Healthcare Protesters Cause Ruckus Outside of Patriot Center

Protesters got creative with signs and banners opposing President Barack Obama's healthcare plan. (Nicole Francisco)

Over 200 protesters came out to oppose the health care reform bill at President Obama’s last health care rally before the Congressional vote this weekend.

What started out as a civil coexistence between rally attendees in line to enter the Patriot Center and dozens of protesters early this morning, soon escalated into a chanting and shouting match.

Republicans, Congressional candidate Keith Fimian supporters, Tea Party members and mothers with their children joined a handful of Mason students protesting the event.

Armed with a multitude of ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ and American flags, the protesters sported signs reading phrases such as “I’m 11 and in debt,” “My vote is not for sale,” “March Madness is in Congress,” and “Don’t help me with my healthcare, I can’t afford it.”

Unaffiliated Mason students showed up to the protest to voice their opposition to individual mandate included the bill.

“I support reformed health care, but the way they’re doing it is wrong,” said economics major Joseph Taylor, who organized the Mason student protest through a Facebook group. “It’s full of bribes and corruption. I don’t have health care and my parents don’t have health care so the dependent aspect of the bill doesn’t apply to me. Never before has the government forced us to buy a product.”

Taylor alludes to the individual mandate laid out in the bill, which requires those without health care to purchase a minimum level of health care or else they will be faced with penalties and fines.

Whitney Maddox, a supporter of the bill and member of advocacy group Campus Progress, wielded a sign that read “WTF? 1/3 of us are uninsured!”

“I’m here to support Obama healthcare and students,” said Maddox. “It’s important and we need it now, we need to get it going. I’m also here to see what the President has to say.”

The event soon became a shouting match as more protesters and attendees arrived. Pro-life supporters also joined the protest, equipped with oversized photographs of aborted fetuses.

Government major Jayme Halfhill protested peacefully throughout the demonstration by holding a sign that read “Healthcare??? You serious?” and took part in carrying a large American flag. 

“I’m sick of bigger government forcing thinga on us, trying to push it through,” Halfhill said. “I’m sick of lies. This isn’t what we stand for. Anything government-run has failed. This is my health- the government needs to take it seriously.”

Chants of “Kill the bill” “Get a job” and “Read the Constitution” from protesters, accompanied by bullhorn, prompted rally attendees to get involved.

“I have a job!” shouted one student in line to the Patriot Center.  “How do you know what I do?”

After a self-proclaimed “tea-bagger” shouted through a bullhorn “Why did Obama come to unemployed college students to pass a bill” health bill supporter Natasha Bowens got involved.

“Millions of people have pre-existing conditions,” said Bowens. “It’s sad, their only answer is ‘get a job’ when they don’t realize that there’re tons of different circumstances.”

A literal line was drawn between the two groups by Fairfax and Mason police after shouts and jeers of “puppets,” “imbecile,” and “go home” flew between both sides.

Mason student Ryan Dahl doesn’t believe that government is going about health care reform in the right way.

“I do not support the bill because it hasn’t worked in other countries,” Dahl said. “Fairly decent healthcare is available already but this just raises taxes sleazily.”

Protesters lingered in the parking lot until the crowd filed into the Patriot Center. Approximately thirty minutes before President Obama was slated to speak, protesters dissembled.