Rep. John Carter telephone "town hall" Wednesday, 3/22/17

Notes from Rep. John Carter telephone "town hall" Wednesday, March 22, 2017 7:15 CDT.

Note that these are notes, not verbatim. And I take horrible notes.

1. Walter from Kinter, TX. Are you doing everything you can do to get Hillary Clinton and Obama indicted? And do everything you can to help Trump and protect him from abuse.

A: Yes, I'm doing everything I can do to help with his agenda. I'm chairman (?) of Appropriations re: helping build the wall. We're gonna do 5 things this year: repeal Obamacare, tax reform, rebuild military, improve infrastructure. (What's the fifth?). I'm having a good time because we have a president who will sign these into law.

We have to leave indictments up to DoJ and it's led by a good man. No personal knowledge of what's going on over there.

2. Online. Karen. How do we revise Dodd-Frank to help Americans have access to capital?

A: I think we'd be better off abolishing Dodd-Frank. Dems sold it to public as fixing Wall Street. Didn't do anything to Wall St but it killing community banks.  Many community banks in TX are closing due to burdensome regulations. Dodd-Frank is total overkill and has dried up capital. Get fear of regulators off backs of regulators.

3. Michelle, We're both disabled vets. What is truly being done to hold VA accountable?

A: [Missed most of answer due to talking to operator about my question]. Nothing more horrible than bureaucrats causing harm and unhappiness due to their selfishness. If you need help with the VA call my office.

4. Rex from Temple, What's your opinion re if Obamacare will be repealed or will they just beef up what they have?

A: Hard for American public to understand the rules and you just can't change them. Reference the Senate. We're retrying to use reconcilliation. Dems are in postion to block anything President Trump wants to do. We're using reconcilliation to begin process to remove the mandates so we basically gut that bill without removing anyone's ability to keep their exiting policy.

We then go to Phase II to let the regulators throw out all the onerous regulations causing premiums and prescriptions to go through the roof.

Phase III will be multiple changes to Obamacare and abolish it.

We have a plan which follows the rules (not our rules, the Senate's rules).

Ultimately we'll have better choice, you won't have to take coverage you don't want, the gov't won't tell you what to take. You'll get tax credit if you don't have the funds to pay for your coverage. Lot of difference between say coverage for a 65 yo women and a 30 yo man.

Prices will go down, choices will be better.

Process won't be easy. Turning back major entitlement will be first time in American history we've done that. But we will still keep you covered.

We can afford the premiums or deductibles. It's not pretty. It's hard. But the reality is that keeping Obamacare isn't a choice.

5. Lee, What are you doing to help get rid of Sanctuary cities?

A: References law passed under Clinton. We plan to use that law, not enforced, but we're gonna enforce it.

6. Robert, Son in military. Seen President Trump working to fund more military ventures. Anything in budget to get military personnel payraise?

A: I think there's a 2% raise in this year's budget which is more than last year. Largest military base is in my district (Ft. Hood). President Trump has said he's going to try year after year to increase pay.

The last eight years we've taken our military down to pre-WWII and in some case pre-WWI levels.

7. Anita, you said you'll be working on tax reform. My husband and I are upper-middle class, we pay ~33% in taxes and have to pay more in April. What type of reform? Just for businesses?

A: We're lowering all tax brackets for both individuals and corporate taxes. If you're in 35% bracket you should get down to 20-25%.

8. Ryan from Leander, long-time teacher. Daughter is also teacher. We're concerned about future of education. What you see happening in education reform? I see drastic changes which usually just upset the applecart.

A: Was on <something> Education committee when I first joined Congress. I believe we have group of people dedicated to getting best people to teach our students but to get best education for our kids. There will be discussion about vouchers. I know some people have concerns about vouchers. I believe that in our district we have great public schools. From the standpoint of the TX-31 all schools are competitive. My son and daughter-in-law are teachers. I worry about us being top-heavy in admin in some schools. I can't tell you there's a plan. I wouldn't be too worried. The goal is to have the right teachers teaching our students then the debate will be best how to accomplish that. Debate probably in the Fall.

9. Kay, Online. With President Trump in office how do we secure our border?

A: I'm chairmen of committee to provide funds so I'm directly involved. Mentions meetings he's had today. 30' high. Made of concrete or other materiels. Wall or other barrier. Some weakeness of concrete wall (you can't see it). Double wall (see through on inner, concrete on Mexico side (?) with road between them). We'll put up barriers were barriers will work and they'll be impressive.

10. Irvin, Seems like buying insurance across state lines would be something you'd want to do fast. Gotta get cost of prescriptions down.

A: Buying across state lines - stated policy of President Trump and Speaker Ryan. Today we passed ability of small businesses to form associations to buy group insurance. That's first shot across the bow.

Brought up 3 Phase process again. Buying across state lines, moving choices from federal gov't back to the states where they belong. Will open up competive market. We never fail when we competive market - quality goes up, prices go down.

President Trump is trying to come up, he has before his group, come up with ways to negotiate large amounts to bring down price of drugs. It's very hard to understand and I don't understand it, why drugs which cost us $100 cost $20 in Canada. Part of that has to do with negotiating large purchases.

11. Angela from Central TX, through the last admin it seemed that the Christian faith was hammered from every direction - not having a business who couldn't choose to not serve people due to religious belief.  Small business owner, usually doesn't deal with public but wanted to know what admin was planning.

A: All of us who are Christian, and I am a Christian, in fact I go to Bible Study every Wed morning, all of us our concerned about these rulings.

One thing President Trump has demonstrated is that he's put a Constitutionalist up for the Court. People misunderstand the Constitution - it's to protect us from the govt. We've had some screwy court decisions. Some of the court decisions, esp. tax decisions, have been very anti-Christian. I believe those days are coming to an end. He's said he won't let people abuse Christians. Referenced the first travel ban - people said he was pro-Christian and attacked him for that. So he's shown his true colors. And btw Christians are being persecuted all over the world, particularly in the Middle East.

12. Combined question, If we're going to do wall on the border, how do you deal with the mechanics e.g. property rights?

A: I've been trying to get people to understand that Texas is unique state. When we entered the Union we retained all ownership of public land unlike other states. Public lands belong to us (Texas).  So all that land along the border is private property. The only Federal propery is Big Bend (Texas sold to US).

So building on private property is harder. One thing done in the Valley (Hidalgo County) is a levee with a 12' wall on the levee. So serves additional need of flood control.

References bidding design projects.

If people don't want to sell to us? Eminent domain.

13. Aruna (?) from Georgetown, female Dr. Does lung transplants. Prior to ACA people could not afford insurance because they could not afford coverage. Once pre-existing conditions were covered now they could get transplants and now living healthy lives.

Will AHCA keep pre-existing coverage language?

A: Yes, ma'am, they will be covered.