Tom and I hosted an Economic Recovery House Meeting on Saturday, February 7, 2009. We host all our meetings at Tom and Glen's home. We had 9 participants. We knew what to expect as we have hosted a few meetings. The new comers are not quite sure how this is going to work and are a little shy. The old timers are looking for the snacks and grabbing their favorite spot. The introductions and hospitality of Tom and Glen put everyone at ease.
We introduce ourselves and tell why we were motivated to get out on a Saturday afternoon to talk politics. For the new attendees the over whelming comment was anger at how the process of passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Package(ARRP) was proceeding. Their next reason was the inclusiveness of the Obama campaign and wanting to be a part of this movement.
We passed out the ARRP Texas impact sheet. We watched Gov. Tim Kaine's video (twice) because people and a lot of questions and were taking notes. We had a great discussion about the video, the process in Washington, and what we as a group could do going forward.
The main question (because we are in Texas) was, "Is trying to do anything worth it since we know our representatives don't represent us?" We gave them a resounding YES. You still must call and voice your opinion, because they are saying that none of their constituents are for this package.
Another issue was about the actual projects that are going to get approved. How does that work. I told them about the mayors list. They wanted to know if those lists included the most needy areas of our community or just the mayors pet projects. Which projects would get priority with the committee? They definately wanted to make sure that the most needy areas of the city were addressed. I was tasked with finding the list of projects. The Mayor's list is here: http://www.usmayors.org/mainstreeteconomicrecovery/documents/mser-report-200901.pdf
They were concerened about balancing the budget. My explanation was "You can't talk about a plan for balancing the budget, before you know how much of a hole you are going to have to dig out of." Also, it takes 2-3 years to get out a situation like this.
Our first timers felt more informed about the facts surrounding the ARRP and better equipped to answer questions from their family, friends and associates.
Our immediate action item was to call, fax, e-mail or write our representatives at their DC office and/or their local Texas office.
The U.S. Senate contact page for Texas is here: http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=TX.
The U.S. House of Representatives contact page is here: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml#tx
We printed out a contact sheet for everyone with their represetatives for thier district. We agreed that we needed a follow up meeting which we scheduled for the 1st Saturday in March. You can sign up for that meeting here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gptygt
We then proceed to have a great fellowship after the meeting was over. Some people left before we remembered to take the picture. I was the photographer using Tom's cell phone, because I forgot the camera.
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