Bright hosts town hall meeting in Troy

Published 9:59 pm Thursday, August 12, 2010

U.S. Rep. Bobby Bright hosted a Town Hall meeting in Troy Thursday to a room full of his constituents.

From the economy, to health care to immigration, the meeting spanned a variety of topics.

Bright, D-Montgomery, began the forum by updating Troy voters on the latest happenings in Washington.

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“This past Tuesday, we voted on a bill to have money to extend to our education, police and firemen,” Bright said.

“When I voted against that bill, it hurt.”

But, Bright said his interest is in what’s best for his district residents, overall.

“My vote was not against those services,” he said.

“The federal government is broke, and I get the message loud and clear when I visit the district, we’re tired of excessive spending.”

Many of those gathered did express concern over spending patterns of the government, but a perhaps bigger topic was that of health care.

“I have voted twice against Obamacare,” said Bright, answering a member of the crowd who asked if he would appeal the bill.

“It was too expensive, and it has mandates.”

Bright said an overall appeal of Obamacare isn’t the answer, but rather, he said it would be best to address parts of it piece by piece.

“Before we take a rushed attitude to repeal, let’s see what the good part of it are,” he said.

Still, Bright said he supports those states who are filing suit to keep portions of the bill’s implementation from affecting their residents.

“It’s against our constitution in my opinion, and I support those states. Those lawyers aren’t going to repeal the whole thing but just a portion of it.”

One portion Bright said he recently voted successfully to repeal was one that required small businesses to fill out 1099 forms to the federal government, something he said was not a good use of their time.

Bright, who recently took a trip to the border in El Paso, talked about some solutions for immigration issues.

“We need to secure our border. Let them come in…and take those jobs our people don’t want,” Bright said.

“But they need to do it legally.”

Bright said in El Paso, the border is secure because they have a lot of resources, and he’d like to see those resources implemented throughout.

Still, the worst problem facing the country, Bright said, is the economy.

“It leveled out at the early part of the summer, and it’s now leveled out more,” Bright said.

But to continue those moves, Bright said the government needs to focus on not borrowing money, not spending money on projects they can’t afford and not raising taxes.