BRENTWOOD, MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com)—
A loud group of health care reform opponents protested in front of Congressman Russ Carnahan's office Saturday afternoon, about 24 hours before the House of Representatives was to vote on the historic overhaul. Calling it the "Keep Your Hands Off Our Health Care" rally, demonstrators say their concerns are not being listened to."This is not a last ditch effort," said one protester. "We will fight this forever. Until it is all over."
About a hundred people rallied, holding signs and "Don't Tread on Me" flags.
"Our sign says, 'Our marine has your back do you have his?'" said Kathy Sanders of Florissant. "He's serving in Afghanistan. He's serving to protect our rights and freedoms and this administration is taking them away from us....we don't need more government."
"I want him to come home to the country he thinks he's fighting for. The system needs to be changed, but it doesn't need to be changed this drastically," she added.
A few feet from Sanders was John and Marcia Behr, who drove to the rally from Augusta, Missouri. They had friends who flew from Sullivan, Missouri to Washington DC Saturday night to rally outside the United States Capitol.
"We're not against health care. We're just against this bill and what it's doing," said John Behr. "We would love for everyone to have health care," added his wife Marcia. "But the reality is there is a limited amount of money. Someone needs to say no. What happened to personal responsibility?"
"It's government run health care and government shouldn't be in that," John said. "Government messes up most everything they touch."
While health care reform drove them to rally, it was not their only gripe. Many said they were fed up with politics and politicians in general.
"They want to keep their jobs more than they want to represent us as far as I'm concerned," said Jim Horne. "It's terrible. I think we're losing America."
Carnahan will vote in favor of the bill. Carnahan's Communications Director, Sara Howard, responded to the protesters by defending the representative's pro-reform views.
"If we do nothing we're going to continue to see rising costs," she said. "It is going to continue to threaten small businesses that are going to have to chose between providing health care and hiring new employees and we need to make sure that everyone in this country has affordable quality health care that they can rely on."
