Harris bus tour stops in Salisbury

As I wrote yesterday, leg number one of Andy Harris's districtwide bus tour was scheduled to stop in Salisbury this morning, and indeed it did.

Along for the ride was, among others, Harris campaign chair and two-time candidate for governor Ellen Sauerbrey.

Speaking in front of about two dozen supporters including fellow State Senator Rich Colburn, Harris outlined his plans should he be elected.

Telling those gathered that "we can no longer be the silent majority," Harris described the need for a turnaround, as he represented a group who liked the America we had prior to the growth of government.

Turning to the health care bill, Andy opined that, "the government doesn't think you can make the best decisions" - we didn't need bureaucrats to do the jobs physicians should be doing.

Harris then discussed the lack of jobs in the First District. While Maryland as a whole has an unemployment rate significantly below the national average, 7 of the 9 Eastern Shore counties suffer from double-digit unemployment rates. "The approach in Washington is wrong," said Harris, who advocated an across-the-board tax cut to help solve the problem.

His best applause line, though, concerned the ouster of Nancy Pelosi should the GOP win back the majority in Congress this year. It came after he concluded that part of Washington's problem was spending and that having a value-added tax (VAT) would make the problem worse.

Harris was kind enough to take a few questions after his prepared remarks.

The first had to do with immigration reform, as Arizona is primed to pass tough anti-illegal immigration legislation. Indeed, the federal government should enforce immigration laws but we do need legal immigrants to supplement our labor force, said Harris.

What can we do about health care reform now? asked another. "The health care debate is not over," Andy stated. While some of the provisions are agreeable, the taxes on items such as durable medical devices will have a deleterious effect on care as a whole. But Congress does have the power of the purse and can choose not to fund the most egregious portions of the bill.

In that vein, I asked, is there some sort of workaround to keep the Bush tax cuts around beyond their expiration date at the end of this year?

While Andy didn't have an answer as to tactics, he did correctly note that this uncertainty affects business decisions - entrepreneurs are "waiting for a signal" from the federal government on a number of issues including taxation.

Returning to health care, the final question posed regarded turning health care back to the states. Harris noted that some states (like Maryland) do just fine with the system they have while others like Massachusetts are struggling. The federal government should have little to do with health care, he said.

Harris spent about 30 minutes in Salisbury, which was longer than I expected. But I knew this would be the prime media stop.

Besides the WBOC reporter - who left before Harris actually spoke from the podium - and the Daily Times, the media cabal consisted of myself and a couple other local bloggers.

But one remark from Andy I overheard as he was preparing to leave seems to be the thought we all have on our minds: "November is our last chance...I'm convinced of that." Given the direction our nation is being dragged into, I think Harris just may be right.

One other observation - unless he said it in a private conversation, I never heard the name of his opponent cross his lips during this stop, a stop held within sight of his district office. Hopefully it's a sign of a clean campaign.