Posey blasts politics, spending
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
By Rick Neale
VIERA - Heaping criticism on federal spending and partisan politics, U.S. Rep. Bill Posey declared that Washington, D.C., is “dysfunctional, to say the least.”
“Jobs and the economy are the No. 1 priority in this country right now, or at least I think it should be. Unfortunately, I believe that on most of the significant issues, most of the spending issues, Congress is moving in the wrong direction,” Posey told a standing-room crowd Monday.
“We’re looking at the health care bill and cap-and-trade, for example, killing 7.5 million jobs,” he said.
“And if we continue on the space plan—that, quite frankly, was first offered by (President George W.) Bush—we will be paying the Russians to take our astronauts back and forth to the space station,” he said.
The Rockledge Republican outlined his 2010 priorities and answered dozens of written questions during a two-hour community forum Monday at the Holiday Inn Melbourne-Viera Conference Center.
About 600 people attended, estimated Samir Patel, hotel general manager. The audience overwhelmed the Holiday Inn parking lot, forcing officials to designate auxiliary parking at the nearby Brevard Zoo and deploy Space Coast Area Transit shuttle buses.
The afternoon event drew a mostly older crowd, prompting Posey, who is 62, to remark that most of the audience looked about his age.
Posey spoke from a small gray stage. His wife, Katie, fished white index cards containing more than 40 residents’ questions from a glass aquarium. Popular question topics included President Barack Obama’s health care plan, Medicare and Medicaid, and the Federal Reserve.
At one point, Posey cracked up while reading a request to “get rid of Nevada’s Dingy Harry (Reid) and bring back Dirty Harry.”
Saying space is a rare bipartisan issue, Posey said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent remarks about not being “a big fan” of manned expeditions is not indicative of Congress as a whole.
“Whoever controls space controls the ultimate military high ground,” he said.
Among Posey’s 2010 legislative priorities: listen to his constituents, pursue reforms corralling Congressional budgetary earmarks, and hold the line on spending.
He also pledged to pursue House Resolution 1962, which would authorize NASA appropriations to keep the shuttle flying from 2010 to 2015. Posey is co-sponsoring the resolution with U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston.
Posey conducted similar community forums Friday in Indian River and Osceola counties. He said both drew standing-room crowds that shared a similar vibe as the Viera event.
In September, Posey hosted a health care forum at the King Center for the Performing Arts in Melbourne that drew about 2,400 attendees.
Contact Neale at 242-3638 or .
This article is reprinted from http://www.floridatoday.com
