With the media and a number of democratic leaders filling the airwaves with their opinions of how President George W. Bush should run the country and giving their views on the way things should be done in America and the world, United States Congressman Dan Lungren decided to take his message out to the public and, more specifically, his constituents on a more personal level.
Lungren is taking a grass roots approach with a set of town hall meetings and tele-town hall meetings (where people call in to a television show asking questions) so that he can spread his message and help the President get his message across, as well.

Lungren wants to help people make a fairer assessment and be better informed about subjects that are important to them and all Americans. He also said he wants to hear from the citizens to find out their needs and hear their opinions.

Last Wednesday evening, the Galt Council Chambers was filled with local citizens ready to ask questions and listen to answers given by Lungren, who is their representative to the Third District.

Mayor Darryl Clare introduced Lungren to the packed house. He mentioned that Lungren is currently lobbying for our town in a major way with the infrastructure improvements of the C Street overpass and other affected areas on the table. Financial assistance for Galt’s impacted interchange issues are included in a bill that is still going through the house. Along with those improvements, Lungren is also working on our sewer treatment plant and working toward getting that problem resolved.
Lungren addressed the crowd before opening it up to questions and answers.

“I am currently working on ways to reform the criminal justice system,” said Lungren. He specifically made reference to the appeals system and how letting criminals appeal their convictions continuously for years has become ‘ridiculous’ and has to stop.

He made reference to a situation where a convicted killer of a young woman has been appealing his sentence for more than 20 years.

Lungren is currently serving on the Patriot Act Committee and Subcommittee. He said that he is involved with secret briefings and continues to work diligently on our homeland security.

Lungren said that he believes there are changes that need to be made in the system that is currently in place where potential terrorists are being searched.

“When my two-year-old granddaughter has a secondary search placed on her because she might be smuggling in terrorist weapons, I think we need to narrow down our potential security threats and make our efforts more efficient,” said Lungren. “Is that really where the terrorists are going to be hiding their weapons?”

Lungren would also like to see a ‘Trusted Traveler Program’ put in place for those who have already had background checks and have been cleared at the airport time and time again.
He has been to China recently, in part to study what their education system is doing to produce students with increased math and science scores.

Lungren said he was curious because China’s high school students seem to be doing better than America’s in these subjects, and then China is sending their graduates over to America to take advantage of our superior colleges. He said that the Chinese feel we are more creative in America.
“We encourage creativity in our society; that’s why we are so great and can compete in the global marketplace,” said Lungren.

Lungren was also checking on the state of religious freedom in China. He found it hard to get to the truth due to people’s fear of government repercussions when they speak their minds.
He reminded people that are planning to come to Washington and take a tour of the White House to let his office know ahead of time to have a better chance of getting in on a tour before they fill up.
Lungren wants to see tighter controls on documents such as driver’s licenses and identification cards, as well.

He would like to see a good guest worker program put in place where employers would have to prove that they need a guest worker employment force due to the fact that Americans won’t take the jobs. There would be a special card issued for the workers to present to their employers.
He spoke of the nation’s deficit.

“Although it is big, around $300 billion, it is less than anticipated,” said Lungren.
Lungren has been working on the budget committee, and he said that the revenues coming in last month were the largest ever.

Another very important subject Lungren addressed was the Social Security system and how the President is trying to reform it. Lungren said that, as the system is currently going, the promised benefits wouldn’t be able to be paid as soon as the year 2017.

He said that, in 1950, the workers paying into the benefits of retirees were a 16 to 1 ratio where we are rapidly approaching a 2 to 1 turnaround. It will soon be in reverse, where there will be more retirees than workers putting into the system. A large part of this problem is due to the fact that Americans are living longer (which is also a blessing he stated) and the baby boomers are at retirement age.

Lungren said he and others in Congress would like to see the money put into Social Security spent only on retirement and not used for many other government purposes. He would like to see the money put in personal GROW Accounts that would be owned by the workers to fund their retirements. The money would be put into bonds from which there would be six different categories to select, from the safest to more risky. There would also be a choice to opt out and stick with the more traditional account.

“In every case I can think of, the return on investment has been greater than the traditional Social Security accounts,” said Lungren. “While the trust funds continue to be credited with the full surplus, the future liabilities of the program are reduced by the GROW Accounts.”

Concerning the recent United States Supreme Court decision on Eminent Domain, where a landowner had personal property taken away for business purposes, Lungren disagreed with the court. He said that it had to do with the government being able to collect a larger tax base by having the business purchase the property.

He mentioned Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s disagreement with the court’s decision when he stated that they needed to look at what the original intent of the writers was. Thomas looks at dictionaries of the times to see the definitions of the words they used to help get a better understanding of what the author meant back then, rather than interpreting laws into today’s terms.

Lungren also mentioned the fact that several congressmen and women, Democrat and Republican, have gone over to check out the Guantanamo prison facility to check for themselves how the prisoners are being treated. Most are coming back with reports that the prisoners are being treated well, and the conditions are fine. He admitted that there are a few that have done wrong, and there are ways to improve conditions, but that things aren’t as bad as they have been reported.

He also had information on Medicare and upcoming drug benefits for which he had handouts. For questions on Medicare, call 1-800-633-4227.

Lungren finished up with questions and answers from the public. From Indian gaming to child rapists, the citizens gave Lungren a wide array of questions. For those who didn’t get their questions answered, he had them talk to his representatives there that night, leaving the information needed for him to get back to them with the answers.

Lungren will continue holding town meetings across the state to get his message out there and to support the President.