Although U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar didn’t do the town hall meeting bit on health insurance reform over the congressional recess, he did meet with some groups to discuss proposed changes and also had dinner with Bill Hanna, executive editor of the Mesabi Daily News in Virginia, Minn.

Hanna reports that Oberstar is “appalled at the vilification nationwide of a government-managed health care system through millions of dollars spent in TV ads.”

…the congressman was also quite critical of his own political party. He said the president and Democratic congressional leadership have created confusion on health care reform.

“The words ‘public option’ have become toxic. It should have been called ‘Medicare E,’ or something like that. Medicare works … even Republicans are now trying to say reform will hurt Medicare. ‘Oh, don’t hurt Medicare,’ they say, even though when Medicare was passed in 1965 only one Republican voted for it,” Oberstar said.

Oberstar said that Obama tried to learn from the Clinton administration by being more inclusive in developing a health care reform bill.