Perriello telephone town hall draws 8,000

Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th tonight held a telephone town hall with more than 8,000 participants to explain his vote in favor of the $1.2 trillion health-care overhaul.

Meantime, Rep. Glenn Nye, D-2nd, took heat from the left, as a progressive group launched an online ad campaign accusing him of "betraying" the Democratic Party by voting against the health-care bill.

Perriello was one of four Virginia Democrats who voted in favor of the bill late Saturday night. Nye was one of the two Democrats who joined the five Virginia Republicans in voting against the measure.

Perriello said tonight that he voted for the bill because he thinks it will reduce the deficit, bring down the cost of insurance premiums, extend the solvency of Medicare and reduce a coverage gap in the federal prescription-drug program.

Perriello fielded about 15 calls from constituents. Some opposed the bill; others backed it or had questions about specific provisions.

"I don't expect everyone to be satisfied with the call tonight, or the debate," he said. But "we will never balance the budget in this country without getting health-care costs under control."

He told one caller that given the increasing cost of insurance premiums: "the biggest tax we could put on the American people is doing nothing about health care."

Perriello said that when he held 21 town hall meetings in August he recognized that "there was going to be nothing that made everybody happy."

Perriello and Nye were elected in 2008 as President Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Virginia in 44 years.

Supporters of Organizing for America, a grass-roots project of the Democratic National Committee, gathered at Perriello's Charlottesville office today to thank him for backing the health-care package. On Friday they will meet at Perriello's Martinsville office.

On Monday and Tuesday an anti-tax group, Americans for Prosperity, picketed Perriello's offices in Martinsville, Danville, Farmville and Charlottesville.

Nye this week issued a statement explaining his vote against the bill, but said "I am firmly committed to health-care reform."

Nye said he voted against the bill because it did not sufficiently reduce the cost of health care. He said it also would "cut significant funding" from children's hospitals, including Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk, which he said could lose up to $20 million annually.

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign, was not sold.

"Poll after poll shows that even voters in conservative states want health care-reform and demand the public option," he said in a statement.

"Glenn Nye voted against his own constituents who desperately need reform, and we're making sure he pays a political price back home for that."

Green said the Progressive Change Campaign has 250,000 members who are "dedicated to electing bold progressives to Congress."