US right accused of mob rule

THE White House has accused pro-Republican fringe organisations of orchestrating apparent mob violence that has broken out across the United States at a string of public meetings called to debate health reform.

Nightly television news reports show jostling and shouting protesters drowning out Democratic Congress members holding town-hall healthcare meetings in Florida, Ohio, New York, Texas and Wisconsin.

Robert Gibbs, spokesman for president Barack Obama, said the apparently spontaneous violence was being organised by pressure groups determined to wreck debate on reforms that could cost health insurance companies billions of dollars.

"They've bragged about organising and manufacturing that anger," said Mr Gibbs.

A shake-up of America's private health insurance system – which costs each person roughly twice as much as healthcare in the UK – has proved to be the most contentious of Mr Obama's reform plans.

After failing to get a reform bill through Congress, the White House hoped to take the issue to the country this summer with hundreds of town-hall meetings called by Democratic congressmen.

Instead, dozens have been disrupted and some cancelled. New York congressman Tim Bishop had to be escorted by police to his car pursued by a mob and has cancelled further forums.

Protesters have brandished banners with SS and Nazi symbols comparing Mr Obama with Adolf Hitler in a move condemned by House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman compared the rabble-rousing to the practices of former president Richard Nixon, who "realised he could advance Republican fortunes by appealing to the racial fears of working-class whites".

But Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said: "We're not inciting anyone to go out and disrupt anything. We're not organising the town halls."

The Democrats have fought back with a statement entitled "Enough of the Mob" condemning the demonstrations.

Elsewhere, effigies of Mr Obama with a noose around his neck have been displayed, with some demonstrators accusing the White House of planning euthanasia for the elderly.

"This is a carefully orchestrated effort by special interest groups and lobbyists and the Republican Party, who are using fringe elements on the right to protect insurance company profits," Democratic leadership aide Doug Thornell said.

One anti-reform pressure group, Rightprinciples.com, has issued an online memo to members advising them on strategies they can use at meetings.

The memo advises: "Wait for an opportunity then yell out and challenge the representative's statement.

"Yell back and have someone follow up with a shout-out. The purpose is to make him uneasy early on."

Supporters of the Obama reforms claim that introducing a publicly funded national health insurance would slash costs, by eliminating the big profits made by the country's multi-billion-dollar health insurance industry.

White House anger is concentrated at pro-Republican lobby group Conservatives for Patients Rights. The group's leader, Rick Scott, was formerly the head of a health care company fined a record $1.7 billion (1bn) for defrauding the taxpayer.

"A CEO that used to run a health company that was fined by the federal government $1.7 billion for fraud – that's a lot of what you need to know about the motives of that group," Mr Gibbs said.