I took time today to go to a Town Hall meeting that my Congressman Sensebrenner was having in a small town here in Wisconsin. I have never done this before and want to recommend it to any that haven't. I imagined something much different then what occurred. First off I was amazed at how easy it was to discuss something rationally, even if we weren't in total agreement on most of the things we discussed.
I was surprised that more people weren't there even if it was mid-day in a smaller town west of a major suburb of Milwaukee. Only myself, my 4 year old son, another local resident, a state representative and Sensenbrenner with executive secretary. This was cool because I got to ask my questions without any problem. I had somewhat prepared what I wanted to say. When I prepared I figured for a bigger crowd and didn't want to turn it into an argument about Iraq so I chose a topic that I felt would be more agreeable to all, the explosive National Debt. My first question was about how congress has raised the debt limit four times in the last five years and why do we even bother having a limit if you guys in DC can't seem to live by it? I said that the Republicans have been running the show for five years now and the debt had exploded.
I am sure Sensenbrenner was versed in many questions from speaking to many over time but overall after listening to him about his votes of late, Katrina funds and Transportaion bill, they did seem to be more about fiscal accountability. I said that everyone has their pet projects, then asked about the bloated defense budget and how he felt about cutting that. He didn't like that idea. I asked about the fraud in the defense spending and how about the $8 billion missing in Iraq. He said there is an investigation by the DOJ into that. I asked how long that would take.
We got into a little heated banter at this point. I said I don't know how long you guys think you can go on operating like this and that it was irresponsible for them to strap my son with this debt. He said something about my Senators Feingold and Kohl and hoping I go after them about spending too. I said I did because I am an independant and at this point I am kind of disgusted with most of our legislators and wished we could get rid of most everyone in DC. We made a few more comments and then he switched to talking with the other local resident about other legislation. I found this informative. Sorry I don't give you more details but I can't remember all the details so I don't want to misspeak(type).
The Patriot Act was brought up by the other citizen and as I was leaving I asked Sensenbrenner about his flip flop on the Patriot Act Reauthorization. He said he didn't flip flop. I said that I had read that he was quoted as saying "That will be done over my dead body," . He said that quote was when Ashcroft was trying to add more on with Patriot Act 2 and he said he wouldn't reauthorize it until it had been vetted thoroughly. I asked him why they had added the sunset clauses in the first place if they didn't think there was a problem with what they were doing. He said they added them to give them time to check the provisions out throroughly and that he had had 12 hearings to discuss the provisions and that no one said any were unconstitutional. I mentioned that I thought the government had failed to protect our nation on 9/11 and that I didn't think it was right that the first thing the congress did was enact the Patriot Act against our citizen's civil rights rather than investigating the failure. I said I wasn't talking about the scam 9/11 commission either. He agreed with me on that one.
After I left I wished I had asked a couple more things though, next time. Overall it was a positive experience and as I said, I recommend it to all that haven't. Nothing like talking eye to eye even if you don't see eye to eye on everything. Still not a big fan of Sensennbrenner but after talking with him I do have wee little more respect for him.