Report on Congressman John Tierney’s Community Meeting

photo by Nancy Weinberg

Again, for those of you who couldn’t make Congressman John Tierney’s Community Meeting today (Saturday, March 28) at Newburyport City Hall I thought I would provide you with a summary of what happened.

For over two hours Congressman Tierney fielded 34 questions from constituents in a free ranging discussion that covered topics that varied from local concerns (Plum Island deterioration) to the war in Afghanistan. I would guess that there were about 250 people in attendance.

Just before Congressman Tierney began taking questions, the crowd of protestors from the “Tea Party” protest joined other constituents in the crowded room. There was a little bit of tension in the air as it was clear that a large segment of those in attendance strongly opposed the votes Congressman Tierney has taken on the Stimulus Bill. There were a few catcalls but the Congressman asked people to act civilly and respect each other’s opinion. Overall, there was a free, civil and open discussion from a variety of perspectives.

That is not to say that Congressman Tierney softened or backed down on his positions. One person claimed that the meeting was a “charade” in that a majority of Americans had not voted for Obama and the Democrats. Tierney forcefully, but very politely, noted that Democrats had won the election and that the majority of voters had voted for a change from the policies of the past eight years. He also noted a number of times that Republican policies in the previous administration such as de-regulation of the financial sector were largely responsible for the economic mess the Obama Administration had inherited. In response to questions on the ballooning national debt, he noted that President Bush had increased the national debt by more than the sum of all Presidents from George Washington to Bill Clinton. He found it peculiar that those, like Vice President Cheney, who stated again and again during the Bush Administration that the national debt was not a problem, had suddenly rediscovered their ‘balanced budget’ religion.

One person said that he did not see a “major theme” to the Stimulus Bill. Tierney responded that the Bill was designed to stabilize a badly damaged economy and to assure that those Americans who had been most hurt by the Bush recession received the help they needed. These included the unemployed, people who have lost health insurance and those who have not been able to pay their mortgages through no reasonable fault of their own. He also noted that it was necessary to return to a balanced regulatory regime that would place the financial sector on a solid footing. On that note, Tierney reminded voters that he had not supported the de-regulation of the financial sector in 1999 (one of 55 members of Congress who opposed it) and welcomed the acknowledgement of the new majority in Congress that the 1999 de-regulation needed to be reversed and that Glass-Seagall had to be restored.

Other questions or comments from constituents on economic issues addressed the trade deficit (Tierney said he favored the Obama proposal to end tax breaks for companies that moved U.S. jobs abroad) and the role of the Federal Reserve Bank (Tierney is wary of giving them additional authority). 

A number of people expressed strong support for a single-payer national health system although one person said she opposed it. A couple of people requested that Tierney attempt to assure that the Agricultural Bill did not place an undue burden on small farms as the Bush Administration had done.  There was strong support for addressing global warming and reducing U.S. carbon consumption.

Finally, Congressman Tierney, recently returned from Afghanistan, provided the audience with a sophisticated account of the challenges facing the United States. He did not think there was a military solution to the Al Qaeda and Taliban threats but rather the United States, along with the Middle Eastern regional powers, Europe and Asia had to work together to decrease the threat that Al Qaeda and the Taliban pose for all of us. He noted that it appeared as if there were elements of the Pakistani armed forces that supported the Taliban as a means of threatening India.

Oh yeah. I asked whether or not Congressman Tierney supported the Employee Free Choice Act. He does.

As an aside, I would simply like to note that we should all take some comfort in knowing that we have such a thoughtful, intelligent and progressive representative in Washington. One person, suggesting that Congress was corrupt, asked Congressman Tierney whether or not he took money from insurance companies. Please, before you ask questions like that look into the guy’s record. John Tierney is in no one’s pocket and even a cursory examination of his record and financial disclosure information would easily confirm that.