LONGVIEW — Questions and answers alike were greeted with applause and cheers — as well as some jeers — during Rep. Brian Baird’s town hall meeting Wednesday evening at the Cowlitz County Expo Center.

About two dozen people were chosen lottery-style to question Baird (D-Vancouver) during the two-hour meeting that drew about 800 people. Questions touched on airport security, illegal immigration, Social Security reform and the Cash for Clunkers program, but the bulk of the attention was squarely on health care reform.

    Baird said he’s “not sure where I come down on the bill myself,” but “I told leadership that if you tried to push it before August, I would vote against it.”

    After one audience member said surveys and polls were showing a majority of Americans aren’t in favor of the plan, Baird countered that he likely could find other surveys that come up with different results.

    “Let’s find what we can agree on,” he said. “Most Americans would agree the more choices, the better. The key word is option. You can choose private option or public option. If you need assistance, you would get it for public or private. It’s entirely your choice.”

    Baird said there is “value” in insuring more people, but “it would be dishonest to say we’ll meet the need without some additional revenue. We’ll have to tax some people who are not paying into the system now,” such as those in the upper-income brackets or large companies opting to not provide health insurance coverage.

    A Longview man asked what is going to stop an exodus of employers that will opt out and pay an 8 percent penalty rather than providing insurance to its workers.

    “I’ve asked precisely that question,” Baird said. “Here’s the best argument: Understand that no small business under $500,000 would be required to participate. If you want to participate, you can buy into the exchange. The advantage is you have an employer who is paying zero now would pay 8 percent.”

    Though the health care bill does not allow illegal immigrants to participate, it doesn’t call for proof of eligibility or immigrant status, a Longview woman pointed out.

    “The point is well taken that we need to be more explicit about what we use for documentation,” Baird said, adding he’s always supported border patrol. “We have to resolve the immigration problems.”

    However, if an illegal immigrant needed to be treated for an infectious disease, such as tuberculosis, “we need to get them in and give them treatment to protect the health of the general population,” Baird said.

    The biggest applause of the evening — with about half of the crowd standing and cheering — came after Donald Clark’s comment saying he found Baird to be “reasonable and articulate. It’s not you we’re worried about; it’s Congress in general we don’t trust.”

    Clark told Baird to “prove you can fix Medicare, earn our trust back. When you go back to D.C., prove to us you can make choices. Congress can do something about all the problems we’ve talked about.”

    He also told Baird to go ahead and provide insurance for the 44 million uninsured, but “please don’t tear down the building for the rest of us. We’re not necessarily unhappy.”

    Baird had started the meeting with apologies for his recent comments on raucous town halls in other parts of the country and his previous reluctance to hold public meetings.

    “What I was concerned about was the Web sites that said go to town halls and intimidate and disrupt, shout people down,” he said. “My comments came shortly after I spoke to a colleague, who had just gotten off a phone call saying ‘The congressman needs to know that the vote could end his life.’ I think we need to get past that and focus on the issues.”

    Clark, who was getting congrats and handshakes outside after the meeting called Baird “an informed, reasonable guy whom I often disagree with,” and said he wanted to get Baird and other lawmakers to “slow the process down … and consider other ideas.”

    Did Baird’s answers change his mind?

    “No. I’m just as scared of what Congress does as when I came in.”