January 29, 2009 Issue
Foxx on Obama
Congresswoman Virginia Foxx Discusses Obama’s New Administration
Congresswoman Virginia Foxx
High Country Press traveled to Washington D.C. from January 18 to 21 to witness and report on the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. During the trip, North Carolina’s Fifth District Congresswoman Virginia Foxx took some time out of her schedule to sit down with High Country Press and discuss Obama’s inauguration, the challenges she faces in working with the new administration and her philosophy on representing the people of her district.
The 56th presidential inauguration was significant in many ways, but mostly because it is the first time an African American was elected to America’s highest office. We asked Foxx what she thought of this milestone.
“I think—and many other people have said this, it’s not original with me—once more the United States is a role model for the rest of the world. It hasn’t been that long that it was unthinkable that an African American could be elected, and I think it shows what a wonderful country we are, again,” said Foxx during the interview in the Longworth House Office Building adjacent to the Capitol.
Although Foxx could not verify the number, she said her office received roughly 10,000 requests for tickets to the inauguration. Her office awarded the maximum allowed per congressperson—198 tickets. The 10,000 requests, said Foxx, were not 10,000 individual requests, because some members of her constituency asked for 300 tickets per person.
“We had a tremendous amount of requests for tickets,” said Foxx. “This inauguration, this election has created an excitement that was very different than four years ago. I think I heard on the news that there were about 300,000 people here for the inauguration in 2005 and there’s definitely a huge difference in, again, the atmosphere then and now.”
Unofficial estimates of 2009’s inauguration attendance place the crowd at more than 2 million people.
As of Monday, January 19, Foxx had yet to communicate with the incoming Obama administration, and had yet to personally say goodbye to President George W. Bush.
Foxx explained how she would work with the new administration, as well as explained the significant challenges the country and government face over the next four years.
“My work will be more with the leadership and the Democratic members of the House. We will be working with the administration through the House of Representatives, and what I hope is that there will be some moderation in the kinds of rhetoric that we heard during the campaign. I do think the United States is a center right country. It’s much more conservative than I think you would be led to believe by the election by many liberals, including President-elect Obama,” explained Foxx. “My assumption is, is that once he actually becomes the president, he will have a better understanding of where we are in the country in terms of national security as well as where we are financially. I don’t see how we can possibly afford the kinds of programs he promised in his campaign. We are right now $10 trillion in debt. The Federal Reserve and Congress together have just committed our [constituency] to another $8.3 trillion in spending above that $10 trillion in debt. [Obama] is also asking for almost $1 trillion in new spending, some of which will be permanent. He is asking for 600,000 new federal employees. I saw somewhere where that’s half again what we have on the payroll now. I haven’t been able to verify that. But those would be permanent federal jobs, which means—past the stimulus idea—those people would be on the payroll. So, frankly, I don’t know where the money is coming from, and I’m not sure that people are understanding that when the federal government promises to spend money, it’s really committing this country to debt.
“Right after I was here in October for the vote on the original bailout—which I opposed by the way—my concerns about spending are not just confined to President Obama. I had the same feeling under President Bush, so this is not a partisan issue on my part. I voted to cut spending every time we voted on a budget under President Bush. But my grandson, who is 12, said, ‘Grandma, what were you doing in Washington last week?’ I said, “Well, the Congress just voted to put you and your sister, your children and your grandchildren, in debt for a lot of money.’ And my granddaughter, who is 9.5, said, ‘Grandma, why do you want to put little children into debt?’ And I said, ‘I didn’t want to put little children into debt; that’s why I voted no!’ But I’m not sure that all the American people have wakened up to what it is that is going on,” said Foxx. “I hope at some point it’s going to come to reality because, again, this is a huge debt. We have never had this kind of debt in this country, and at some point someone has to pay it back.”
So are Obama and his administration not seeing this problem?
“His comments since the election have indicated that he is seeing more of the picture in terms of national security. Again, where he is going to be on domestic spending is something we don’t know yet,” said Foxx.
During her new term, Foxx said she is going to do everything possible to reduce the nation’s debt and stop the government from over-spending.
“It’s not driven by partisanship,” said Foxx. “It’s driven by the philosophy of the role of the federal government. And if you look back at, before I was even elected, I’ve said consistently that the number one role of federal government is national security. The reason we formed the United States was for defense, and the states can’t do that, the localities can’t do that. The [states] can do all the other things the federal government’s doing but shouldn’t be doing. They can handle Medicare, they can handle Social Security, they can handle education, and they should be. I believe in the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, which says if it isn’t spelled out for the federal government to do, then it’s left up to the states and the individuals. And I just don’t see in the Constitution healthcare, education and most of the things the federal government is doing right now.”
“One of the things I’ve heard her say over and over is that the states do better at this stuff; they are closer to the people, which leads to better accountability for your money,” said Aaron Groen, Foxx’s communications director. “You get more bang for your buck.”
“And that’s a point that needs to be mentioned,” continued Foxx. “Why should we send money to Washington, have a federal bureaucracy that tries to make a one size fits all, waste our money—most of it is wasted—and then send a piece of it back? North Carolina is a donor state—we only get back about 92 cents for every dollar we send to Washington. Now why should that be the case? If we were keeping our money in North Carolina, I believe we could spend it a lot more efficiently.”
Foxx believes the people of North Carolina’s Fifth District, and the people of the United States for that matter, should ask for more oversight concerning how tax money is spent in Washington D.C.
“I think what folks need to do is to be thinking about the obligations that are being made on their behalf by the Democratic majority, and what the implications are. Just think about what we have to pay every year in debt service. I can’t tell you the percentage of the budget now, but it’s a huge amount. In fact, there are some concerns that it is going to difficult for localities to sell bonds because there is just not going to be money out there. And there’s not going to be anyone out there to buy them,” said Foxx. “I saw somewhere the other day that half of our debt is owed to China, and I can remember in my first two years here, every day the Democrats getting up on the floor complaining about how much debt we had with China, and [at that time] it was like 8 percent. So I checked with the congressional research service because I was so taken aback by their vitriolic comments about it and asked how, historically, our debt has been running for foreign countries. They said the debt then was about what it had been for last 50 years—been the same through Republican and Democratic administrations. It’s now up to 50 percent and we’re not seeing anything said by the Democrats about that fact. So the public is getting, I think, a very biased picture, and I think they need to hear the whole story of what’s happening. That’s my interest. I’m just a very down-to-earth, common-sense person, who likes to put out all the facts and then let people make their decisions, and I’m not sure people are getting that information now. I think it’s going to be very important.”
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