Security. The Fourth Amendment protects you regardless of where you live in the country. It doesnt matter whether you live near the border or far away from the border. But it is coming out of Homeland Security. If Homeland Security is saying that, they are wrong. We have got to hold them accountable. Yes . I want to ask about the patriot act. In your amendments or new legislation, would he get rid the president s ability to have it disappear . To have it disappeared . Indefinitely . That would be under that National Defense authorization act. Let me ask you about a senator from california who wants to redefine what the First Amendment says by saying who has free speech rights. I think that is wrong to define the First Amendment in such a way that it only protects journalists. Everyone has First Amendment protection. Everyone has the right to free speech whether you are a journalist are not. She wants to say who is a journalist and who is not a journalist. Yeah. There is a long series of barrages against civil rights. Not you. I trust you actually. I do not know why. [laughter] [applause] the white house is bought and paid for. The things they are doing now what am i supposed to do when Homeland Security barges into my house . I understand. The culture is changing. On the amash amendment, you have the white house, democratic leadership, republican leadership, the intelligence community, all sorts of high level officials saying, do not vote for this amendment. It will be a disaster. Still, the majority of democrats and nearly half of the republicans voted for the amendment. Aims are changing. It will take a little bit of work. We will need new people in there. The people who have been there for a long time are not getting the message. [inaudible] that is true. Hi. Im representing a libertarian party. We are repairing to have our fest in november. We celebrate michigan residents who have done the most in the name of liberty. You are at the top of our list am especially of the amash amendment. The topic this year is the impact that the war on terror has had on our personal liberties. Something that concerns me that goes even further is the impact that it has on our ability to get the truth about what our government is doing. Given that we are now involved in addressing secret threats we secret actions, how do we be sure that when we are told there has been a victory that the threat even existed to begin with . How can you have a responsibility to oversee the executive branch . How can you know whether these threats are credible . As i said before, we need better congressional oversight. There are plenty of people in congress who i think are not that interested in bringing out the truth and doing what is right. But there are a lot of people in congress who are interested in doing what is right. I have a lot of allies that i trust on both sides of the aisle. If we have better congressional oversight, you have more people watching and willing to Say Something and stand up for what is right. That is a part of the process. The public also needs to have confidence in what we are doing and have the ability to see what is going on. Anytime you have secret laws, the public needs to know what the laws are. You cannot have laws that are hidden from the American People in a free country. Go ahead. [indiscernible] i do not think so. I did not vote for john boehner as speaker. I voted for a man from idaho. But he is the speaker of the house. I will tell you that a lot of people could do a much worse job than john boehner. [laughter] who . I do not want to name names. One thing about john boehner, whether you agree with him or not, he has been straightforward with us. He has been straightforward with members of congress. We know where he stands on issues. He has not told me that he will do something and then has done something else. He has stuck to his word. I might disagree with the direction he takes, but he sticks to his word. Go ahead in the back. I arrived late. Is the subject. Homeland security . Know. Talk about whatever you want. With the situation in South Carolina with a government id, what is a government id . Second, why havent you supported obamas jobs bill . The first question is about whether Voting Rights. The civil rights of 1964, congress had to approve us to be able to vote again. I will take a look at that. The issue is one that came up recently. It is something i would like to take a look at. Everyone has a right to vote and that should be protected. That is a critical element of our society. That is something i will take a close look at. The issue of the jobs bill, House Republicans passed a number of jobs bills, legislation aimed to boost the economy. Those have been taken up i bet senate have not been taken up by the senate or president. We want to help the economy by looking at all of the people and how to create a for your economy that everyone free economy that everyone can prosper in. [indiscernible] i wouldnt support doing anything at the federal level. From my perspective, it is a state and local issue. You would support the state . Unfortunately, im not a Michigan State legislator. I mean another one from michigan. And i think you are a state level. Would you support it . That is something i am leaving to the state and local officials and not comment on it as a federal official. Yes . Im concerned about obamacare. There was an article in the paper i read the other day. Yesterday a surgeon informed me because of my age, this could i could qualify for this. I do not qualify for less invasive and more expensive medical treatment required to correct the Serious Health problems. Anyone over the age of 60 take note Affordable Care beginning to show us its ugly head. The independent independent payment Advisory Board will be making a decision on us. And that is from the irs, who we know is pretty questionable at this time. We expect our governments to try to keep medical costs lower on the backs of those who are most likely to need that same care. No wonder congress and the president exempted themselves from this monstrosity. Why is it that the president and congress doesnt have to follow the laws that they make that we have to live by . Not just obamacare, but all of them . [applause] everyone should be following the same laws in this country. We should not have a friend laws for different people. Should not have different laws for different people. Congress is not exempted from obamacare. Congress and our staff have to go on obamacare. We were booted off our healthcare we will be booted off our health care when the new year starts. And the president . I do not think the president has too. The problem is that we have the white house and their staff and federal employees who do not have to go on to obamacare. They do not have to do the exchanges. But Congress Members and their staff do have to go on to obamacare. Excuse me . Adjust the subsidies. Address the subsidies. There is a Premium Payment that members of congress and their staff get, which is the same they have been getting all along currently as part of our benefits from our employer, which is the government. It is just like any other employer might give her man payments to their employees. We are in an unusual situation. We are getting kicked off our employers healthcare and getting put onto the exchanges. The question is whether you can get Premium Payments from your employer if you are kicked onto the exchanges. This would not happen to anyone else. No one would get kicked off other healthcare and onto the exchanges. There is no change in terms of Premium Payments you are getting from your employer as a member of congress or your staff. Nothing changes there. It stays at it currently is. Theyre not eligible for tax credits and others that others might be eligible for. Do you have to pay income tax on your wages . Yes. [laughter] do you pay Social Security tax . Yes. This question here hard working recipients prudently despairs of his two lowpaying jobs with no benefits. This pertains to a lot of people. To lift his spirits, he watches a tape of congressional members going down the Capitol Steps thursday afternoon after a threeday work session. They have achieved the American Dream getting full pay, premium healthcare, office staff, and travels just for parttime work at the capitol. Surely one so blessed with think of struggling workers and supported health care for the middle class working poor. The skepticism encompasses him. Many congressional members seeking reelection are promising good jobs and Less Government regulation and speak as examples for that prerequisite. As a doolittle congress, it is all speculation. Do little congress, it is all speculation. We are concerned about congress and suspicious of government today. The irs thing is just bonkers. We cannot believe we cannot trust the government. I guess that is all i have got to say. I think that is all fair. I am skeptical of government as you are. If you have followed my work, you will find that i have more than a healthy dose of skepticism of government, including skepticism of many of my colleagues. [laughter] we do have confidence in the work that you do. Thank you. Go ahead. Is there any realistic chance that the irs will be fundamentally restructured or go to a flat tax . I do not think so in the short run. Not because i would not want that, but because i think there is too much push back. Members of congress tend to like having a complicated tax code. The more complicated tax code is, the more big corporations and others have to come to them and beg for favors. The more favors they can hand out, the more Campaign Contributions they get. There is a sense in which it is rigged like that. It will take time. I would support undoing our income tax to get rid of it completely and replace it with a consumption tax. I think we are a ways away from that. When i was in the state house, i thought about what the State Government was doing among which was giving out all sorts of targeted tax breaks and benefits. The more complicated you make the tax code, the more benefits for the wealthy people. Yes . My question is about Immigration Reform. I saw in the new yorker yesterday that said people in michigan will have a hard time this season picking apple crops because they will not have enough migrant workers. I was wondering if you would support a bill from the senate or Something Different to get Immigration Reform passed . I would not support the senate bill, but i would support Immigration Reform. It has to have border security, which includes dealing with over stays the some people overstay their visas, you need to have a better Legal Immigration system so people can come here and become president legally or come here to find work legally. Currently, it is hard to come to the u. S. Whether it is as a guest worker or if you want to become a resident. It is difficult. We need to improve that system. That is where we tend to get a lot of push back. A lot of democratic colleagues do not want to improve the legal system. They are interested in approving citizenship, but not the Legal Immigration system. I think the Legal Immigration system would help with border security. You will likely have less people trying to cross illegally. We need to deal with 11 Million People who are here illegally. No one will deport them. You have to find a way to give them legal status over a long period of time. Once they have obtained that, they can be treated like anyone else who is here as a legal resident. If they want to obtain citizenship, they will not go ahead of anyone else. They will be treated like anyone else who came here illegally. This is not a special pass to citizenship. Give them the ability to be here legally and then they are treated like everyone else. Theyre not moved into the front of the line or anything like that. Yes . A question on gun control. What is your stance on it . And where are we as a government with the gun control situation . Executive orders in our risen prison what type of control do you have against executive orders . People here do not have a voice. On gun control, i am skeptical of federal involvement in gun control. The Second Amendment is extremely important. It is important as any other part of the constitution. There is a reason it is in place. You have to consider the context of how it was put in place. They want to make sure that the people would be protected and always have the right to defend themselves. It is important that the federal government not infringe upon that right. That is where i stand with the specter gun control. With the respect executive orders, some executive orders are ok. A lot executive orders have not been ok. They take an old law and interpret that law to provide them with some authority to do something new when congress doesnt want to pass a new law. The white house says, well, we will do it using this old law and reinterpret this law to allow us to do it. That is wrong. That is unconstitutional. We should do what we can to defund those kinds of activities. Congress holds the Purse Strings. We do not have to Fund Activities that we think are unconstitutional. Yes . I think you are the youngest person in the town hall. [laughter] i have a question about prism. Im on the internet a lot. When i heard about this, i was really mad because the government should not be spying on us. Im not even sure why anyone second thoughts on this. As is unconstitutional. This is unconstitutional. Americasainst what Founding Fathers have said. That is a great question. The Prism Program is largely classified. There has been some talk about it. I have to be careful with what i say. The bottom line is, there are too many people in congress right now who are forgetting that there is a constitution that restricts what they do. The point of the constitution is to restrict what the federal government does. Theye name of security, are forgetting that their first right or the is to protect liberties. That is why we have a government to ensure that we have liberty as a people. That is what they are forgetting. They are focused solely on the security aspect. They think as long as the nsa or some other agency is stopping bad guys, they can go after collecting information on all sorts of people and have no consequences. Of course, there is a huge threat to that. We do not want the government to have this kind of data to use against americans in the future. Yeah. Also, im also worried about, like, all the gay rights stuff. Im thinking, like, this could be like the racism thing. But it is like the same thing except it is between days and gays and nongays. Who cares . Does it really matter . [applause] that is a great point. I do not believe the government should be involved in deciding who can get married and who cannot. That is not an appropriate role for the government. Marriage is a private institution. It is between two people and their personal lives. Im an orthodox christian. My wife and i do not need the government telling us that we can get married. No one else needs a government telling them that they can get married. That is up to them. I agree with you. [applause] yes . I guess my main question is since congress is supposedly a holding the Purse Strings of our country, im interested in what is going to happen with the so called Affordable Care act. What are the chances of Congress Actually holding the strings on that . Great question. I think that they should defund it. They shouldnt pass an appropriations bill in september that funds obama care. Right now that is the debate. There are republican members in congress who think we should Fund Obamacare thomas and there are others who think we should not. I think the law is unconstitutional. I think it will hurt our health care. It will reduce choices. The more regulations you have on the insurance industry, the more you create a monopoly of insurance were a few players control the whole market. What you really want to have is more competent haitian. Less regulation on insurance some are types of insurance to be offered and people could decisions for their own lives and what it when the purchase. You also need to find a way to move away from the thirdparty payer system that we have. We have to move away from that. What you do is you buy insurance and you go to the doctors office. Patients and doctors do not know how much a procedure costs. They do not know how much medication costs. There is no incentive that people have right now to keep costs down. If you know everything is covered by insurance, you will just take it. There ends up being an overusage with a lot of medical care. Not with all, but a lot. My advice to people before government got involved in this was the fact that you would go to the hospital and have the insurance pay the medical expenses out of your pocket. They always had a little bit pay of their own. As a young man, two of my kids were born without insurance. I paid payments. I paid the whole thing. Of course, back then it was only 250. [laughter] act,y, the Affordable Care i do not want bureaucrats telling me what services i will qualify for. And what kind of insurance you can get. That is true. I can imagine what the price will be. I have got medicare right