Democrats say critics won't derail health-care plan

WASHINGTON - President Obama and top Democrats vowed yesterday to push back against angry critics of their health-care overhaul, who have threatened to hijack the debate by disrupting town halls and other public events convened by Democratic lawmakers this week.

The leader of House Republicans responded by saying that "Democrats are in denial" in dismissing the objections as a fringe movement, "instead of acknowledging the widespread anger millions of Americans are feeling this summer."

Conservative groups opposed to the health-care plan have asked supporters to flood public gatherings featuring members of Congress. From Pennsylvania to Texas to Wisconsin, Democrats have been confronted in recent days by sometimes belligerent attacks against Obama's health-care plan.

In one incident, an effigy of Rep. Frank Kratovil Jr. (D., Md.) was hanged from a noose outside his district office.

The increasingly vocal opposition provoked Democrats to respond yesterday. The Democratic National Committee released a Web advertisement that alleges "Desperate Republicans and their well-funded allies are organizing angry mobs" to "destroy President Obama and stop the change Americans voted for overwhelmingly in November."

And Obama wrote to the 13 million people on his e-mail list, asking them to commit to attending at least one health-care event this month in support of his plan. The message, distributed by Organizing for America, seeks to draw on the popularity that vaulted Obama into office.

"This is the moment our movement was built for," Obama wrote. "There are those who profit from the status quo, or see this debate as a political game, and they will stop at nothing to block reform. They are filling the airwaves and the Internet with outrageous falsehoods to scare people. . . . So we've got to get out there, fight lies with truth, and set the record straight."

Earlier in the day, he told a crowd in Wakarusa, Ind., "I promise you, we will pass reform by the end of this year," even without bipartisan support.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele denied yesterday that party leaders were behind the town-hall uproars. "We're not inciting anyone to disrupt anything. We're not encouraging people to be angry to the point where they are being . . . brutish," he said.

But he defended the right of critics to attend the events of lawmakers, and he blasted the White House's response. "Instead of focusing on people having legitimate concerns, the administration has the arrogance to look their nose down" at the activists, Steele said. "To sit back and say this is some Republican cabal is a bunch of baloney."

In a statement yesterday, House Republican Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio similarly defended the activists. Several recent polls suggest that a majority of Americans are anxious about Obama's health-care plan or are opposed to it, but Boehner said that "Washington Democrats are trying to dismiss it as a fabrication."

Several conservative groups have taken the lead in organizing opposition. Conservatives for Patients' Rights was launched this year by Rick Scott, the controversial former chief executive of the HCA/Columbia hospitals firm who now runs a chain of walk-in clinics in Florida. The group is primarily funded from Scott's own pocket and works closely with Tea Party Patriots who protested the federal bailouts.

Americans for Prosperity is a self-proclaimed grass-roots group known for opposing smoking restrictions and raising doubts about the validity of global-warming evidence. The group, which claims 500,000 members, created an anti-reform project called Patients First and supplied thousands of placards for use in anti-reform protests.

Also in the mix is FreedomWorks, an advocacy group led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R., Texas), which distributes a Health Care Action Kit for protesters.