Pocono News Section

Carney Defends Yes Vote at Campaign Stop

Carney Defends Yes Vote at Campaign Stop - Monday, March 29, 2010 at 04:05AM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Monday March 29 2010
PROMPTON, WAYNE COUNTY -- After a momentous week in healthcare reform, local lawmakers who voted on the plan are back at home. Democratic Congressman Chris Carney, who voted for reform, made his first public stop in Wayne County Monday morning.

Carney says he's proud of his healthcare "yes" vote. He says it was the right thing to do. Carney also seemed unphased that Sarah Palin has targeted his seat in the upcoming election.

At a campaign stop at the Prompton Fire Company Monday, Congressman Chris Carney defended his vote for healthcare reform. To be honest, it was not that hard, given the fact that a majority of the people who called in from our district wanted some kind of reform," he said.

Carney also acknowledged he's a political target of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. I'm happy she's doing that actually. It helps us," said Carney.

Palin has put Carney on a list of democrats she wants to defeat because of their healthcare vote. You can't vote worried about your career. You have to vote the right way. You have to vote your conscious and for me, this was a vote of conscious," said Carney.

At the Trackside Grill in Honesdale, healthcare reform has been a big topic of discussion. Many people are against it. Donna Burrows said, I think there's other things that need more looking into, social security needs to be re-adjusted, Medicare needs to be looked into."

Others say Congressman Carney will pay for his yes vote. Jim Robisch said, I'm not going to vote for him again...based on...just the overall government the way its been run. I think its time for a change."

But Carney says its also time healthcare changes. No piece of legislation is ever perfect, but we had to start somewhere and as we move forward, we'll take care of things that need to be fixed," he added.

Congressman Carney says the local calls into his office were 57% in favor and 43% opposed. He says he expects more people to favor the plan once they learn the details about it.