Austin “tea-party” group hosting speaker on health care Saturday; Democrats decline invitation to join audience

By W. Gardner Selby | Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 12:38 PM

Austin Tea Party Patriots, the self-described conservative grass-roots group that has organized two tea-party rallies this year, is hosting a health care town hall meeting from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday in the Texas Capitol Extension Auditorium in E1.004. Tickets are available for free on a first-come, first-serve basis; send an e-mail to having.anaustinteaparty@gmail.com .

An e-mail invitation states: “We at the Austin Tea Party Patriots are stressing to all attendees that this Town Hall is a time to leave our ‘for’ and ‘against’ signs at home and to focus on learning about real alternatives.”

The speaker is Clare L. Gray, a founder of Physicians for Reform, which he pitches as intent on protecting the physician-patient relationship while warning of a push for socialized medicine. Gray also advocates for patients to control their own health-care dollars—both a salute to health savings accounts and a call for everyone to be offered access to a basic health plan funded from pre-tax dollars paid by an employer or, for low-income Americans, federal tax credits.

Is the event a chance for Austin-area residents to hunt common ground? That’s already touched off disagreement.

The Texas Democratic Party didn’t respond to an invitation to send members to the event. The organizing group offered half the seats in the auditorium to the Democrats.

“We have enough information from them to know this is a one-sided initiative, featuring just one speaker whose agenda opposes Democratic efforts to reform our broken health care system,” said Kirsten Gray, the party’s communications director. “Given this organization’s history, we aren’t going to encourage Democrats to attend an event that’s rife with shouting and intimidation and discouraging of meaningful dialogue.”

Austin lawyer Greg Holloway of the Austin Tea Party Patriots said: “I am surprised and disappointed that the Democrats have rejected our offer. We have heard consistently from those who favor the government health care plan favored by the White House that conservatives are interested only in saying no and that we offer no constructive solutions. That is not the case. This town hall is focused on learning about one such constructive solution.”

Judy Holloway, Holloway’s wife, said she chose the Capitol auditorium to ensure a classy gathering. “We are saying leave your signs at home; this is a time to sit down and ask questions,” she said.

On a separate front, Austin lawyer Lou McCreary said he’s given up on organizing a local “civil debate” of the health-care issue partly because U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, couldn’t fit the envisioned forum into his schedule. He noted that Doggett has been featured in some national cable and network TV news coverage of the topic.

Click here for a floor plan of the building.