EDITOR,

After participating in the “town hall” meeting on Wednesday with Rep. Jerry McNerney, I now completely understand the reasons behind the frustration and anger that many Americans are feeling toward their elected officials.

A town hall format should inspire debate, argument and free exchange of divergent political opinions. Instead, the event was full of empty platitudes and talking points. Many of the statements made by the representative were incorrect and misleading, specifically with respect to the claim that the health bill would not add to the national deficit and that people who prefer their current health insurance could keep their plans.

Both statements are false, and McNerney knows this.

Unfortunately, because of the format, the ability to rebut, question or receive input from other participants was not allowed. Instead, when confronted with a difficult question, McNerney would skirt the question, throw in some pretested responses, and thank the respondent for their question.

The questions regarding Medicare fraud were answered with the same general responses of “IT communication” and “technological infrastructure.”

How many times will we take the “... we’re going to pay for the program through the elimination of waste and fraud ... blah, blah, blah”? Why do we put up with these empty promises?

Fix what is broken first and show the people you can actually do it! It seems as if the decision has been made and all McNerney’s “town hall” meetings are supposed to do is to placate the uniformed public.