U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx headlines GOP's Lincoln Day Dinner
By Scott Nicholson

The Watauga County Republican Party’s political and spiritual agenda were the main course at the party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday.

More than 200 people gathered at Mutton Crossing in the Bamboo area to hear keynote speaker U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, who recounted her first 100 days in Congress as well as the importance of her party’s issues. Foxx, who is from Watauga and represents the Fifth District, said it was a great honor for her to serve.

She said unlike with most other legislative bodies, members can’t be appointed to the House of Representatives, they have to be elected.

“It’s truly the people’s House,” she said.

Foxx said the party had “wonderful leadership right now”, though she said she won’t always agree with those leaders. She said she’d had the opportunity to get to know them on a personal level, and said, “They are godly people, their feet firmly on the ground, with great common sense.”

She said the current session had been extremely busy, with 2,205 bills introduced in the House.

Foxx said only 10 had become law. She said she had co-sponsored over 50 bills and important issues like repealing the death tax and prohibiting human cloning had been addressed. She said she usually spends Monday through Thursday in Washington, D.C., with the rest of her time spent in the district. She said she spends about four hours a day meeting with constituents.

Foxx also took the opportunity to criticize the opposition party, particularly minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

“The Democrats have been pretty much a party of ‘No’ this session,” Foxx said. She related her experience serving as speaker pro tem during a session and said for two hours, “no Democrats got up and talked at all.

“Their leader (Pilosi) gets on TV all the time and all she does is lambast Republicans,” Foxx said. However, she said many Democrats had voted for a lot of the bills that had passed.

“We have a great agenda and we’re moving our agenda,” Foxx said. “While they’re focusing on our leadership and trashing our president (George W. Bush), we are getting things done. We passed a budget, and it’s a good budget, and cut spending at the federal level for the first time since (former President Ronald) Reagan.”

Foxx said defense spending had been funded at strong levels, and said “the number one job of the federal government is to provide for national security.”

She said Democrats had not been coming up with any ideas. Foxx talked about the two bills she had introduced.

One would allow combat pay to be considered taxable for the purposes of investing in retirement accounts, while the other would ban automated political campaign calls. “I don’t think people in political life should exempt themselves from the laws that apply to other people,” she said.

Foxx also linked Lincoln, Reagan, and Bush as leaders. She said Lincoln “stood up and took a risk,” and Reagan also took a risk by challenging the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin Wall. She said Bush “is bringing freedom to the entire world.”

Foxx said most people recognized that Social Security was a “failed program” and a “broken system,” and said the Senate needed “a little spine” to address the issue.

She said the Republican plan would change the way people think about government and retirement, and wean people away from dependence on the federal government. “It will get people involved in paying attention to Social Security and retirement,” she said. “The Democrats have no plan.”

Foxx invited people to stop by her office on N.C. 105 Extension and urged party members to keep working on elections, saying Republicans were representing their values.

“The Democrats’ backs are against the wall, and they are determined to take back the House,” Foxx said. “It’s going to be a tough year.”

John Blust, a Republican representing the 62 N.C. Congressional District and brother of county commissioner David Blust, introduced Foxx by saying, “She is the kind of person I’d be willing to go into combat with. She is a fellow servant of our great cause.”

Blust said serving in the legislature was sometimes difficult and discouraging, saying some of the leaders lacked ideals and principles. He also said his party lacked unity in the state House.

“The ones who seem to be fighting us the most are the other Republicans,” he said adding, “if you can even call them that.” He also said he took faith in “knowing God is in control” and said the party’s ideals and principles had been expressed in the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, and through Lincoln and even British prime minister Winston Churchill, “who I still like to think of as a British Republican.”

Blust said the party’s principles had been handed down through the generations and that party members had a duty to safeguard them and pass them down. “Freedom’s always going to be an unfinished work,” he said.

Local party chair Spencer Mains said the Republican meetings across the county have been successful and introduced several of the speakers. Other elected officials on hand were county commissioners David Blust and Keith Honeycutt, Sheriff Mark Shook, school board member Lowell Younce, 24th District Attorney Jerry Wilson and 24th District Court Judge Greg Horne.

• Scott Nicholson may be contacted

at nicholson@wataugademocrat.com.