My Local Town Hall Meeting

I had the chance to go to a town hall meeting with my local congressman Rob Bishop.

I was really curious how it would turn out because there are so many issues currently going on in Congress. Health care reform being the biggest.

The event was held at the Layton City Council chambers in Layton, UT.
The room's maximum capacity is 190.
There were easily double that number of people that showed up.
Can you say Standing Room Only?

I was really curious to see how this one would turn out because of how others in the nation have gone. Ours was very civil, very well run, and actually ended on time. You'd think our Congressman was a school teacher in his past life, or something (he's a retired educator from Utah).

Before he started, he said, "Now, I promise not to answer my cell phone while you're asking a question." And then he said, "If you don't call me a Nazi, I won't call you a dining room table" referring to how other Congressmen had been handling some of their town hall meetings.

Overall, I was extremely impressed with how he handled the meeting. Most of the questions obviously were around health care. His stand is that he opposes the current bill being brought for (he said there's actually 4 of them being brought forward), but did say that there's also an alternative bill by a congressman from Arizona that is slightly different. It basically gives people several more options for health care, but doesn't mandate government control over it.

One issue that he brought up that was almost chilling is the level to which the Obama administration is scrapping the US Military. He said that at current only 187 F-22 fighters are going to be approved to be built. To maintain the current needs, 254 should have been allotted and to maintain US Air Supremacy, well over 500 should have been built. At 254, that only gives our military the ability to fight a war front on a single front. Every war we've had (Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc) has included multiple war fronts. So basically, if we go to war with another nation (Iran, Korea, etc) and had to fight in the air, we'll only have enough planes to fight on a single front.

Another scary thing he brought up was that the Obama administration is trying to cut back on our missile defense system. Instead of having over 100 warheads ready to help protect our nation in the event of an attack, the number has been whittled down to 44. However, the current administration wants to knock those back even further.

If we were to have an attack on the US from hostile countries, we only have 44 chances to stop incoming missiles.

Several individuals who own small businesses also spoke up and asked about the Stimulus package and how it's not actually helping them get loans or keep their businesses functioning.

One highlight of the night was when one gentleman made a comment about how the government felt a need to intervene in the housing market over the last few years by mandating that banks must issue sub-prime loans, to which the commenter replied "and we can all see how well THAT went!" His basic jist was, "Don't mess with health care right now, we saw how well the housing market turned out".

Overall, I really enjoyed seeing a town hall first hand. There were no rowdy participants nor was there any yelling or heated emotions. His biggest overriding comment was that if you have something to say, by all means contact your congressman. Write them! Email them! Call them! Just participate! If you don't like what's going on, write! It's your freedom and right to do so.

If you have a chance to participate in a meeting near you, I'd encourage you to do so. It will give you the ability to see democracy in action. I really enjoyed it.