Mike Kelly's Town Hall Meeting - A Good Beginning (Part 1)

Mike Kelly's Town Hall Meeting at Blasco Library 2/12/2011
If you weren't able to attend this town hall, you sure did miss it! It was a pleasant surprise for me. Not a home run, but a good beginning.

WJET, WICU, and Erie Times News attended so there should be some decent coverage in the local news.

Mike Kelly took the time to emphasize the following points to the crowd:

• He will be accessible to us.
• He answers to the people, not the party.
• He reassured the crowd that there are people in Congress looking out for us.
• He told us what we could do to help and how to get in contact with him. (information below)
• He asked us to email or call him if we have any issues or questions. If we don't get through the first time, to keep trying.

Here is what stood out to me:
Accessible Location and Time. Blasco Library is a convenient location with just the right-sized auditorium and public transport available. I like that he had it on the WEEKEND so the majority of WORKING class Americans could make it.
The meeting was organized and they kept things moving. The only time it dragged is when local citizens took too long to ask a question and there was little they could do about that.
Mike took the time to seriously listen and answer citizens during the Questions and Answers session (which is my favorite part). I believe it takes guts to stand there and answer questions on a possibly endless variety of subjects. You have no idea what will be coming your way and it puts you on the spot. We had questions about the Post Office, Patriot Act, Social Security, Insurance, etc...if he didn't know the answer, he answered honestly. Sometimes, not as specific as I would like but there is always room for improvement.

My Concerns:
Mike reiterated the problems with our trillion dollars of debt, over-stepping regulations, and overspending. This is great. But we have known and heard about this for months/years. What is he going to do about it? What are his ideas? What does he think we need to cut? He is on the Committee for Government Reform and Oversight? Okay. We got that. What do they do? What have they done? What are they going to accomplish? Or is it just a fancy title?  I left with a good idea of where he would like to stand but no clear picture of what he would like to do or how he would do it. More questions than answers. Is that good?

All in all, it was his first Town Hall Meeting in Erie County and it was a good start. The Questions and Answers session was my favorite part by far. I will provide a list of questions and his answers in Part 2.

Mike Kelly's Erie Contact Information
208 E. Bayfront Parkway, Suite 102 - Erie, PA
814-454-8190  M-F: 8:00am - 5:00pm.


More Detailed Notes Below

Mike began his Meeting by introducing his Erie staff listed below:
-Brad Moore - District Director
-Tim Butler - Senior Caseworker
-Melanie Brewer - Senior Field Representative (know of any upcoming events that you think Mike Kelly should attend? please contact her)
-Julia Thornton - DC Press Contact
 Brad, Tim, and Melanie are all familiar faces to those of us who follow local politics.

Federal Spending
Mike had graphs showing us the Tidal Wave of Debt floating our way. What are we going to do about it? Mike asked, "Where would we make the cuts?"

The US accidentally overpaid the United Nations by $179 million dollars. According to Mike, when our government finally found about it, they just decided to let them keep it. What? The fact that United Nations gets any money at all from the U.S. is a sore subject with me. Let alone overpaying them. Mike referenced a website www.majorityleader.gov/YouCut/. It is for citizens to make suggestions to the federal government on where to cut wasteful spending.

Mike is on the Committee for Government Reform and Oversight. He mentioned listening to businessmen during Committee Meetings and hearing them state how much the government is hurting their businesses. Mike told us he understands these concerns particularly due to owning his own small business. In his handout, he provides references to http://www.americanjobcreators.com/. It is a website where employers tell the federal government how overreaching government regulation has hurt American businesses and jobs.

He provided contact sheets, newsletter signups, and handouts of the meeting's slides. No one can argue that he and/or his staff weren't organized and didn't do their best to be prepared.