So this is the mayor and this is a county commissioner. [inaudible] thank you. Thank you all for coming. You dont think its on . You are probably right. Is this matter likes all right. Thank you. Welcome to my townhall meeting. I do want to thank the mayor for letting us use the city hall. Weve done several town halls here. Were going to be very interactive for the next hour or so. I have a few announcements. All these cameras you see around the room are from cspan television. They are not televising it live but they are going to tape it and show it sometime saturday. So you might be a cspan celebrity this weekend. We have some rules about our townhall. Thithis is a conversation betwen you the constituents and me the congressman. This is not a debate between the gentleman on the front row and the lady over there with the American Flag tshirt. If somebody says something you like, you can apply and probably some of you have signed your going to hold up saying you agree or disagree or whatever. Not a problem. This is not a forum to get into a fist fight with somebody else in the audience that you happen to disagree with. You talk to me and i talk to you. We have a timer. We have come everybody wanted to ask a question got a coupon, and the duplicate is in this bowl. So i have a young lady over here, leslie. She is not a paid staff of your i didnt pay her to do this. We have not prearranged anything. Shes going to pull out the number, we did to me and im going to call it out and you stand up and tell us your name and where you are from, and you have two minutes and then i have two minutes. We will go through as many of these as we can in the next hour. I think we handed out cards that you can write questions down on. Did we do that . If that not come if you dont l comfortable standing up in front of god and country and cspan, then you can write your question. As long as you give us your name and a way to get back to you. An email address or a street address or we will get you a written answer within the next two to three weeks. Any questions about any of that . All right. Im going to put visible right here. This bowl let me make a brief Opening Statement and we will get to the fun part, which is questions and answers. Okay, this is my Little Pocket copy of the constitution. I carry one with me when im on official business in washington and down here. Of course when you go to schools i give a lot of these away. Amendment number one to the constitution of the United States, which is a First Amendment of whats called the bill of rights. Congress shall make no law, respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the rights of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Thats amendment number one. Its probably one if not the most important, certainly one of the most important amendments, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to peaceably assemble and asked for a redress, which i am your representative. Thats why were here. I have done over 1000 townhall meetings over the last 30 something years and i learned every time, and most of the time i enjoy it. And i think tonight will be one that i will learn and i will enjoy your eye a freemarket conservative republican. I believe in providing opportunity. Im not a Big Government mandate guy, although there are certain conditions that government need on ten needs to regulate. I want to do it as close to the people as possible starting with the city and the counties in the state and then as a last resort the federal government. Thats my voting record over the last 30 something years. We are going to have a good discussion, and with that as an opening, it leslie will pick a number. Did anybody who wanted to ask a question put your number in the bowl . Okay, looks ke everybody did. [inaudible] just the last three digits. 020. 020. The mayor is going to provide the microphone or if you are zero to zero, hold up your hand and stand up and he will bring the microphone to you. Nobody . All right. 021. 021. The lady in the back. I was beginning to wonder. My name is 90. My question is where are you from . Im actually from de soto. Desoto texas, okay. My question pertains to the tax code changes that the corporations are going to consider a windfall profit. Okay. 2008 Alan Greenspan spoke of the u. S. House. He said trickledown did not work. He apologize to the american people. Why do yall keep rebranding it and reselling it to the public and taking away from the poor and the middle class . [applause] okay. Well, first of all we dont have an actual bill drafted yet on the tax code, but we do have a general proposal thats been put up by the chairman of the ways and means committee, kevin brady of woodlands texas and in the proposal which again we dont have legislative language, it reduces the Corporate Tax rate. It reduces individual tax rates. It changes the Capital Gains tax to half of your ordinary income tax. It reveals that death tax, repeal the estate tax. It reveals most of the itemized deductions, if youre one who chooses to itemize your deductions on your income tax return. Except for charitable deduction and Home Mortgage interest expense. It has adjustments, it has a new tax called the border adjustment tax. Where do you get the money to pay for it . Who do take that money away from . The border adjustment tax on paper generates enough revenue to pay for the tax relief for everybody else. Its revenue neutral. [laughing] well, we dont have come we dont have legislative language yet but if and when we get it it will be posted online and you can take a look at it. Okay . Next one. 030. 030. Lady right over here. The mayor says he is on a diet and the doctor says he needs to lose weight, so this will be good for him. Tell us your name and where youre from. On amber from arlington. Spoke to you the last townhall. And i drove back again today because i come as you remember maybe, had a preexisting condition. I have crohns disease. I a beneficiary of the aca. I enrolled in 2013. I never lost access to care. I paid with blue cross blue shield, great program, never lost access to my health care and as you know, i reminded you told you last meeting i have oe prescription that come without insurance, would be 3042. Its keeping me in remission. But, you know, late watching tv today, i see that we are talking about repealing aca again. And in those talks have been language that would put me in a high risk pool. And high risk pools are not healthcare. We should be talking about healthcare. We should be talking about care for citizens and not pandering and tailoring to lobbying big pharma. We should not be tailoring to insurance companies. [applause] i am an american and i know that we hear the word patriotism and patriots a lot thrown around. Teddy roosevelt was a great american. I think we could probably all agree on that. He defined patriots and by saint patriotism means standing by your country but it does that mean [inaudible] to the degree to which himself he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic as he officially serves the country. It is unpatriotic to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails and is a duty to stand by the country. In either event it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else. But to tell the truth about healthcare, lets talk about what americans need and lets protect the constituents and not that big interest pharma. Thank you. [applause] well, that shows where running a fair townhall, because her number coupled in mansfield and a couple again today. [inaudible] well, a number was pulled that you used, however you got to use it. Thats between you and whoever gave it to you. My aunt is going to be about the same as it was two or three days ago. The Affordable Care act isnt working. Its [inaudible] its not working, whether, if Hillary Clinton had one, we would be trying to fix it. Were just trying to fix it a a little bit different way. [inaudible] you are covered under preexisting conditions under the Affordable Care act. You will be covered under a repeal and replace bill. [inaudible] preexisting conditions are going to be covered. Yes. [inaudible] well, preexisting conditions will be covered. [inaudible] is going [inaudible] how you do it its my turn to talk. I listen to you. You listen to me. The matter how you, you are concerned about having coverage for your drug prescription and you are concerned that youre going to have Health Insurance. Its going to happen. If the state chooses to use the high risk pool and they put you in it, you probably even know it. Yesyes, i will. The only way reason theyre great and high risk pool is because we are trying to create a marketbased system that creates lower premiums with the same or better coverage. [inaudible] you want good coverage at an affordable cost. So its, i would say its, in order to make sure that premiums go down, they creation of a highrisk pool is just common sense. As long as you get coverage and your cost built up, in fact, did you get more choices because youre going to have more choices. [inaudible] i can tell you we are probably going have a vote on a repeal and replace bill in the next couple of weeks, and when we get ready to have a vote we will post the language online. Everybody can look at it, and then within three days we will have the vote. [inaudible] you will vote as you want not as [inaudible] no. I told the truth as i know it. [inaudible] 001. Lets get you a microphone. Im Jennifer Sanchez hear from waxahachie. I wanted no given the the hundreds of millions of dollars youve accepted from big oil and big polluters, how can we be assured that youre doing anything to protect the environment in our community . In particular, arlington. Well, first of all the statement you made is false. I havent accepted one dine individually from an oil company. I havent set the Political Action contributions and personal contributions from Political Action committees that represent all companies and form people who work for oil companies. Those go to my campaign. Okay, it is the hundreds of millions of dollars. It probably is millions of dollars, over 32 years, because ive been in congress for a while. I represent texas which is an energy state and the backbone of any economy is a sound energy policy. And i believe in free markets and free enterprise, and i have consistently voted that way. And as a consequence the United States has an Affordable Energy prices in the world. With enabling energy producer. We have a great expectation, increasing Energy Production in all areas, oil, gas, wind, solar, all the alternative energies, and probably holding our own in terms of coal. [inaudible] i voted for the Clean Air Act amendments in the early 90s. I want strong enforcement of existing regulations. I simply dont want to be punitive. It costs jobs and create an economic perception by being too negative on the Energy Sector here next question. 997. We go from 01, the nine and 70 right behind you. Congressman, my name is bob. I would like to say that i agree with most everything that President Donald Trump is tied to do so far. We have the house. We have the senate and we have the presidency. I think its time that we get the same done that needs to be done. [applause] well, i agree with that, and we should be, those of those who are in the majority ought to be accountable and be held responsible. Weve already talked about the tax issue and energy issue, healthcare issue. So the question is, what are we going to do. On some of that, maybe a lot of it, hopefully it will be my partisan, but on some of it it will have to be partisan. The healthcare issue is unfortunately one of those. I couldnt agree more. I waited a long time to be, you know, have the house, the senate and the presidency so i agree with you. Its time to deliver. Could not agree more. 980. 980. Thats kind of sneaky. But okay, we will let that go. Okay. My name is justin snyder. I actually talk to you at your second townhall in milford, and tell us where youre from. Im from arlington texas. I asked you about your tax reform. I do have all the detail question but i looked it up and now i want to let you know. You say on your tax form you will consolidate tax, dell three tax brackets and lower the top rate to 33 . This actually, this top individual income tax rate only affects those currently making over 413,000. That right there [inaudible] on the average american. The second point, made in america products that are manufacturers cant compete. I would like to know more detail on that so that we are not, i do believe we should allow a symbol in america with four baseboards to fit into this category. Your third bullet point, repeal the death tax so the loss of a Family Member will no longer be taxable. Repealing the death tax, would only benefit those with an estate valued over 5. 4 million. I also believe that this will not affect the average american. You want to cut taxes on Small Businesses by creating a separate low rate of 25 on many on main street but you want to lower Corporate Tax rate to 20 and shift the character system with more competitive rates. I dont understand why you want to cut the rates to 20 for corporate businesses, but only down to 25 for Small Businesses. You are now making Small Businesses compete with corporations for business. Okay. Thats a fair question. First of all, there are three individual brackets, the top bracket would go to 33. I think the middle bracket goes to 2 22 and then the bottom bracket goes to either ten or 15 . So there are three different individual brackets. Corporate brackets the top bracket shows where your mindset is. You dont care about the lower taxes. No, we lowered [inaudible] that particular sheet of paper which you refer to is put out by the ways and means committee. It was your hand out. Its my handout. Im accountable for it, youre right about that, but we lower all three brackets. We lower [inaudible] we lower the corporate bracket from 35 to 20. We we have the highest Corporate Tax rate in the world because we want to make our manufactured products more competitive by reducing that bracket from 35 to 20. You didnt mention that we change the way we do Capital Gains so that its now taxed at half of whatever your ordinary income rate is. So do usual example, if you in 33 bracket, if you had a capital gain it would be taxed at 16. 5 . If you were in what i think is the 22 bracket, although it could be wrong about that specific number, is their capital gain would be taxed at 11 . The estate tax repeal, while not to the people would benefit 100 from it, if youre a family farmer or have a small business, thats family owned, there are lots of farms and ranches and Small Businesses that are worth more than 5. 4 million. That eliminates the estate tax or the death tax on those family holdings. I think thats a good thing, not a bad thing. The controversial part of the proposal is this board of adjustment tax. Im willing to support it. I want a little more information on it, but almost every other country has something similar to it. And if it does make our products more competitive, im going to be for it. Yes maam. 000. Spirit 000 . Youre going to pass, okay. 017. 017. Yes, maam. Hello. [inaudible] and thank you for doing this, and i appreciate that. I work every day with transplant patients that need a formal correct plant are some kind of healthcare that is affordable. Some of them wont have a preexisting condition that gives them more charges for them to pay for the premium. Also another thing was before hand there were limitations on how much a person could be out. Maybe it was the cap. They were patient actually waiting to get transplants on the approval care act plan came up because [inaudible] they could knew anything about the coverage. I know youve addressed this mini tent and if they get to go to the root of the problem. What god is to the point that we had, that government had to do and a formal correct but because only people didnt have insurance. Its been my opinion and out of a field looked at this but how come large corporations such as walmart and other places, why dont they do something about limiting how many parttime employees they can have . The key push ever from fulltime to parttime. No one has any benefits. They were teaching that employs how to get on medicaid and they make billions and billions of dollars. So they need to look at the root of the problem to see how they fixed that. I dont think that costs should go on to the individual trying to find a healthcare plan. [applause] okay. First of all, thank you for what you do. I guess grandpa and dallas, if youre in a transplant route. They are one of the best in country, so god bless you for what you do. We are not having i dont mind answering questions about preexisting conditions, but its not a debate that im arguing with you. The republican alternative before the approval care act was passed covered preexisting conditions. The plan that we are going to vote on it than we would vote on it covers preexisting conditions. There may be a few bells and whistles differences on how you do it, but im not arguing about that, nor is any other republican. Were going to cover it. As to walmart fulltime parttime, thats a market decision that the Management Team at walmart ought to make. I happen to think you are better off most of the time if most of your people are fulltime, but there are situations come sometimes the individual can only work parttime. Sometimes the Business Model only allows them to be able to hire people on a parttime basis. That is not a decision the federal government should get involved in. That should be made at the level of whoever is doing the hiring and whoever is doing the working. Thats not something federal government and my opinion should be involved in. [applause] 964. Isnt it funny, we dont have 1000 people there and were going from zero to 1000. 964 is right in the front row. Were going to get you the microphone. Good evening and thanks for hosting that town hall meeting. My name is bob, im originally from dennis. And i have three simple questions. You said simple questions . Simple questions. We will see about that. [laughing] why didnt the Republican Party have plans set to go in january of 2017 regarding health care, tax cuts, immigration . [applause] did the republicans believe President Donald Trump would lose the election so they werent prepared . These are simple questions. What would it take to get rid of the paul ryan and speaker of the house . [cheers and applause] when watching fox news it appears to be, he appears to be in league with the democrats and i cant really tell whether hes a democrat or republican. [applause] republicancontrolled congress. Why does it appear that the democrats are in charge . [applause] and as a followup to the question the person before me asked about walmart, it seems like that parttime employees may limit themselves to a minimal amount of money and income so that they can apply and qualify for government assistance, and drive those parts up. [shouting] calm down. Thank you. I dont know how simple those questions were. And i think you had about half a dozen instead of three, but we will take a pop it. Why werent the republicans voted to go with the healthcare bill on day one . Actually, if we had wanted to we could have, but basic decision was you could move outline page just repeal the bill. [applause] but if you did that, and as long as you did, there are lots of people that depend on the Affordable Care act for Health Insurance that wouldve been left out in the cold. [applause] so we didnt want to do that. We wanted to take a little more time. Now, we had a Health Proposal that we prepared last year called a better way, and what the speaker did was give that to the committees of jurisdiction, the ways and means committee, and the energy and commerce committee, which i am the vicechairman of. We kind of went through regular order, had he ranks and together a bill and kind of circulated it and then we had a markup. And went to the Budget Committee and the Budget Committee sent it to the rules committee. Thats the bill that we are still revising right now. So we take a little bit more time but were trying to do it in a way that if were successful in passing something, we have something that can be used in a transition period so that we dont create chaos in the healthcare market. We havent done it yet but were trying to do it. On paul ryan the speaker, what would it take to change and . In . It would take a majority of the house of representatives right now to move a motion and not support and then have a new election. Thats not going to happen. I voted for paul ryan as speaker. I think hes doing a good job. I think he has a tough job. This is a diverse country. The republican conference is not as united as some might believe. And hes the one ultimately quest to bring all that together. Hes an honest man. Hes a decent man. He has integrity. I think he will turn out to be a successful speaker. There are people who disagree with that, but right now he has my faith and my trust. I dont, i may have missed did i miss well, my time is up anyway. It appears watching fox news and cspan and a few others channels, it appears the democrats are in charge. Well, you know nancy pelosi, all that crowd, seems like they are in charge and their running the show and they didnt get the votes. Well, he says it seems like the democrats are in charge. Its always easier to be united when youre in the minority. When you really cant make anything happen, its easier to be united. Plus, if they were really in charge they would be moving an agenda. And they dont have the votes. Maybe next year they will have the votes. Thats why we hold elections for the house every two years. Udell, nancy pelosi is pretty happy these days because so far the republicans havent been able to deliver. But one of these days, believe it or not i think we will. Hopefully one of these days she and the speaker will Work Together and will bring floors to the house that both parties can support. That hasnt happened yet either, but it will. Good questions. 028. The gentle man back there. Richard comrade from cedar hill. Good for you. My question is why the long lines of what you were just talking about. I guess i dont see that we have one Republican Party and that we havent had for quite a while. And id like your comments on how you think that this is all coming together. Im talking about both houses now. And when you go from senate and you got the tea partiers, the Freedom Caucus and everything. I dont think, if republicans dont get together and act as a unit, then we really are just like the other side. We are not going to do anything forward. I dont see that. If you see something happening that maybe the media doesnt pick up on, id sure like you to comment on it. Well, i think your observations are valid. And while we have 237 house republicans, you dont have 237 republicans that all have the same philosophy. We represent different regions of the country so you have regional differences. In some cases you have some philosophical differences. You mentioned the Freedom Caucus. I a member of the Freedom Caucus, which is the more conservative group of republicans. There are about two to three dozen of us. Theres a group in the Conference Call the tuesday group which is more moderate group of republicans. I dont think they have quite as many people. And we have said that we want to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act. I think we should do that. I think we will do that. I think we could. [applause] [inaudible conversations] and you know, if we get that done, we should look at the tax system, maybe change the tax code. We also need to look at federal communications commission. Fda, epa, Environmental Protection agency. Need to reform the department of energy. Theres a lot of things that need to be done, but since we campaign to really replace the Affordable Care act, that is what we are working on right now. Well get that done, go to the next step. The beginner or process and you folks will be a part of it. 985. 985 air. We believe you. Hes given him the number [inaudible] my name is karl kennedy. Im from what you have achieved. One thing i would like to know and it is the root cause of a lot of these problems. Republicans and democrats got his dark talking rather than singing it is my party, we are doing we are in charge. [applause] your official title is u. S. Congressmen from the sixth district to the state of texas beard is that correct . Actually u. S. Representative. You represent the state of texas in this district in the United States congress and you should do working for the benefit of the United States. Not only defenses and not on the republicans. I thought [applause] when i was in the army, i was not representative a specific group of people of the United States. I represented all citizen in the United States. And when we start talking, we hear that some of the ideas that the other side are good. Some of ours are good. When we Work Together and get the things we agree on and a bill, then we can work on the things a little bit far apart on. But the things we are hugely far apart on really those out. We give it a try and we get rid of the stuff that doesnt work and we work on trying to resolve the big differences. And that is what working together will get things done. [applause] all right. He says that republican and democrat should Work Together and i dont disagree with that. He says im United States representative if that means they represent the whole country. Correct im not. But im also representing this particular district. The whole country is not identical to the sixth district of texas. But let me just give you this is very simple. Lets just do a little test right now of this group. How many of you say vanilla is your favorite i. C. E. Cream. Raise your hand . Vanilla is your favorite. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven say 10 people. How many of you say chocolate is your favorite ice cream. One cover to cover three, four, five. Chocolate is a little bit ahead. How many say strawberry . Can we compromise and say everybodys favorite ice cream is neapolitan . See, now that is a simple task. And its silly. But when you get on 435 members of congress, 54 i think in california, 36 in texas. Montana has one, and alaska has one. You know, all over the country. Some country. Semilawyers country. Some are lawyers, some are teachers, some veterans, some engineers. Some doctors. We are a microcosm of the country. There are very few issues that everybody in america agrees on 100 of the time. Now, there are a few and they passed a resolution of 435 people agree. And you get to some of the issues we talked about today. There is not agreement on health care. There are some members of congress to think we have to have a singlepayer governmentrun Health Care System. I am not one of those. [applause] there are other members think the government should be totally out of it. [applause] most people are somewhere in the middle. And it is the congress his job over time to put back together. Now, i have a lot of friends that have a d. By their name and my work on a lot of pills together. I a lot of friends who have and are by their name and we work on bills with them. I would say 65 of the bills that we are going to vote on this year will be bipartisan, but there will be some that wont be because there is such a difference of opinion. Health care and fortunately it is one of those. When we get beyond the debate on how to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act, we will have agreement on food and Drug Administration and a lot of other health care issues. My time has expired. I might use my time in the next line to continue that. 966. Yes, sir. Right here. 966. Try to get our mayor moving a little bit here. He is making you all walked to him. Thats real power. Minus a simple question could tell us your name and where name and where youre from. And david altman. I went to school year. I assume you are from moscow g. If you are not, you say something. Anyway, i graduated from high school, paid into Social Security for over 20 years. Ive been teaching for 25 years and im about to retire. I think i emailed your office before. [inaudible] okay. Texas has its own teacher retirement system, which is really good. My mother is a School Secretary and waco and she cap retirement in the Health Care System teachers. Most people are covered in the private marketplace. You pay into Social Security. There is a federal and state law that says if you have two different pensions that are coequal, you get to choose the one that helps you the mouse, but you cant take out the bad. Or you may get some of the secondary ones in a reduced rate. A lot of people like yourself to pay into both systems think thats fair. There is some justification for saying that its unfair. The chairman of the ways and means committee, mr. Brady had a bill in the last congress that would not totally fixed it, but it wouldve helped. I dont believe hes introduced a bill to this congress, but if he does and it comes to the floor, although for it. They question you didnt ask is why havent we fixed this before because this is not a new issue. The reason is when you make a change on pensions, you get what is called the cbo score, Congressional Budget Office score and to make a change that would be the simplest, you could take pensions. It is very expensive and so thats why we havent done it because of the way we have to score these kinds of things. On a basic fairness test, we had to change the system and him why and hopefully in this congress will do that. I think your question is valid. 039. Right over here. This lady needs a microphone. Hello. My name is ivan krinsky from waxahachie. I have so many questions, but i think im going to start without health care. Ive been selfemployed most of my life. Pretty much paid cash when i went to the doctor because they couldnt, for the insurance. Ive been around a long time. In the olden days it wasnt the six and said he everything didnt cost a fortune, so you could pay cash and it was no big deal. But since ada came in, i had to purchase it or help pay the fine and was going to cost my husband and i a 10,000 deductible. So there was no way we could afford this. Its gotten higher and higher every year. Thank god i dont have to do that anymore. When we go back, i would like to go back to pay in cash. Have catastrophic insurance, but just pay cash. I shop around, get the cheapest price with insurance, government i just want to pay cash. I dont want to have to do that anymore. Im sick of the government ian and my health care. [applause] and with that said, i guess i dont hear a lot of talk about on how to address the high cost of medical. Forget the insurance. Take all those people out. Just going to the doctor, get in some lab work done, it is ridiculous and i dont know who is making money on all of this because i know a lot of people who are medical people. I dont know where it going, but i wish that would be addressed along with all of this other health care discussion. Okay. Part of what we are trying to do to replace the bill for the Affordable Care act is repeal all the mandates, which would be the mandate you have. The mandate the employers have to provide if they have more than 50 employees. We want to go back and give you a choice. We create an expanded Health Savings accounts you can put money into Health Savings account taxfree, which you then spend and take some cash when you have the need and you can get a catastrophic act of plan. Weve already passed a bill through the house floor where we allow groups to create their own plan. We are not going to repeal these individual exchanges. I dont have a problem with the individual exchanges that were created under the Affordable Care act. I have a problem though is mandatory if you didnt have an interest or your work place, you had to go in and find a plan because as you pointed out, in many cases, there were many affordable plans you could choose from. We are trying to recreate a true marketplace that gives you lots of options to do what is best for you, including not having Health Insurance if you so choose. If thats your choice, then you dont have a Health Savings account, then you cant afford this, youll still have to depend on medicaid, which is Health Insurance for low income americans and then youre going to have to depend on clinics like the hope clinic here in waxahachie. Theres all kind in the Health Care System as it is today. Its not easy to change. But our goal is more choice, more options. We have an done it yet. Go back to some of these other questions. But thats our goal. [inaudible] well, one of the bipartisan bills that i worked on thats actually in the Affordable Care act is a similar bill with a democratic congresswoman, an issue deanna eshoo. We also need to reform the way we do generics, so that if you buy generic drug, is currently the same drug, it just doesnt have the brand name on it and its a lot less expensive. We need to shorten the time. For these Clinical Trials for google of new drugs and stem cells. Theres a lot of therapy and stem cells under current federal law. You cannot receive stem cell or a petri pain in the United States. You have to go to mexico or the bahamas overseas. I think you ought to be able to receive stem cells, especially your own stem cells in the United States. That is something that hopefully sometime this congress on a bipartisan basis will address. Weve got time for one or two more. Read over here. Thank you very much for being here. Im from texas. Could deal. Thatcher bluebonnet trails tshirt on. I do. Actually, i have two concerns. One is i retiring from 30 years of federal service from the va and i also have 44 quarters in Social Security. So then i get to 1988 whenever the windfall came, whoever did it, at any rate, i can only collect one fourth of my Social Security. Because you get a penchant for your federal retirement. I do have it. Social security was cut down to one fourth. That was one concern. The other concern is i became a widow three years ago when my husband passed away and i was not able to have that because i worked in the past and i understand the law on not as it has never worked. My thought on that is if i didnt have my home paid for, i would have to move. So thats two less than concerned about. Well, weve heard a talk about this first one here. You know, hopefully we can address that in some way. On the second one, your husband collect Social Security, but when he died he didnt get any Social Security . Okay. The reason for that is when they pass Social Security cannot believe it or not, before i was born back in the 1930s, most families have one wage earner in those cases it was the husband. And they wanted to make sure that the spouse who didnt work outside the home, the last spouse got Social Security if anyone to breadwinner passed away. So Social Security was set up from the getgo to take care of the traditional family motto. But it didnt allow very well for two people to work outside the home. So in the 60s and 70s, more and more and most cases wives, women work outside the home. You begin to have that problem. The answer was because of the cost of it, i thought youd get some of your has been Social Security, just not all of it. [inaudible] is an example of how a set up to take care of people that didnt work outside of the home so that in most cases those Family Members do. It doesnt really account for it in a way that it should. Okay, last question. This is our last one. 022. Because you said please, ill do it. 022 and now go to this gentleman right here. At evening, congressman. Thank you for your leadership over the last three decades. [inaudible] i have two questions for you about ilLegal Immigration. About what . Skilled Legal Immigration. Im using the term because im not trying to discuss with you other part. My point is about skilled immigration. I came when i was 21 years old here right now it 30 years old. My specialty is pediatrics, my question for you is like what is your take on current skilled Legal Immigration system . Because im born in india and ive seen a lot of people who join companies because theyve gone from other countries, they got their green card and a lot of people who join with me, like when i joined, they are citizen now. Im 2012, but funny enough in december. The current estimate to showing it will take me another 40, maybe 45 years to get my green card your because youre from india under such a backlog for their country. There are bills consistently introduce. Hes been doing it for 2011. Ultimately, the bill is not getting anything like that. Recently they came out. It died as the last congress. Now the bill is again introduced now h. R. 392. That is support from both sides. Democrats and republicans are reading on that. The state of texas, both sponsors are there. Let me answer that. Our whole immigration system is broken. Specifically im skilled Legal Immigration. There is a quota system a fine country margin. If youre from iceland, you would have a problem, that being from india, you do. We need to go back and revisit that. The key component, theres kind of two components as any system we replace, if we change the system, is it good for america . Number one. And is it good for the individual, numbered two. You have to look at this gentleman here talked about what is best for the United States and once you pass that test, what is best for the individual that wants to come to the United States. Obviously somebody wants to come and get an education and in your case Practice Medicine would tend to be an asset or a country and we should try to make that possible. On the other hand, if youre trying to calm as an unskilled worker with no real skills, and might end up on the welfare rolls. They may not be in the best interest of the United States to the individual. Im not saying it would never be in our best interests, but take a look at it a little bit differently. In any case, in terms of skilled workers, we can always use more. We had to revise the system. I dont know we probably should do away with the country of origin requirement and just base it on skills that necessary for the United States. I cant unequivocally say that will happen, but that would tend to be fair than a system, come from a country with not many people in your almost guaranteed a green card. Come from a country that has a lot of people, it is pretty tough. I have been awarded, lets say offered promotions a lot of time. I can lead a different kind, but the problem is every single time i would be accepting promotion. Then, my country will call the lawyer and say you guys are giving him promotion. If title will change. I need to go to this gentleman over here. Under the current system, even though youre not given a green card, you are reauthorized legally to stay in the country. So that they initially to offer a promotion. I will accept that promotion, then send out the paperwork with the lawyer and the lawyer will say okay, if you want to change his title and give him different role, its going to cost you this many thousands of dollars. And the company with tommy, how how about we do this. My short answer to that would be dont go to the lawyer. Yeah, you have to go to the lawyer. And another now, that it. Gentleman over here. He said he wanted the last question in the aspen leaves. Im going to probably regret that i recognized him. Im going to do it anyway. Tell us who you are and where you are from. [inaudible] Voting Rights. Why is that we have such a problem with Voting Rights in the state of texas and a lot of the southern states. Voting should be a privilege, not a right. Everybody should be able to vote at the age of 18 without any questions. [applause] the Affordable Health care act, thats what the republicans want. I would like to see us amend the Affordable Care act and descent game thats going to work for all of us. This is something that can be worked out for one reason or the other, the right and left to get along. As you can see, when the bill just came out to try to get it passed recently, 17 days is not enough time. Texas. Taxes. We need to see Donald Trumps taxes before. [cheers and applause] [inaudible] what are we going to do for the people that are not able to go to the doctor . Not only for women, men, too. Youve had four questions. The meeting was supposed to start earlier. Ive got 30 more seconds. Your representative mix that you do a better job than what i think youre doing representing the district. If not, i can campaign vigorously to vote against you. [applause] well, first of all, i agree with some of what you said. I dont agree with all of that, but im glad youre here. I have a sneaking suspicion youve never voted for me, although you may have. [inaudible] most of my democrat opponents have been really good people. Though thats okay. On the Voting Rights act, i dont think we have a Voting Rights act problem in texas. When i go to vote, but texas voter i. D. Law simply says i have to provide some sort of identification that im a citizen of texas. And in most cases it can be a drivers license, but it doesnt have to be. He just has to be some sort of a government issued photo i. D. Im a United States congressman. When i show up, ive got to prove who i am. When i go through the security, i have to do all that. So you know, i dont see i dont agree with you on the premise that we have a voting problem in texas. I dont agree. [inaudible conversations] okay, okay, you all can yell and scream all you want. Its not going to do a whole lot of good. Many people an opportunity as possible and hold myself to the time frame i hold you. Mr. Trumps taxes, i have no trouble if he wants to raise them. Its an issue between the people and him. I want to thank the city in the mail mayor. If you didnt get your questions answered, write it down, turn it in and we will get you a written answer. Thank you for being here and be safe driving home. Ill bless you. [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] congressman barton and his house colleagues will return to session tomorrow to deal with federal spending for the remainder of this budget year end 2018. Current spending runs out friday. The Senate Returns today at 3 0. Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on sonny perdue to be the next agriculture secretary. You can watch the debate on cspan2. We have this from politico. President trumps tax reform proposal will be released on wednesday. They set specific so bout which guidance and principles and indications about what rates will be. Individuals and businesses will receive massive tax cuts under his plans. He provided no details but predicted there will be bigger, i believe, then any tax cut ever. We have another town hall meeting with gary palmer from the sixth district of alabama. He originally opposed the revised tax reform plan. [applause] thank you. Before we start with the questions, i want to thank the city and the mayor and the police and detectives that are here tonight. We have taken him away from their families. I dont take that for granted. I would like for us all to think