Representing the 8th district, which includes the Morongo Basin, Congressman Jay Obernolte addressed the Twentynine Palms Rotary Club yesterday to discuss governmental issues of both concern and promise. Reporter Heather Clisby has details …
Representing one of the largest congressional districts in the state and the nation, District 8, Rep. Jay Obernolte addressed the Twentynine Palms Rotary Club yesterday on a variety of topics.
The congressman was clearly most concerned about the financial risks of a perpetually unbalanced budget and the perilous habit of deficit spending. “You have the folks on the left who also recognize the need to balance the budget but would rather deficit spend than cut funding, and then you have the folks on the right who would rather deficit spend than increase taxes,” said Obernolte. “You think about rolling a beach ball between two hills, the beach ball kind of settles at the bottom. That’s what happens – it happens to be the political low point, the path of least resistance.” The congressman repeatedly stressed the need for a constitutional amendment that would require an annual balanced budget.
Noting the high rate of inflation, “the fastest rate of inflation in 40 years,” Obernolte stressed the effects on low-income populations, especially in California which has the highest rates of poverty and homelessness in the nation. He stated that about 19-20 percent of Californians live below the poverty line and 12 percent live close to the poverty line. “So roughly a third of our population in this state is struggling to get by day-to-day and they cannot afford this rise in inflation,” said the congressman.
Obernolte did drop a notes of “cautious optimism,” one regarding the possible advancement of a wastewater treatment facility at the Marine base, saying the city may receive funding from the National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Biden last month.
Calling it one of his “top priorities in Congress,” Obernolte is addressing the long-overdue need for deferred maintenance funding in Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave National Preserve. The congressman serves on the National Resources Committee and has spoken to Deb Haaland, Secretary of the Interior, regarding the issue.
“I don’t think that the changes in visitorship that we have seen as the result of the pandemic that have resulted in such a big spike in traffic through Twentynine Palms and traffic through the national parks, I don’t see that going back to the way it was completely when the pandemic goes away. I think that some of this change is permanent and so we need to address these infrastructure problems and build new infrastructure to support this new level of visitorship because it’s here to stay and I think that it’s our job as stewards of the public trust to make sure that we’re ready for those visitors.” – Rep. Olbernolte
The congressman also delivered some gratitude. “I just want to say thank you because I have been in government 17 years and I have very rarely seen a community come together the way that Twentynine Palms came together last year to oppose the placement of a sexually violent predator.”
Obernolte also expressed frustration around healthcare and how it exacerbates our economic problems. “The only way to solve the problem of balancing the budget is to address healthcare costs because that’s the fastest growing part of the federal budget and that’s what, in large part, responsible for getting us into deficit in the first place.”
Last month, Obernolte announced his campaign for re-election. Currently representing the 8th Congressional District, Obernolte will seek the new term for the 23rd District. The change is due to redistricting. The newly drawn 23rd Congressional District comprises approximately 85 percent of the 8th District, including the Morongo Basin.
