The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Walberg hits town
Congressman focusing on economy, energy
By Edward Freundl, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: April 3, 2008
Tim Walberg spent one of the last days of his Congressional Easter recess in Chelsea, informing a small group of constituents about the issues facing him back in Washington.
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Using as a backdrop the Chelsea Historical Museum inside the Gourmet Chocolate CafÈ, the Republican Congressman met fewer than a dozen people at 8 a.m. Saturday for coffee and conversation.
"I've had 16 or 17 of these town halls and coffee hours in the last two weeks in the district, I'm going back to Washington on Monday," Walberg started off.
"The economy and jobs are number one on my list, followed by healthcare, national security and energy."
He explained that, before leaving Washington two weeks ago on Easter recess, Congress voted on proposed budgets put forth by several groups.
First he spoke about the budget proposed by the Republican Study Committee, "which I guess you could call the 'Republican wing' of the Republican Party," he said.
"We are conservative, and we're for limited government, reduced spending and reduced taxes."
He then contrasted that group's budget position with that of the Democratic Party.
"Then there was the budget from the progressives, which is what liberals are now calling themselves, but it's still all about entitlements and spending, spending, spending," Walberg said.
"Finally there was the Congressional Black Caucus, which wanted even more spending, more entitlements for inner city programs and the expansion of welfare."
The budget passed the House by the minimum 216 votes, Walberg noted, with no tax cuts and no spending cuts, and it allowed provisions of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts to expire as scheduled, a prospect that has nettled many conservatives.
"It doesn't have a snowball's chance of passing the Senate or being approved by the President," Walberg noted.
"But it does give us a clear idea where (Speaker of the House) Nancy Pelosi wants us to go, as does Hillary (Clinton) and (Barack) Obama."
The second important vote was on the reauthorization of FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
"Even civil libertarians like myself find it has worked well," Walberg said, noting that the act gives government surveillance entities the authority to gather intelligence on foreign subjects.
Critics of the law say it could possibly be used to justify eavesdropping on U.S. citizens.
"I don't want us to do with impunity any surveillance on any ordinary citizens — unless we determine you are a terrorist," Walberg countered, noting that the law is to be used to gather intelligence on foreign subjects by intercepting their telephone calls from one foreign country to another.
"It used to be that was all done over hard wires, but with the advent of cell phones that's no longer the case," he said.
"Ninety percent of the cell phone networks go through the U.S., so we can intercept them.
The Congressman did admit the possibility that some intelligence gatherers could overstep the bounds of the law.
"We lost that capability (for surveillance) on Feb. 8 when the act expired — at least legally," Walberg said. "We might have still done it, but not legally."
The telecommunications companies wanted immunity from lawsuits for allowing the government to listen in on foreign conversations, which was a major sticking point in Congressional debates on the reauthorization.
"Speaker Pelosi held it up and held it up and held it up until it was too late for a vote," Walberg charged.
"There is significant millions of dollars going from trial lawyers into the campaigns of Pelosi and others in her party, and now they can say to their backers they tried to keep it from becoming law, even though they knew it would ultimately be approved.
"Without that immunity for the telecom companies, the law is unworkable."
Walberg then moved to the issue of providing energy independence for the United States by allowing more oil and natural gas drilling and exploration.
"Congress passed an energy bill, and frankly I'm disappointed that the President signed it," Walberg said.
The law had a lot of provisions "for energy reduction and bicycles and other things that are just not substantive and don't really address the problems," he added.
"China is moving away from rickshaws and bicycles, and we seem to be going the other way," he said.
"My wife an I have mountain bikes, but I don't plan on riding my bike to Metro Airport."
Walberg told the group that he was encouraged by the March 20 announcement of the "X Prize," a science and engineering competition offering $10 million to teams around the world to develop a 100-mile-per-gallon, commercially viable production vehicle.
"That's exciting, and that kind of entrepreneurial involvement is what we have to have to encourage," Walberg said.
He noted that, while on his two-week tour of the district, he had not heard "more than four or five people" voicing opposition to expanding the use of nuclear power or fossil fuels.
One of the steps that can be taken to ease dependence on foreign fuel supplies is to open up for exploration the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska, which sits atop staggering amounts of oil and natural gas.
"We can scream about the high profits of the oil companies, but why not have them here on our shores rather than overseas in Venezuela or the Middle East?" Walberg said.
He concluded by advising the group about the effectiveness of his office staff in taking care of constituent requests for assistance.
"There have been over 2,000 case requests we've successfully handled, and some we haven't," he said. "We're not perfect."
Steve and Beth Mattison of Chelsea said they agreed with the Congressman and appreciated him taking time to visit the city.
"I certainly agree with many of the things he was saying about less taxation and regulation, and that proposal for a fair tax in the federal level," Steve Mattison said, the last comment referring to a state constitutional amendment that was brought up during a question-and-answer session (see related story).
"I was thrilled to see him coming around and truly listening to constituents," Mattison added, "but I was disappointed with the light turnout."
His wife said this was the first coffee hour meeting she had attended.
"I'm very impressed; he seemed to know a lot about all the topics that came up," Beth Mattison said.
"I appreciated what he had to say, and I agree with his stance on the issues."
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