Congressman Andy Harris visits Fallston and says the feds should 'get out of the way'

First District Congressman Andy Harris, during an appearance Monday afternoon in Harford County, hammered home once again his view that the federal government needs to "get out of the way" and let the nation's sagging economy start to heal itself.

Harris spoke for about an hour to between 80 and 100 people who were packed into the meeting room at the Fallston Library. The conservative Republican's congressional district covers central Harford County, including Bel Air and Fallston, the latter which he represented for eight years in the Maryland State Senate before his election to Congress last fall.

Some of what Harris had to say Monday differed little from what he said at a similar town hall meeting he held in Bel Air in late March, when he also railed against raising taxes, federal economic stimulus programs, the deficit, regulation and energy policy.

But he also offered a few alternatives, explaining to one questioner that rather than do away with the expensive and wasteful federal Medicaid system that provides health care to the poor, the system should be made more efficient.

One way this could happen he suggested, would be for the federal government to make "block grants" to the states, who administer Medicaid with federal funds, rather than make straight appropriations based on what the states claim they spend to provide care.

Block grants, based on population and other demographic factors, would force states to spend the money and administer their programs more wisely, Harris said, knowing they couldn't just ask for more money in a given year.

Earlier in the meeting, he said he favors reducing taxes at the federal level as a proven means of stimulating private investment in the economy.

Harris had a generally receptive crowd. When one person suggested putting unemployed people to work on public works projects and urged that Congress pass the president's controversial Jobs Bill, several others in the audience loudly cried "no" in unison.

Harris patiently explained why he doesn't think a direct stimulus program can work, pointing out that of the $800 billion the government borrowed to fund the first stimulus program when the economy tanked, just $40 billion actually went to infrastructure programs.

"We need for the federal government to get out of the way and to let the economy get started - that's the number one thing," he said. "The government should not decide the winners and the losers."

Harris also said the nation can ill afford for the federal government to keep "borrowing money from China" to stimulate the economy, and he warned that even the mere talk of raising taxes "sends more jobs overseas."

Like many members of Congress, Harris has been holding such town hall meetings around his district in an effort to gauge constituent opinions on how Washington should deal with the economy, programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and taxes

As with the March meeting in Bel Air, most of those who came to see the congressman in Fallston appeared to be above the age of 55; however, Monday's audience had a smattering of twenty- and thirty-somethings, as well as a few school age young people.

Republican elected officials also attending included Fallston County Councilman Joe Woods, Del. Susan McComas and State Sen. Nancy Jacobs.