Lunch with Congressman Chaffetz - My Notes

A couple of days ago I had the pleasure of having lunch with Congressman Chaffetz.The room was filled with many of the local leaders and politicos of the county to all meet him and discuss issues facing our country. I was kind of taken back by the invite, but I was very glad to be there. I have had a love/hate relationship with Jason Chaffetz; having known him back when we both worked on the campaign trail together and found each other on opposite sides of the same party. However I have been impressed with how fast he has risen to the level he is at.

Mr. Chaffetz opened his speech by hinting to his Tea Party support and his religious foundation by sharing his Glenn Beck Rally experience and how glad he was to have attended. He then turned his time to statistics to prove how the economic recovery is really an attempt by the Obama Administration to expand government. He backed up his claims with a story about a White House liaison that came to his office and told him if there was any legislation to cut federal spending that would relate in cutting a federal worker, the White House would fight it.

One of the big items was the amazing levels of spending. In one of his committees, which he is a ranking member, Chaffetz found we are spending $10 Million dollars on archiving grants to help people archive their own records. This includes: Stanford, ACLU, and more. The chairman wants to raise this funding to $20 million a year for 5 years, spending over $100 Million for helping other people archive stuff. He also found a number of programs that do not exist anymore but are still getting funding. The money is being spent but no one is really using it for what it was originally used for. Like mohair subsidies for military uniforms. A few million is paid out each year to subsidize mohair for U.S. military uniforms. The only problem is, we stopped using mohair for uniforms after the Korean War. So who is getting the money

Questions and Answers:

What should we do with Iraq and Afghanistan?

“They are two different issues. First, knowing what we know now, we should not have gone to Iraq. However if I had been there, I would have voted for going knowing what we knew then. “As for Afghanistan, we need to let the military do their job. They [US Military] are a killing machine. If you have intelligence, go forward and kill them. Let them do what they need to do. Give them all the supplies, support and troops they need to finish this and come home. Go with everything you got and get rid of the political correctness.”

“It is very disingenuous to say we will come out this summer and all will be solved. I want the President to articulate what success looks like."

How can we keep our money? The government wants to tax us and take our money. How can we stop this and the health care changes (He didn’t really have a good answer for this one, just kind of rambled)

“We need to get more involved in the process. We need to keep coming out and fight. We can use facebook, email and other social media to unite us on these causes and get people out to fight.”

What do you think of the Fair Tax Consumption?

“If I could have a clean slate, I would support it.” “We would much rather tax that way, but how do you make that kind of transition. It is a good start for an idea, but how do you make it work. This could hurt people who make charitable donations, which a lot of people make in this state. If we could wipe the slate clean and then it would make sense "

Can we make the choice to stop taking stimulus money?

"Whether you want the money or not, you have to pay for it; so we might was well
take it. But you need to look at the true cost.”

“For example, I want to repeal No Child Left Behind, everyone in congress does. But everyone loves the money that comes with it."

“We need to make critical calculation when money comes in and decide what the true costs are. We can't just unilaterally refuse the money. Instead we need to look at why we should get the money.”

“A Supreme Court Justice told me that we could get out of the control of the Federal Government if we stopped taking the money, but that would be a tough thing to do. Who can survive and the taxes are so intertwined with our everyday services?”

Chaffetz ended with this statement

“My greatest concern is that we will gain back the house, senate and the white house and we will blow it. We have to be ready to fix the problems. We deserved to be kicked out when we did and now we need to elect strong new people who are willing to make the tough decisions.”

There were a few more questions asked but these were the ones that jumped out at me.In the end I felt the meeting went well Congressman Chaffetz has matured a lot and seems very confident about a number of issues A few of his answers were still just half answers and very political in nature and few solutions were really presented here but is there ever answers presented at these things Overall I left impressed with him

The room of people was very interesting. The majority of the room asked very appropriate questions and was very well informed. But a few people used this time more as soap box to raise their voices and shake their arms in displeasure of the current administration.Congressman Chaffetz handled these well and rallied their support; however these outbursts really turn me off from politics.

I remember going to these types of meetings when Clinton was in office and people would scream and yell. I don't think losing our temper gets things done and doesn't show your real passion just your ignorance

Great meeting and thanks for to Roger and Christie Moore for the invite.