Cong. Schauer's Town Hall Meetings

Well, for the first 40 minutes of a 2 hour session Schauer spoke about himself, his campaign, what he plans to acomplish, yada, yada, yada. Poor quality sound system.
Total: 40 min. monologue, 15 minutes of Q and A (supposed to be written questions, but a few women in the front row conducted dialogues) stopped using microphone. At 2:15 he tried to take back control.

Disjointed comments-mostly quotes:
7th district has lost 7,900 jobs. Will get tax deduction of sales tax for buying a new car (that's in the law now, right?) There are "no earmarks" in the stimulus bill. Depends on what your definition of pork is. Competitive example: if spending $1 on broadband it will generate $10 to the economy.

Neighborhood projects are like the Jackson Community in the St. John's Church of Christ area. Not like ACORN. These are good projects. Corruption cannot happen with Congressonal oversight.

Also Congressional oversight on school projects. Will be run through existing programs with accountability. Banks need to forgive loans. Bad banks falsified documents. The victims have no responsibility. Owner occupied only. This problem is due to our Culture of Debt (not the culture of greed of free lunch.) All banks are bad. He terms TARP the Wall Street "bailout" program (but objects if someone else uses the term "pork." My take: all of the really smart guys in the financial sector will take good paying jobs overseas and we are left with tax cheaters like Geithner.)

Gun control-absolutely in favor of 2nd Amendment. No exceptions until the end of his remarks when he said, in effect, unless it's a matter of safety. Segued into wind power topic. These are big components and manufacturing them in Michigan will save shipping costs for customers. Energy policy needs to be broad. When asked, he had no idea of KWH costs either in 7th district or competitively. Government needs to punish executives. How can we be sure illegals will not take jobs from citizens? The bill says it will not and they will watch. (A woman nearby said "Yeah, that'll work!")

Around 2:20 there was more dialogue in the front of the room on jobs. Then comments on college costs--there will be $500 more per Pell Grant and $2500 tax credit which will help. Question of whether Social Security program would pick up IRA and 401K programs--answwer No. No way would he ever vote for that kind of plan. (Let's hold him to that.) Referenced the biggest problem is really Medicare discussed earlier. Discussed free trade--hard to hear give and take from front of room. We are a donor state.

Discussed healthcare and 65% Cobra subsidy for unemployed for 9 months which will undboutedly be extended (my observation.) Schip, ie., My Child in Michigan will cover children whose family may not have healthcare coverage. My note: one of first steps to universal (rationed) care. Healthcare problems #1 cause of bankruptcy. Credit card fraud and high interest rates. The state is lender of last resort as in Community Action Agency. Home modernization and weatherization is energy efficient.

At 2:45 announced he would take one more queston. Then spoke with person in front of room and I could see this was the end and left.

My question, had it been read: Please discuss effects of inflation from stimulus spending deficit particularly on senior citizens on fixed incomes. He probably figured he had answred it when he said there would be a $250 check sent to each senior citizen. If it's like the last one I didn't get, I won't hold my breath.

So there you have it. A lot of blah, blah, blah and frankly I'd bet that over 50% of the approx 130 people in the room know more than he does since he couldn't possibly have read the bill. Didn't even know about the resesarch on a particular mouse native to California.

This format is unacceptable and wastes the time of those who play by the rules. He has a big expense account--he should pop for a good sound system. And he shouldn't play favorites by talking to folks he knows personally. This is also what happened on a Forum phone call Thursday evening. He appeared to know personally almost everyone he called on.

God bless us all--we really need all the help we can get........