Joe Barton

Last night I had the pleasure of listening to Joe Barton for about an hour and a half.  He was delayed in Washington DC due to a farm bill that was being voted on, but he finally got on an airplane and made it to the Tea Party event.  The only other elected official there was Ron Wright the Tarrant County Tax Accessor and former Barton Chief of Staff.

Topics of conversation ranged far and wide, but the main subjects concerned stripping the food stamp portion of the farm bill away and voting on it in the future.  Congressman Barton assured that the food stamp
spending level would remain below 2007 expenditures.  Immigration was another subject at the forefront.  Joe stated that if a person was born in this country, they would remain a citizen of this country.  However, if the parent was illegal, something other than citizenship would be afforded to them.  It was noted that entering this country illegally is only a misdemeanor, and can be punished by 6 mos. in jail, however normally this option  isn't utilized until the 3rd capture. 

It must be obvious that Congressman Barton is not for term limits since he is in his 28th in Congress.  I guess that his most important issue currently is fiscal responsibility.  Obama was running a 1.4 trillion dollar deficit.  Currently they have it down to .8 trillion.  Congressman Barton would like to see a balanced budget, but he believes that it won't happen until the current administration is gone.  It was stated that the three largest areas of spending is the Military Budget, Social Security, and Medicare/Medicaid.  Until these areas are addressed, there will never be a balanced budget.

It was stated that the coup in Egypt to oust the Arab Brotherhood was accomplished by the Egyptian Military.  This military is considered friendly to the United States because we provide them with military hardware.  Therefore, this removal of the current regime is looked upon favorably by DC.  I am sure that Obama will do nothing since he is very adept at only voting "present."

All in all an interesting evening, however some of the members of the audience were disrespectful and trying at times.