‘Tea Party’ supporters to attend Grassley town hall

An Iowa “Tea Party” organizer is encouraging supporters to fill the seats at Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) health reform town hall meeting on Wednesday.

The goal: encourage Grassley to break off negotiations with Senate Finance Committee Democrats on the bill.

“We want to remind him that he’s representing us and we don’t want [healthcare reform] and we’ll remember come November,” organizer Ryan Rhodes told Radio Iowa. “Some people are more fired up about one portion. Some people are more fired up about another, but overall there’s a consensus of a strong desire that this is not the way anyone wants to go.”

Rhodes said that he expects “hundreds” of people to show up.

The fifth-term senator and lead negotiator in the Finance Committee’s “gang of six” has previously defended himself against charges that he supports the current healthcare reform proposal.

He tweeted late last month that “Misinformatio accuses me of supportin ObamaCare NOT TRUE I M at table making sure Govt takeovr doesn’t happen,protect patience,and taxpayers.”

The Senate Finance Committee’s ranking member is holding his meeting in Adel, Iowa, a suburb of the state capital Des Moines.

Grassley said in a separate interview that he does not have any qualms about holding the meetings.

“I’ve found the town meetings, whether people that agree or disagree with me come, as very, very important instruments in the process of representative government,” he told Radio Iowa.