 (This is part I in a two-part series)
Last month, I took my wife and my two sons along to Congressman Michael Burgess’ (R, TX-26) Roanoke, TX “Town Hall” meeting. My purpose was to ask Mr. Burgess about living wages. This was around the time that Congress was trying to pass the “Extortion of the Working Poor” act, which tied a long-overdue raise in the minimum wage to a repeal of the inheritance tax for multi-millionaires. Another goal of mine, since I often write about Burgess for my blog, was to get an original photo of him to use on the website.
Though I brought along a video camera, with the thought that it might be interesting viewing for others later, the layout and atmosphere didn’t really seem conducive to video-taping. I wish now that I had brought a tape recorder, because an awful lot was said, and my note-taking skills are not those of a professional reporter. Because of this, all quotes in the text below are close paraphrases to the best of my recollection, unless specifically noted. I didn’t originally intend to publish this account. It’s really long, and probably only interesting to a small number of people – particularly those who are interested as I am, in replacing him in Washington with someone more effective at helping the people of North Texas. That being said, I’ve taken great pains to represent his words accurately out of some sense of journalistic integrity. Just know that I couldn’t resist inserting my own opinions and rebuttals clearly marked in the text.
If the conversation seems at times incoherent, there are two reasons: 1. I was quite often flabbergasted by what I was hearing, and would stop taking notes so that I could get a good look at the crowd and the speaker. 2. The conversation WAS at times incoherent. Mostly this was due to the nature of the audience, and not Mr. Burgess himself.
Not being very familiar with traffic between Lewisville, where I live, and Roanoke, we left a bit early and arrived a bit early. It was a nice sunny warm day as we drove through the quaint cozy downtown area of Roanoke. We pulled in to the Roanoke city hall about 1:20 pm – the event was to start at 2pm.
Not many cars were there, so we were able to park right up front at the city hall. As I was gathering my notes, I looked up and saw Mr. Burgess walk past, alone. He had parked two 2 spots down from me. He gave a glance and nod as he walked past. I have a “Barnwell for Congress” sticker on the back of the car, so he no doubt saw it as he pulled up.
Attendance: I counted 51 seats in addition to the tables and seats set up by Burgess’s staff. Not every seat was filled, but some were standing, so I estimate that with Burgess’s staff in addition to the Roanoke officials present, such as the Mayor, and a police sergeant with the Roanoke PD, there were probably 50 – 60 people there.
There was a sign-in table handled by a blonde woman (I didn’t get her name) who runs Burgess’s Fort Worth office. There were cards with blanks for name and address, and whether or not you’d like to receive info from Burgess’s office. On the cards was a small portion at the bottom with “office use only” codes on them – nothing decipherable.
The woman asked if we’d like to have our pictures taken with the Congressman. We said sure, since I wanted to try to get a good photo of Burgess that I can use royalty-free in my blog. She told us to hold on to the card, and we took our seats and waited for the fun to begin.
I noticed that Burgess’s Lewisville office manager (I didn’t get her name) was manning a separate table next to the sign in table. She was talking to someone about service academy appointments. One of Burgess’s assistants had a computer and projector displaying a map of the district on the side wall, opposite where they were taking pictures in front of a big American flag on a metal frame seemingly fabricated for this purpose.
People were lined up against the wall on the side of the room with the flag, waiting for pictures with Michael Burgess. We remained seated as I really wasn’t too warm on the idea of having my picture taken with him – not so much that I dislike the guy as a person, but in the back of my mind was this vision of me running for public office some day and having my opponent in the primaries show this photo of me, my family and Burgess standing together like good buddies.
To his credit, Burgess was affable and personable, talking to each person as they had their pictures taken. Burgess had two young men working as interns or assistants helping with the picture-taking, with one operating the camera.
Eventually, the line dwindled, and the blonde woman who had signed us in reminded me to go have our pictures taken. Somewhat reluctantly, we all got up and got in line. I took my own camera, and asked the photographer if he would mind taking a picture with it.
I introduced myself by name and shook Burgess’s hand, and he seemed genuine and cordial. We posed for 3 shots, and then I asked him how he liked his Prius. He then recalled that he’d seen me in my Prius, and asked me what year it was: 2004 or 2005. I told him it was a 2006. He and I chatted about modding the Prius with extended batteries or plug-in chargers. He said he wouldn’t mod his, but knew of others who do it. He thought the removable plug in the front bumper of the car may have something to do with charging. I told him I thought it was a tow pintle connection. I told him I wished that we could have these things built here in America, and sold for about $10,000 less. He agreed and added that he thought Roanoke would be a great place to build them. I told him I’d love to figure a way to plug mine in to charge it so that gasoline wouldn’t be such a requirement. Interestingly, before I could even bring it up, he told me “Well, you’d be plugging in to power generated by burning coal.” That bit of understanding made me smile. I said that yes, I’d like to have solar cells on the roof of my garage. He mentioned that he’d like to have solar cells on the car itself, and perhaps have the car run on E85 ethanol instead of gasoline. He said he was amazed at how low they were able to keep the prices on the Prius. He asked if I didn’t mind, he was curious what I paid for it. I told him that I’d bought it used (208 miles) for $27,500. He was shocked. He said he paid just over $20,000 for his 2 years ago*. I told him that currently dealers are charging a $6k “market adjustment” premium over MSRP. He seemed to note it with interest.
(* Kelley Blue book confirms that Priuses were selling for just over $20,000 for the 2004 models.)
Then as the conversation dwindled, he turned to me again and said something like “Oh, by the way, are you the Steve S**** that does WhosPlayin.com?” I said that I was and that I assumed he probably wasn’t a fan. (I had just the previous week posted a picture of him with a dunce cap on) He noted that he kept tabs on news in the district through a variety of sources, and that he read my site.
Up to this point, I had figured that I was fairly anonymous since I generally don’t use my real name in my online postings, though someone with any technical skill could easily figure that out. Now realizing that he knew who I was, I figured I didn’t have much chance of getting a question answered. I exchanged pleasantries once again, and took my seat to wait for the meeting. Several other people had their pictures taken, and then the Mayor of Roanoke introduced Congressman Burgess, and Burgess started the meeting.
Again, I want to stress here that I am an IT Consultant and computer programmer – not a professional reporter. The following paragraphs are expanded from my raw notes taken on paper. Much was said that I didn’t catch, or couldn’t write quickly enough to capture. Where possible, I tried to fill in by memory. I really wish I’d had a tape recorder. Most of the citizens asking questions did not state their names for the record. Some who did were unintelligible, so it was not written. In any case, those names that I did get have been shortened to avoid embarrassing anyone.
Burgess says this is the second meeting he had attended that day. His wife thinks he’s just trying to get out of mowing the lawn. The audience chuckles. He just didn’t want to mow on a day with high ozone. Nodding towards the police officer in the room, he recounts a story about his first encounter with Roanoke law enforcement, being pulled over at 3am on the night before his first runoff election when he and his wife Laura were out putting out campaign signs.
He says that the first town hall meeting earlier that morning ran long and he didn’t get to cover much of the material he had prepared, so this meeting he was going to speak about mostly different things, and wouldn’t be repeating himself much. It may go over but he wants to allow plenty of time for questions.
He spoke briefly about the service academies and that each congressional district is entitled to some appointments, and that he has sent 26 North Texans so far, and will do his best to help people find appointments through his office.
He spoke about constituent services and that people can contact his offices to help “grease the wheels” when the government agencies are not getting the job done.
He mentions that he is on the prestigious Energy and Commerce committee and that he was pleasantly surprised to be appointed there on his second term. He had it as a third-term goal.
He mentions that on his way to Iraq last week, he stopped in Geneva and spoke with some doctor at the World Health Organization about the possibility of pandemic avian flu. He says he’s happy with the preparedness and cooperation between WHO and its US counterpart.
 He says he wants to spend some time talking about healthcare, and that consistently the topic of healthcare is on everyone’s list of priorities. It’s only about 4th or 5th, he says, but “it’s 4th or 5th on everyone’s list”. “When we talk about healthcare what we really are talking about,” he says, “is the affordability aspects of healthcare.” He preemptively dismissed a single-payer system, presenting it as being mutually exclusive with a private-sector solution. I don’t recall whether he used the word “socialized” as some Republicans are so fond of using. He mentioned briefly some Dallas Morning News article on the subject, and dismissed that.
At some point here, he threw out the figure as he is fond of quoting in the congressional record that about 50% of healthcare dollars originate in Washington. Though I’ve read those words before in his speeches, and have now heard it, I’m still not quite sure what that has to do with anything.
He acknowledged a problem with Medicare, and says he hears from constituents all the time “Why is it that when I turned 65 I had to change doctors?” He says the reason is because the yearly declines in Medicare reimbursement rates are causing accessibility problems, and that top-rate doctors will no longer work for those rates, thus the elderly must use “2nd and 3rd tier” providers. He says he wants to change this.*
(* Burgess has introduced a bill (H.R. 5866) recently aimed at fixing this problem. I have yet to analyze it, but I will post a link and some analysis when I get a chance. It's very hard for a layman to understand the text.)
He says that what he’s done to help healthcare become more affordable is to remove government restrictions from Medical Savings Accounts and Health Savings Accounts, thus increasing the number of providers of these accounts which are coupled usually with high-deductible insurance. He goes on to give stats on how many providers there are now compared with 1996 when he first got one for himself.
(For more details on this, just look at Burgess’ statements on the Congressional Record – he repeated his stump speech for MSA’s and HSA’s almost verbatim)
Now about 20 minutes after 2, he talks about what he wants Congress to do about continuing to increase affordability of healthcare. He says he wants Congress to pass national laws removing various individual states’ coverage requirements and trumping them with an overriding Federal law. The coverage requirements, he says already exist for the FQHCs (Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers), and that Congress should start from there and add and subtract as necessary.
He did NOT mention Medicare part D coverage at all. (You may remember that Burgess voted for the part D coverage with the provision that the federal government could not negotiate with the drug companies for the prices of these medications. Burgess and his wife own stock in 4 major drug companies, and he has accepted campaign contributions from big pharma as well. Burgess and his wife own between $5,006 and $76,000 worth of Pharma stock. Don’t you just love those loose reporting requirements?)
He spoke for a moment about the state of Massachusetts and how they are a different constituency with different problems. They had a system called “Free Care” that was “quite expensive”. Republican Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, along with the Democrat-controlled legislature passed universal health coverage requiring citizens to be insured. He says he withholds judgment on whether or not it will work but says that he suspects by 2008 when Romney is running for President, we’ll know more, and it will either be really good or really bad. “Time will tell.” As an aside, he explains that the only way they got this bill passed was for the Governor and the Legislature to “get the Health Services department out of the room during the discussion” because of the “turf battles”.
At this point, he says he wants to spend just a moment talking about Border Security. He says “we passed a good bill in the house” that “didn’t receive a lot of attention.” (This was the bill that made headlines because it criminalized anyone, including clergy who knowingly assisted illegal immigrants) He says it had great provisions for border enforcement and also for improved methods for employers to verify the legal status of prospective employees. Then the Senate passed a program that was “not so good,” because “it included a guest worker program”.
Burgess says he recently “visited the border” and dropped a few names of other politicians who had gone down to see the problem. He says that if someone had bothered to look at this problem back in 93 or 96, or 86 when the last amnesties were, then we wouldn’t have to be dealing with this now. (At this point I’m thinking to myself so loudly – YES – if Republicans had dealt with it in 2001 when there was political will and they were in control)
Burgess says he’s not interested in voting on any bills with anything other than border security addressed, but left open the possibility that after that problem is solved he might be willing to look at a guest worker program.
On the subject of gas prices, Burgess commented that it looked like the prices in the western part of the district were a bit less than those on the east side. He indicated that through congressional oversight, he was originally concerned that maybe the oil companies were “taking advantage of a situation after Katrina,” but that he was now “convinced that it wasn’t the case,” and that as a vertical industry, there were so many stages in the process with such small profit margins. But he said “A little larceny at each station of the process can have a big effect” (this is quoted as accurately as possible)
He gives nods to the oil industry at this point actually commending them for getting back on track and getting prices back down and production back up as quickly as possible, saying “the system worked as it should”, also pointing out that Congress had a hand by eliminating certain gas formulation requirements in the wake of the hurricane.
He blames current high gas prices on Congress’s failure to grant a liability waiver to producers of the chemical MTBE, which he attempts to present “both sides” of, saying that it was meant to help oxygenate gasoline to curb emissions, but that it’s been turning up in the environment, and that it had been “controversially labeled as carcinogenic, even though nobody has come forward with a case of cancer caused by MTBE”. As a result he says gasoline producers have quit using it (At this point I’m screaming in my head YES - Victory!!!) and have started to use Ethanol instead, which demand drove up the price for, and which provides less combustion energy, thus decreasing your gas mileage. He paints the MTBE thing as a controversy, but concedes “that’s how it’s going to be”.
(Funny, I seem to remember people complaining very loudly back when MTBE was first introduced, about how it was decreasing gas mileage. Nice job trying to pin high gas prices on “tree-huggers” while giving props to the oil industry)
Burgess mentioned the Energy Bill, (the $8.5 billion corporate welfare package of incentives and tax breaks) which he thinks was a good balance between helping increase domestic oil production, and R&D into alternatives, and “speaking of alternatives, Nuclear is included”.
(He didn’t go into any detail about Nuclear, but I would love to have asked him why politicians seem to be so fond of it, though the power industry itself is not. Note that Burgess has received campaign contributions from the nuclear industry – most likely the companies that manufacture reactors, not the ones that operate them – just speculating on that though)
He mentions a couple of local companies in the 26th district – one of which manufactures solar panels that use lenses, and another of which manufactures the “finest wind turbine blades you can find” and is located in Gainesville. He mentions that if you see a big wind turbine on the back of a truck tying up traffic on I-35, these are the Brazilian ones that fall apart in storms.
(Interestingly enough, I have actually seen these huge blades traveling north on I-35E through Lewisville. It’s hard to describe how ginormous these things actually are, but it’s awe-inspiring to see them going into service. I’m proud to hear that we have our own producer in the district. Lets hope more people will start buying their power from companies that use them.)
Burgess explains that he’s been busy lately, that it’s been the “appropriations season” and that “I cannot tell you that congress has been thrifty”. He explains that the greatest costs are “entitlement spending”, and that although there have been “loud noises from the other side about how we’re cutting vital social programs, all we’re doing is squeezing the administrative budgets of these agencies.”
Lastly, Burgess explains that he’s never been happier in his life in a profession since going into public service, although it “doesn’t pay as well as doctoring”.
(At this point I think about my own family doctor, an OB-Gyn. / Family Practitioner, who owns her own practice and told me once that she probably makes less than I do, and I make about half of what a Congressman makes.)
Now Burgess opens the floor to questions.
Read Part II... |
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