Small Town News

McClintock sees political debate as renewal of the American spirit

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United States Congressman Tom McClintock visited Lassen County on Thursday, Sept. 3 with stops at a Town Hall meeting at Jensen Hall, a visit with students at Herlong High School and a meeting with officials at Sierra Army Depot.

The congressman, who according to his biography at congress.org, has served as a public policy analyst, a member of the California Assembly from 1982 to 1992 and again from 1996 to 2000 and as a member of the California Senate from 2000 to 2008, also stopped by the Lassen County Times to share his conservative Republican views and discuss a wide range of topics during a 40-minute interview before the Town Hall meeting.

American spirit

McClintock said the current debate between conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, proves the free marketplace of ideas works.

"If there's a great debate going on right now, it's going to be reflected in Washington and across the county," McClintock said. "Basically it comes down to whether America is going to become another failed socialist state or whether we're going to retain and restore those founding principles that have produced the greatest republic in the history of mankind. That's the kind of debate that does inspire great passion."

McClintock recounted the story of Congressman Preston Brooks who broke his walking stick over the head of Senator John Sumner "and damn near killed him" on the floor of the senate in 1856.

"Brooks' constituents responded by sending him more walking canes," McClintock said. "And just a few years after that, this nation had a new birth of freedom. We have a serious matter to discuss as a people. And it's one of those seminal issues that is going to be traveling with us for many, many years to come. I think what we're seeing is the American public doing what they always do when they sense their country is in danger. They're rising to the occasion. They're getting involved. They're taking the time and spending the resources to get very highly educated on these subjects and then to go out and debate them in public forums. That's actually a very healthy thing. That's how our country, as it gets off track, is able to right itself."

McClintock said Americans have corrected their government many. times throughout its history.

"I'm optimistic we're going to see our country restored to its rightful place as the most prosperous and successful nation on the planet," McClintock said. "That's what Americans do. They get involved. They jump into the debate, and they ultimately exercise very good judgment and set things right."

Health care reform

While the health care reform debate has sparked many heated discussions at Town Hall meetings across the nation, McClintock said he believes the sometimes acrimonious exchanges are a vital part of the American political process.

He said so far in his meetings with his constituents, the opposition to the "government takeover of the health care system" is running about five to one.

"I think that's pretty much the sentiment of the district, with everything we're hearing -- with correspondence, calls to the office -- that sort of thing," McClintock said.

McClintock declined to say if he would vote for a health care reform package that included government involvement.

"Let's just say I'm skeptical that the same government that runs the IRS is somehow going to bring compassion and understanding to our insurance companies," McClintock said. "We've got plenty of experience with governments trying to take over health care systems. Watch what that has done in Canada or Britain or other states like Tennessee or Massachusetts or Maine. They follow a very consistent pattern of massive cost overruns followed by a brutal rationing of health care. There's a great debate now raging in Britain over the radical cutbacks in care, and we're seeing the same thing in states like Tennessee."

According to McClintock, government involvement leads to lower fees for doctors, which leads to fewer doctors accepting patients covered by the government plans, which leads to a spiraling down of health care availability and eventually less health care for patients. He said that's what's happening with Medicare right now.

But there is a solution. McClintock said the Republicans have a better plan -- a prepaid, refundable tax credit for the amount consumers spend on health care.

"I think we've got a better alternative," McClintock said, "and that is to provide a refundable, prepaid tax credit -- a voucher, if you will -- on a sliding income scale that would bring within reach of every American family a basic health plan they could choose based on their own needs that they could own regardless of who their employer is and that they could change if it fails to suit their needs."

McClintock said a similar process is already in place for the business community where employers who provide health care for their employees receive a tax credit, "but we don't provide tax benefits for the employees themselves so they can go out and make their own health care decisions."

Middle East McClintock criticized both former President George W. Bush and Congress regarding bur involvement in

Afghanistan and Iraq.

"It's been botched up from the very beginning," McClintock said. "I think there were two basic principles that were abandoned by the Bush administration, and we're still paying the price today. The first principle is this nation, up until that administration, never attacked another nation unless we or a close ally were attacked first. Iraq, as despicable a regime as it was, had nothing to do with the attack on the United States on 9/11, so that principle was violated, to our regret.

"And there's a second principle that was violated, and that was the Constitutional requirement that there be a straightforward declaration of war before we commit our troops to harm's way. That's there for some very important reasons, not the least of which is to ensure that when we put our troops in harm's way, they go there with the full force, resources and fury of the, American people. That's why Congress is the organ in our government that is required to declare war, so the representatives of the people are backing them to the hilt. We didn't do that this time. To me, that's not only an affront to our constitution, it is the root cause of the irresolution with which the war in Iraq has been waged ..."

McClintock characterized the attacks on 9/11 as "our generation's Pearl Harbor." But he noted Pearl Harbor was an attack on armed military personnel and the attacks on 9/11 were against "civilians in our nation's capital and our greatest city."

The congressman said no one could imagine that on the day after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt would have told the nation we were going to hunt down every one of the pilots and navigators who participated in the attack and then encourage Americans to go shopping. And then two years later announce America was going to attack Brazil.

"That was essentially our nation's response," McClintock said, "so whatever happens from here, I hope we will be sadder and wiser from the experience -- experience we should have gained from Korea, experience we should have gained from Vietnam.

"First, I hope we never again attack another country unless it attacks us first, and number two, if we are drawn into a war, we do it with the full might and fury of the nation behind us."

McClintock noted that by following those two constitutional principles the United States utterly destroyed, annihilated and vanquished the two most powerful military forces on the planet in less than four years during World War II.



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