U.S. Congressman Nathan Deal (R) focused on the budget, healthcare and the war on terror in his keynote speech for the January meeting of the Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce Jan. 10 at the Colonnade.

He highlighted the congressional battle over the budget in the latest session which Congress completed near the end of the session just before the Christmas holiday, a couple months late, he said.

“It became a major controversy in that their (the Democrats) proposals were significantly different than what the president and most of Republican members of Congress and Senate wanted to do,” he said. “It was a turmoil process all last year.”

He said the final number was significantly lower — $22 billion less than what the Democrats’ budget originally called for.

“That does not mean that the president or Republicans in Congress got what they wanted,” he said. “That means the total dollar figure was relatively acceptable but the allocations of how you spend those dollars would be very different. When we get back we begin contemplating the next fiscal year.”

He said Congress will go back into session next Tuesday.

“It sounds like a repetitious and convoluted process, sometimes we get frustrated with it,” he said after explain-ing the long process of developing the budget through 12 allocation bills and finally an omnibus bill.

Health care issues

Deal serves as the ranking Republican member on the health subcommittee.

“We will continue to have great challenges on health care front,” he said.

He said that his impression of the presidential candidates solutions for health care will move this country to a government-controlled nationalized health care system.

“They want to do it in a variety ways,” he said. “The challenge is to stop that from happening if you do agree that needs to happen. How do you confront that and provide better alternatives?”

He said the move in a previous Congress of establishing medical savings accounts was a step in the right direc-tion but it is diametrically opposed to government controlled healthcare.

“It puts the individual in control of his money and his choices,” he said.

He said the problems of the increasing of the Medicare rolls due to an aging population combined with the ups and downs of the economy effecting the Medicaid rolls both play a major role in the future plans.

He also mentioned the SCHIP, State Children’s Health Insurance Program, in Georgia called Peach Care, which drew a great deal of attention last session.

It was started with the concept that their were families that made more than the maximum amount money allowed in order to be Medicaid eligible but could not provide health insurance for their children, he said.

He said reviewing the program discovered several ironies. It was a state children’s health program set to serve children below 200 percent of poverty level but four states had more adults than children; several states were en-rolling children and parents in the program; and many states upped the poverty level, New Jersey was using crite-ria at 350 percent of poverty level, New York asked to go to 400 percent of poverty level, he said.

“What you find was a different patchwork quilt of programs across the country,” he said.

He said Congress finally voted extending the program until March 2009.

“We went back and forth; it was nip and tuck,” he said. “What it does do is put additional money so states like Georgia, which had a shortfall, should not have that short fall as they were last year.”

War on terror

Deal also discussed the war against terror and its manifestation in the war in Iraq.

“We rejected repeatedly efforts to put timelines on troop withdrawal,” he said. “There is nothing more foolish than to tell your enemies when you are going to leave or what you are going to do.”

He said while the surge of supplying additional troops was controversial, “We did put some criteria by which progress should be measured.”

He said that the surge contributed to the level of violence dropping, number of deaths dropping and areas being stabilized that were not before.

“The truth is this is not a short term proposition,” he said. “It is one of those things where simplistic answers are not appropriate.”

He said, while there is frustration, that more progress is not made at a national parliamentary level, the phe-nomena occurring is local areas coming together and working out their own differences, he said.

He concluded by thanking God for the rain and saying that progress seems to be underway in the tri-state dis-cussions regarding water issues. He also briefly answered some questions about economy and the No-Child Left Behind education program.