He did a lot more than stand there

U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Fifth District, has joined a group of freshman House Democrats who are suggesting changes to the proposed health care legislation now before Congress.

After spending most of August listening to loud complaints about health care reform, it’s obvious that Perriello took what he heard to heart.

“The line in the sand is deficit neutrality,” Perriello recently told The News & Advance of Lynchburg. “… The good news is that the vast majority of the plan is going to be paid for by cutting waste in government programs and increasing efficiency.”

Perriello and the other freshmen also want Medicare protected (and the prescription drug “doughnut hole” closed), the costs associated with lawsuits against doctors dealt with, Americans given the chance to get the same health care plan that covers members of Congress, incentives introduced to promote wellness and preventative care and small businesses protected.

“To be clear, we recognize and support the need for significant reform to our health care system …” the letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said. “…We came to Congress with a mandate for change. We came to Washington to put solving problems ahead of scoring political points, and to tackle the problems that neither party has been able to solve for a generation.”

Those words will no doubt frustrate Perriello’s critics in the Fifth District. They didn’t go to those town hall meetings Perriello held in August to listen to a congressman who wants to solve the country’s problems, they wanted him to do all he could to kill any health care reform bill.

But not all the people at the town hall meetings were against health care reform, and it’s obvious that Perriello learned a lot about what people in the Fifth District were concerned about, including the importance of protecting Medicare and ensuring that reform doesn’t bankrupt the country.

True, Perriello is ignoring those who want nothing done, but he didn’t go to Congress to just stand there. Perriello has injected himself into the debate over one of the most controversial issues of our time. Our congressman is a fighter willing to listen and act on what local people want. Let’s see how far that will take him on this tough issue.