Senator Feingold Listening Session -Marengo, WI

On August 19 I left Rice Lake to go 100 miles northeast to the small village of Marengo WI in Ashland County. My mission was to attend the listening session sponsored by Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI). The session was to start at 11:00 AM. I arrived at about 10:50 Am and found the meeting already in progress. Why would Russ Feingold hold sessions in small counties in northern Wisconsin hundreds of miles away from the major Wisconsin population base in south and southeast Wisconsin? Feingold made a promise when he ran for the Senate in 1992 that he would hold listening session in all 72 counties every year. Feingold has kept that promise. It was Ashland’s counties turn to be given the opportunity to be heard.

I know there has been some talk about areas with small populations being represented equally –in the Senate in this debate, i.e. Max Baucus in Montana and Kent Conrad in North Dakota. That is the way the Senate is set up. Should Senators from small states not be given chairs of senate committees? Remember that the Representative s in the House are distributed by population.
Upon arriving an aide gave each participant a brochure explaining the listening sessions and how to contact Mr. Feingold. We were also given a sheet of paper to write down our name, phone number, address and a topic or question for Mr. Feingold. Since there were about one hundred people there Mr. Feingold had time to answer each person’s question, although comments were asked to be held to a minimum by the question askers as the session proceeded.

The group, even though small, covered the topics that are affecting all of us nationwide.; health care, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, military presence in Africa, education, and even bringing guns to public listening session. By the way there was one individual with a gun at the meeting and that was the Ashland County Sheriff.
Mr. Feingold made it clear there is no bill yet in the Senate. He will not vote for any Senate healthcare bill unless there is a plan to pay for it. He was asked if he had read the House bill. His answer was that it was out in the van right now and he has been reading through it. He reminded us that this was a House bill and he of course, would not be voting on it.

Besides not giving a blank check for the health care bill he would not give his vote for another stimulus bill. His view is that there was not much choice the first time around with the stimulus spending. However, the executive branch would need to look somewhere else for any more stimulus money. Mr. Feingold said, “The stimulus was not dumb but it is dumb to keep doing it.”
There were about a half dozen signs that read “Public Option= Affordable Health Care. When someone mentioned that she would like to see support for Medicare for everyone about 90% of the crowd applauded.

A business man was concerned about Worker’s Compensation insurance and that a single injury could devastate his business. Feingold assured this man that he would add this concern to his list and would see that workers comp is addressed in any health care bill.

A teacher expressed concern with ‘No Child Left Behind” and how unrealistic many of the provision in that law are to implement. Mr. Feingold said he was one of 10 senators to vote against “No Child Left Behind.” He made a small poke at the law citing a section that said “All kids will be above average.” The teacher asked Feingold to fix the law or get rid of it. This statement drew much applause.
Mr. Feingold supports the right of citizens to bear arms. This is a good position in Wisconsin where hunting is very popular and for some boys it is close to being seen as a rite of passage. Wisconsin recently passed a law where it is legal for 10 year olds to ,not only accompany a hunting party, but also carry a gun. The youngster has to be supervised at all times and the adult accompanying the child and the child can only have one gun between them. The ten year old is not required to attend a hunter’s safety course. But I digress. Mr. Feingold preferred that citizens refrain from bringing guns to listening sessions but it is definitely in their rights to do so.

A Medical doctor, with 50 years experience, spoke about how he was in favor of universal health care. One of his concerns is the unavailability of doctors, nurses and other health professionals to provide health care services. There is a scarcity of health care professional in the Northwoods of Wisconsin now.

A young woman spoke of her condition that kept her head tilted to one side. The cure for this condition is Botox. Since Botox is usually considered a cosmetic treatment her insurance would not cover it. Senator Feingold asked for permission for his office to call her and if she was willing to work with his office on this problem with him. Another woman’s autistic son can’t get the treatment he needs. His family is underinsured and is debating whether to sell their home to get the money for the treatment her son needs. She pleaded that something be done to get universal health care passed as things for her son need to be done now or the time frame in which they can help their son will pass with no help for him.

One speaker mentioned that with the scare tactics and fabrication of so-called facts such as “death panels” that the Republicans do not deserve a place at the adult table. This comment got a chuckle from Feingold but he also talked about how the conversation needed to be ratcheted down a notch or two. We need to continue to seek bipartisanship. Feingold will continue to talk with Republicans to try to convince them that health care reform is needed. Mr. Feingold backs a public option.
A gentleman brought up how he was with Feingold from the beginning and was pleased with his stances. However, he had only one problem with Mr. Feingold. When in Green Bay early in the Feingold for Senate campaign he said Mr. Feingold had shaken everyone’s hand at the end of the event except his. Mr. Feingold said he didn’t remember not doing that but why did the person think that he snubbed him. The gentleman said “Because I asked you the hard questions.” Feingold asked the man to come forward and met the man half way from the front table and shook his hand and apologized for appearing to snub him. This got a round of applause and some chuckles.
An Ashland landlord asked help for financial help for renters. About half of his renters were behind in their rent payments and the landlord could not carry the much longer. This situation is a n ongoing problem in Northern Wisconsin which has been experiencing a depressed economy for years. The current economic downturn has exacerbated the loss of jobs and the default rate on rent.

One woman asked about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan She asked Mr. Feingold to do what he can to bring the wars to an end and bring the troops home. Mr. Feingold said that this was the first time this year that anyone at these listening session had brought up the wars. He was thankful for her question and said we can never forget that our young service men and women are risking their lives. Feingold admitted he voted for the Afghanistan War but things have changed. He believes that Mr. Obama is listening too much to his military advisors. If Gen. McChrystal wants more troops he gets them. There is no clear plan for the Afghanistan War and right now we are playing right into the Taliban hands. We are creating more problems by driving the Taliban into Pakistan.

Cheers and applause went up when Mr. Feingold mentioned that global warming was a problem that needs to be addressed now. Those who are denying the existence of global warming are doing all of us a disservice.
Assisted living and nursing homes are becoming bigger issues everyday as the population ages. “What are you going to do about long term care?” Mr. Feingold said that long term care must be addressed in the health care reform bill. A Viet Nam veteran praised the care he is getting from the Veterans Administration and the VA facilities are getting busier and busier. The vet asked Mr. Feingold not to forget the veterans.

I mentioned to Mr. Feingold that I believe that the Congress had abdicated too much of its war powers authority to the executive branch. I also asked him how many more fronts the military was going to open. I asked this because of the relatively new AFRICOM (United States African Command) that is becoming more and more active in Africa. As a senior non-commissioned officer in the Air Force I studied in our Senior NCO Academy courses some 25 years ago that Africa and the Middle East were the next places we would be fighting wars because of the resources there. Now it has come true. Mr. Feingold put it differently. He said that Africa is vital for our national security interests. I had written Mr. Feingold about this new command about a year ago. Here is a quote from Mr. Feingold’s August 6, 2008 response to me, “I am supporting efforts to make sure that the new military command supports U.S. policies towards Africa and advances continued diplomatic, development, humanitarian assistance, and regional initiatives led by the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), national and international non-governmental organizations (NGO's), and African political and military leaders. If implemented with this approach and mission, AFRICOM will enhance the rule of law in Africa, and advance our strategic interests throughout the region.” Mr. Feingold, at this listening session told us that he is rethinking his stand on AFRICOM as many African nations are concerned with increased interference in the region. This was my concern when I wrote my letter a year ago. Perhaps senior NCO’s in the trenches know what they are talking about!
Another area of concern is the issuers of credit cards and the unjust interest and fees they charge. When Mr. Feingold was in the Wisconsin Senate he made sure that credit companies could not charge these outlandish rates. Since he has left for the US Senate, Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate have made sure the protections he help set up on a state level are gone. Mr. Feingold agreed that more has to be done in this area.

The session had a small turnout compared to many around the country. However, this group of people surfaced the many concerns that are concerns for many across the country whether they live in New York, rural Alabama, Kansas City, Los Angeles or any other part of the United States. The people were very respectful and were respected by Senator Feingold and his staff. It was a very informative session. Senator Feingold’s honesty was very apparent as he asked if his office could contact the people with questions and needs that he could not meet or answer right then. He always asked if he could contact these people and ask for their help with the problems they surfaced. I feel that Senator Feingold will contact these people because he has never failed to answer any letter I have ever sent to him.