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Republican Congressman: This Country Is In Trouble
June 15, 2012
Congressman Joe Bonner, R-Ala., says there is a dark cloud hanging across America and Congress must be bold in making changes to bail the country out of its current economic condition.
“Our country is in trouble,” Bonner said at a town hall meeting Thursday morning in Atmore. “There’s just a dark cloud that’s seemingly going across the country.”
He said he doesn’t expect Congress to make any sweeping changes before this year’s elections as the deficit continues to multiply.
But the current Congress must, he said, deal with several important issues before year’s end. One is the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts that if not extended will amount to a $500 billion tax increase. Other items that must be extended, Bonner said, are provisions for Medicare reimbursements for doctors, payroll tax cuts and a cap on the federal debt limit. The National Flood Insurance Program is also set to expire, Bonner said.
And end to the flood insurance program will force banks to call in mortgage loans of homes located in expanded flood zones that would no longer have flood insurance, Atmore banker Bob Jones said.
During Thursday’s town hall meeting, Jones also told Bonner that he worries about the potential end to a federal crop insurance program. “We can’t finance it (crops) unless there is a crop insurance program,” he said.
Escambia County (Ala.) Sheriff Grover Smith (pictured left) expresses his concerns to the congressman about immigration laws and mandates to curb drugs from Mexico.
“We need to get together on immigration and get the burden off local law enforcement,” the sheriff said. “We are not equipped; we are not funded.”
“I believe immigration is not something we have to turn to the states to do,” Bonner said. “The federal government has failed the American people.”
Alabama Rep. Alan Baker, also in attendance at Thursday’s Atmore town hall meeting, said he felt the state was forced to implement tough immigration laws. “We felt like the federal government had not done their jobs,” Baker said. “It was out of frustration.”
In the coming months, Bonner said Congress “has got to have the courage to take on social security and medicare.”
“For the future of this country, we’ve got to turn this ship around,” he said.
Pictured above and below: Congressman Joe Bonner, R-Ala., addresses a small crowd during a town hall meeting Thursday morning in Atmore. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
30 Responses to “Republican Congressman: This Country Is In Trouble”
The majority of all politicians are out for their own hid on every level of government . Let’s vote them all out and start over.
Has anyone else ever noticed how when Republicans are out of power, the deficit is always a huge problem that must be dealt with immediately or we’re all doomed. When Republicans are in power, however, as Dick Cheney said “deficits don’t matter” and it’s always morning in America? Can any of you staunch Republicans tell me when the last time was that a Republican President actually lowered the deficit?
The economic collaspe is no longer the rantings of ultra right conservative talk radio host, but a looming in your face eventuality. My question at what point does the US Government go into default and if it goes into default, at what point do these crazy laws that brought us here become null and void? When the government can no longer project force of law?
I see a time of men’s hearts failing them for fear, I also see a time where mens hearts will be stirred to action, to stand on their hind legs, to be counted in the ranks.
Lord let the wind blow and please make it blow hard. Amen
REGARDING:
“You can call it want you want but that is on the dole or maybe public assistance.”
Conversely, you CAN call it the dole even though that doesn’t fit the definition.
It’s NOT a handout to the needy, because most of them are millionaires.
There IS work involved even though it is sitting on committees, voting on amendments, meeting with constituents, listening to assorted groups usually lobbyists sent by different organizations.
If a congressman does his job right, military bases come to his district or aren’t taken away, the income and outgo match, good laws are made, bad laws are rescinded, he hands the country to his grandchildren in better shape than he found it.
If he does his job wrong, bad things happen but he is still working for his employer. His employer is the people of his district. He answers to them. If they don’t like how he does his job, they replace him with someone else to do the same job but better.
Despite what you think, his job is NOT sitting in his office or in session. That is only part of his job. Those trips home are part of his job, a vital part of his job.
People who’ve never done the job are certain it isn’t being done correctly. If they want to complain about how it is being done, they can go to Washington, D.C. to tell him or they can catch him at one of his meetings back home, during what you consider his off time.
David using standard definitions
Mr. Huie am I correct in saying Congress works 2 1/2 days a week. You can call it want you want but that is on the dole or maybe public assistance.
REGARDING:
“Correct me if I am mistaken. Joe Bonner is also on the goverment dole. ”
Only because you ASKED. You are wrong. He is not on the dole.
The dole is a government unemployment payment: money paid by the government to somebody who is unemployed or simple charity — things like clothes, money, or food to somebody in need
Thus, even if you don’t like the job he is doing or the rewards he receives for doing it, it is NOT the dole. He is a representative for the people of his voting district. He is involved in making of laws, raising of taxes to pay the bills. Just because he isn’t swinging a hammer or digging with a shovel doesn’t mean he isn’t working. In fact traveling and meeting people is also part of his job.
David considering a fairly good job
From USA TODAY, seven in ten teens jobless this summer. I started a rather successful career as a teenager. Now comes the POTUS, who gives 800,000 questionable aliens, and their families, a head start in an economy that is in crash dive. Do you think there is a political motive in his, possibly, illegal act. Surely, he is not buying votes.
Correct me if I am mistaken. Joe Bonner is also on the goverment dole. He uses Monday and Friday’s for travel days. He also works 1/2 day on Tuesday’s. Tell me that’s not having the best of both worlds. Complaining about government while receiving a check for working only 2 1/2 days a week.
Not including your rent or mortgage in with the monthly bills will not give an accurate account of what’s being spent. That is exactly what the Bush administration did. Now we want to cry about the state of the economy. Their is always a high cost for war but an unwarranted war is evil.
Here is another idea, quit letting people build in a FEMA declared flood zone. No building on water fronts where hurricanes come a shore. If they do then, they rebuild them selves. No federal or state aid. Same goes for those who build on rivers that are known to flood. It is not the tax payers problem when people make bad judgement calls. The problem with this country, is we have adopted the mind set of(Oh, some body will help us pay for it) Well free ride is over with. We are broke.No more bail outs, no more stimlus packages.And they better get the EPA under control before they make sure we can not build any thing in this country.
Get real, Obama inherited a bad economy, this is true, but he has INCREASED, that means( gone up, added to), the national debt by election time , 6 trillion dollars.in 4 years.that is a new record. And no, he can not keep blaming Bush for the last 4 years. He has increased the size of the government by almost 25%. I think it is time for a very large lay off in the government sector.Any program you paid in to is your. It is not yours if you paid nothing into it. So we need to cut off those who did not pay in to S.S.Take it back out of the general fund and leave it alone. it will fix it self.Kill all programs not related to running this country. And please quit giving away billions to our enemies.Give the illegals 1 year to come forward and comply with U.S law. if they do not by the end of 1 year send them back.Take your american born children with you. And when they reach 18 years old , they can come back.
“This Country is in Trouble” Well DUH, he’s just figuring that out now?
With President Obama’s announcement of plans to allow and estimated 800,000. undocumented citizens to remain on U.S. soil and to compete for jobs, I think of all those men and women standing at the Walnut Hill Community Center to apply for work. My question is how many people can you put on a heavely mortaged boat before it sinks?
I agree with Mr Bonner the country is in deep trouble, gone beyond the event horizon of debt and without radical financial reorginization beyond hope.
This old nation is like and old house that is beyond renovation, better to look to the new, rather than repair old and rotted structure. Build new with correctness in design.
REGARDING:
“I personally paid more income tax than they did!”
IMPRESSIVE.
Per:
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/about_hal/taxhaven.html
“Halliburton paid only $15 million of their $80 million in total taxes (or 19 percent) to the U.S. government in 2002. The remaining 81 percent of the company’s taxes went to foreign governments.” But that was ten years ago when Bush was president.
For 2010, per
http://ir.halliburton.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=67605&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1518880&highlight=
In that quarter, Halliburton paid “$62 million of income due to the finalization of a United States tax matter with the Internal Revenue Service.”
This was separate from the $853 million in income tax (but if only 19 percent of that was for the USA, that would be merely $162 million dollars in income tax), much more than the measly $518 million dollars they paid in 2009. Of course, that was just for the quarter, so multiply by 4 to approximate how much taxes they paid and how much was less than YOU paid. Let’s see, 853 x 4 x 0.19 = $648 million dollars (and some change).
On behalf of a grateful nation, I would like to thank you for paying more income taxes than Halliburton.
Halliburton also paid $327 million dollars in dividends that quarter, so if we assume the owners paid fifteen percent income tax on top of the other taxes and assume approximately the same amount the other quarters, that would be an extra $196 million dollars the owners paid in income tax. But you don’t care about that, just how much the corporation itself paid.
David appreciating heavy taxes paid by Faithb
REGARDING:
“dick Cheney the warmonger who gave them no-bid contracts to support their war on Iraq’s oil industry”
Maybe it’s my mind failing me, but I don’t think Halliburton made war on Iraq’s oil industry. I think that was Dowell or Schlumberger.
David for exiting Middle East
at the speed of sound
Faithb / You sure have an ax to grind with bush dont you. I somehow feel you want vote for ANYONE who does not have a D. before there name. But just to set the record straight. The bush administration did go to congress and told them the houseing market was getting out of hand due to the lack of regulations and the democratics in charge at the time said he was just being unfair to minorities. Barney frank aggresively fought him on sept 11, 2003 and made the satement that there was no problems at all with faniemay and frddie mack and that the republican were makeing it all up. Of couse we found out 3 days later there was a major cover up and barney f. lifetime partner was over these agencies. Sorry someone lied to you. Oh i got my research from cnn. then i went and washed my hands, just felt dirty.
Joe Bonner voted to raise the debt ceiling last August. He’s not serious about reigning in the out-of-control Federal Government, which is by far the biggest problem facing this country.
NO! I dont think anything will be done to fix the problems. IT seems that we are to far gone to me. None of the people who make the rules have a back bone and most of the people who put them there only no whats on t.v. tonight or who said what on facebook.Every one wants a free ride . “just send me a check and give me free health care” OH by the way make sure to tax those dummy’s who are working more so i get an increase in everything.
So sad to see this great country going down.Even worse to think about those who gave there lives for it and our freedoms only to see the cancer of society now eating away at it.Can anyone fix it?Iam not sure but with out a doubt ALOT can be done to help turn things around but its probably not even politically corect to even say any more. God help us,seems we cant help ourselfs.
RE: mortgage foreclosures, just overlook the fact that No One can get a mortgage without a lender’s approval. Damn poor people! Following George Bush’s call to an “ownership society”, fed by greedy mortgage brokers (unregulated thanks to repubs) who’d let your cat get a $150,000 mortgage if someone signed the application!
Never mind that Haliburton–heard of them? …Used to be run by dick Cheney the warmonger who gave them no-bid contracts to support their war on Iraq’s oil industry– that multinational conglomerate not only takes taxpayer $ to fund its operations, it also gets massive tax credits, so that I personally paid more income tax than they did!
Sorry, but research has shown that relying on FOXNews for info makes you more ignorant than not keeping up with news at all!
REGARDING:
“close to half the people do not pay taxes ”
NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION
Just playing with the thought that those who pay should have the say in what is spent. As long as I can spend your money, I will be less careful of how I spend if than I would be if I were deciding how to spend MY money and YOU will be less careful about spending my money than you would be with your own. Yet we would both be willing to spend money on things we both agreed were important enough to pay for.
That’s why it would be interesting if voting power were tied to how much the individual voter paid in taxes. You would have to include the pass-through taxes where one actually pays but gathers the money from renters or sales taxes first.
It would be complicated and probably wouldn’t work, but it would definitely be interesting. Imagine people saying, “I demand more taxes so I will have a stronger vote!” Conversely, those who reduced their personal taxes would lose representation and not have a say in matters the next go around.
David for parity
All of you on this forum. What would you do to fix it if YOU had the power to do so?
Do you think it is “Fixable” at this point? Do you think what we have is sustainable? Do you think the runaway train to entitlement and too much debt is reversible? Just asking.
@Jane
Some might say the republicans have that coming, after all isn’t that what
they have been doing to President Obama.
Not that I think ANY OF THE GOVERNMENTS CHILDISH WAYS ARE RIGHT!
The House the Senate the Republicans the Democrats EVERYONE
thinks this COUNTRY IS BURGER KING, but you don’t always get it YOUR WAY.
This is AMERICA and there are a lot of us in it and we ALL deserve to be
respected enough to compromise without pork in everything or everything
always being good for just YOU or WHAT YOU THINK~
bgr, yes please get your facts straight… close to half the people do not pay taxes and the majority of those are the people on S.S… The “R” party is doing everything possible to do away with S.S. entirely regardless if you payed into it or not… And what do you think they will do with the money? Give it back? Heck no! they want to give out more reaks to the bankers and oil companies “to create more jobs” !!! ha ha.. but if there’s no demand then why hire more people? guess what they just pocket the money and ask for more…
As, for forclosed homes, it wasn’t the poor that was buying the minimansions that they could not afford… was it?
MM, has it right… both parties talk about cuts but neither is going to give up any of their GOB programs that get them elected… Our governement is a complete joke! And has not been “for the people” for a long time… Now that times are tough we are starting to notice… If you don’t make over $250,000/yr the “R”’s think your the problem, and if you have a job the “D”’s think your the problem… Well guess what, about 75% of us fall in between and it doesn’t seem like that 75% can do much about it… ridiculous!
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Federal “programs” were mentioned 4 times. This might be a simplistic view, but just end 90 % of these federal “programs” and let people plant their own crops, fix their own houses when flooded, etc., etc. Why are these issues taken up by the Fed? 100 years ago, there was no federal income tax, and no federal debt.
To “FaithB”…get your facts straight please…over half of the population DO NOT PAY TAXES Why because we have 5-6 generation who have ALWAYS lived on the system. As for SS, my parents worked their rear-ends off and YES they are entitled to receive their benefits. What about the The President who said that ALL Americans have the right to own a home, pray tell just what did that do to the economy….check Atmore alone…I know for a FACT foreclosed homes are the results of allowing people to own a home but did not have the resources and/or were not responsible enough to make the payments! I DO NOT vote party I vote person therefore I can not be categorized “R” of “D”. Thank you for allowing me to state my opinion( we all know what those are worth!)
Good ole Joe. Uses the town hall to point fingers at his constituents when all he is doing is trying to cover his own misgivings. Very few people will attend those meetings except for the few that rides his coattails and are standing in line with their hand out to accept some of his propaganda.
I thought Republicans were for limited government and states rights, but yet he turns around and points the finger at the government and claims they didnt do “enough”.
The Alabama immigration issue is just smoke and mirrors. Looks like they are grabbing at straws to place blame for the lack of jobs .
Wow! We never would have figured this out without the politician telling us. ThankYou Sir !!
God yes, Mr Bonner, this country (working folks mainly) is under the dark cloud of the slash and burn economic policies of your political party. Thirty-plus years of “‘trickle down’ theory in practice and eleven years of tax cuts for “job creators” has made us poorer and dumber. Yet the people who believe it’s “those people” getting govt checks who are draining the life out of our future, wait for Their SS checks, use Their VA benefits, Their farm price support payments, and travel on good roads with sturdy bridges to get where they’re going, as if all of it were free!
Someone funded all of that–only these days the Rs want to make sure those who make more $ in one day than most of us earn in our lifetime don’t pay their fair share.
Wake Up People!
And Congress will continue to squabble, the Senate or President Obama will stop any hope of addressing the issues. Some of our elected officials need new jobs, NOT government jobs or elected positions. VOTE when the elections come up!