Many Congressional members have given up on in-person town hall meetings with constituents, some for security reasons. Idaho Republican Russ Fulcher used the old-fashioned telephone to hold a town hall last night.
Fulcher addressed a variety of issues in his hour-long forum, from the need to lower the political rhetoric to whether he supports the release of documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. He does.
But there were questions on other issues, such as whether money from tariffs imposed by the Trump administration is actually lowering the federal deficit. Fulcher says yes, but indirectly. He says the deficit is also decreasing because Congress voted to slow the annual increase in federal spending.
“That may not sound like it’s all that impressive and maybe it’s not. However, I can tell you it’s a game changer here," he said.
"The reason is, by reducing the rate of growth of spending, that gives us a chance to pay the deficit down with two sources of revenue. One is our economic growth, which is very good right now, and two, is the revenue streams that come through tariff channels.”
Fulcher says Congress and the Trump administration have other accomplishments they can tout, including a more secure Southern border and increased domestic energy production.
One caller wanted to know how the federal government is going to encourage companies to build facilities that create nuclear energy. Fulcher agreed that the country has discouraged the development of nuclear, going back decades.
“The best thing the federal government can do is to try to provide insurance to the private sector that, look, this is not Lucy and the football. We’re not going to pull it away at the last second this time. If you all go out and invest, you as the private sector, go out and invest in a nuclear, you’re going to have the opportunity to receive a return on that investment," he said.
Fulcher says he doesn’t expect there will be a government shutdown because he thinks Congress will pass a budget extension by the end of the fiscal year on September 30.
