He’s talked about it with Sean Hannity. He’s spoken on local television and to newspapers.

Monday night, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fort Myers, brought his “Penny Plan” to balance the federal budget home to the voters to ask for their support.

“People don’t want a deal, they don’t want a bargain,” he said. “They want a solution.”

Mack’s town hall meeting was an opportunity for the congressman to tout the “One Percent Spending Reduction Act of 2011” or, as it is better known, the Mack Penny Plan. He spoke to a packed house, mostly of supporters, at the Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers.

Mack said his proposal will achieve a balanced federal budget in 2019 by bringing fiscal spending down to average federal revenue over the past 30 years.

The plan would cut total spending — mandatory and discretionary — by one percent each year for the next six consecutive fiscal years, beginning in 2012.

“It’s simple. Every one of you in this room has had to take one penny out of your home budget and one penny out of your business budget,” he said. “Why shouldn’t the federal government have to do the same?”

Mack said the spending cuts would be achieved one of two ways. In the first, Congress and the president would work together to enact program reforms and cut federal spending by one percent each year. If that fails, the bill triggers automatic, across-the-board spending cuts to ensure the one percent reduction is realized.

Mack said if the government could come up with a way to make part of the cuts, the remainder of the cuts would be made across the board.

“One way or another, we’re going to get that one percent,” he said. “We’re going to make those cuts.”

The bill sets an overall spending cap of 18 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018.

The bill has more than 50 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, including Mack’s wife, Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., and Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami. There is a companion bill in the Senate, which has six co-sponsors, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida.

But Mack touted that the plan has the support of Republicans, Democrats and independents. He said he was told by members of Congress that constituents at home have been asking them to support the plan. He said that is good news for the legislation, signaling wide support that could ensure its passage.

“If we’re able to pass this legislation, we will balance our budget in eight years,” he said. “We will put Washington back on a path that is fiscally responsible.”

But Dennis Holland, an unemployed engineer from Fort Myers, wanted to know why Mack was proposing a plan that would cut Social Security benefits, disability benefits and armed forces benefits while supporting another piece of legislation that would amend the Internal Revenue Code to provide for a zero capital gains rate.

“Those bills cancel each other out,” he said. “Why are you taking a big bite out of our active military benefits, our disabled benefits to pay for tax breaks for the wealthiest one percent of Americans?”

Mack said his Penny Plan would give Congress and the president the opportunity to make cuts that wouldn’t affect people’s benefits.

“No one wants to go home and tell their senior citizens they have cut Social Security,” he said. “For every $2 we take in, we spend $3. And we have to borrow that third $1 from places like China. If we are going to get serious about tackling our debt and deficit, this bill is a good way to do it.“

After speaking about his plan, Mack took questions from the audience on everything from the Dream Act to oil drilling, closing post offices, raising the debt ceiling and the possible overturning of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — the Obama administration’s health care overhaul.

Mack was one of 66 Republican House members who voted against the deal to raise the debt ceiling earlier this month. He called the $1 trillion in cuts that will come from the deal “fantasy cuts.”

A local small businessman asked Mack to support legislation that would support small businesses, not hamper them.

Mack said he was for revenue enhancers, but that did not include tax increases or other things that would hamper small businesses’ ability to operate or create jobs.

“Any program that understands that small business is the generator of jobs and that small business needs less regulation and less taxes …. I will support,” he said.

One woman asked why Mack seemingly went back on his plan to protect Florida’s environment when he came out in support of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would erect a pipeline between Canada and Texas. She asked why Mack wouldn’t support clean energy solutions for the state.

“I am all for clean energy for the state,” Mack said. “The problem I have is when the federal government turns away from known reserves and tries to move the market. You ask why I support the pipeline? It’s because it will allow us to stop supporting Hugo Chavez.”