Pete Olson Town Hall and AARP

PETE OLSON

I went to US Rep Pete Olson’s town hall meeting at Clements High School tonight. I saw a handful of Democrats, David, Hal, Norman that came for grins and joined in a little heckling. (asking serious questions). Pete was his usual self, reading his power point and speaking (mumbling) unintelligibly. His most used words and phrases were “got to secure the borders first”, and “trainwreck” on every mention of immigration reform and Obamacare.

His opening remarks were entertaining enough. He warned that his police officers were ready to remove anyone that might try to be confrontational or try to take over the meeting. He cited his experience yesterday at the Pearland town meeting when people (he said probably not his constituents) verbally challenged him and approached the stage, and he said he thought some of those people might be here to try the same thing.

His other big topics included his plan to impeach Eric Holder (on “fast and furious allegations”, and his partisan approach to suing Texas), and his gleeful strategy to shutdown the government if Obama did not agree to defund Obamacare.

He got emotional about the negative effects of Obamacare on minimum wage earners which he said would force employers to cut employees hours to 29.5 hours a week so they would not have to provide health insurance. I asked him why that would occur in the case of a vast majority of businesses that currently provide health insurance for their employees. He said it would be cheaper and they would have to compete with companies with lower labor costs.

He avoided any mention or any question about cuts or modification of Social Security or Medicare or his fight with AARP, and he and his handlers were deft at cherry picking questions from the partisan audience.

On the issue of Syria he slammed Obama and ridiculed him on actions in Libya and Egypt. I asked him what would be His Plan for Syria. He said he did not have a plan and being a little perturbed at the question, said he was not required to have a plan.

A young Latino group was in the audience –“Mi Familia Vota” hoping to hear some positive words on immigration reform, but were sorely disappointed. His answer was DOA in the House. As they were leaving they were accosted by several Olson supporters that basically suggested that they go back to Mexico. Another man while leaving tried to tell me his take on Obamacare. He declared that when he inherited his fathers business it was his intention not to give his employees any insurance benefits and would probably reduce their paycheck as well. (So much for Republican outreach).