Q&A Time
Questions will be in italics.
Congressman Kline started off the Q&A session by answering a few of the questions that were asked during the comments (ed. how he remembered these without taking notes amazes me as I know I could not have remembered).
Regarding the question about Congressman Murtha's call for a draft, Congressman Kline said he would not support that. Our troops today are the best ever (with all apologies to the WWII generation). Regarding NCLD, Congressman Kline said that he was disappointed with the funding levels for NCLB as well as special education (based on the federal mandates) that that NCLB was getting reviewed as it is up for renewal. Several are pushing for NCLB to be applied to high schools, but the congressman is opposing that as it is not fully functionable in it's current format and until it is we should not expand it. Congressman Kline added that he thought NCLB was an over-reach by the federal government. Regarding the defination of terrorism (this was brought up by one of the commentors that I did not quote) Congressman Kline said that saying we are fighting "terrorism" is wrong because there is no real defination of what "terrorism" is. He said that there rare all new people (representing the US Government) in Iraq - from the ambassador on down. With the new people has come a new direction and they (General Petraus and his leadership team) deserve the opportunity to succeed. We should not make it illegal for the troops to win the war!
One questioner got up with a series of questions that were all over the board. He lead off with figures from a debunked Lancet report that says that there are 40,000+ dead Iraqi's alone as a result of the war. He wanted to know why we don't here about the number of insurgents killed (body count)? What about the WMD's? What about President Clinton who said that Saddam was an issue? Why don't we hear about the faulty intel?
JK - there was some pretty horrific (his wording) intel at first. I think the 9/11 Commission addressed that. Not to bash President Clinton, but there was an erosion of human intelligence during his administration. There was no malice on President Clinton's part (regarding the intelligence) and there were no lies on the part of President Bush. Why no body count? The daily body count (during Viet Nam) was disasterous policy. The President's senior advisors and I voiced the opinion that we should not do that. It (the daily body count) was the wrong thing to do.
An activist for the South Suburban Labor Advisory Council asked Congressman Kline why he did not support the Employee Free Choice Act - after detailing harassment that she (and her fellow coworkers got) when they tried to unionize a print shop.
JK - The coersion and intimidation by an employer that you experienced IS illegal. Coersion and intimidation by a union IS illegal. I voted against this Act because it took away the employees right for a private ballot in this kind of a vote. The private ballot is a hallmark of our society and the employees deserved to know that no one, not their employer, not the union and not their fellow co-workers would know how they voted!
What are you doing to strengthen the border?
JK - Last session Congress approved additional border guards and partially funded them (ed. - they should have FULLY funded the new guards). We funded fence sensors and the building of a 700 mile fence. Our problem right now is that the US government has not credibility (when it comes to border enforcement). Until we have credibility on border enforcement, we can not have guest worker programs or anything else.
Can you comment on the news report that the US government is actively trying to destabilize the Iranian government by funding excursions from Pakistan into Iran?
JK - I have not seen the report so I don't know the full context, but that corner of Iran/Pakistan/Afghanistan is very unstable. It is not under Pakistani, Afghani OR Iranian control. It is a source of concern for all three governments and part of the reason why the Taliban is resurging there.
The rising cost of college tuition is a concern for many people. What is your plan to address this issue?
JK - short of imposing price controls (which is impractical in this situation) we are doing what we can. The last Congress took $12B from the Student Loan Administration Program for more Pell Grants and to reduce the interest rates on loans. Congress is actively looking for a solution and if you have one I would love to hear it. (From the audience "Roll back the tax cuts" which got lots of hoots and hollers from the lefties and a hissed "YES" from the Code Pink lady next to me). Congressman Kline laughed and said "you will be happy to know that this Congress is working on the largest tax increase in history (which drew boos from the righties).
We are hearing many different reports about what happened to get us into Iraq and what is going on now. It is hard to know what to believe. Do you support complete investigations into what got us here and how things are being handled?
We have made some progress, but not enough. One recommendation (from the 9/11 Commission) was to reorganize Congress. The Republican leadership from the last session didn't want to do it because it was "too hard". The Democrats campaigned that they would impliment ALL the 9/11 Commission Report recommendations but once they got into power they said "except this one". We are working on it.
What is the goal (for Iraq)? It should be getting the troops OUT NOW (emphasis the speakers). We are not getting cooperation from the Iraqi civilian population. When are the Iraqi's going to be ready to take over for us?
Surprising and amazing progress is being made in places like the al Anbar Provence (Western Iraq). We ARE getting cooperation from the local sheiks who got tired of al Qaeda killing their people.
continued in the next post!
Congressman Kline started off the Q&A session by answering a few of the questions that were asked during the comments (ed. how he remembered these without taking notes amazes me as I know I could not have remembered).
Regarding the question about Congressman Murtha's call for a draft, Congressman Kline said he would not support that. Our troops today are the best ever (with all apologies to the WWII generation). Regarding NCLD, Congressman Kline said that he was disappointed with the funding levels for NCLB as well as special education (based on the federal mandates) that that NCLB was getting reviewed as it is up for renewal. Several are pushing for NCLB to be applied to high schools, but the congressman is opposing that as it is not fully functionable in it's current format and until it is we should not expand it. Congressman Kline added that he thought NCLB was an over-reach by the federal government. Regarding the defination of terrorism (this was brought up by one of the commentors that I did not quote) Congressman Kline said that saying we are fighting "terrorism" is wrong because there is no real defination of what "terrorism" is. He said that there rare all new people (representing the US Government) in Iraq - from the ambassador on down. With the new people has come a new direction and they (General Petraus and his leadership team) deserve the opportunity to succeed. We should not make it illegal for the troops to win the war!
One questioner got up with a series of questions that were all over the board. He lead off with figures from a debunked Lancet report that says that there are 40,000+ dead Iraqi's alone as a result of the war. He wanted to know why we don't here about the number of insurgents killed (body count)? What about the WMD's? What about President Clinton who said that Saddam was an issue? Why don't we hear about the faulty intel?
JK - there was some pretty horrific (his wording) intel at first. I think the 9/11 Commission addressed that. Not to bash President Clinton, but there was an erosion of human intelligence during his administration. There was no malice on President Clinton's part (regarding the intelligence) and there were no lies on the part of President Bush. Why no body count? The daily body count (during Viet Nam) was disasterous policy. The President's senior advisors and I voiced the opinion that we should not do that. It (the daily body count) was the wrong thing to do.
An activist for the South Suburban Labor Advisory Council asked Congressman Kline why he did not support the Employee Free Choice Act - after detailing harassment that she (and her fellow coworkers got) when they tried to unionize a print shop.
JK - The coersion and intimidation by an employer that you experienced IS illegal. Coersion and intimidation by a union IS illegal. I voted against this Act because it took away the employees right for a private ballot in this kind of a vote. The private ballot is a hallmark of our society and the employees deserved to know that no one, not their employer, not the union and not their fellow co-workers would know how they voted!
What are you doing to strengthen the border?
JK - Last session Congress approved additional border guards and partially funded them (ed. - they should have FULLY funded the new guards). We funded fence sensors and the building of a 700 mile fence. Our problem right now is that the US government has not credibility (when it comes to border enforcement). Until we have credibility on border enforcement, we can not have guest worker programs or anything else.
Can you comment on the news report that the US government is actively trying to destabilize the Iranian government by funding excursions from Pakistan into Iran?
JK - I have not seen the report so I don't know the full context, but that corner of Iran/Pakistan/Afghanistan is very unstable. It is not under Pakistani, Afghani OR Iranian control. It is a source of concern for all three governments and part of the reason why the Taliban is resurging there.
The rising cost of college tuition is a concern for many people. What is your plan to address this issue?
JK - short of imposing price controls (which is impractical in this situation) we are doing what we can. The last Congress took $12B from the Student Loan Administration Program for more Pell Grants and to reduce the interest rates on loans. Congress is actively looking for a solution and if you have one I would love to hear it. (From the audience "Roll back the tax cuts" which got lots of hoots and hollers from the lefties and a hissed "YES" from the Code Pink lady next to me). Congressman Kline laughed and said "you will be happy to know that this Congress is working on the largest tax increase in history (which drew boos from the righties).
We are hearing many different reports about what happened to get us into Iraq and what is going on now. It is hard to know what to believe. Do you support complete investigations into what got us here and how things are being handled?
We have made some progress, but not enough. One recommendation (from the 9/11 Commission) was to reorganize Congress. The Republican leadership from the last session didn't want to do it because it was "too hard". The Democrats campaigned that they would impliment ALL the 9/11 Commission Report recommendations but once they got into power they said "except this one". We are working on it.
What is the goal (for Iraq)? It should be getting the troops OUT NOW (emphasis the speakers). We are not getting cooperation from the Iraqi civilian population. When are the Iraqi's going to be ready to take over for us?
Surprising and amazing progress is being made in places like the al Anbar Provence (Western Iraq). We ARE getting cooperation from the local sheiks who got tired of al Qaeda killing their people.
continued in the next post!
Labels: John Kline, Troops, Undermining the War
posted by The Lady Logician at
4:37 PM
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