Cartwight opens Wilkes-Barre office

A literately overflow crowd was on hand for the opening of Matt Cartwright's W-B office in W-B tonight. So many people showed up that there wasn't enough room in the building to hear him speak and those who couldn't get in spilled out onto the sidewalk.  I was a afraid the fire marshal would arrive but Mayor Tony George was there so that didn't happen.

Matt Cartwright (D-Moosic) started off by asking a moment of silence for John McCain. He then assured us that there are members on both sides of the aisle who want to do the right thing for our country and tries to work with them everyday. He's proud that many of the bills he has introduced have Republican co-sponsors.

He gave a full throttled defense of Social Security and Medicare and trashed the latest trickle down tax cut bill. He reminded the crowd that the full name of Obamacare is The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The protection part is making sure that people with pre-existing conditions can get coverage. A big chunk of the population has some sort of medical condition that used to allow insurers to deny them coverage.  He decried the provisions of the last tax bill that gave away the store to corporations and the very rich with few benefits for the rest of us. Part of it was repealing the the individual mandate that cuts funding for the program and reduces the risk pool so premiums will soar. .