By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Kansas first district congressman Tracy Mann stopped in Hays Thursday to share with constituents the latest activity in the federal government during his latest listening tour of the district.
Mann opened the session with a general overview of the makeup of the congress acknowledging the current climate of extreme divisiveness between the two political parties and the general population.
During his remarks, he spoke about the rapidly expanding national debt.
"I was alarmed 10 years ago when we were at $12 or 13 trillion. We have blown by that," Mann said. "Last year alone, we added $6 trillion to the debt. ... We cannot continue to spend money at this pace and not think that it is going to impact the value of the dollar, not think that it is going to impact and really prohibit our ability to fund things other than just servicing the debt."
Further, he said that many of the recent spending initiatives labeled as infrastructure were items pulled directly from the "Green New Deal," a Democratic-based initiative centered around climate change solutions.
"Of that $2 trillion (spending bill for infrastructure,) only $100 billion would be for roads or bridges, as proposed," he said. "So only five percent for roads of bridges.
"Eighty billion for climate change research, $186 billion for electric vehicle charging stations, $400 billion to upfit peoples' houses and commercial buildings to be more environmentally friendly. I mean, it's basically taken the tenants of the 'Green New Deal' and calling it infrastructure."
While Mann also spoke briefly on several other topics during his remarks, a significant portion of the question and answer time during the town hall focused on elections.
In response to questioning his vote against certifying the 2020 election, he explained his reasoning as coming down to how the electors of each state were selected.
"The metric I looked at, and said I can't - when I get sworn in on Sunday, say I'm going to uphold the constitution, then vote to certify states where our constitution, Article 2, was clearly broken - and that was the case in the four states, that I voted to not certify."
But despite the vote, he said Joe Biden is president.
In response to another question about the events in the capital on Jan. 6, he said the Senate report was "pretty good" after a thorough investigation, but the House investigation was looking to be politically motivated but said understanding what happened at every level is important.
After taking questions on other topics, the 2020 election was again questioned.
"If we don't get to the bottom of 2020, we are down the tubes," an audience member said. "You'll be speaking Chinese; your grandkids will speak Chinese."
"The bedrock of this whole deal is our faith and trust in our elections and in democracy," Mann said.
"There is no trust in this election," the commenter said, claiming votes were changed. "Because those machines were connected to the internet. They flipped hundreds of thousands, millions of votes."
Mann did not respond to the comments.
When asked about his thoughts on the 2022 election, he noted that typically the party not holding the presidency would expect to gain seats in congress.
But again, an audience member pushed the question of election integrity.
"We'll never have another fair and legitimate election until we get to the bottom of 2020," they said. "That's a fact. They are going to keep cheating the same way every single time. Because they can. ... I'm sorry, none of this makes any difference until we get to the bottom of that. He is an illegitimate administration. Period."
Mann again did not directly respond to the comment.