Congressman Tom Graves a Hit at Town Hall Meeting
A two-hour town hall meeting with Republican Congressman Tom Graves drew a standing-room-only crowd to the Forsyth County Administration Building Wednesday.
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An appreciative, standing-room-only crowd greeted 9th District Congressman Tom Graves for what could be the last time as their elected representative at a Wednesday night town hall meeting.
Every seat in the Forsyth County Administration Building was filled and those who came to listen to the conservative congressman from Ranger stood shoulder to shoulder along every inch of the back wall and out the commissioners' meeting room door.
For his part, the affable Graves spent more than two hours with his constituents, answering every question from a seemingly endless line of questioners.
Graves said the nation's debt has reached $14.5 trillion and it is critically important to stop the deficit spending.
"Two days of interest we pay to China is enough to buy one joint strike fighter (jet)," he said.
Graves said the president's idea of taxing the rich more is not the answer.
"For those who say they need to pay their fair share, let's put that in perspective. You would need 1,600 billionaires -- which we don't have in America -- and you would need to tax them 100 percent and you would still have deficit spending in Washington."
Graves said Americans now have to make some very difficult choices.
"If we don't do it now, we're putting a burden on the next generation. We'll be placing a debt on the children and grandchildren of this generation that is unbearable."
Graves fielded questions ranging from healthcare to term limits to how to stop deficit spending.
"The solution that 67 percent of Americans agreed with according to a CNN poll was cut, cap and balance," Graves said. "The Tea Party had the only solution that would have solved the problem and brought the nation together." That response generated the loudest applause of the night.
On Wednesday, the Georgia Senate approved new boundaries for the state's congressional districts. Once those boundaries are approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, Graves will represent the state's new 14th District in the northwestern corner of the state and will no longer represent Forsyth County.
Edmund Avolio
5:42 pm on Thursday, September 1, 2011
Cut, Cap and Balance sounds good but it will only work if the US accepts constant cuts in Government spending. SS and Medicare must prepare for cuts as does all other human services. Why must there be no end to the cuts in spending? The answer is because there is no plan in DC that will revive manufacturing jobs in the US. Until products SOLD in the US must endure the costs mandated by congress for products MADE in the US, there will be no job creation.
FTAs, tax cuts and stimulus programs have all failed to produce jobs in the US. FTAs create offshore jobs, not domestic jobs, tax cuts give individuals more money to spend on offshore products as does stimulus programs. The reason is that there are no US produced products for sale in retail stores. No Multinational will invest in the US, regardless of our tax rate, when any product contemplated can be made for $14.00 for a 12 hour day in China or 50 cents an hour in Indonesia.
Hal Schneider
2:58 pm on Friday, September 2, 2011
If we dropped the corporate tax rate to 0%, foreign companies would move to the U.S. in droves, and our unemployment problem would disappear within 6 months. With full employment, tax revenues would skyrocket without ANY changes in the current rates. Deficit spending would be eliminated. That's not to say that we don't need to make drastic spending cuts and completely revamp the tax code, because we still have almost $15 trillion in debt that has to be paid off!
Edmund Avolio
4:23 pm on Friday, September 2, 2011
Hal, not so. As long as Multinationals can produce products in countries like China paying $14.00 for a twelve hour day or Indonesia for 50 cents an hour, no tax cuts for corporations will make up for low offshore wages.
Hal Schneider
6:41 pm on Friday, September 2, 2011
We have no control over wages paid in other countries. Dropping the corporate tax rate to 0% WOULD bring enough jobs to this country to eliminate unemployment. If your assertion were true, then no company would be doing business here!
Edmund Avolio
8:15 pm on Friday, September 2, 2011
Hal, you are correct, the US has no control over wages in other countries. The US does have control over what products we will allow to be sold in the US. If other countries don't treat their workers the same as ours, we won't sell their products.
Check my assertion by trying to find US produced products for sale in retail stores such as Target Wal-Mart, Office Max, etc. The current trade deficits are running over 600 billion a year, up from 35 billion in the mid 90s. Each billion is estimated to cost as many as 20,000 jobs. 6 x 2 = 12 million, just about where we are at in the US.
William Evelyn Jr.
6:45 pm on Friday, September 2, 2011
A 0% tax rate would bring capital back to the United States to be invested in plant and equipment to create jobs. If we would stabilize our money.
Edmund Avolio
8:16 pm on Friday, September 2, 2011
I still doubt that a zero tax would make up for 50 cents an hour in Indonesia or 1.17 in China.
Common Tater
8:47 pm on Friday, September 2, 2011
I agree with Edmund. Not only that, China and other third-world countries don't have those pesky clear air and water laws that the US does, which further cuts down on production costs of the various widgets. They also don't have unemployment compensation, social security, and other "perks" US workers benefit from. Besides, many US corporations are paying little to no in income taxes anyway AND a lot of the CEO's earn more than the companies total tax bill. I cant see where cutting the tax rate to zero would make any difference.
Edmund Avolio
8:21 am on Saturday, September 3, 2011
Bruce, thanks for your comments. You have missed only one more pesky and that is child labor laws. I have been touting such penalties for a few months but you are one of the few that realizes what I am trying to say.
Hal Schneider
9:13 pm on Friday, September 2, 2011
Clearly, other things need to be done including deregulation and eliminating the EPA. Protectionism, however, has never worked, and never will!
Edmund Avolio
8:25 am on Saturday, September 3, 2011
Hal, I am not advocating protectionism. In fact, if congress made the same laws apply to SOLD as MADE in US, I propose a world wide FTA with all countries. The US is putting tariffs on MADE in US, and your are right such protectionism doesn't work, it is destroying the US economy.
William Evelyn Jr.
1:21 pm on Sunday, September 4, 2011
The power to stop the Federal criminals is in the hands of the state. The state legislators must pass laws to nullify the EPA, No Child Left Behind, etc. If the state legislators refuse, kick them out and find those that will.
Hal Schneider
3:05 pm on Sunday, September 4, 2011
First, we need to repeal the 17th Amendment!
Helen Hyatt
6:30 am on Friday, September 9, 2011
Lets also remember that China, Vietnam and India are not spending what tax money they do receive on wars in other countries, if we were to spend the money we are spending in Iraq and Afganistan right here in this country and fix a things, it would help.
American is not number 1 at anything any more, we are still using cell phones in this country, how many times do you get a dropped call or no signal, even Africa is now using satilite phone, you can phone across the world using a satilite phone, on a cell phone I cant even phone the guy down the street without a problem, we need to MOVE AHEAD. Bill you should really get out of your guilded American suburban home and just take a look around a how the rest of the world operates. 4G give me a break, Japan has 16 G download, congress should madate the big companies that rule America, we need to move ahead.
Also on the subject of 0 percent tax for corporations, if you run a company you can create 0 percent profit if you want and therefore 0 percent tax just by adjusting your incentives to the personel, like giving the CEO a couple of million, reducing the profit and therefore paying no tax.Duh, oldest trick in the book of running a company.
Helen Hyatt
6:17 am on Friday, September 9, 2011
Edmund is on the money. He is 100 right. As a business owner, you cannot hire a person in the US unless you pay minimum 12 a hour, otherwise they would rather sit on unemployment. Health care minimum is 500 per month per person, 1,000 for a family, even at 0 percent tax how can you complete with Vietnam, at 50 cents a day or even the Mexican companies along the texas border paying 100$ a week, we have thank Bill Clinton for that one. The American middle class has been lost, you cannot live on credit forever, goodby American dream, hello increasing chaos.