Mark Kirk Town Hall at Kirkland College

Tonight Mark Kirk the newly elected Illinois Senator held a Town hall meeting at Kirkland College. As many who read this will know, I am no fan of Mr. Kirk. That said, I must admit that tonight he sounded like a conservative. It's too bad I know how he tends to vote. He did defend many of the positions I have, He claimed to be in support of major spending cuts and also pledged his support for the Republican push to repeal "Obama Care". After a brief presentation he fielded questions from the audience.

One of these question from an older gentleman who sounded like he scripted it from last Fridays episode of Beck asked Mr. Kirk to oppose another raise in the debt ceiling. Kirk responded without giving a firm answer one way or another on how he would vote on this, but he did give the warning of the Government running out of money and literally shutting down sometime around March. He warned of Social Security Checks not going out and Naval Ships docking without fuel. Many in the Audience made audible sighs at this point and the hum of quiet whispers could be herd throughout the crowd. Another man retorted that Government didn't need to shut down but instead many cuts would need to be made. Mr. Kirk then responded that he would rather see a measure that would allow another one time raise with an attached balance budget rule to restrict new spending measures.

In his opening Kirk explained his love of math and science and how the only answer to 2 + 2 is 4. This was challenged by a University of IL Professor of Science who urged Mark Kirk to Oppose any new legislation that would tax carbon output. This Professor announced the idea of Global Warming being related to Carbon output as ridiculous and simply inaccurate, not because he read some book or website but because he had done the work and hands on research. Kirk affirmed his flipped position on "Cap-n-Trade" and vowed that any such legislation was dead. (Let's not forget it has already passed the House with help of his own vote so if it does come up again we'll need to hold him to this)

Mr. Kirk was also asked if he would support the Fair Tax to assist in keeping taxes from continuing to rise. Kirk responded by saying, "He would fear the end result of such a measure coming through with the current administration". He then tried to explain the dangers of VAT taxing leading some to question if he was comparing the Fair Tax to VAT's (Value Added Taxes) which of course is not the case. This lead to a follow up pointing out that the Fair Tax was not a VAT and actually made VAT very difficult to enact.

Another man apparently a Reverend from a local Church inquired about a committee on minority relations. Kirk replied that he had been working with someone from Chicago but was in need of additional down state support. Kirk gave this gentleman the opportunity to volunteer if interested.

The final topic was Jobs. I felt the responses to this question were a little weak but Kirk did make one statement that embodied the general tone. All the problems in the world can be fixed when we have a good economy, but when the economy is bad, fixing anything is well difficult. Much was said about making it easier for small business to expand.

Also in attendance for this Town Hall Meeting was the Freshman IL House Representative for the 105th District Jason Barickman. Jason fielded a few questions but the most impressive was on Full Forensic Audit of Illinois. He claimed that this was a good idea and he would support it. Jason also feels Illinois needs to make better decisions making it less restrictive for new busineses in Illinois to get running. He Pointed out how much less expensive it was to simply start a L.L.C in Indiana compared to Illinois as one small example.

After the Town Hall Meeting Kirk and Barickman spoke to constituents and were quite accessible.

It's hard to admit this being someone who did not support him but Mr. Kirk is a rather likable person.

Cheers,


Mike