Dr. David L. Dresser, former Supervisor of the Town of Ovid, had an Opt-Ed in Sunday’s Finger Lake Times that is worth sharing.

He attended Rep. Reed’s March 11 Town Hall Meeting in Ovid, and was able to ask him two questions, and had a third question that he wasn’t able to ask.  His first questions was:

Given the effects of climate change–sea level rise, floods, droughts, violent weather, mudslides, forest fires, air pollution, species execution, human migration, failed states, and so forth–do you agree that Congress should take significant steps immediately to decrease the use of fossil fuels? His answer was, “No.” He supports the development of all energy sources.

His second question:

Given the passage of the Hyde Amendment, no abortions are now paid for by government funds, and given the fact that Planned Parenthood actually prevents abortions by providing access to birth control do you support the the defunding of Planned Parenthood as proposed by the Republican plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act? ” His answer was “Yes.” He would rather rely on other organizations to provide information regarding contraception.

The question Dr. Dresser didn’t ask:

“The interest o the national debt is the fastest growing part of the federal government spending; as a fiscal conservative do you consider that acceptable?

Dr. Dresser tells us that he does not find the National Debt acceptable, and points out:

• federal budget is already more that $5 trillion out of balance
• Trump plans to increase the budget by raising the military spending by 10% nd building the Mexican Wall
• our military spending that of the next higher that next seven countries combine

Dresser, like all real Problem Solvers has suggestions that Congress could do to start to solve those problems.  For the Climate questions Congress should:

•  INVEST in solar, hydroelectric, and geothermal energy infrastructure at a pace equally putting man on the moon. That would create hundred of thousand skilled and unskilled jobs
• INCREASE funding for Planned Parenthood promote family planning in foreign countries–decreasing the world’s birth rate–and preserving the planet’s nature resources
• BALANCE the federal budget in 2017-18 (or atlas significantly decrease the  the revenue -expenditure gap.  (Now for my favorite sentence in the article)–>“If Democratic president Bill Clinton could balance the federal budget, surely conservative Republican businessman like Donald Trump should be able to do so.”

Tom’s two answers were not surprising. He and his cronies use the Coal Industry and Planned Parenthood to galvanize the voting base. Reed supports all possible energy sources, but hand picks which health organizations we can use.  There should be no debate about what his answer would be on the national debt question. He moans about where the debt is going, but let’s see him stand up against Trump’s  proposed budget.