JISD 'upside down' $327,000 on debt service

Congressman Mac Thornberry visited Jacksboro last week and spoke at a luncheon hosted by the Jack County Republican Party.

Thornberry, as chairman of the Armed Services Committee for the House of Representatives, recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan where he met with military men and women concerning their mission and needs.

“Because of that part of my job, I think a lot about the amazing times we are all living in,” Thornberry said. “I suspect if you went back and talked to people in the middle of World War II or other situations, they would know that a lot of stuff was happening around them, but they wouldn’t know how it was going to come out. They didn’t know if we were going to win World War II or that we were finally going to get out of the Great Depression. I think we’re in one of those times now, where there is a lot of change happening and we don’t know for sure how it’s going to come out.”

He mentioned a recent article by former Sen. Phil Graham in which he states now is only the second time since the Civil War that there was an economic recession that took so long to bounce back from.

“If you look at all of the challenges that we’re facing around the world and we’ve had witnesses in front of my committee, we have never had so many serious challenges facing us at the same time as we face right now,” Thornberry said.

“We are living through a political campaign like nobody has ever seen before in this country. Good or bad, nobody’s every seen anything like it.”

Thornberry spoke about the Republican Party’s new positive agenda focusing on six areas including overhauling Obamacare in a way that allows for those with pre-existing conditions to be insured, but that stops driving up the cost of health care. 

“We decided this year, we would set up in six different categories, a positive agenda, put down in black and white what we’re for and then offer it to the country,” he said. “The hope was that if we could put down specifics we could help shape the debate, the campaign this year. The people will be able to give us feedback on it and we will have a blueprint with which to operate starting in January with the new congress.”