Jodi Marze | Picayune Item
Talking shop: Congressman Stephen Palazzo spoke in Picayune Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-4th Miss., discussed at length the omnibus spending bill that Congress just passed and also discussed the Affordable Care Act when he addressed the Coffee with Congressman Palazzo event on Tuesday.

He also spoke on his good relationship with Picayune’s mayor, council and the county board of supervisors.

“It’s been a great partnership with my office and your mayor, city council members and supervisors,” he said. “Everybody has a common interest in improving quality of life for residents and improving economic development for this community. I believe this is not a pass through location but a destination location.”

Palazzo then gave a legislative update that included commenting on the $1.1 trillion omnibus bill and the Affordable Health Care Act.

“We just passed the ominous spending bill for 2014 and while it is not the best bill it is certainly not worst,” he said. “Inside the bill, it addressed Obamacare which is the poster child for greatest government overreach program, ever. It struck the $1 billion dollar slush fund and took $10 million from the Payment Advisory Board that determines what will be covered.

He added that with the Affordable Care Act, we have basically taken 85 percent who had insurance and sacrificed their policies for the 15 percent who didn’t have it and probably didn’t want it.

“I don’t think anyone I serve with on either party intends for negative things to come from their actions but it is the unintended consequences that come into play,” he said.

Palazzo spoke to the group about military issues the omnibus bill addressed.

“I’m also happy to see that we were able to restore some funding for military safety equipment. The world is not becoming a safer place, quite the opposite. It is a far more dangerous place. Men and women who serve our country deserve better equipment and we achieved that with this bill.”

Palazzo also spoke about the Murray-Ryan budget agreement that cut military retirement benefits.

“Currently, hearings are scheduled to fight that, but we have already restored some of the funding to our retired veterans” he said. “I do believe from talking to leadership we will be able to restore some of those cuts.”

Palazzo told the group that the country has to cut spending, balance the budget and grow the economy.

“We have got to grow the economy,” he said. “We are not the nation we could be and it’s mainly because of this administration and regulations.

“We are $17 trillion in debt. We didn’t get there over night and we won’t come out of this overnight, but we have to start working in that direction. This is the 4th year we have reduced spending, we haven’t done that since the Korean War.”

He said another obstacle we face, as a country is uncertainty.

“We need growth but right now I would settle for certainty. We must be able to plan our lives and plan our businesses,” Palazzo said. “We live in the greatest country. There is no better country and no better people.”