Candidate Calls for a New Perception of 17th District

Waco's Hub City Location Makes Infrastructure A Priority

Waco is a resource for the entire 17th Congressional
District, according to Dr. Dave McIntyre.

If there is a major disaster in the Metroplex, a nuclear
attack, for instance, evacuation calls for routing people
through Waco. Similarly, a hurricane at Galveston or
Freeport involves moving people through the Central Texas
area to safety. San Antonio refugees would have to seek
safety from an attack or a major weather event along a
northerly route that naturally heads through Waco.

It's a matter of perception, but that perception is key to
solving problems for the entire district, he said in an
exclusive radio interview piped in to websites from Burleson
to Bryan/College Station on Saturday night by GOP Is For
Me.com

"How did we move casualties out of New Orleans in Katrina?"
he asked interviewer Duke Machado.

"We moved them by air, but we don't have sufficient ramp
space to handle the aircraft...We have to use geography to
our advantage instead of worrying about each individual
community. Does that make sense to you?"

He pointed out how news photos showed aircraft parked on the
grass in Haiti's overcrowded airports, waiting for the
chance to load and unload on inadequate ramps and
hardstands.

The same problem would prove true in Waco, he said.

Water resources?

"They have one of the strongest water programs in the world
down at Texas A&M...but where did they go to run a
demonstration program? They went over to Beaumont...

"We're just not thinking of ourselves as a district."

Ambulance services, both air and surface, are woefully
inadequate, but more important, where are the trauma centers
needed to deal with the needs of massive casualties that
will surely come as a result of nuclear or biological
attack?

"We need to quit chasing grants for 10 jobs here or 30 jobs
there," he emphasized.

Key to solving the 17th District's infrastructure problems
is a new perception of McLennan County's central location,
as the place where all the roads cross the Brazos at Waco.

He scoffed at the reality that this location is fighting for
priority at the Federal trough with metropolitan areas which
have similarly sized populations, but smaller real needs to
service their regions when compared to Waco's focal point as
a transportation hub in a massive state that is a pathway to
Mexico, the Gulf Coast, South Texas, the Metroplex, the West
Texas oil fields and the west coast of the U.S.

The rail transportation infrastructure of the Johnson County
area, the watershed and aquifers of Somervelle, Bosque and
Hill Counties, the technology centers of the Bryan/College
Station Texas A&M complex - it all adds up to a
Congressional District anchored by Waco, crossroads of the
state.

As a Congressman, how would a person change the minds of
decision makers in such power centers as the U.S. Department
of Transportation, the Army Corps of Engineers and the
Department of Health and Human Services.

Freshman Representatives have the smallest staffs, the
basement offices without windows, the slimmest of committee
assignments. The outlook is bleak that the rest of the
Congressional leadership will come running to service the
needs of a newcomer.

His approach to identifying the real needs and bringing them
to the forefront of national decision-makers?

"I'm raising the question of how do we integrate our
interest across this district? How do the leaders want to
focus their efforts?

"I'd like to show you how we have a district where the
pieces all come together."

As a Colonel with 30 years Army experience, 22 of them spent
studying questions of national security and the last 10
years working directly with the government's umbrella
agency, the Department of Homeland Security, he spent his
time thinking and writing about the needs of regions across
the nation to withstand any kind of disaster or war.

How would a Congressman deal with the same issues in the
17th District?

"You don't just sit down and make out your list of earmarks.
What does Waco want? Check. What does Bryan want? Check.
What does Cleburne want? Check."

He said working through the Department of Homeland Security
to identify and gauge the interest of the local leadership
is key to finding the money and resources to attack the
problems as they exist on the ground.

But the key is money.

With a mounting debt in the trillions, the nation is now
experiencing an ability to deal with a Federal deficit that
amounts to about 30 cents on each dollar.

But interest rates are at the minimum. What happens when
the interest rates rise?

"You're looking at a government budget that just sucked a
trillion dollars out of the economy..."

If the government goes bankrupt, "Everyone who sells office
supplies to the government goes out of business. Everyone
who works for the government stops spending money."

The economic problems will begin to cascade in manifest
ways.

The key?

Aircraft transportation came as a result of government-
funded research. The same is true of the tremendous strides
made in medical science. The government funded most of the
research in medical and pharmaceutical sciences. The
internet? It's a product of a government project that was
made to service the needs of the military complex, but was
later turned to civilian purposes of communications,
marketing and information management.

The result? An economic bubble surfed by millions of people
for a decade-long period of economic expansion.

The 17th District must find a regional approach to compete
for the biggest bang from the Federal buck, he concluded.