Citizens Pack Woodall's Town Hall Meeting

Rep. Rob Woodall (R-GA-07) met with citizens on Thursday evening at Snellville City Hall. Crowds of people flooded the walls to hear Woodall cover such topics as the super committee, budget cuts, healthcare, the national debt and taxes.

Woodall is a representative of Georgia’s seventh district which covers Gwinnett, Walton, Barrow and parts of Newton and Forsyth Counties.

As the floor was open for questions and comments, there was much debate surrounding controversial topics. More than 100 people packed the Snellville City Hall for the town hall meeting.

Woodall addressed his idea of a balanced budget and how that affects taxes. He stated that the top 1 percent of income earners in this country pay 40 percent of all taxes and spoke about how debt ends up being a tax on the wealthy.

“When we talk about a balanced approach, are we are going to move that number down?," Woodall asked. "Or are we going to move that number up, where the top 10 percent of incomers pay 60 percent of the income tax in this country?"

Some citizens expressed their concerns about an expanding federal government and that including health care, which seems to suggest that taxes would increase. Woodall’s response to that was to encourage citizens to get involved and vote to pass the balanced budget amendment for the federal government.

Woodall addressed the topic of social security and the concerns surrounding its stability. He talked about how there was no cost-of-living adjustment in social security in the past year and how some may have felt cheated by it. He said that was the alternative to decreasing social security.

“I’m glad the government borrowed Social Security money and put bonds in its place,” Woodall said. "Because if we didn’t do it the Social Security trust fund would have been bankrupt years ago. We need that 5.8 percent interest that the government pays the social security trust fund."

Joanna Dean, a mom who home-schools her three boys, attended the meeting along with her children.

“I got a lot more information that I didn’t have before,” Dean said. "He brought up some really good points so you can see a bigger picture.”

Dean teaches American government in their home classroom. She believes it’s important to keep her children informed.

“We’re getting angry," Dean said. “While we have to balance the budgets in our households you need to balance this household that runs our country. We let this go for so long, and it’s hurting all of us. I look at my boys, and they’re the ones who will have to pay for it.”

Dean is not the only one who has these concerns. Many expressed their anxieties about the future of our country.

“We have a hole in the government spending bag,” Woodall said. “If we put more in it, it’s just going to fall out the bottom. 

"I would wager that if I brought a credible plan to you tomorrow to how we sew up the hole in the bottom of that bag and restore the promise of America over ten years so these young men don’t have to have any fears about their future. That’s the challenge – sewing up the bottom of that bag.”