By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
U.S. Representative Mike Rogers was in Pell City Thursday addressing a crowd of over 75 supporters at the Horizons lakeside community club house. The five term Congressman was optimistic about the Republicans prospects in the election and about our nations future. Rogers said that he was happy that reapportionment and redistricting had moved St. Clair County from Spencer Bachus’s 6th District to his Third District.
Representative Rogers said that while we have problems now they are small compared to previous trials the nation faced. Rogers said that if the country could recover from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Carter Administration it could advance and progress following the mistakes of the last four years.
Rep. Rogers said that if Romney wins the Presidential election the Congress will have to move quickly to make a host of changes. Rogers warned that we are borrowing 41 cents of every dollar spent by the federal government and the federal government needs to make cuts in government spending and that those cuts would come with some pain.
Congressman Rogers said that the federal government does too many things and more governmental functions need to be moved closer to the people. Rogers said that the federal government does not need a Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or the Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
When asked about the September 18th Constitutional Amendment vote to raid $437 million from the Alabama Trust Fund to prop up the embattled Alabama General Fund for three years, Rep. Rogers said that he did not want to tell anybody how to vote on the referendum, but he did say that he did not like the idea of raiding the trust fund and that the $437 million raid was not something he would have done if he were still in the state legislature.
Rep. Rogers said that President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act was an expensive mistake. Rogers said that schools were being punished because of their drop out rate. Rogers said that some children just aren’t ever going to graduate from school and schools and teachers should not be punished for that. Rep. Rogers said that the federal government was also making schools mainstream Special Education children that will never be able to do grade level work and then punishing the local school systems because of it. Rep. Rogers said that Pres. George W. Bush and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy (now deceased) cut a deal to get that legislation passed and it has not worked and needs to be repealed.
The St. Clair County Host Committee for the Rogers fundraiser included: Mr. and Mrs. Greg Bain, Ms. Annette Cox, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Fields, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Gardner, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Hereford, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Lee, Mr. and Mrs. David Sawyer, Mr. and Mrs. Stan Bateman, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Ellison, Mr. and Mrs. Mike Fricker, Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Harris, Mr. and Mrs. Rusty Jessup, Mr. and Mrs. Don Perry, and Mr. and Mrs. Bill Weathington.
Congressman Mike Rogers represents Alabama’s Third Congressional District. His Democratic opponent is Lee County Commissioner John Andrew Harris. Rogers was an Alabama State Representative before running for the Third Congressional District seat vacated by Bob Riley when Riley ran for Governor against Democratic incumbent Don Seigelman in 2002.
