has held in the last few weeks, one in each county in the 1st District, six this week alone.

Such meetings, he said, are about "freedom of assembly and freedom of speech," two of the first 10 amendments to the Constitution that make up the Bill of Rights.

Roe was introduced by Marty Capelin, head of the 912 Project, which is working on "reclaiming our sovereignty as a nation" and restoring the Constitution.

About 75 people gathered to hear the first-term congressman speak at the Greeneville Light & Power System auditorium, and about a dozen of them stood for more than 90 minutes. The crowd was well-behaved, and many lined up afterward to talk to the doctor-turned legislator in person.

Capelin thanked everyone for coming, and said, "Only concerned citizens are going to change things."

Roe spoke for nearly an hour, then answered questions for about 40 minutes. Several times, people asked Roe what they can do in response to laws before congress or other actions they disagree with.

"You're doing it," Roe said at least twice, but he also noted that he has learned that the thing that members of congress like least is losing, and elections are coming up next year.

In his opening remarks, Roe talked about the first stimulus bill, the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) that was passed just before he took office on what was seen as an emergency basis, although only a small percentage of the money has been spent.

Roe said his guiding financial principle as mayor of Johnson City was to "spend less than you take in."

He said he knew the country was in trouble when he and other freshmen congressmen were taken to Williamsburg for a weekend briefing on the economy, and "an academic from Harvard" told the group that the government must "spend a lot of money or go broke."

Roe also spoke about the second stimulus bill, which, among other things, appropriated "$700 million in borrowed money to protect wild mustangs" in the west, $50 million to protect trumpeter swans and $30 million to protect a mouse that lives in salt marshes.

Adriene Puleo said she believes that the Obama administration is trying to "turn us into a Third World country" controlled by "all the czars."

For too long, she said, "We've been lazy," but we've gotten a wake-up call" and it may have come in time.

"Every mother here," she said, would give her life to save a baby, "if God came down" and offered the choice. Similarly, "there's not a mother here who wouldn't give her life" to save a wounded soldier from death, given the same choice.

"But if you tell me, there's a mouse gonna die," a reference to the stimulus spending -- "it's your life or his, guess what? He's gonna die."

Roe was applauded loudly when he said that two things that the country needs are term limits for congress, and a balanced budget amendment.

He said that projections for the national debt show that, if present trends continue, the country will have more debt in 10 years than the total accumulated from the administration of George Washington through the administration of George W. Bush.

He noted that he has been able, as a congressman, to tour all three prisons at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the U.S. is holding "229 very bad people," including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the planner of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Roe said he believes that President Obama should visit Guantanamo himself before transferring prisoners now housed there to prisons in the U.S., since the conditions he found were very humane.

But most of his remarks were on HB 3200, the 1,000-page House health care reform bill being promoted by President Obama.

"Health care in the United States is bigger than the whole economy in England," Roe said, yet if someone were to propose a single bill to restructure the British economy from top to bottom, and urged its passage in a hurry, no one would support such an undertaking.

"We need affordable health care," Roe said, but reform should not come in the form of the bill that is before the House.

Roe said affordable health care should be based on three principles:

* "One, if you lose your job, you shouldn't lose your insurance.

* Two, if you become ill, you shouldn't be bankrupted by it."

* The third principle, he said, is: "If you have a pre-existing condition, through no fault of your own, you should be insurable."

Roe said he, as a physician with 31 years of experience in obstetrics and gynecology, was not asked for any input into the bill, nor was a cancer specialist from California now serving in congress.

After President Obama offered (at a town hall meeting in Raleigh, N.C.) to go over the bill "line by line," with any member of congress, Roe wrote the president a letter, accepting the offer, and the president's press secretary, informed of it during a press conference, offered to "make that happen."

Laughter erupted when Roe said, "We haven't heard a response yet, but were waiting, anxious, by the phone."

Roe said congress needs to consider well the TennCare experience, where a "rich benefits package" was offered with no co-pays, and the overall cost tripled in 11 years from $2.6 billion the first year to $8.5 billion, eating up a third of the state budget until it was cut back.

During that time, 45 percent of the Tennesseans who had private health insurance dropped it and got on TennCare, Roe said, and employers could not match the benefits offered.

Roe said he is even more concerned about the panel of appointees who will make decisions about whether a particular medical procedure is "effective," based entirely on its cost.

Charles Wood, of Greeneville, asked Roe if proponents of health care reform in Congress "have the option not to go in" the "public option" plan.

Roe said, "I don't want it as my plan." He said in the Health, Education and Labor Committee," 26 members said they would choose the public option, "but Ways and Means (Committee) said no."

There are now three versions of the bill, Roe said, but if it passes, "I guarantee, if the sun comes up in the east, they won't make congress have the public option."

Margaret Posdell asked why either the normal federal selection process, or approval by congress, was not used for appointing all the "don't call them czars" to head various reform programs.

Roe said congress should have oversight, but does not.

He urged everyone at the meeting to write to members of congress and other elected officials, but to use e-mail, since all "snail mail" to congress must be irradiated now because of the anthrax scare in 2001 and after, causing major delays.

"Go to meetings, demand accountability," he said.

Judy Sexton asked why, with the deficit growing, congress wants to spend so much on health care reform.

Roe said huge amounts of money could be saved by addressing tort reform and malpractice insurance, but the bill includes neither.

A great deal more money could be saved by allowing insurance companies to offer the same plans in all states. If he had a heart attack while crossing State Street in Bristol, Roe said, different rules and costs would apply if he fell in Tennessee than would apply if he happened to fall in Virginia.

Neil Smith, of Greeneville, said its natural to have different points of view, but today there is "genuine and sincere lack of trust in the motives of the president and congress" on the part of many citizens.

He said the TARP bill was a response to toxic mortgages that were created by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the direction of congress. Too often in history, dictators have come to power by creating a crisis and then rushing in to "solve" it, Smith said.

"I agree with you," Roe said, adding, "We've lost trust in government."

But the congressman was applauded loudly when he said, "The reason that dictator stuff isn't going to happen is, we've got the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms."

Mike Alexander asked why no one in congress has risen "to demand evidence" that Obama meets U.S. citizenship requirements. Roe said members have asked, and it would be easy to post the president's birth certificate on the Internet to settle the question.

Luke Puleo said, "We're losing the 2nd amendment," with local rulings that prohibit carrying guns in parks. "I object to anyone who says we're not."

Roe said that not one of the 230,000 concealed carry permit holders in Tennessee has been convicted of a gun crime.

Robert Berry, a Greeneville physician, said "Most of us don't want government controlled health care," but many also do not want insurance companies to control it. Berry also said that many people want to know, ahead of time, what an x-ray is going to cost when they go to the hospital, but there's no price list. He said hospitals should post such a list.

"They should," Roe said, and there needs to be much more transparency in health care costs.

With transparency, Roe said, consumers could make better decisions, and make use of a health savings account with a high deductible, as he has personally done, and pocket the savings.

Doug Bruce noted that the White House is in the process of taking over the 2010 census, which has always been a function of the Commerce Department. "Why isn't congress questioning that?"
Roe said, "We are," and said Republicans plan a very vigorous challenge to this "very, very bad idea."

Robert Kent noted that it has been reported that the pharmaceutical industry has contributed $80 million to be spent to get the health reform bill passed, and unions are also contributing heavily.

The bill is exceedingly long and complex, Kent said, and was presented to a congress that "doesn't have time to read it." Roe said he has made time to read and re-read it, though re-reading it has shown him more and more lack of specifics in the bill.

He noted that the bill sprang on the scene already written. "Who writes those bills?" he asked. "Congress didn't write it, congress didn't even read it."

He said the "centralized executive branch" of government is increasingly "operating on its own" and "taking over our government," triggering applause.

Roe said he agreed, though he said he had no knowledge as to whether the pharmaceutical figure was right, and noted that the president has "cohorts in congress."

In response to a question by Ron Coleman, Roe said that the health care bill "could be passed in congress as it is right now," because Democrats have the votes.

Roe said he had the privilege of having lunch with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who told him the job of the minority party is to "explain the other side of the issues. That's all we can do right now."

Valerie Koehler drew applause and laughter when she asked, "How do we get tort reform with a whole government full of lawyers?"

Roe quipped, "the short answer is," congress has 240 lawyers and 14 doctors, "so we finally have them outnumbered." That triggered more laughter.

Roe said after Texas changed the state constitution to limit malpractice insurance, 15,000 doctors moved into the state.

Larry Parman, of Greeneville, defended Medicare as "one of the best programs" the government has ever set up. Sitting behind him was Gary Johnson, who said he has been forced to contribute $40,000 to Medicare over the course of his working life. "I'd have been better off investing my own money. Give me a choice," he said, adding, "I'm an American."

Roe said the major problem with Medicare is that the government will not allow any company or entity to compete with it. He said he plans to introduce a bill to start a $2,000 savings account for Medicare and another for Social Security at birth.

Parman said, however, "The government bankrupted General Motors and that about bankrupted me," since his retirement was invested in General Motors stock, which plunged in value and has not recovered. "If it wasn't for my Medicare," Parman said, he would be in far worse trouble.

Jan Maddox, of Greeneville, said Roe had been "preaching to the choir most of the evening," and noted that she has been pleased with his votes, so far.

But she warned, "I didn't send you to Washington" to compromise, triggering applause.

She asked him to carry a message to Tennessee Senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, to the effect that, "The word 'compromise' should not be in the vocabulary of Republican legislators from Tennessee."

Maddox also said she would like to see Republicans put out more information about challengers trying to unseat Democrats next year.

Linda Rogers asked if the health care bill will affect "Tri-Care," which covers military retirees. Roe said he does not believe it will.

Persons attending the event were handed flyers announcing that the Greeneville Tea Party group is planning a trip to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 12. Roe invited anyone who attends that event to visit his Washington office.

For information or to make reservations on a chartered bus, contact greenevilleteaparty@hotmail.com.