Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) in Blue Springs, Missouri, listening to a question from a constituent at a town hall on April 28, 2011.

“….Yeah, good point. Uh, the, as far as federal employees, uh, yeah, it has grown exponentially, the number of federal employees. I think if you’re gonna see some real change there, uh, we’re gonna have to take a, see some changes in the Senate next year and the White House in order to get that through. But, uh, it, I agree, there’s some, there’s a lot of areas in federal government that we don’t need. They should be, even according to the Constitution there’s only a few things that government should be doing. And the rest could be done at the state level , or the local level, or by private industry, or private citizens and, uh, we’ve got to get back to the original intent of what our founders wanted….”

Too Many Federal Workers?

By Allan Holmes   09/07/10 07:08 pm ET

….There were fewer federal workers in 2009 than in 1990, 1980 and 1970. Now take a closer look at the OPM table. Much of the growth, understandably, occurred in Homeland Security agencies, increasing from 70,000 to 180,000 – a jump of 110,000. Justice Department jobs went from 98,000 to 113,000 — more than 15,000 new jobs added. (Again, crime and more Homeland Security related.) Jobs at the Veterans Department increased from 220,000 to 297,000 — that’s 77,000 more federal workers. Again, a result of Homeland Security, or rather staffing up to take care of thousands of veterans coming home from two wars. And there’s a lot of information technology jobs in there.

So, taking those three areas, the number of new jobs created in the last 10 years, which can be traced back to 9/11, was 202,000. That by itself accounts for nearly two-thirds of the total federal workforce growth from 2000 to 2009, which was 316,000 jobs. Hold those steady since 2002 (or even allow for some growth), and you would have less than 1.9 million workers in 2009, or slightly more. That’s about the same number of federal workers in 1962, the year Shlaes chooses as her benchmark to compare the number of government jobs to the number in the private sector (with public sector jobs accounting for an eighth of all jobs). Remember, that was before the Great Society programs geared up, popular programs that needed a slew of federal managers and clerks to oversee.

By the way, the number of jobs at the Interior, Transportation and Treasury departments fell from 2000 to 2009. And those at Health and Human Services, Education and the Social Security Administration grew from 1.26 million to 1.39 million — 130,000 jobs over 10 years, or about 13,000 new positions a year as the health industry expanded at a torrid pace….

Or:

Federal Government Employment Levels Through the Years (including the U.S. Postal Service)

Administration, number of federal employees, population, Executive Branch employees per 1,000 population

1970 (Nixon) 2.94 million 205 million 14.4

1975 (Ford) 2.84 million 215.9 million 13.2

1978 (Carter) 2.87 million 222.5 million 12.9

1982 (Reagan) 2.77 million 232.1 million 11.9

1990 (Bush) 3.06 million 249.6 million 12.3

1994 (Clinton) 2.9 million 263.1 million 11.1

2002 (Bush) 2.63 million 287.8 million 9.1

2010 (Obama) 2.65 million 310.3 million 8.4

Yeah, check out that “exponential” growth.

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Blue Springs, part 1 (April 29, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Blue Springs, part 2 (April 30, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Blue Springs, part 3 (May 1, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Blue Springs, part 4 – Q and A (May 2, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Harrisonville, Missouri – the reviews are in (April 29, 2011)

This is the final portion of the transcript of Representative Vicky Hartzler’s (r) town hall in Blue Springs, Missouri on Thursday, April 28, 2011:

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r): …How ’bout the guy right there.

Question: Uh, first of all, I just want you to know how much appreciate, uh, you speaking from your heart. And I can tell that you have to. [scattered applause]

Representative Hartzler: Thank you.

Question: As, as , you’ve discussed thus far, uh, we have a national debt problem. Uh, in addition to that we also have an unemployment problem. Uh, as a small business owner, uh, one of my, uh, main factors that I have to deal with is illegal immigration. Uh, illegal immigration has cost this country a tremendous amount of money, not even speak, uh, in regards to our sovereignty issues spoke to earlier. Uh, there’s, uh, a tremendous opportunity, and I would love to see yourself and, and your other, uh, individuals address this. There’s a tremendous opportunity to bring down unemployment in this country and, uh, save, uh, not only, uh, uh, a lot of federal dollars but state, city, so on and so forth. Uh, we don’t need immigration reform, in my opinion, we just need to enforce the laws that are on the books. What we’re doing is we’re rewarding people that have come into our country illegally. I know it’s not gonna be a popular thing to do, but irregardless, we are faced with making some, some hard, tough, uh, very unpopular, uh, decisions. And this need to be addressed and it needs to be addressed right away. The American people are very, very hard working people. And this fallacy that, uh, they’re doing jobs that Americans won’t do is, is ludicrous. American people a, as you well know and everybody in this room, we are good, very hard working people. And, uh, these people in no way, shape, or form should be rewarded, uh, as they have been thus far, uh, by being able to stay in our country. They, they need to leave our country. I want to see ’em leave right away. If they want to come in the front door and do things according to the parameters and protocol, God bless ’em. But, I want, I want ’em out of my country and I expect my elected officials to, to do something about that. It, and I believe that would make a tremendous, uh, uh, amount of, uh, it would, would help this country immensely…

…Representative Hartzler: Absolutely. Let’s give him a hand. [applause] Well, I couldn’t have said it, uh, couldn’t have said it any better. I have joined several caucuses and one of ’em is one that’s looking at ways to address and, and try to, illegal immigration, ’cause it is, is problem [inaudible]. The first thing we need to do, I think, is secure our borders. It, it’s very simple. We’ve got to secure our borders. I cosponsored a bill that would send ten thousand Guard troops down there immediately. Uh, we can’t just let people keep going to, uh, across. Not only, uh, people that, are come here to work, there’s also a national security concern with that as well. Um, so that’s just one thing [crosstalk]…

Question: And not just, and,
and I appreciate that, securing the borders. But, by the same token and, and, and please don’t take this wrong, but we have heard this secure the borders, secure the borders for years and years and years. That’s all well and fine. I totally concur. I think we absolutely need to secure the borders. But, by the same token, the people that are here now, the people that I have to, I, I’m licensed, I’m insured, I do everything according to Hoyle, but yet I can’t compete with people that are here working for a, a fraction of my minimal [applause][inaudible].

Representative Hartzler: [inaudible] [crosstalk] Yeah, I was gonna say another aspect of it is more enforcement, I said, of current laws of, of these employers, making sure that employers, uh, don’t hire people who are here illegally. And that enforcement has not been, uh, like it should be, especially under the current administration. And so, there’s several things we’d do, but I appreciate what you’re saying. We need to, we need to do that. How about this gentleman, right here.

Question: Uh, first of all, I want to thank you for, uh, having this meeting. I’ve lived here for twenty years and Ike Skelton never had a meeting like this. So, I appreciate it. Uh, second of all, uh, it says here, cuts, cut spending by hundred billion dollars. Then it went down to sixty billion, then it went down to thirty-eight billion. And from what I, from what I hear on the radio it comes out it only really saved three hundred and fifty million dollars out of that thirty-eight billion. Now, will the Republicans have the courage when this upcoming increase to the debt limit to go and have some meaningful spending cuts? Because, what I see, we’re on the verge of super inflation. I mean, they, they say on the radio the Republicans were, didn’t want to press, shut the government down because they didn’t want to take the blame for shutting the government down. Well, when a loaf of bread costs fifty dollars who’s gonna take the blame then? I mean, that’s what you’re heading for right now. I mean, uh, what is it, the, uh, LDS Church, uh, they have these, uh, community food banks and they tell ’em they’re having to raise the, their prices forty to fifty percent right now.

Representative Hartzler: Yeah, it, it is a mess. Um, they are, I, I really believe that. I’ve been here two weeks, uh, but everything that I’ve heard so far, we’ll see next week, but I firmly believe that the, the Republicans in the House are gonna hold ste, strong on, on the debt ceiling. And, unless we can get real substantial cuts, not just promises, but some real. Part of the issue with the, uh, the last CR [continuing resolution], uh, was the frustration that I had with the, uh, Senate and the White House refused to allow the defense part, the military part, the defense budget, to be separated from the rest. We sent over just a clean defense bill and said, let’s take them off the table. Let’s just pass the, our military to be funded and then we can talk about the rest of the, the pie, you know chart. Um, but [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid and the President would not take it. And so the choice came down to do you, uh, you know, shutting down the government, the parks and stuff I didn’t care about. But I did care about the military families, Fort Leonard Wood and Whiteman Air Force Base, that had, uh, spouses, that had husbands over fighting for our country’s freedom and they weren’t gonna get a pay check if we shut the government down. Um, I couldn’t go there. So, I voted for it. Would I have wanted more cuts? Absolutely. But now that’s off the table. They’re funded ’til the end of the year and so we can talk about the CR and I think you’re gonna see a line drawn in the sand and say, we’ve got a couple strong  and get some real cuts, because we can’t keep going the same we, we’ve been going. So, that’s what I predict’s gonna happen. So, we’ll see. But, stay tuned. How ’bout right here. [….].

Question: Thank you so much. Uh, One [inaudible] that’s not been discussed, it is like a third rail of dealing with, uh, the debt situation we’re in. As you know, several nations in the western world are in a similar debt problem as are we. Yet, just in the, uh, Obama administration’s time we are in the process, or we already have hired some two hundred thousand new federal employees. However, in just the last several months little Ireland of just eight million people has, is in, laying off twenty-five thousand federal employees. England is going to lay off nearly five hundred thousand federal employees and we hear, over and over the bromide of we need to reduce the size of government. But, I don’t hear any of the, of our elected officials talking about eliminating federal jobs. Because it’s coming. And many things are coming. For example, I do not see how the Pell Grant is going to continue to exist. You just [inaudible], so. [scattered applause]

Representative Hartzler: Yeah, good point. Uh, the, as far as federal employees, uh, yeah, it has grown exponentially, the number of federal employees. I think if you’re gonna see some real change there, uh, we’re gonna have to take a, see some changes in the Senate next year and the White House in order to get that through. But, uh, it, I agree, there’s some, there’s a lot of areas in federal government that we don’t need. They should be, even according to the Constitution there’s only a few things that government should be doing. And the rest could be done at the state level , or the local level, or by private industry, or private citizens and, uh, we’ve got to get back to the original intent of what our founders wanted. And I think that’ll help take care of some of our debt crisis.

Voice: For, for, could you give some examples?

Representative Hartzler: So, let’s go, yeah [crosstalk]…

Staffer: We have time for two more questions.

Representative Hartzler: …two more questions, right here on the front row. Since he’s got a Mizzou, uh, shirt on. I’m an MU grad as well as a UCM grad. Go for it.

Question: Well, I’m a small business man in Cass County like you and, you know, at this time of year you have to write out all the checks for their, the end of the quarter and, uh, lot of times there isn’t a whole lot left over so I know about [crosstalk]…

Representative Hartzler: Yep.

Question: …stand back here talking about, you know, all the, the money that it has to put out to, uh, to just run this business. But, the main thing I want to talk about is, uh, what this gentleman up over here was talking about, is, was the cuts. Um, the Republican Party, everybody’s talking about a rift in the Republican Party between the, the new freshmen and the, uh, establishment. And, uh, the approval ratings aren’t that great. What I want to know is, uh, you said that, you know, you come to do a job whether you get reelected or not, but my goal is to see us not only have the House of Representatives but also the Senate and the Presidency. If not, there won’t be no United States for four more years. Okay, and I am worried, I’m worried that if we can’t get the Republicans together to do things because you have some people voting against your own bill, some Republicans voted against the owner, their own Republican bill. You have some voting for it and then you other, you have some that wants to tax more, or not tax, but wants to cut more and some that wants to cut less. I want to know what you’re gonna do. I mean, what is, what is the plans, uh, how are you gonna get, get everybody together? Personally, I don’t think there’s been enough cut.

Representative Hartzler: Right. Yeah. [crosstalk]

Question: Uh, the amount that you fought, [inaudible] the amount that you fought over was spent during the time that you was fighting. [crosstalk] You know what I’m saying?

Representative Hartzler: Yes, I, I do.

Question: It was, it was mor
e spent than the debt then what there was in the fighting.

Representative Hartzler: I know. It, it was , it was, uh, it disappointing and it got messy and it, different members were doing different things and we were getting different, uh, different numbers, uh, too, different information. And, uh, I think the caucus, the leadership knows, you know, we gotta do better [laugh] next time. I mean, that, that’s not the way, we all need to stick together as a team and have the same information and, and things. So, uh, I’m hopeful, I mean, that’s behind us.

Um, it did get, just so you know, it was the largest cut even though it, you know, looks miniscule, but it was the largest cut in Amer, in U.S. history. [inaudible crosstalk] Yeah, oh, I know, I hear yah. But, there was some other things secured in that CR besides just money. A lot of people don’t know about. It had some language in it, for instance, that prevents any, uh, prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Guatomo [sic ] Bay, from being able to come here. It was in there. It took D.C., uh, abortions, so there can’t be any taxpayer dollars going to that. Uh, it cut severely the amount of money going to foreign abortions. It, uh, it required the Senate, and the Senate agreed, to have to have an up or down vote on repealing Obamacare and, uh, defunding Planned Parenthood. Those were two things that, uh, you know, might be helpful next year, uh, or not. And it also is requiring four studies of [inaudible] the true expenses of last year’s health care bill, uh, what it’s really gonna cost businesses, what are these regulations, what’s the impact going to be. And we, this information has been kind of withheld by [Secretary of Health and Human Services] Kathleen Sebelius and the department. And so this is gonna be very helpful as we look to, to, uh, find out and, and to discuss the merits of the program or whether it should be repealed. So, there was other things in it besides cuts that, you know, but, definitely we all know we need to get on board and we want to, want to, uh, cut as much as possible. So, stay tuned. [crosstalk] How about right there?

Voice: [inaudible] In, in the fairness of gender equity I would like for you to allow another woman to speak.

Second Voice: That’s ridiculous.

Voice: No, it isn’t.

Representative Hartzler: All right. The lady in the pink right here.

[laughter]

Question: There’ve been many, uh, issues that have come before the Congress and I think they’ve made some good strides for making some new decisions, uh, stopping the cap and trade, uh, taxes, and, and some other issues. But then, when that happens, then through the, uh, the agencies like EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] or through executive order those decisions are overridden. And what is the Congress doing to maintain their integrity to hold on to their responsibilities and accountabilities and not them be so [scattered applause][inaudible]?

Representative Hartzler: Good question. EPA is out of control. And, uh, so what in the House of Representatives we can do, in a couple of things, to push back on that. One, every committee is supposed to have oversight function as well as legislative function and it hasn’t been doing that, uh, for the last several years. So, every committee is, is bringing forth these, uh, different, uh, bureaucracies and agencies and asking them in a public hearing, uh, why are you doing what you’re doing? What legislative authority do you have? What’s the implication gonna be for doing that? Forcing them to go on the record to have to, you know, kind of bring it out to, um, in the light of day once really the implications of what they’re doing. And got, we got EPA to actually back off on a couple things once they got some heat put on ’em. So, I think that’s the first thing we’re doing. The second thing is, we’ve been defunding ’em in the House. We defunded a bunch of the EPA. And in this final CR, uh, we did slash one point six billion dollars from EPA’s budget. And we’re gonna continue to try to cut their money and, uh, we cut money from IRS so they couldn’t hire the additional workers needed to implement last year’s health care bill. That was in the CR. So, we got a few good things here. And, uh, so we’re gonna keep doing that and fighting in the House to do everything possible to rein in. You hit the nail on the head. They’re out of control. And, uh, they’re doing what they shouldn’t be doing. So, anyway.

I want to thank you, uh, very much for coming out and choosing to spend a little time and visit about the things that are so important to all of us in our country. It’s helpful to me to hear your ideas and, uh, I just want to thank you again for the honor of representing you. Remember, the Mo for you team, we’re here, so give us a call in the future. Sign up for our e-mail. Thank you and God bless. [applause]

At the end of the town hall.

Somewhat more freewheeling discussions continued among constituents after the end of the town hall.

The base came out, and with one exception, they got all of the questions – immigration, no consideration of revenue as part of a solution to the deficit, hyperinflation(!), they appear to be amenable to wedge issue politics, and they really don’t seem to like the concept of environmental protection. Go figure.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) in Blue Springs, Missouri, taking questions from constituents at a town hall on April 28, 2011.

“…Well, I mean, you, you, you’ve, you filed [crosstalk] reports between three, well, I mean, I’m answering how I know. You filed reports indicating you were somewhere between three to thirteen million dollars with the Congressional [inaudible], right?” “No.” “You haven’t?…”

Via the Center for Responsive Politics:

Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo), 2009

Net Worth: From $3,018,026 to $13,870,999

Rank: 40th in House

Assets: 28 totaling $4,018,026 to $14,371,000

“…There, there’s the, uh, liability reform, so it lowers the defensive medicine. That’s a plan that’s put out there. There’s a lot of, I talked a lot of doctors, they will tell me, I am ordering more procedures than are necessary just to make sure and cover all the bases so I’m not sued. And so we have some tort reform in there, that would help drive down the costs…”

Why Doesn’t Tort Reform Deliver Lower Costs?

The biggest reason plummeting medical malpractice insurance premiums don’t result in a corresponding drop in health care costs for the average person is that malpractice insurance is a tiny part of the overall cost of care. Reliable estimates place the cost of malpractice litigation at approximately two percent of this nation’s $2.2 trillion health care costs.

So, if so called “tort reform” was enacted in Missouri in 2005 why is Representative Hartzler offering it as a solution to rising health care costs in Missouri in 2011? Or is this just another talking point from the republican leadership in the House? We understand that “tort reform” was an attack on trial attorneys, a tradition contributor base for the Democratic Party, but it’s clear from the evidence that “tort reform” has no effect on patient health care costs.

“…And that business owner itself may have only had a personal income, their salary, of fifty thousand dollars. But on their tax form it could show, because the income from the business is also added to that, that they made two hundred and fifty or three hundred thousand dollars a year and President Obama would call them rich. We need to tax more the rich, when it turns out most business owners end up paying more taxes than their income, then their salary…”

S Corporations

S corporations are corporations that elect to pass corporate income, losses, deductions and credit through to their shareholders for federal tax purposes. Shareholders of S corporations report the flow-through of income and losses on their personal tax returns and are assessed tax at their individual income tax rates. This allows S corporations to avoid double taxation on the corporate income. S corporations are responsible for tax on certain built-in gains and passive income.

So, an S Corporation is a way to significantly reduce federal tax liability. And she’s pleading hardship?

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Blue Springs, part 1 (April 29, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Blue Springs, part 2 (April 30, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Blue Springs, part 3 {May 1, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Harrisonville, Missouri – the reviews are in (April 29, 2011)

This is the continuation of the transcript of Representative Vicky Hartzler’s (r) town hall in Blue Springs, Missouri on Thursday, April 28, 2011:

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r):  …Okay, so raise your hand if you have a question. Oh, right here, [….] first and then, uh, you’re second.

Question: Uh, first I want to congratulate you for winning the election. Uh, both my [applause] children, both my children attended James Walker and I’d like to talk to the principal when this is over if I could. Live about four blocks from here. Uh, retired in July of two thousand and ten. I love retirement. Pray for this country every night. Really concerned about America. Excuse me, the whole process is broken in Washington, it really is. Just a concerned citizen. Um, I’m a baby boomer. I raised my hand. I’m receiving Social Security, thank God. Uh, but I did plan for retirement, so I guess [inaudible] should Social Security go away, probably make it. Uh, was fortunate to get the house paid for. Had a good job and living a good life. I’m very thankful for that. I give thanks every day. Uh, I grew up in Booneville, Missouri, I don’t know if that’s in your district, Booneville, Missouri.  [voice: “Boonville.”] Slater, Missouri is in your district. Uh, my dad was a, and mother were strong Democrats. I went to Slater High School. My wife was a school teacher. My daughter’s a school teacher. Um, dad, strong Democrat, raised in a Democratic household. Uh, when I registered to vote I voted Democratic. I voted for Ike Skelton for years. I didn’t vote for Ike Skelton, I voted for you, ’cause Ike lost his way. We need to change the nation [applause]. We still need change in Washington. We need the Senate to change, okay. Uh, my dad was a veteran of World War Two, he was in the, uh, Seabees, he was, helped, uh, build the airbase in Guam and Okinawa that [inaudible] bombed Japan. Uh, he passed [voices: “Question. Question”], okay. Uh, brother had a duh, dah, duh, dah, duh, dah, duh.  Uh, [voice: “Question.”] Ike Skelton did a lot for Missouri with the military bases at Whiteman and Fort Leonard Wood, what’s, what’s, what’s there, is there anything there to secure the mission at those bases in the future that we don’t lose the jobs and the bases, that’s all…?

…Representative Hartzler:  That’s great. Thank you, thank you [….], uh, I appreciate your service. I’m glad you brought that up. Uh, you, I’ve got good news for you. I’ve been very, very, uh, strongly advocating against any more BRACs [base realignment and closure]. Uh, I wrote a letter to our, uh, committee sub, the subcommittee chair who is in charge of that, saying, you know, we don’t need, need to be doing this. He’s kind of put me as, uh, one of the people in charge of helping to oversee that there’s not any more BRACs [inaudible]. I’m monitoring it. And so, in, uh, committee a couple weeks ago we had the service chiefs that are in charge of implementing BRAC, from the two thousand and five, from all the different service branches there. And so, I asked it point blank on the record, I said, do you have any plans for any future BRACs? Each one of them told, on the record, on TV, no. No, we do not. No, we do not. The Army, the Marines, the Air Force, the Navy. We do not. And that was very encouraging. They all said the same thing, that we’re still implementing two thousand five, we have no plans for that. So I’m very, very, very, uh, [inaudible] and keep monitoring that. Senator Kerry was the one that scared everybody about it a couple months ago while he was speaking up in, uh, his area of New England, and said, well, there’s gonna be a BRAC in July of twen, uh, two, two thousand fifteen. He, he made that quote and it went all over the, you know, the, the news and people like, what is this, does he know something? He doesn’t
know it, he just was saying something, so. Anyway, there’s no plans for that. I’m, uh, honored to represent Whiteman Air Force Base and Fort Leonard Wood. Uh, my dad’s the U.S. Army Reserves and so I have a special place in my heart for, uh, military. And last Monday I was over at Whiteman and I got to fly a B-2 bomber. Well, sort of. The simulator, all right, but [laughter], it was, it was almost like, it was, it was very cool. [laugh] In a way, it was very neat. So, anyway. Very much am honored to represent those bases and, um, continually keeping close contact with the commanders, General [….] and General [….], down at Fort Leonard Wood, uh, what they need. You may have known last, uh, New Year’s Eve, there was an F three tornado that hit Fort Leonard Wood. Did you guys hear that? Uh, I wasn’t inaugurated yet, you know, that was like the next week, but, um, so I’ve been working with them to make sure they have all they need to rebuild and, uh, it’s gonna be even bigger and better down there if those of you, you know, who have family or friends down Fort Leonard Wood. Anyway. Thanks for your question.

Okay, she’s next. [….] in the green.

Question: I wanted to know what you’ve got against balance sheets. You know, I hear you talk and I hear other people talk about how much money we don’t have, how much money we do have, how much we can’t spend, how much we can spend and you never, nobody ever says what your income is. You say, what we sent you. Well, we sent you income tax. But every time we buy a gallon of gas we give you eighteen cents. I have never seen anything that ever said what the United States of America makes and where it comes from. Let alone how you spend it. I’m asking about balance sheets that we know about.

Representative Hartzler: Yeah, okay. Let me see. I have to go back. That first pie chart shows where it goes. Uh, the three point eight trill, that one, right there. That shows, uh, last year’s budget, three point five trillion, excuse me. Uh, this is, is where was, it’s not in a budget, it’s not in a balance sheet format, but this is where it goes and this is how much came in. And then the, uh, that other chart showing, uh, two point two is how much came in.

Question: But where did it come from? And how much?

Representative Hartzler:  Uh, this, the break, you want to know the break down between individual tax, ta [crosstalk, inaudible], gas tax, all of the [crosstalk, inaudible]different, business tax, corporate tax?

Question: And I want to know what’s at the bottom of that sheet ’cause I don’t know that I could even balance my check book if I didn’t know how much was going in and how much I could take out.

Representative Hartzler:  Yeah.

Question: And we go to these meetings and they tell us, well, we can’t spend this anymore. You know, I’m pretty sick of the lies in the last five years. I’m not sure that I can trust you, either. I like you, and I trust you usually.

Representative Hartzler:  Yeah. [crosstalk, inaudible]

Question: You know why I say it.

Representative Hartzler:  That’s okay, [crosstalk] I understand what you said.

Question: How much money you’ve got a year and where it comes from. And then [crosstalk]…

Representative Hartzler:  Yeah.

Question: [inaudible] it kind of tells me where it’s going. You’re always telling me where it’s going.

Representative Hartzler:  Yeah.

Question: You’re always telling me where it’s going.

Representative Hartzler:  Yeah, well, uh, I’d be happy to get more information and we’ll get your name and address and things. We’ll get you, uh, a spreadsheet, something, that will be more type of format that’d be helpful to you. And it is, it’s hard to get your mind around it. This, uh, this is the Office of Management and Budget and it’s put it in a pie chart form, but, basically showing there’s two point two trillion is what came in. And then the other one was, uh, you know, three point five going out. Uh, but we, you, we’ll try to get you a breakdown of this two point two trillion, how much of that is from individual taxes, how much is from tax, how much is for gas tax, and [inaudible]. So, be happy to get that for you. And the Congressional Budget Office or Office of Budget and management is a nonpartisan issue, so, you should be able to trust them if you don’t trust the elected officials, understand that.

All right, who next? Over here. Okay. All right. What is it?

Question: Thank you. Uh, my name’s [….], I live in Warrensburg so I’m one of your constituents.

Representative Hartzler:  Yes, I know you, [….].

Question: Yeah. Um, we’ve talked before. I like the title of plan, Path to Prosperity because when I look at it, and particularly with all the dramatic problem of debt, why is the plan to prosperity cutting important government programs, for example Pell Grants? We have a town in the Ozarks right now that gonna be drowning because we haven’t rebuilt their levies. Cutting things like that, while people in your income bracket are going to see again their taxes fall even more in this plan to prosperity. If, what you say is true, our debt is so terrible, why don’t we increase revenue a bit, particularly on people in your income bracket, because I’m going to assume that you, you made in the top two percent of all income earners in this country? You don’t?

Representative Hartzler:  I have no idea.

Voice: How do you know?

Question: Well, I mean, you, you, you’ve, you filed [crosstalk] reports between three, well, I mean, I’m answering how I know. You filed reports indicating you were somewhere between three to thirteen million dollars with the Congressional [inaudible], right?

Representative Hartzler:  No.

Question: You haven’t?

Representative Hartzler: No [inaudible]. Anyway. Let me answer your [crosstalk] question.

Question: But why don’t we increase revenue some? After all, if we use the household thing, if you [inaudible crosstalk] got a problem then somebody gets another job.

Representative Hartzler: Okay, [….]. All right. [scattered applause] Yeah. [inaudible crosstalk] Oh. My hu, let me get, if you want to get personal I’ll explain.  We have fifty employees. Now, we have a choice come tax day. My husband and I, do we send Washington, D.C. more money or do we go hire someone? You, some people don’t understand that people, business owners, uh, have a choice on tax day. And, on their tax reform, if you knew how the tax system went for small business owners, uh, if you have a growth in your business that is reflected, if you’re an S corporation like most small business owners are, that’s reflected on your tax form. So if you grew your business a little bit and hired a, bought a new computer system, you made a little money in the business or you bought a new vehicle for a salesman or something like that, that shows that your business grew. And that business owner itself may have only had a personal income, their salary, of fifty thousand dollars. But on their tax form it could show, because the income from the business is also added to that, that they made two hundred and fifty or three hundred thousand dollars a year and President Obama would call them rich. We need to tax more the rich, when it turns out most business owners end up paying more taxes than their income, then their salary. And I know small business owners that have had to go borrow money in order to pay their taxes. And so some people don’t understand that, but that’s the reality. And so, I don’t believe making business owners send more of their income, money they don’t have, into Washington, D.C. is go
nna create jobs. I think we need to lower the taxes, if anything, on everybody so that business owners can create more jobs and people who are, are employees can go spend more money and generate more jobs through the business, through Wal-mart, or through the, go buy a car or something like that. So that’s the first thing.

Now, what we’re proposing in the Path to Prosperity is cutting everywhere, but we’re not eliminating things. So let me clarify the Pell Grant, since you mentioned that. I know that you’re a professor at UCM. But, uh, we weren’t proposing doing away with Pell Grants. Uh, we were proposing, and it didn’t pass, by the way, but in the CR [continuing resolution] which you were probably referencing, bringing them back to two thousand eight levels. Uh, because they had quadrupled, was that right [….]? Was it quadrupled? Quadruple. ‘Cause [….] had looked into that to me ’cause I said, ’cause I’m a teacher, I got my masters degree at UCM. I mean, I’m concerned, everything, about education.  I want to make sure kids have a good education. Um, but, uh, the, it had quadrupled, so much so, that it was, it’s projected to go bankrupt, the Pell Grant system. So we were trying to rein ii back to two thousand eight levels and you still would have over four thousand dollars per student. It didn’t pass, so that, the high amount is still there, but, but, let’s be careful and make sure we have the facts. And that’s why it’s good for us to meet, good for you to know we weren’t proposing doing away with it. Let’s move on.

All right. How about this gentleman right here in the striped shirt, [….]. If that is his real name, I’m not sure. Even, oh it [laugh].

Question: I’d like to focus just a minute on Medicare which is a big part of the [inaudible]. And I understand, a big part of the concern is the increase in the medical costs.

Representative Hartzler: Yes.

Question: Going up and up and up and up.

Representative Hartzler: Yes.

Question: Uh, as I understand it [inaudible], it is going to decrease and put a lid on the contribution that the government is going to pay on the medical bills. And I’m wondering does it do anything to address the rising costs so the unpaid balance, that comes from patients is going to be something they can afford.

Representative Hartzler: Yeah. Excellent question. Um, I don’t believe it has the proactive new plan for health care in it as part of the Path to Prosperity. But, we are working on those proposals and we’re gonna move them out of the House very soon, too, because many of us feel like we’ve got to do something to rein in these health care costs. It is crazy, the increase. But, we don’t think that the government takeover was the answer last year  [crosstalk], and so…

Question: What, what, what article? [crosstalk]What is this?

Representative Hartzler:  Yeah, yeah. [crosstalk] We are proposing to increase competition, is one thing, between, across state lines. You know, there are some states like Alabama, there’s only one company. You have no choice, it’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield [crosstalk] if you got a j…

Question: I’m not talking about insurance coverage. And I know they’re gonna go get it, uh, under their [inauadible], they’re [inaudible] a chunk of profit when that’s private. I’m asking about the medical costs.

Representative Hartzler:  Yeah.

Question: What is being charged.

Representative Hartzler:  Right. Well, it’s several things. There, there’s the, uh, liability reform, so it lowers the defensive medicine. That’s a plan that’s put out there. There’s a lot of, I talked a lot of doctors, they will tell me, I am ordering more procedures than are necessary just to make sure and cover all the bases so I’m not sued. And so we have some tort reform in there, that would help drive down the costs. Uh, [crosstalk] transparency [inaudible]…

Question: Have you seen the  studies on how, how minimal that is? [voice: “Yeah.”]

Representative Hartzler: Uh, I know in Missouri it dro, it lowered it when the State of Missouri passed it a few years ago, when they did some changes and it’s, it’s bringing it down. [crosstalk]

Voice: How much did it drop? [crosstalk] How much did it drop?

Representative Hartzler: I’ve heard that it’s fif…

Question: Are you going to work on fee for, are you going to do something about fee for service? Are you gonna change that?

Representative Hartzler: I don’t believe that’s directly something, like the government saying you can’t charge more than x? But we’re trying to increase competition [inaudible crosstalk] and, and that would reduce costs and, and, you know, there’s several proposals out there. But I welcome your ideas because that’s, we’ve got to come up with solutions for [crosstalk] that.

Question:My, my idea is Medicaid paying is great for me, now I’m worried about, I’m sorry, Medicare. I’m worried about the people who are fifty-five and under.

Representative Hartzler: Yeah, yeah, well, we’re gonna be [crosstalk]…

Question: [inaudible] who have been paying on it for forty years already.

Representative Hartzler: Yeah, we’re gonna be workin’, workin’ on that to bring, bring down the costs, too, ’cause you’re right, it’s a big, big cost driver….

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t get your question answered.

The final portion of the transcript for the remainder of the town hall question and answer session will follow in a subsequent post.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) in Blue Springs, Missouri on April 28, 2011.

“…And, uh, one way to increase jobs is to reduce the corporate tax rate to twenty-five percent. Right now we have the highest corporate tax rate of any industrialized nation in the, in the world…”

“…Oh, this corporate welfare thing did, were you as upset as I was when I heard that GE didn’t pay any taxes last year?…”

Well, these two thoughts appear to be incompatible. You think it might have something to do with loopholes and effective tax rates? Just asking.

“…So, that’s why the Heritage Foundation, which is independent, uh, agency, analyzed the Path to Prosperity budget that we passed and said that is expected to create a million dollars, million dollars [laugh], a million jobs next year and it would bring down our unemployment back to four percent over the next decade…”

Really? Independent? Are we thinking about the same Heritage Foundation?:

Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a New Right think tank. Its stated mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies….

….In calendar year 2006 the Heritage Foundation spent over $40.5 million on its operations. That year the foundation raised over $25 million from individual contributors and $13.1 million from foundations…..

….Between 1985 and 2003, Media Transparency reports that the following funders provided $57,497,537 (unadjusted for inflation) to the Heritage Foundation:

…Scaife Foundations: Sarah Mellon Scaife, Scaife Family, Carthage…

…Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation…

“…Um, those of you who are on Medicaid [sic] right now or participating in it, it stops the raid on the Medicare trust fund that was gonna be used for implementation of last year’s [health care reform] bill. You realize there’s five hundred billion dollars they took out of Medicare to spend on implementation of it. That’s, that’s awful. I mean, they shouldn’t be touching that….”

….there are several ways that the new health law will trim the Medicare program over the next 10 years. One of the biggest – and most widely publicized – is a reduction in payments to the Medicare Advantage plans that about a quarter of Medicare beneficiaries belong to. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that bringing the private plan payments into line with those of traditional Medicare will mean a savings of $136 billion over 10 years….

….Roughly $200 billion will be cut by reducing payment increases to hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies and other providers, said David Certner, legislative policy director for AARP. Payment increases will be tied to productivity and quality improvements. “We think these cuts won’t harm the program,” he said….

….Although there are cuts to the program, there are investments, too, said Mr. Certner. These include closing the Medicare prescription drug doughnut hole, adding free preventive care for Medicare beneficiaries and improving pay for primary care doctors.

The Medicare changes will also strengthen the program by extending the life of the Medicare trust fund by at least 10 years, said Mr. Certner. “The status of the trust fund is not something that most people think about personally,” he said. “But that’s pretty significant….”

“…and by twenty forty is expected to produce surpluses…”

And when was the last time we ran a budget surplus? And who gave it all up for windfall tax breaks for the top two percent? Just asking.

“…And I got there, some people said, [exaggerated] members of Congress have special plan, whatever. And I, I checked last year and they said, no, that’s not true. And I just want to let you know it’s not true…”

Where on earth did teabaggers get that idea?

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Blue Springs, part 1 (April 29, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Blue Springs, part 2 (April 30, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Harrisonville, Missouri – the reviews are in (April 29, 2011)

This is the continuation of the transcript of Representative Vicky Hartzler’s (r) town hall in Blue Springs, Missouri on Thursday, April 28, 2011:

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r): ….So, uh, I had an hour, I was supposed to preside. And so I went the day before and said, how do I do this, is this real tough? They said, well, don’t worry, we’ll just tell you what to say and [inaudible]. It was, it was no problem. But, a couple of people got up and gave speeches. I could not believe it. Decrying this plan and one of them actually said, this plan will kill my grandmother. And just crazy stuff. And I, I, just a small thought, but I [inaudible] having that gavel and gaveling ’em down with a new point of order. Point of order, sit down, you’re lying to the American public [laugh], sit. But, I just thought maybe my first time out I shouldn’t be quite so [inaudible]. I was good. But, you know, it, you can hear anything and that’s why I want you to have the phone numbers here and our e-mail so if you hear something, and I want you, us to get to know each other, that you will take the time to call [….] in Harrisonville or, or somebody and say, is this true? I heard this is gonna kill grandma. Is, is Vicky really supporting killing my grandma? You know, anyway, let, let us at least give you, uh, some facts and then you can just, you know, make the decision. So, I want to invite you to do that…

…But, anyway, we’re not making any changes. Uh, but yet, if fifty-four and younger we would reform the system and make it so it’s still cost, uh, beneficial for the future, fulfills the mission of health and retirement security, but also lifts the crushing burden of debt. This passed the House. Uh, it, deals with far more than just those issues. We dealt with other parts of the pie as well. But, if, uh, if it passes you can see the difference between, uh, what ours would do to spending compared to the President’s budget. The President’s budget does not address Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. He’s, let’s kick the can down the road, uh, a little bit further, so. [inaudible] Six point two trillion dollar difference will be saved over time.

Uh, here’s another comparison. Current path, the [exaggerated] Path to Prosperity, erity, erity. I’m sorry [laugh]. Anyway. You can see it not only reverses course, but actually balances the budget down the road and that’s, I think, what everybody wants us to do. You know, I used to teach home economics and I’d teach personal finance and there was two ways, I’d tell the kids, you know, you can make things equal. If you’re spending too much money, more money than you have, you only have a job at McDonald’s and you over spend it, well, you either, son, or, you know, you guys quit spending so much money, or, and or, you need to work a second job. You need to make more income, right? And they understood that. They also understood how to balance a budget. That you have your expenses and your income. And your expenses shouldn’t be more than your income. So, I just scratch my head sometimes and I’ve been there three months now in Washington, D.C. , I’m thinking about
my former students, I’m like, how come they could get it, but yet these guys can’t get it? [laugh] You know. It’s crazy.

The Chamber of Peoples Deputies wants us all to clap louder for their new ten year plan.

Um, so this Path to Prosperity, erity, erity, anyway, it does that. It does some things that are projected to, uh, get more jobs. And that’ll increase our income, but also quit spending money we don’t have. And, uh, one way to increase jobs is to reduce the corporate tax rate to twenty-five percent. Right now we have the highest corporate tax rate of any industrialized nation in the, in the world. It was two and now it will be one. We were before two and now we’re one. Um, we’re at thirty-five percent. I talk to some companies and got to tour some manufacturing plants in the fourth district this week. I am just so thankful for them. We still have some manufacturing. And we have some good plants in Missouri, too. But they’ve told me it’s tough when you’re competing against China. When our country is taxing thirty-five percent of their profits they could go in another country and they could not have to pay near as many taxes. Plus, they don’t have EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and these other, uh, regulations that are killing them, increasing their costs. Every time they turn around there’s some government agency saying, oh no, you have to do this, you have to add this, you have to do this and that increased their costs. So they have to do that instead of hiring somebody, they have to take that money and com, for compliance with the, uh, government agencies. So, we, we, uh, we addressed that. We lowered the corporate tax rate, try to bring those companies back to America. And so we have jobs here. We repealed the government takeover of health care. That, that’s my version, yes, it’s biased, but I can’t remember the name. It’s fancy name name, the path, uh, the patient protection, well, anyway, you remember, you know what bill I’m talking about. The Pre, the one which passed last year. Anyway, that is very, very costly and very onerous for job creation. Because it, health care costs for business are huge and now they cost have go, gone up even higher. So, the Path to Prosperity, uh, repeals that. In doing that it reduces the national debt which helps reduce that uncertainty, that dark cloud over businesses’ heads, consolidates programs, spends, brings spending down, targets wasteful programs, and repeals [inaudible].  So, that’s why the Heritage Foundation, which is independent, uh, agency, analyzed the Path to Prosperity budget that we passed and said that is expected to create a million dollars, million dollars [laugh], a million jobs next year and it would bring down our unemployment back to four percent over the next decade. That’s very encouraging, that’s an independent group that said that, we didn’t say that. So, um, they looked at it, and said, hey, this is gonna create jobs. Okay?

It lowers taxes. Not only for businesses, but for individuals, making a simpler tax code, uh, so the highest individual tax would be twenty-five percent, letting Americans keep more of their money and go spend it in their local community and create jobs. So, it’s gonna keep the taxes low, uh, it, it prevents the one point five trillion tax increase called for in the President’s budget. So, it saves one point five trillion there compared to his, so.

Uh, I said it repeals and defunds it. Um, those of you who are on Medicaid [sic] right now or participating in it, it stops the raid on the Medicare trust fund that was gonna be used for implementation of last year’s bill. You realize there’s five hundred billion dollars they took out of Medicare to spend on implementation of it. That’s, that’s awful. I mean, they shouldn’t be touching that.

It cuts six point two trillion. We know that. Uh, bans earmarks, corporate welfare. Oh, this corporate welfare thing did, were you as upset as I was when I heard that GE didn’t pay any taxes last year? [voice: “I thought we had a corporate tax rate of twenty-five percent?”] [voice: “That correct?”] But here’s what I, the deal was, I looked into that, I actually had [….] look into that ’cause I, that’s what I, I said, how do you do that? How do you do that? Well, part of what they did, [….] found out. Is that they bought fifty thousand of the Chevy Volt cars and for each car they got a seventy-five hundred dollar tax credit. When you have a tax credit you even get money back if you do it. Isn’t that? That’s shocking. Where nationally the Chevy Volt, was it electronic, electric car, right, is only selling like a hundred a hundred and fifty, a hundred and fifty cars through the, a, um, a, a month now across the country [laugh] and they go out and buy them, so.  That was part of the shenanigans and anyway we’re getting rid of that ’cause that’s not right. Everybody needs to pay their fair share and not participate in this loophole type of thing, so.

Uh, there’s showing the difference. And, um, it’s deficits, it cuts, uh, four point four trillion in deficit spending compared to the President’s budget over the next ten years and by twenty forty is expected to produce surpluses according to the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] . Um, and this is more specifics, uh, on the portion that dealt with the Medicare and the Social Security. Yes.

Question: Can you clarify the statement that you just made?

Representative Hartzler: Yes.

Question: Go back…

Representative Hartzler: Yes.

Question: …you say surpluses produced, that means take in more money than they’re spending. But, that’s not talking about the debt. ‘Cause that will still be there, is that correct?

Representative Hartzler: All right. This is, [….] has been reading this to…

Staffer: Yeah.

Representative Hartzler: You know [….]?

Staffer: Just real quickly, um, yeah that’s right, it would be running the surpluses which would then be directed towards paying off the debt. [crosstalk][inaudible]

Question: But that involves [inaudible] where we would be paying interest all the time.

Staffer: I’m sorry.

Question: The four, the fourteen trillion would still be sitting there where we’re paying interest.

Staffer: Until we get to a, a point where [crosstalk] we’re running a surplus.

Question: [inaudible] Twenty forty, and that’s when we start paying on the debt.

Staffer: Yes, and then under the Path to Prosperity plan the debt actually would be entirely paid off about ten years after that with [crosstalk]…

Question: Ten years  [inaudible]. [voice: “That’s twenty-nine years.”]

Representative Hartzler: Yeah. And, and the thing is it could be done faster if people want to and this is what we need to discuss if you’re willing to cut Medicare people, uh, at, right now. You know, uh, who are, these changes are for fif, age fifty-four on down. But, most people feel like that that’s probably not gonna be, uh, acceptable by the American public, you know. And, and another way would be to raise taxes. And so we are not, haven’t been supportive of raising taxes. So, if you, you could do it faster if you, maybe [laugh], if you raise taxes. So, yeah, it’s just a interesting, uh, mix.

Okay, uh, finish up here, we’re almost done. Um, just some more details. What we propose, of course, just to reemphasize, it grandfathers in the grandparents this time, they don’t see any change to their Medicare. But, what it does is gives, it secures it for future beneficiaries, makes sure it’s still there, it doesn’t go bankrupt. By giving them access to the same health options members of Congress enjoy. So, it would be a way of having, uh, different, a new type of Medicare for people fifty-four and old, younger, when they get to be sixty-five. And basically, they can participate in the federal employee health care insurance program. Just like memb
ers of Congress and people who work in federal office do right now. Uh, you know, I didn’t know how that worked, either.  And I got there, some people said, [exaggerated] members of Congress have special plan, whatever. And I, I checked last year and they said, no, that’s not true. And I just want to let you know it’s not true, it’s just we got a book, uh, you’re new employee like I was in January, and it says Federal, uh, Employee Health Care Options. And it just showed, you looked up your state and the different, uh, health plans there just like some of you, a lot of you have worked on jobs. You would, you pick which plan you want, it was some Cadillac plans, if you personally wanted to pay more premium, you know, you could get a nicer one, or if you wanted to bare bones one, you know, it wouldn’t, you wouldn’t have to pay as much. And so, it’s just similar. So you picked one and, and then, uh, your employer would help pay part of it and you’d pay a little bit and, anyway, [voice: “Rep, Rep.”] it’s the same. So, we would, we would talk about that, uh, [voice: “Representative Hartzler.”] anyways. No, we’ll talk [crosstalk] about that in just a minute.  [voice: “No, no, just a question about what you just said.”] Anyway. [voice: ” Does that affect age?”] [crosstalk] That’s… [voice: “Does age have a difference in how much you had to pay? When you said.”] No, uh, uh, I don’t think so. No, it, no, I don’t think so. I can go back and look at that. I don’t remember that. So, anyway, uh, they would just allow them to be rolled into the federal health care, uh, program.

Uh, as far as Medicaid, the, the health insurance program for lower income, that will be just sent back to the states in a block grant. And if you talk to your state reps, state senators they like that. They get so frustrated with all these federal programs that get sent to the states and then say, here’s how you can do it, you gotta do it this way and you can’t do it that way. And they’ve all told me, the ones I’ve talked to, said, leave us, uh, quit dictating from Washington how we should do things. We know people in Missouri better than the bureaucrats in Washington does. Let us come up with our own program, just give us the money and we’ll come up with our own program.  So, that’s what that does with Medicaid and it cuts costs by doing that. Because Missouri is different than California or Massachusetts, so let Missouri people come with their own version of Medicaid.

And then Social Security, it doesn’t, this Path to Prosperity doesn’t give any specific, uh, suggestions on what to do to Social Security. So, I wanted to clarify that because if you hear that [exaggerated]  the [inaudible] people in the House of Representatives are trying to privatize Social Security or dismantle Social Security or any of these crazy claims, if you watch C-SPAN, you know.  Tens of Americans watch it, so, anyway, that’s a [inaudible] joke. But, anyway. Anyway, if you watch C-SPAN [laugh] and you see one of these people in the House floor give these speeches you don’t know, uh. But, what it does is it forces the Social Security trustees to come up with a plan. It forces them to do a study to see if Social Security’s gonna be solvent or not in the future. And if it’s not they have to, in so many days, come up with a plan to keep it solvent. And so that’s all that we’re doing in our plan. It’s not coming forth with a specific proposal, but forcing them to come up with a specific plan. So, um, I think it’s, uh, you know, it would accomplish the same thing.

Okay, well, what can we do today? Help share the facts with family, friends, neighbors, coworkers because there is so much, uh, hyp, hyperbole, is that the word, anyway, out there. And do we have copies of this? Oh, good. I, I, you guys, I, now that I think about it, yeah, I saw several of you had this. We came up with this, it’s kind of a summation of some of these slides and we would appreciate it if you would even consider taking five of these when you leave or ten and sharing ’em with your friends and family and things because I think a lot of people aren’t aware of really how serious the situation is. And when we’re talking about, excuse me, reining in spending or in D.C. people need to understand what’s going on. So help share the facts. Uh, let them know just ignoring the problem is only gonna make it worse. And, if you like the Path to Prosperity plan that we passed in the House a couple of weeks ago that addresses cutting programs, cutting spending, uh, reining in and, and reforming these, uh, entitled programs then call the Senate and the White House and say, hey, I like the House plan, please support it. Uh, so, for it to pass we need them, it needs to go through the Senate and the White House.

And, uh, give your, give your ideas. Um, this shows that, um, there’s, uh, three little quick survey things, so, that the majority of voters incorrectly believe the federal government spends more on defense foreign aid, than it does on Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. You know, people just don’t know that pie chart where the money goes and, uh. Also, a similar majority, sixty percent incorrectly believes problems with the federal budget can be fixed just by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. So, it’s bigger than that, you, you, we all know that. Less than half believe Medicare and Social Security costs are a major source of problems for the federal budget. And this is, this is an issue. Because as we’re trying to reform and save these programs if people don’t understand that than you can see the, the concern there, so.

Anyway, help spread the word, I wanted to close on that there’s hope, though. Like, like  [laugh] you said earlier, we don’t want you to leave depressed.  It’s a beautiful day, we don’t want you to go home like this. Please leave here encouraged to know there is a plan out there and there’s a bunch of people that have been elected, that you sent me there, that are willing and want to try to address this, uh, issue for our future generations so that, one, we can get jobs back. They can come back. We can make some changes and encourage people to hire again. We can do that.  And, two, to save our Social Security, uh, national security, and Social Security while we’re at it. But, we can do things to save our national security and we can do things to preserve our future for our children and our grandchildren so they will have just as much opportunity and freedom and standard of living as we have.

But, I’d add a but, I think we have a window of opportunity here though that we need to act now. And we can’t keep waiting, so that’s why, at least, we’re moving forward. But, I want to hear your ideas, your suggestions, your thoughts, and as we do this, we’ll have some discussion, just a few thoughts, uh, we all respect everybody’s opinions and ideas and, uh, be respectful, of course. And, uh, you know, let’s just take turns. And do we have one, uh, we have two microphones. Oh, is that one? [voice: “This one is corded.”] It’s got a cord in it. [voice: “I can bring it up.”] Maybe. [voice: “I can bring it up to you.”] I’m gonna use that one and this one can go around. Although, the room is small enough we probably could hear. Okay. Very good….

So, if the changes to Medicare for people fifty-four and younger are so fabulous, why aren’t the republicans promoting the same for folks fifty-five and over? Yeah, I thought so.

Transcripts of the remainder of the town hall (question and answer portion) which followed will follow in subsequent posts.

“….Uh, I’ve talked to a lot of business owners in the fourth district that tell me that they would like to expand their business, they would like to open up a second location, they’d like to hire more workers, but, they’re concerned if there’s gonna to be another recession because of all the debt we have….”

That’s interesting, I thought businesses made the decision to expand based on demand for what they produce like when, you know, consumers spend money to buy their products, not because the business owner lies awake at night worrying about the national debt.

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Blue Springs, part 1 (April 29, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Harrisonville, Missouri – the reviews are in (April 29, 2011)

This is the continuation of the transcript of Representative Vicky Hartzler’s (r) town hall in Blue Springs, Missouri on Thursday, April 28, 2011:

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r):  So how many would agree with this? We have a debt crisis in our country. Raise your hand. Most people. Okay. I think so. And several really smart think so. This is the co-chair of President Obama’s commission. He says, the debt is like a cancer. It’s truly going to destroy our country from within. The director of CBO [Congressional Budget Office] said, uh, that, uh, the fiscal policy’s on an unsustainable path. I think you and I would know that. Any time you borrow forty-two cents out of a dollar you know you’re, you can’t keep doing that. Um, to an extent  that it can’t be solved with minor tinkering…

…Now, what impact is this having on us? Well, I’d like to just share my opinion in at least three areas. And one is, it’s impacting jobs, uh, two, I think it’s impacting our national security, uh, and three, I think it’s impacting our, our children’s future. There, so.

How does it impact jobs? Well, here’s what the CEO of Honeywell said, uh, the seeds of the next recession have already been planted. The debt burden, accumulate over the next ten years, will sink us. There’s a lot of uncertainty out there in the job market, in business. Uh, I’ve talked to a lot of business owners in the fourth district that tell me that they would like to expand their business, they would like to open up a second location, they’d like to hire more workers, but, they’re concerned if there’s gonna to be another recession because of all the debt we have. Uh, they’re concerned because what they’re, Washington is doing, basically, and what, what they’re taxes are and if their taxes gonna be raised. If their, what their electric bill is gonna be ’cause last year they were proposing the cap and tax which would have doubled the energy bill, uh, with their health care costs, with last year’s passage of the health care bill health care costs are skyrocketing even more, if that’s possible. And, so, because of that they’re not hiring. And that just breaks my heart because on the other hand I talk to some people in the fourth district who are saying, I’m looking for a job. Probably all of us in here know people who are looking for work. And, it’s, it’s sad. You got business owners want to expand, you got people needing job, but because of the debt, because of all this, uh, it’s not happening. So that’s, uh, I think incentive, if nothing else for us to start reining in our debt so we can get people back to work.  Ben Bernanke, if you like him or not, he kind of said the same thing. Unless we as a nation make a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility in the longer run we’re still, we’re gonna have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth.

Another way this debt is threatening us threatening us, besides in job growth, is our national security. And this is probably the most sobering part for me. Uh, we can see the changes of who owns our debt. Nineteen seventy, when I was younger [laughter], um, only five percent of our debt was held by foreign countries. The rest was owned by the United States, you and I, citizens. I know when I was born my grandma and granddad bought me twenty-five dollar savings bond. Maybe some of you had that. And, uh, we as American citizens bought savings bonds and treasury bills and things and so Americans, uh, we owned the debt. Nineteen percent in nineteen ninety, but now, forty-seven percent of our, uh, debt, not only has the debt gone up, but it’s being held by foreign countries. And who are those countries? You have any guess who our number one creditor is? [voices: “China.”]  I knew you were a smart group when I walked in the room. You are. That’s, yep. Twenty nine point two percent of our foreign debt is owned by China. And twenty percent is owed to China, uh, Japan. Now, of course, Japan’s a friend, but, you know what my first thought was when I heard about the earthquake? I’d seen this slide. I thought, oh my goodness, I hope they don’t call in their debt. They need money over there to rebuild. Where are we gonna get this, I don’t know how much twenty percent is, I’d have to do a little math, uh, the total debt and all that, but, what, what are we gonna do since we don’t have extra money? We’re borrowing forty-two cents on every dollar anyway. Let’s just go to China and borrow some more money from China to pay Japan. That reminds me of some, uh, people I, I’ve known who’ve, uh, had an awful time, they get carried away on the credit cards. I don’t know if you know anybody, but, get so extended that they get the cash out of one credit card to go pay the minimum balance on the other credit card. Uh, the little, you know, that’s, you can’t do that very long or you’re gonna go bankrupt. So, this is concerning.

I’m very concerned about China in many ways. Uh, on foreign, uh, on, uh, on Armed Services Committee I’ve heard some, uh, sobering things, some I can’t share, but the things I can share is this. Their spending this year are twelve percent of their debt, of their, excuse me, their national budget on national defense. They’re building up their defense. They are right now constructing thirteen nuclear subs, we’re constructing one. Two months ago they just, uh, introduced their first version of their stealth fighter aircraft, kind of like our B-2, it’s a, you can’t see it. A month ago they introduced a twelve hundred mile aircraft carrier, bunk, busting bomb. Now, that’s almost getting to the range of Guam and stuff. Uh, trying to think if there’s something else. I mean, that’s bad, I think that’s all I can share. But, what are they doing? I don’t know. But I just know they’re doing it with a lot of our money. And here’s a sobering, uh, statistic. With just the interest that we pay every week to China on the debt we owe them they would have enough money to buy three strike fighters with fifty million dollars left over. You know, when I was a kid my, uh, parents taught me proverb which you probably are familiar with, that the borrower is servant to the lender. You heard that? And I think of that when I think of China. It’s like, doesn’t make me sleep well at night when you think about that, that we are so beholden to China. It impacts our negotiating power with them, too.

You probably know they’re, they’re stealing our intellectual property so much. Um, our American companies go over there and then they download their secrets and stuff. And so, say our President goes over and tries to negotiate or talk to their president, you don’t have near the leverage when you’re talking to somebody owns all your debt. So, I think that’s one reason Admiral Mike Mullen, who’s the Chairman of Joint Chiefs, Chief of Staff, last July said something pretty profound when he said, I think the biggest threat we have to our national security is our national debt. That surprised a lot of people. Some people thought that it was, uh, would sa
id, you know, who knows, Iran, North Korea or something better. But you stop and think about it, if we go bankrupt as a country and don’t have the money we can’t buy any airplanes or whatever we need to defend ourselves. Plus, we lose that negotiating power. The more debt we have the more beholden we become to other countries. It makes it more difficult in negotiating, too., so you don’t have to wars.

Anyway, there’s a lot of reasons to rein in our debt. If you’re not convinced yet, if, if national security or jobs, uh, our children’s futures is, I believe, at stake. Uh, my husband and I have a twelve year old daughter and , uh, I, I know a lot of you probably have grandkids and kids and that’s probably why you’re out here tonight instead of mowing your grass. It’s because, concerned about the future. I just have a question, I was curious, I been asking people across the fourth district this week, uh, two questions. Um, one, how many of you believe that your generation had more opportunity, more freedom, uh, more, higher standard of living than the generation before? Would you raise your hand. Okay. All right, good. Now, here’s the second one, just curious, how many of you really believe that next, the next generation will have more opportunity, more freedom, more, higher standard of living than you’ve had. Wow. [laugh] I’m glad you’re optimistic. [inaudible] I hope so. [voice, inaudible] Yeah, that’s right, thank you. It depends on what we do now. You’re so right [….]. I think that, uh, no matter what, and this, this whole debt crisis issue, it’s a bipartisan issue. Uh, it, it’s not, you know, one way or the other, both Democrats and Republicans have spent too much money in Washington for too long. I mean, that’s the bottom line. And we haven’t gotten here overnight. It’s taken a lot of years, uh, everybody, spending too much, spending money we don’t have. So, now, you and I are here at this time in history and now we have to decide what we’re gonna do as we move forward. And I’m with you, [….], I think we still can turn things around and change things. But, I think we’d better get started soon [laugh] is my, my thought on that.

We have a “debt crisis” because dubya gave a windfall tax break to the top two percent, thereby increasing the distribution of wealth upward, and significantly decreasing revenue.

Uh, this is a sobering quote, I won’t read it all, but this guy, uh, is basically saying if we don’t change things our children’s future is gonna be a lot duller and they’re not gonna have opportunities. At least that’s what he thinks, so, anyway. How many of you would agree with this statement? We have a debt crisis because Washington spends too much, not because Washington taxes too little. [voice: “Amen.”]  Okay. [laugh] All right. Good. Because this is what you’re gonna hear a lot about the next few months. Uh, there’s two views on this. How do we balance the budget, how do we get out of debt? Uh, I , I believe we need to be lettin’ people keep more of their money and put it in to the economy. Uh, and let businesses keep more of their money so they can hire more workers and turn things around. But there’s other people who, oops, other people who think that, uh, including our president, that we need to raise taxes as a way to balance the budget. So, uh, you’re gonna hear a lot of that. But, I’m on the side of let’s, let’s cut spending, let’s not raise taxes.

This is the proj, trajectory according to the, uh, CBO [Congressional Budget Office], of if we do, don’t do anything where our, the spending trajectory. Um, and, you know, taxes would have to follow that if we wanted to try and do that. I don’t think anybody wants to spend that many taxes.

Representative Vicky Hartzler’s (r) “crazy chart” which, interestingly enough, only goes to 2007. Why is that?

[red emphasis added]

This is a crazy chart and it’s not really that complicated. It’s just making a point that throwing more federal money into the system does not create jobs. Last year we had the stimulus package and, and they borrowed more money from China and tried programs and it was supposed to bring down unemployment to eight percent and, as you know, it, it went up, in fact. And you can see, over years, this is from nineteen seventy-one to two thousand seven, a chart of when the federal government spends, that’s the navy blue line, and how many private jo, private sector jobs are created. And they’re almost opposite. Whereas this, the more private investment that is made the more private jobs. It’s almost, you know, it’s a direct correlation there, so. That [inaudible] backs up, which I think let business owners keep more of their money and let them hire people, rather than have the federal government try to do it.

This is what you get when your chart goes beyond 2007, you know, for an additional four years: The Employment Situation in March (2011) “…In addition to the increases last month, the estimates of private sector job growth for January (now +94,000) and February (now +240,000) were revised up significantly. Overall payroll employment rose by 216,000 in March. Payroll employment grew in almost every sector. Solid employment increases occurred in professional and business services (+78,000), education and health services (+45,000), leisure and hospitality (+37,000), wholesale and retail trade (+31,800), and manufacturing (+17,000). Local government experienced a decline of 15,000, and has shed jobs in 16 of the past 17 months….”

Where is all this spending going, coming from, this trajectory? Well, it’s what we call, all, the main programs that are auto pilot. By auto pilot, means Congress usually doesn’t debate ’em every year. They were passed years ago, they’re just on auto pilot, they just keep going and going and going, and they’re getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So, what are they? Uh, well, they’re the main ones that most elected officials are afraid to say because they’re afraid they won’t get reelected. So, I’ll whisper it. [whisper] Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are the main, main ones. But, you know, uh, we’re, I’m gonna share with you, uh, a minute the proposal that I voted for on your behalf that we passed out of the House a couple weeks ago that seeks to reform these programs to save them for future generations. Plus, at the same time, reduces their overall cost. And I think we need more people in Washington, D.C. who are more concerned with doing the right thing rather than trying to be reelected. And so, there’s several of us like that and we’re ready to do that.

Here’s just three of ’em, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, see, they’re expected to take every, all of it, uh, in just a few years down the road. Social Security is really not, um, it’s growing, but not as fast as, as these others. Medicare is the main one. And why is Social Security, we’ll start with Social Security, why is it, you know, consuming more of, I think this is common sense, you guys, you know, probably figured this out, Americans are living longer, more seniors receiving benefits and birth rates aren’t keeping up.

Uh, this is a slide you’ve probably seen, it’s been around a long time. It’s showing the change in the number of workers paying into Social Security, uh, for every recipient. Nineteen fifty, uh, sixteen and a half workers, uh, this year, it’s two thousand eleven, so it’s probably a little less than three workers for every recipient. So, that is, that is one of the issues there.

Let me go back, though. Uh, this one, with Paul Ryan, the budget chair, he, he brought up, I think, a good point, he says it real
ly wouldn’t be that hard to, to fix Social Security. It’s, it’s, it’s the easiest of these three to fix because it’s a, uh, defined contribution program and a defined benefit program. So you could tw, make a few tweaks on either end, um, and those could be lots of things, but, it could be balanced fairly easily. So, it’s not rocket science, it can be done, and it should be done to preserve it so, uh, it’ll be there when, uh, when children, you know, our children and grandchildren get there.

Now, Medicare and Medicaid, uh, you know, they’re going up because health care. Everybody knows that, right? Health care is skyrocketing, the costs. Just the costs. Aging population leading to record Medicare enrollment. Uh, this number is, before I came here, this time, D.C., they told me two weeks ago that ten thousand of us baby boomers are joining Medicare and Social Security a day in our country now. How many of us are baby boomers? Raise your hand. And I’m one of ’em. Oh, a lot of us. [laugh] Okay. By the way, I’m on the younger end of the baby boom, I just wanted to clarify that. But, anyway. Yeah, there’s ten thousand of us a day entering the system, so you could imagine, between that and escalating health care costs it’s, uh, kind of like a giant Pacman. It’s, it’s consuming more and more, trajectory is just off the charts, if we don’t make any changes to the program.

As far as Medicaid you probably know that’s the, uh, medical program for low income Americans. And, uh, not only does it have the same health care costs, but also the economic downturn is leading to more people being enrolled and that’s part of the issue in that.

But, anyway, now, if we don’t do anything it’s not good. Medicare’s expected to go broke in nine years, was a quote I heard in, in D.C. I wanted to pass on to you. The Social Security, they say if you don’t do something there, uh, the Social Security benefits would be cut by twenty-two percent, potentially, in a few years. [voice: “When.”] So, there’s some issues there.

But, we in the House have put forth a plan to save and strengthen these programs and at the same time help reduce the overall cost and the debt. And, so, I wanted to give you just a few of the principles behind our plan. And, I’ve learned everything Washington, D.C. has a fancy name. I mean, it doesn’t matter who introduces a bill, you got to have a fancy name. So, this is the [exaggerated] Path to Prosperity plan, but. Whoops, hey, there we go. The main thing I want you to know is that we’re not proposing any changes for current seniors. How many of you are fifty-five and older? Okay, okay. If you raised your hand nothing would change. If you don’t remember anything else [voice, “So, so what?”], please take that with you because that’s not what you’re gonna hear from some people. Some people are just flat out lying about it. I, the last week I was there I had the privilege of, of presiding over the House. You know, [Speaker] John Boehner is there lots of times, but the rest of the day, uh, when, there’s certain times of day where you can go down and give a speech, a one minute speech and then they have a five minute speech session. So, that’s why if you ever, has anybody ever watched C-SPAN? Okay, if you see people speaking it looks like nobody else is there. It’s because nobody else is there. [laughter] They’re, they’re totally doing that just to speak, uh, to you, uh, from C-SPAN and to get on record, uh, their thoughts or whatever they want to share….

The charts from the Center for Budget Priorities and Policy (CBPP) and on Private Payroll Employment from 2008 to 2011 (White House) were not a part of Representative Hartzler’s (r) presentation and are used here to refute her statements.

Transcript of the remainder of Representative Hartzler’s town hall presentation and the question and answer session which followed will follow in subsequent posts.

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Harrisonville, Missouri – the reviews are in (April 29, 2011)

Representative Vicky Hartzler held a town hall in Blue Springs, in the 4th Congressional District, on Thursday evening in the gym at James Walker Elementary School. There were about forty-five people in attendance, with an additional fifteen individuals from the school, from Ms. Hartzler’s staff, and law enforcement.

Representative Hartzler entered the gym and personally greeted everyone seated in the audience before taking to the lectern to speak.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) greets constituents at her town hall in Blue Springs, Missouri.

The first part of the transcript:

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r): ….[applause] Well, thank you, thank you. That’s [….] and he’s a member of our team. I’ll introduce him again in a minute. But, uh, I just want to thank you guys for coming tonight. It’s such a beautiful evening. We haven’t had any sunshine, for what, four years now, or something, it seems like? [laughter] And so we finally had a sunny day and nice evening. You could be out mowing your grass or pulling weeds or whatever and you decided to come out and spend a little time with us tonight talking about our country and our situation and share, share with me some of your ideas on what we need to do turn things around and make it even better for our kids and grandkids and ourselves, too, as far as that goes. So, thank you for doing that. That means, uh, you guys are true patriots. And it’s very, very, very, very helpful to me. But, as I look around tonight I see a few familiar faces. One’s [….], I got to know him last couple of years and what a wonderful, bright young leader, now the councilman here, so, uh, glad you came [….]. And it’s good, uh, to, to see, others of you as well. I know I served with [….] in the House of Representatives when I was a state rep and so you’ve got a good, good mayor here. But, um, thank you for coming. I’m sorry I was running a few, uh, minutes late. We went to the other elementary school on Sunnyside Drive. You know there’s two, the one on that side. And we got all excited, there’s a lot of people there, too. It turns out they were all playing soccer with their kids. [laughter] So, wait a minute, we’re at the wrong elementary school, so we figured it out.

Anyway, well, uh, actually, you know, first, since I don’t know most of you guys I thought I’d take just a second to introduce myself ’cause, um, I hope we can become friends and, and, uh, you feel comfortable calling me if you have an idea or concern or something like that. But, uh, I was just sharing with the principal, and, first of all, I do want to thank you [….] . Thank you for letting us, uh, meet here in this school here. Let’s give the school district a hand. [applause] Thank you so much. But I just grew up, uh, you know, down the road in Cass County, so I’m really very close, uh, to here. It’s forty, forty-five minutes or something to get here. Uh, grew up on a farm, went to Archie and, uh, a very small school. But, uh, you know, went to MU to college. That’s a big school. And, uh, got my education degree, became a teacher, taught in Lebanon, Missouri my first year, which is in the fourth district. And then, uh, got married moved back home and taught another ten years at Belton, was a track coach. So, used to have track meets against Blue Springs. [inaudible] You guys, such a powerhouse in athletics. So,  I’m going to give you credit for that. And I do enjoy watching your football team, it’s fabulous. But, anyway, I’m sorry, getting off track. I’m a sports fan. Um, but my husband and I [inaudible], we farm as well. Just like us, uh, my family growing up, so we raise corn and soybeans and wheat, if ever we get it planted in the fall, if it’s not raining. Uh, we have, uh, some cows that we, uh, finish and, uh, and raise cow calf operation and we have some hogs. So, we’re just kind of a farm. But we also are small business owners. We own Hartzler Equipment Company. We have combines and, and lawn mowers and, anyway, stuff. We have three stores, one in Harrisonville, Nevada, and Lamar. Uh, so that’s kind of my background a little bit, basically agriculture, education, and small business. And so I need your help in all the other areas of [laughter] government and, and background. So that’s why, uh, I want to get to know you because I bet you guys, hi. [voice: “Howdy.”]  Thanks for coming. We just, getting started here. Uh, you all have a lot of expertise in your areas of, of places, how you grew up and the work you’ve had and things and, uh, so I welcome all your ideas, okay….

…What, uh, like […] said, we, we want to just have a discussion tonight. I wanted to share with you some facts that I learned about our budget first, ’cause that’s a big, uh, topic of discussion that we’re dealing with in Washington, D.C. And, uh, some of the information I have received is pretty, pretty sobering, uh, and I wanted you to know what these facts are so as you hear about us trying to rein in spending and making some, uh, tough decisions, but responsible decisions, I think you’ll kind of know where we’re coming from. Plus, I want your ideas on how to do it ’cause this isn’t, uh, usual and customary in D.C. to start talking about how to cut, how much less to spend instead of how much more to spend on things. So, I welcome your input in that.

Representative Vicky Hartzler and a staffer (right).

But, first, I did want to introduce our team because this is a staff that’s working for you. Uh, I work for you and they work for you and, uh, somebody said, what’s you team’s name gonna be? You gonna call yourself Vicky’s team or Hartzler team? I said, no, no way, I said, this is not about me, this is about us, Missouri fourth district. So we pondered on it a little bit and one night it came to me ’cause I like those license plates, you pull up behind a car and they’re always kind of coded and you’re like trying to figure out what does that mean? So, here it is. I wanted to show you. I think it’s in here. Is it in here? Yeah, it is. Okay. I took this out at noon in Harrisonville I was almost afraid somebody would snatch it ’cause it’s just so amazing. Well, anyway, so the name of our team is the Mo for you team. We’re the Missouri four and we’re here to do mo’ for you. So, anyway, I thought that was kind of clever. Well, anyway, all right. [laughter] So much for that. I’m glad I enjoyed it, right? [laughter]  Any way, the Mo for you team. This is [….] he’s originally from Harrisonville and, uh, he’s now my legislative director in, in D.C. and, uh, he’s a great, uh, young man. We got [….] and she is out of our Jefferson City office. We have four offices, one in Jefferson City, Harrisonville, um, Sedalia, and Lebanon. So probably the closest one to you if you personally are in the Harrisonville area or want to come visit with someone in person about an idea or issue you can, uh, come down to Harrisonville. But [….] is, you need to get to know her if you’re a veteran . She’s worked for Senator Bond for years and she’s kind of the expert in, uh, veteran’s issues. And so she’s got [whisper] the secret phone numbers. So, she knows who to call directly that can get, uh, a veteran, a health, if they’re getting a runaround with, uh, VA system or something. So, just curious, is there anybody here who’s a veteran? All right. [applause] Thank you. [inaudible] Thank you, each and every one of you, for your se
rvice. We, uh, we owe you a debt of gratitude we can’t repay as, as a nation. We really do. Uh, and so [….] is a good person to become friends with and get to know. And if you have these little cards please, uh, keep ’em handy. This is our phone numbers for the Jeff city office, that’s where [….] is at, uh, Lebanon and Harrisonville, um, as well as the web site and Twitter and Facebook. So, if you do that I’d like to invite you to follow me. The next person on our Mo for you team is [….], she’s our state director. She works in Jeff City, also.  But she is really good at, at helping, uh, people with, uh, getting the help they need and making those connections. So, h, we have [….], you already met him, he’s our press secretary. I do want to say, he helps me send out an e-mail every week and so, if you aren’t signed up yet please fill out the form here. Um, I really would like to commun, be able to communicate directly every week about what’s going on in the capitol and what I’m doing, uh, so you know and you can e-mail back and, with ideas or whatever, instead of just depending on whatever you’re hearing on the news. So, if you want to sign up, love to have you do that. And also, you probably, uh, since I was a few minutes late, already got this filled out, but if you have a concern or an idea, uh, if we run out of time asking questions and you want to, uh, just leave it we will, I will read ’em later and we’ll get back to you on that. And then, uh, [….] is the main person in our Harrisonville office. So, if you come visit you’ll probably see [….] and she’s there. She’s one of our caseworkers, too, and helps people. We got [….], she’s in and out of the Harrisonville office. She travels with me. She’s great. Got [….] from Lebanon office. And then we have [….] who is out of Jefferson City office and he’s an intern. And he’s, uh, helpin’ out on the Mo for you team and all this, so.

Anyway, that being said, does that sound like a good idea for tonight? I’d love to just, uh, share with you some facts about the budget and what we’ve been doing and then the last, uh, forty-five minutes or so just take your questions and see what you want to talk about. So, that sound like a plan? Okay.

Well, let’s try this. I’ve got a real nifty little gizmo here, see if we can do it. Okay. Well, this just shows that, uh, basically we’re spending a lot of money. More and more and more and more every year. I think everybody knows that. But this is one of the most telling slides, uh, that I ran across that I want to bring home and share with you. It shows where our, uh, in the budget, where the money goes. And so you’ve got the red is the non-defense discretionary and that’s what most people would consider  the federal government. In here is all the departments, Department of Education, Energy, uh, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, if you had earmarks which this year we’ve banned earmarks, both in the House and the Senate, but they would be in there, foreign aid, most things that Congress debates every year and appropriates is only in this, this category and this category. This, of course, is defense. Um, I just wanted to say on defense that I have the honor of being appointed to serve on the Armed Services Committee. And I am just so privileged to get to sit on that committee and to be, to work on behalf of our men and women in uniform and their families and the veterans. Uh, I am concerned with the amount of money, as far as a percentage, in defense. It has gone down and down and down and down and down every year. And, uh, we’re spending less now on our defense than we were back in President Kennedy’s day, back in the sixties which I think is concerning. Uh, I knew there was a lot of threats in the world before I was on Armed Services Committee, now as I’m, even had to get to, privilege of sitting on classified hearings I can tell you what you all, we all probably know, but there are a lot of threats to us all around the world. A lot of our airplanes are over thirty years old. We’ve got some fifty years old. Um, we have the smallest fleet of Navy ships back some, from World War One. So, you know, I think if anything we need to be, uh, spending more money here, more percentage. Uh, I kind of organized an effort within the freshman class, there’s eighty-seven of us new ones, and most of us, we’re pretty like minded. We think we need to spend our money wisely and quit spending money we don’t have. But, several of us did, uh, send a letter to, uh, [Speaker] John Boehner and to the chairman, Paul Ryan, of our budget committee, saying, in this time, as we’re looking for cuts we think we need to cut, but, please remember to keep national defense as a priority. Because, according to the Constitution, we believe there’s only a few things that the federal government should be doing. And one of them is to provide for the common defense. So, I, I did want to just share with you kind of some efforts I’m doing to try to, uh, pro, defend defense. Then this is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, interest on the debt, which is, of course, now interest rates are very low. Uh, so, this is concerning if interest rates go up very much it’s gonna be kind of like Pacman, do you remember that video game? Uh, I think this could grow and eat out more and more percentagewise of the budget, which is gonna squeeze out this area even more. This program they lump together, um, mandatory programs, those are ones where Congress past has voted on a bill that says, uh, if you meet certain guidelines then you’re entitled to, uh, some benefit. So that would be Pell Grants, farm subsidies, unemployment, food stamps, those type of things, so they, they just lump those all together there. But, pretty interesting.

Wait a minute, Social Security is funded by a trust fund which is solvent and funded by worker contributions.

Social Security does not contribute to the deficit. It is disingenuous in the extreme to even make an allusion that Social Security contributes to the deficit.

Okay, the next slide is very interesting, too. And this is very sobering in my opinion. It shows that of the three point eight trillion dollar budget only two point two trillion was what you and I sent in. basically the government is borrowing more than forty-two cents out of every dollar it spends. This is money last year that we did not have, uh, send in as tax payers so the government borrowed. So, think about it. Would we do this at home? Would we keep spending four, borrowing forty-two cents out of every dollar we spend? We don’t do that at home. Uh, and, um, we don’t do it in our businesses, we don’t do it on our farms, we don’t, you know, we, we tighten the belt. If we, uh, you know, spend a little too much, maybe on the credit card, get that bill and go, whoa, my goodness. Your, you tighten it up. You may not, uh, go by Starbucks so much or you might, do something else, hold off on buying a new pair of jeans or something. You, you tighten the belt. And so, I think Washington needs to tighten its belt ’cause this is unsustainable. If you go, uh, if I go back to this one, If you can kind of, we’ll be high tech here, can, if you overlay the green here with the programs it, it’s being spent you see that most of the money that you and I send in is being eaten up with the Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest and mandatory programs. See that. So, uh, one way to look at is that everything I consider, you consider, a lot of people consider government is being run on borrowed money. That’s pretty scary. You know, uh, the last two years as I was, uh, uh, out campaigning and stuff, welcome, here’s [inaudible] have to look over there, um, people would come with ideas and think, well, if we, let’s balance the budget, if we just got where, rid of waste fraud and abuse, let’s do that. I’m like, yeah, let’s do that. And say, well, let’s get r
id of earmarks. I’m like, yeah, that’s a good idea. Or, maybe we should get rid of, uh, you know, foreign aid, or, or, let’s eliminate the Department of Education [….] I heard that. Anyways, the federal one, not , you know, anyway these different ideas, and they sounded good, but I realize, this is what was sobering, is that you could totally mothball, based on, whoops, based on this. You see that? You could mothball all of Washington, D.C. and the national defense and still just barely balance the budget. Can you, you understand that? Now usually when I say we could mothball Washington, D.C. there’s a round of applause. So I was just, I was just waiting. [laughter] I wasn’t certain about that.  You know, this is, this is serious stuff, so it can’t be solved just by doing a few things. We’re gonna have to be bold and do a lots of things in order to get us back to fiscal soundness. Another way to look at it is that we’ve run out of money, uh, about July twenty-seventh and the rest of the year the government runs on borrowed money. Not good.

That’s just showing if you’ve eliminated earmarks, which we have, uh, but all foreign aid, you see the percentage there of how much of the pie we’ve safe. And, uh, so it, it may be right move or it may not, but it’s not gonna solve everything. Okay….

There were about forty-five people in attendance, with an additional fifteen individuals

from the school, from Ms. Hartzler’s staff, and law enforcement.

Transcript of the remainder of Representative Hartzler’s town hall presentation and the question and answer session which followed will follow in subsequent posts.

A Jackson County Democratic group is very involved and aggressive in visibility activities at various area festivals, usually manning a booth at these high traffic events. I received the following e-mail about a straw poll the group held at their booth at the recent festival in Blue Springs:

Results of the Blue Springs Straw Poll for Dem. Pres:

Here’s the count of the straws and the percentages:

Blue Springs Fall Festival–Sept 14, 15, 16, 2007
Democrats 21st Century Democratic Presidential Straw Poll

Total straws deposited during the 3 day weekend:  710

Hillary Clinton – 354  (49.8%)

Obama – 149  (20.9%)

Edwards – 141 (19.8%)

Biden – 23  (3%)

Richardson – 14 (1.9%)

Kucinich 14 – (1.9%)

Dodd – 8 (1%)

Gravel- 7 (1%)

As with the straw poll which was done during Santa Cali Gon, we let only people vote who were at least 18 by Feb 5, 2008, which is the Missouri Presidential primary election. Also, we believe that the people who participated were either Democrats or voters who at least lean Democratic in their votes. We did not have a large number of identified Republicans who participated. And we knew this from the conversation that took place during their stop at our booth.

Democrats 21st Century
Independence, MO 64050

dems21cent@sbcglobal.net

Bear in mind that straw polls are exactly that.