Congressman visits Exchange Club, talks business, budget with Covites
By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
United States Congressman Roger Williams paid a visit to Copperas Cove on Wednesday morning when he stopped in at Lil Tex Restaurant to speak to the Morning Exchange Club. He talked about businesses, both large and small, and the current financial atmosphere of the country, and answered questions.
“It’s not the big guys, it’s the little guys on Main Street America. That’s the greatest asset we have,” Williams said. He said from September 2008 through the present is “the toughest time to be in business.”
He called for cutting payroll taxes for both employees and employers, to create more cash flow on both sides, and also called for bringing back “3-5 trillion dollars overseas of American companies” and repatriate that money at 5 percent, with funds to pay off the national debt or put money into the highway trust fund. Williams said “nobody” on either side of the aisle is concerned about repaying the national debt, yet small business owners and individuals are called into account to repay theirs.
Williams also discussed the need to bring back the troop strength of the United States military, which he said is presently down to 420,000 from its previous levels of 1.2 million. He said sequestration is “destroying our military” and that he and others are trying to get them out of sequestration and allow them to have a budget, and let the generals do their jobs.
“If we don’t get something done by May, we’re not going to have the funds to carry some missions forward that we need to be doing. It’s serious, serious business.”
Joann Courtland asked Williams about something called “continue resolutions,” also known as CR.
Williams said because Congress is unable to get out a budget, it instead votes on a continue resolution, either voting for or against continuing to spend what was spent the last time.
“I don’t vote for that. It funds things that aren’t good and it doesn’t take care of our military,” Williams said. He said Congress is heading for that vote again and it’s something he’s not proud of.
Williams also said there are 900,000 government-owned buildings in America that are either vacant or under-utilized.
“Last year we spent $3 billion cleaning vacant buildings. Why wouldn’t we just give those buildings to local folks, let them take the buildings, create a property tax base out of it, make an office building out of it. There’s 5.5 billion right there.”
CCISD superintendent Joe Burns gave kudos at the meeting to Williams for his help to CCISD, along with being available whenever district reps visit Washington D.C.
“What an advocate and friend we have in Representative Williams,” Burns said. “When Copperas Cove realized that we were falling out of impact aid due to the troop drawdown at Fort Hood, we worked with congressman Williams and his staff. They helped actually craft and get legislation passed that instituted a hold harmless provision in impact aid, so we didn’t fall of the cliff and lose $16 million in one year.”
Bo Roldan asked Williams why didn’t the Republicans come up with a healthcare plan after being able to complain about it for 7-1/2 years? She wasn’t concerned so much for herself or other veterans, but for her children and others.
“I’ve said the same thing. I totally agree,” Williams, whose daughters now run the Austin-area car dealership he started decades ago. “I got up there in 2012. My perfect world in healthcare, and I’m an employer, I’ve seen premiums go up 57 percent this year, and we didn’t do anything wrong.
(Republicans in Congress) should have been better prepared. In my perfect world in healthcare, we let individuals own their own healthcare, not the place you work, not the federal government, allow shopping across state lines and being competitive. It can go with you if you change your job or retire. What happened is we weren’t prepared, the leadership thought was a ‘slam dunk’, but it wasn’t, and you saw what happened.”