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Burgess town hall meeting draws hundreds of residents
By Heather M. Goodwin, hgoodwin@acnpapers.com
During his town hall meeting, Rep. Michael Burgess said he expects the federal budget process to be chaotic, but he vowed to help cut spending.
Burgess met with more than 300 of his constituents from all over his district Thursday night at the Medical Center of Lewisville Grand Theater. He focused on the recent passage of the House of Representatives Continuing Resolution (CR), the upcoming redistricting process and the healthcare system.
“We [the House of Representatives] didn’t get everything done we wanted to do, but we made some good starts,” Burgess said while discussing the federal budget. “The House did our work, and we delivered it to the Senate. Now the Senate is required to do something. There is a point of real concern going forward with the budget process. We are up against an emergency situation with federal spending.”
“We need to look at where can we get rid of things we no longer need because we simply can’t afford any extra things in this year’s budget. It is going to be messy, it’s going to be argumentative,” Burgess said. “I will be arguing cuts in programs I care very deeply about, but it is the right thing to do. When you are borrowing 40 cents out of every dollar you’re spending it is a recipe for disaster.”
Burgess said congress is faced with cleaning up “what’s left from the last congress.” He said there will have to be a short-term fix in place very quickly.
“We need to look at where are the savings we can get and where are the programs we shouldn’t be funding anymore,” Burgess said.
On Feb. 19, the House approved a CR that will fund federal government agencies through the end of September. The cuts presented to the president were more than $100 billion than his request. The CR had no earmark funding and eliminated all previous earmarks. The CR also included a provision that eliminates all unobligated funding included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The House passed the CR by a vote of 235 to 189.
Burgess also reminded his audience about the impending redistricting process. Based on the results from the 2010 census, Texas will gain four new congressional seats. Currently, there are 915,000 people in the 26th district, which is Burgess’ district.
“Take a good look at how the district looks today because it will be in the pages of history soon,” Burgess. “There is a lot of speculation as to how the lines will be drawn and who will be favored. Every congressional district has about 600,000 people, and I have much more. Out of necessity I will be losing some portions of the district.”
Almost immediately, residents from across his district took the opportunity to voice their concerns about the federal government.
One Flower Mound resident said she wanted to see Congress work with the Affordable Health Care for America Act instead of repealing the whole thing. She said Congress should work with what works and fix what doesn’t. The resident said insurance companies need to be reined in, there should be more choices and doctors should have the best information as fast as possible. According to the resident, the current healthcare act addresses some of those issues.
“The overarching theme of the administration is ‘we’re going to do what we want to do.’ Repealing the healthcare bill was important to do,” Burgess said. “When you dig down deeper into the substance of the bill, the changes are starting and severe.
Burgess said there was no need to have a trillion dollar bill that “upset everything for everyone in order to fix the problem.” He said he still stands against the healthcare bill and would like to work with the president and the Democrats on a new bill.
Following the meeting, Burgess met with constitutients who did not have a chance to speak. In addition, the full video of the meeting will be available on the city’s website at www.cityoflewisville.com.
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