Obama tackles issues in town hall meeting
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Printable FormatBELLEVILLE NEWS DEMOCRAT
BY PATRICK J. POWERS
400 gather to meet him in Belleville
BELLEVILLE - U.S. Sen. Barack Obama stood for more than an hour and a half, tackling issues from stem-cell research to medical liability reform to the future of Scott Air Force Base.
It was all part of the freshman senator's latest town hall meeting Tuesday with about 400 people at Westhaven School in Belleville. And according to the reaction from the crowd, the rising star of the nation's Democratic Party didn't disappoint.
"I think this was great," said James Bailey, coordinator of volunteer and community services for Linc Inc.
Bailey launched the question-and-answer session with an inquiry about Obama's efforts to address benefits for disabled veterans. Obama serves as a minority-party member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
"Disabled veterans are getting substantially smaller benefits than veterans in other states," Obama said. "No one can tell me why. That makes absolutely no sense to me. We can't stand with our veterans when it's politically convenient and then ignore them when they come back."
From there, Obama touched on a wide range of topics, such as:
- Medical liability reform: "I am somebody who thinks part of the solution is eliminating the egregious frivolous lawsuits. I know the doctors really are getting hit ... all I'm suggesting is that everybody's got to give up something to solve this problem." This statement reflects what he has previously said on the topic.
- Scott Air Force Base: "The idea of the base-closing process is that nobody politically is willing to give up a base. It's supposed to be nonpolitical ... but that doesn't mean we can't advocate. How successful we're going to be, we don't know yet."
- Federal budget: "One of the things that frustrates me about politics is that we the voters aren't always doing the math. Everybody likes a tax cut. But there's no free lunch. If we think there are services important for the people, someone's got to pay for it."
- Education: "The greatest challenge we confront as a nation is how well we're going to be able to compete in a global economy. If George Bush is going to pass a bill called 'No Child Left Behind,' he shouldn't leave the money behind."
- Stem-cell research: "I'm a supporter of stem-cell research. We should embrace this with some tight ethical rules."
Obama concluded the town hall meeting to a standing ovation and was quickly swarmed by the crowd seeking photographs, autographs and the chance to meet Illinois' newest senator. He'll be back to the metro-east for more town hall meetings, he said.
"It was my pleasure to be this close to a U.S. senator and have this kind of candor and dialogue," Belleville Mayor Mark Eckert said. "It's nice to know the senator knows where your hometown is at."
Contact reporter Patrick J. Powers at ppowers@bnd.com or 239-2562.