Meehan Describes Debt Crisis During Marple Event — Congressman Pat Meehan (R-Pa7) went well over his allotted hour this afternoon, March 24, to field questions from a standing-room-only crowd of about 80 in the commissioners room at the Marple Township Building.
Meehan, sober and serious, in his introductory comments described the debt crisis illustrating it by noting how the Chinese, our biggest creditor, could build three of their latest strike fighter jets with $50 million left over every day on what we pay them in interest on our debt.
He noted that the arguments now in Washington about budget cuts exclusively concern discretionary spending which makes up but 20 percent of our federal government’s total spending.
Meehan said the Republican-controlled House had sent the Democrat-controlled Senate a budget which cut $60 billion in this discretionary spending and which was rejected by the Senate. He said that for the last 5 weeks the government has been funded via “continuing resolutions” written by the House which have equaled cuts in spending of $2 billion per week. He said that government spending was entirely funded by continuing resolutions in 2010 speculating that the then Democrat House majority did not want the nation’s debt to be fully revealed in an election year.
Why the Republicans sought only $60 billion in cuts initially when their new strategy extends to $104 billion in cuts was not something Meehan explained.
When Meehan mentioned government shutdown the room erupted in cheers. He made it clear in the course of the event, though, that was an avenue he was very reluctant to pursue.
The first person who asked a question was a woman who said her children were federal employees and her son-in-law was in the military just back from Afghanistan and said that they had told her that their superiors said they were not going to be paid if there wasn’t a budget.
Meehan said he didn’t see that happening and that there were a lot of people spreading scare stories.
One person demanded that foreign aid be investigated pointing out that we had been giving Libya billions of dollars and are now bombing them. Another, to loud cheers, said that if federal salaries are cut the ones going to congressmen must be the first.
Defunding Obamacare, a topic being broached on the web and on many radio talk shows, was brought up. Meehan said that its defunding could not be addressed via the continuing resolution process under the congressional rules to which all agreed at the beginning of the year. He said he was not going to violate the rules as Nancy Pelosi did.
It was a similar answer to one he gave a young man about defunding Planned Parenthood of its annual $360 million taxpayer gift.
The young man, who said he was a federal employee, said he would rather lose his paycheck than see Planned Parenthood continue getting the money.
Meehan took a question from a woman who brought up a personal issue regarding what she said was a “corrupt” Delaware County judge. She said she brought the matter to Meehan’s attention 16 years before while he was Delaware County district attorney. He listened patiently and referred her to his staff.
Meehan noted that he had meet with a group of before the citizens’ town hall and revealed that unlegislated regulations are crushing them. He described how the Environmental Protection Agency has become a law unto itself. He said that it is now demanding the county’s oil refineries add $30 million cooling systems for the water they use for other cooling processes and which is recycled clean, eventually, into the Delaware to keep fish from getting confused.
He noted that the refineries employe 2,000 persons directly with another 4,000 more jobs connected to them. He feared the refinery owners might choose to shut them down rather than deal with the EPA’s overreach.
Meehan pointed out that the local refineries are dealing with unregulated competitors in places like Nigeria which can refine oil into gasoline for pennies on the barrel.
Lisa Esler of the Delaware County Patriots told Meehan that a perception is developing that Speaker of the House John Boehner is weak and too willing to cave-in to the entrenched bureaucracy and that he had better do a better job of defending and explaining himself.
Several told Meehan that compromise was a bad word.
Meehan Describes Debt Crisis During Marple Event
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