From the Argus Leader:
Opponents of President Obama's efforts to expand government's role in health care warned at a Sioux Falls rally Tuesday night that the reforms will overwhelm the economy and threaten the world's best medical industry.
"He's either going to break the bank or kill the economy by raising taxes, or he'll ration care," Lawrence Hunter, president of the Social Security Institute, told 145 people at Terrace Park.
Hunter, 60, a 1967 graduate of Lincoln High School now working in Washington, D.C., said he voted for Obama. He called the president "nice, likable, well-intentioned and dangerous" and warned that the nation's elderly will be the first victims of change.
"Some form of rationing is inevitable," he said. The proposed reforms will "squeeze doctors and squeeze hospitals. When that begins, the first group to be hit will be seniors."
Patients United Now, a project of Americans For Prosperity, sponsored the rally at the park's band shell. The event was a festive pep talk against Obama's plans in a breezy picnic atmosphere, complete with a free supper, children at play and sounds of softball from across Covell Lake. Halfway through, the high-amp rock band Pop Evil, performing outdoors a quarter-mile away at Nutty's North, threatened to drown out the speeches, though sponsors took heart that they'll get another chance this week to spread their message. A rally at 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the W.H. Lyon Fairgrounds, dubbed Tea Party II, will recite the same themes.
Craig Dewey, 27, a self-employed public affairs worker in Sioux Falls, told of living briefly in Canada. He said his mother faced delays in care for breast cancer under that country's public health system.
"Care is rationed by the government in order to control costs, which create waiting lists," he said.
Dr. Blake Curd, a state legislator from Sioux Falls, said 20 million Americans lack health insurance, less than half the number often quoted.
"Do we change the entire system for 7 percent of the population?" he asked.
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