Club Program 01/24/2024 – Congressman Cliff Bentz

We had a great turnout of club members on Wednesday, 1/24, for our featured speaker, Congressman Cliff Bentz. The Congressman was introduced by club member Bob Wise.

Congressman Bentz’s presentation included; an overview of the size/geographical coverage of his district, a glimpse into his schedule and travel between Oregon and Washington D.C, a look at his work on both the House Natural Resources and House Judiciary Committees, a brief discussion of the national deficit and growing interest payments, a look at the U.S. split of discretionary versus non-discretionary spending, and the discretionary spending allocation within Oregon. Congressmen Bentz covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time so that he could field as many questions from the audience as possible.

Questions from club members included such topics as; the future of Social Security and Congress’ plans to address the projected shortfalls ahead, the apparent delay on approving spending in support of Ukraine and Israel, and whether or not Congress is, or should be, discussing tax increases to reduce the deficit.

A great presentation with a lot of interesting data and food for thought.