Tea party rally has message for Supreme Court

There are so many good things about the Affordable Health Care Act. It's hard for me to understand why someone would even think about going without insurance. Cain and the TBs are full of hot air.

Two years ago, thousands of members of the tea party descended on Capitol Hill to protest the passage of President Barack Obama’s health care law.

On Saturday, just two days before the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of the law, hundreds of tea party supporters rallied on Capitol Hill with the same message: Kill the bill.

Though the crowds for the “Road to Repeal” rally in Senate Park, near the Capitol, were smaller than they were two years ago, the passion was the same. People stood for hours in the pouring rain to deliver their message to the Supreme Court — and to Congress.

“Two years ago the momentum was a little bit different,” said Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots. “There were months and months building up to the passage of the law, but right now this is more of a kicking off as we go into the week.”

Martin said the tea party would be around all week, but the rally was really to “send a message” to Washington that “the majority of Americans want the law repealed.”

And having some big-name speakers — like former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain — certainly helped bring out supporters.

“The liberals and the establishment, they thought because of a few raindrops you were going to stay home today,” said Cain, who was greeted with massive applause when he took the stage. “I wanted to be here with you to deliver a message to the people in Washington, D.C., to deliver a message to Obama and his administration, we the people are here and we want our freedom back.”

Cain drew cheers as he ripped up pages of a copy of the law placed on stage. And he delivered a message he made many times on the presidential trail: If "Obamacare" had been law when he was diagnosed with stage four cancer, he would not be alive today.

“Imagine if a bureaucrat got a report on their desk trying to decide if I should be approved [for] my surgery, my chemotherapy … if they were to say, OK, he’s got a 30 percent chance of survival, I don't think the government would want to pay for his surgery and his chemotherapy,” Cain said. “That’s what Obamacare would do [to] you and me, and that’s why we’ve got to rip it up and repeal it.”

The crowd heard from dozens of prominent conservative speakers, including Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who filed one of the first suits against the law, and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). While the majority of speakers declared their hope that the Supreme Court would find the law to be unconstitutional, they all said the real "road to repeal" would be at the ballot boxes in November.

“The next step here and my focus here is political,” Cuccinelli told POLITICO. “It’s to make this an issue, and [to make] the principles that underlie both the bill — and our concerns with the bill — election issues.”

Gohmert encouraged the crowd to march across to the Supreme Court when the rally was over and to “say a little prayer.”

Instead of praying silently, the crowd marched to the Court building following the rally, chanting “Stop the tyranny” and “Repeal Obamacare.”

“There comes a time in a man’s life where you have to step up for what you believe in,” said Dean McDonald, a business owner from Atlanta. “Now is one of those times.”

Like many of the other participants in the rally, it was not McDonald’s first time coming to D.C. to protest the law.
“I offer health care to my employees,” he said. “If this takes effect, that’s done. It’ll get too expensive, with too many mandates. Free enterprise needs to take over, not the government.”

The rally kicked off what will be a week filled with events outside the Supreme Court. Supporters of the law will hold daily news conferences on the steps each day of the arguments, and Martin said there would be another organized rally against the law on Tuesday.

Outside of the court, there was already a line — which had started forming on Friday — to get one of the few seats available to the public to watch the oral arguments.

Some were being paid to hold spots in line for others. But Kathie McClure, a lawyer who had traveled from Atlanta, had a different reason for being there. She was there to support the law — and she said her family’s personal stake in health reform was the reason she was willing to sleep on the sidewalk for the weekend.

“My son has diabetes and my daughter has epilepsy. They are uninsurable in the private insurance market. Now they will be able to get a policy, and insurance companies won’t be able to exclude them. For their future, this is a huge deal. That’s why I’m here,” she said.

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