I was able to attend the Congressman's meeting at The Whistlestop Cafe in Manchester this morning. There were about 12-15 attendees.
I was 5 minutes late (fitzy, the meeting started at 12 noon, not 1:00 p.m., was glad I called the restaurant!, How do you get on the calling list, anyway?)

When I arrived, I caught the Congressman talking about the Farm bill...
He said, in explaining his position on it; we should be indexing the farm bill to make it less of an entitlement program, and that we should get to where less people are using food stamps by growing the economy where they can get jobs and benefit themselves. He is opposed to the Davis- Bacon prevailing wage rules in the bill for work done at energy and ethanol plants, as they will hinder the growth of those industries, and may even prevent the plants from being built.
He was asked about the Indiana CRP and also talked about the CSP which is being pushed by Sen.Harkin. (To be honest, not being a farmer or getting subsidies for undeveloped land, I didn't really understand the issues).

He then moved to Education and said that while he was ok with testing, education is not a function of the federal government in the constitution (more on the constitution later). He said local control is best, talked about his A+ proposal, and that he had met with Secretary Spellings recently who said there was room for flexibility.

A question was asked about people being sued for turning in others regarding suspicions over terrorism. He said that to put law abiding citizens in a quandary as to whether they should report suspicion and then be sued is concerning to him. One person asked for facts regarding this (as I have not heard of it either), and he said that there are people being sued right now.

I asked about his no vote on the Iraq redeployment and his statement that we must go forward with "quantifiable goals and measurable results". I asked that since the "satisfactory progress report (8 of 18 areas) and the fact that the Iraqi parliament was taking August off was satisfactory? He said no, but like President Bush said, we need to be there til we win. I asked what that meant, how long? He said when the Iraqis have a government that is consistently capable of running police and military, hold democratic elections, and have local governments. He talked about the progress in Anbar province and was challenged by another member of the audience. He also said that the intelligence he has seen makes him worried about attacks in the US, as they have had in Europe. After the discussion got heated, he said that maybe we should move on to other issues and he cut off the war talk.

He was asked about the illegal alien problem and he sounded positive about a national id card for guest workers that would be 99% foolproof.

He was asked about perpetual budget deficits and said the answer was to "stop spending and reduce taxes" He said that the booming Michigan economy in the 1990's was due to cutting taxes in the state legislature and that he was proud to have never supported a tax increase.

Abortion and Same Sex Marriage were asked about, but his position is clear on both issues and well known.

I asked about a couple of his votes, HR 980, National Collective Bargaining for Firefighters, on which he was the only no vote in committee and voted no on the floor. He said that his position was consistent with the 10th amendment, and that those issues belonged to the state. He talked about being a "constitutionalist" (my words), and that is what he swore to do, uphold and defend the constitution.

I also asked about his no vote on HR 1362, the Accountability in Contracting Act. I explained what it was (stopping no bid contracts, sole-source contracts, and notification of Congress if no-bid contracts were awarded to foreign owned companies in countries sponsoring terrorism). He said that at times we benefit from sole source contracts in government projects. He said he would check back at the Washington office and get back to me.

There was discussion about food stamps and how difficult it is for a person to eat on $21.00 a month. The congressman was asked by a lady to consider joining a challenge by the IWLPJ to live on $7.00 per week in September, before the food stamp vote in October.

A Hillsdale college student asked about agriculture and ethanol and the potential for growing sources in Hillsdale county.

The meeting broke up after that, with the Congressman thanking us for being there.

On the "constitutionalist" issue, my follow up would have been, regarding the grab for power by the Bush administration, the signing statements, the executive privilege claims surrounding his staff, the Tillman report, and the direction by the administration to not allow the justice department to prosecute congressional contempt citations on administration officials, Does he believe that the President is following the constitution, and if not, why is he not being impeached for violating his oath of office to "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution"? Could someone try to get an answer at the next public appearance?

Labels: Tim Walberg