LAKEPORT — After voting against President Barack Obama”s budget for the 2011 fiscal year last week, Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), held a meeting about the country”s fiscal future in the Board of Supervisors” chambers in the Lake County Courthouse Tuesday.
Sixty people gathered in the chambers for the nearly two-hour meeting, which is the first of three meetings Thompson will be holding throughout his district, California”s 1st congressional district, which includes Lake, Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte counties and parts of Napa, Sonoma and Yolo counties.
The meeting began at 6:30 p.m. with a PowerPoint presentation that gave a background on the country”s budget, its makeup and what issues the country is facing in reducing the national debt, which is currently estimated at $14 trillion, according to a slide in Thompson”s presentation.
Thompson said he wanted to hold these meetings to find out from his constituents what the government should stay away from in regard to spending and to make sure this issue got “the attention it deserves.”
“I thought it was important to get out there and to talk to folks about something that is an issue with some people,” Thompson said. “I”ve been concerned about the debt for quite some time.”
The meeting was friendly and free of vitriol with a few moments of shared laughter by all present, a sharp contrast from the town hall meetings Thompson held during the health care debates.
“Folks tonight came to have a discussion,” Thompson said. “They didn”t come to be disruptive.”
Topics discussed ranged from Social Security and the recent government bailouts to offshore drilling, renewable energy and health care.
One woman argued that “we should get rid of any government department that isn”t fulfilling its designated purpose,” specifically naming the Department of Energy for its failure to decrease dependence on foreign oil, using an analogy of a family that doesn”t have enough money and has to cut spending.
Thompson countered her argument, saying we shouldn”t be waiting until a recession comes to cut spending.
“We should be doing constant oversight to make sure the taxpayer dollar is being spent effectively,” he said. “If programs don”t work, get rid of them. If programs need help, fix them. Don”t just put it on autopilot and walk away from it. We need to be on the oversight guard all the time.”
A man in the audience brought up his concern regarding the cost of illegal aliens to taxpayers. Thompson said he would rather have folks who come here be healthy and get an education rather than bring communicable diseases and get into mischief because of no health care and no education.
Thompson said most people aren”t aware of how much the government spends on foreign aid. Most think it”s somewhere around 25 percent and want to see it reduced to around 10 percent of our budget.
“In reality, we spend 1 percent on foreign aid,” he said.
Thompson said the crowd impressed him.
“People were knowledgeable,” he said. “People have been thinking about this and studying it. Folks here were engaged. They were interested, they were concerned and they were very responsible.”
Thompson acknowledged the road ahead will be difficult.
“We”re going to make the difficult decisions and the country”s going to continue to be the greatest country in the world,” he said.
Kevin N. Hume can be contacted at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call him directly at 263-5636 ext. 14.
