Thread: Congressman's spokeswoman blames an "obstructionist str

Murphy's office inundated with calls

By: GARY WECKSELBLATT
The Intelligencer
The congressman's spokeswoman blames an "obstructionist strategy."
It seems national tea party groups are burning up the phone lines at Congressman Patrick Murphy's offices.

Kate Hansen, spokeswoman for the 8th District Democrat, said offices in Bristol and Doylestown have been "inundated" by calls outside the district "jamming our phone lines."

In an e-mail, Hansen stated, "These calls are not organic and are being organized by a number of different national tea party activist groups that are executing an obstructionist strategy to deliberately prevent offices from functioning as they're supposed to (and) be able to accept feedback from constituents."

The newspaper received several calls this week from area residents complaining they've been unable to reach anyone in the congressman's offices or leave a message in voicemail.

Murphy's Doylestown office was specifically hard hit as it had been closed Monday and for several hours on Tuesday because of a power outage.
Hansen blamed "tea party activists from Texas and Florida" for limiting their ability to communicate with Murphy's office and suggested constituents e-mail their opinions to the congressman through his Web site, or call his Bristol or D.C. offices.

On Tuesday, Murphy announced his support for health care legislation that could be voted on as early as Sunday. He described it as "the largest middle class health care tax cut in our nation's history."

The Congressional Budget Office Thursday estimated the 10-year, $940 billion plan would reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion in 10 years and provide coverage to 32 million people now uninsured through a combination of tax credits for middle class households and an expansion of the Medicaid program for low income people.

It would restructure one-sixth of the economy in the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare was created in 1965 and impose new obligations on individuals and businesses, requiring for the first time that most Americans carry health insurance and penalizing medium-sized and large companies that don't provide coverage for their workers.

Citing the CBO report in an e-mail, Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz, D-13, stated health care reform "will provide the largest deficit reduction since 1993. + The bill is fully paid for and more than keeps our promise to the American people that health care reform will not add one dime to the deficit."

The phone lines in her offices have not had any more traffic than usual, according to her spokeswoman, Tali Israeli.

Besides Murphy's local offices, the Capitol switchboard was overloaded with calls from constituents trying to reach members to make their voices heard on health care reform.

According to Roll Call, the barrage started after radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday gave his listening audience the Capitol switchboard phone number and encouraged them to call it. At the end of the show, Rush bragged that the switchboard had shut down.

Jeff Ventura, spokesman for the Chief Administrator's Office, told Roll Call the call volume is roughly 10 times what the switchboard usually receives.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Gary Weckselblatt can be reached at 215-345-3169 or gweckselblatt@phillyBurbs.com.
March 19, 2010 02:40 AM

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/t ... calls.html

Cool!!!

These calls are not organic

What's an "organic" call. Is her phone made of tofu?