Applause, cheers and boos filled the Denton High School auditorium during U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess' town hall meeting Tuesday night.
The Lewisville Republican met with constituents to take questions and suggestions, as well as some verbal lumps for his recent work and his votes on the economy and the national debt.
After a short introduction by Denton County Commissioner Andy Eads, Burgess took the lectern and addressed the subject of the country's most recent debate.
"The last three weeks have seen the debate over the statutory debt limit. The U.S. is one of the few countries in the world who has one," Burgess said. "Maybe it will be possible to not have it, but we shouldn't give it up without something to put in its place."
He touted the function of the debt limit, which he said forces elected officials to focus on issues that they otherwise may not or which they might procrastinate in dealing with.
He championed the result of the budget resolution and the introduction of the balanced budget amendment - topics spurring dueling applause and boos.
"It is an opportunity to do something different than what's been happening year in and year out with the almost automatic increases in the debt limit," Burgess said.
The debt ceiling and budget vote created a fair amount of dissent, he said, but he felt it was the best option available for the country.
"We all know we cannot recover unless the problem with joblessness is fixed," he said.
Burgess shared several of his ideas, including providing a tax holiday to allow corporations with money overseas to bring the money back to the U.S., a moratorium on new federal regulations for different things for six months to a year, and a delay of nine to 12 months for implementing portions of health care reform legislation.
After sharing his suggestions, Burgess opened the floor to questions for the remainder of the meeting.
A crowd of 40 lined up behind the microphone within moments, with a few others trickling to the back of the line as questions were asked.
One question was broached as to why members of Congress had never offered to cut their pay, benefits and support system so they could share the pain of the American people. Another person asked why the budget was not balanced when an opportunity came up before the debt ceiling vote.
Another person wondered why there was such a poor job of communication from the government to the people on the true state of the economy, adding that more participation would happen if people really knew what was going on.
Other questions touched on securing the borders, adhering closer to the Constitution, funding the wars, raising taxes, and comments Burgess made recently about impeaching President Obama as a way to tie up loose ends by procedural means. Amid more boos, Burgess skipped the questions and went on to address other comments made.
Andrew Tolle said he attended the meeting hoping the congressman would see the tea party was not the majority of constituents in this state, and to express concern about the number of GOP representatives who seem to give tea party members more power than they had and officials not thinking before they speak or act.
"The comments about impeachment show that people are reacting with raw emotions rather than reason, and that's pretty dangerous," Tolle said.
Pat and Don Robinson attended the meeting as voters who felt confident in the job Burgess was doing, saying he thinks like most people do in the areas he covers. But they said things were dysfunctional in Washington.
"We want to make sure he understands that people are watching what is going on in Washington and we are concerned," Pat Robinson said.
BJ LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is blewis@dentonrc.com .
