Congresssman Dan Boren Town Hall Meeting

I attended Congressman Boren's Town Hall Meeting at Bacone College in Muskogee this week. I did not vote for Mr. Boren but I was none the less impressed with his presentation at the meeting. He did an admirable job of explaining where the federal gov't revenue comes from and where it goes. He also demonstrated quite clearly why we have such enormous budget deficits. He was very clear that gov't spending will have to be reduced in order to ensure a prosperous future for our nation. While he did a good job of presenting the problems facing our nation he fell far short of proposing any real solutions. The gov't cuts that he said he supports would hardly put a dent in the overall budget deficit.

I was disappointed that he never questioned the constitutionality of any of the programs that the federal gov't spends money on. But the most disappointing part of the meeting was the question and answer period. After the Congressman had spent 45 minutes explaining that we have to cut spending to survive one person after another got up and asked for continued financial support of their particular program or agency. This is why gov't continues to grow and cannot resist the urge to increase spending even when there is no money left. A man who tells his constituents that, "We cannot afford that" or worse yet, "The gov't is not constitutionally empowered to do that" will not get elected or re-elected.

We must return to constitutionally limited gov't or we will fail. We will collapse from within, the weight of our own gov't will be more than we can carry. We must educate our population. We need to understand that we are not a democracy. We are a constitutional republic with democratically elected representation. It has been said that, "A democracy cannot last, for as soon as they people realize they can vote themselves money from the public treasury their greed will kill it." This is why we must get back to the constitutional republic that our founding fathers gave us.

So, while I was pleased to see that Congressman Boren has a good grasp of the problems we face, I think we need to look for a statesman that understands why we need the limited gov't that the founding fathers invisioned.