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Politics & Government

Congressman Talks Deficit With High School Students

Congressman Dan Lungren visited Laguna Creek High School on Tuesday, taking part in a question-and-answer session with students on a range of national and foreign issues.

For one politician, it was an opportunity to look a younger generation of constituents in the eye and tell them: The future doesn’t look good—at least not at this rate.

Congressman Dan Lungren spoke Tuesday afternoon to a group of roughly 50 Advanced Placement students in the theater at Laguna Creek High School. Lungren, who represents California’s third congressional district that includes Sacramento County, discussed a range of national and foreign issues with the Elk Grove students.

The biggest topic of the day, though, was the mounting federal budget deficit and its lasting effects on the teenagers' generation.

“It most likely will be paid off by you and your children,” Lungren told the students. “Before you pay for your government, you’re going to have to pay your debt and the interest on that debt.”

Laguna Creek Student Body President Hannah Muldavin helped run the event and was listening closely as her congressman discussed the impact of today’s deficit on future generations.

“It’s not that I am angry at previous generations, but we do need to figure something out and my major concern is that the Republicans and the Democrats can come to a compromise,” Muldavin said. “That’s how we will pass the deficit off our shoulders.”

Lungren said after his discussion that he wanted the students to know government is accessible to them, and not just shrug their shoulders and walk off.

“My hope is that they will take seriously this fiscal crisis that is approaching us because it’s going to impact them for a far longer time,” Lungren said. “It’s interesting to see their reactions. They might disagree with how you are going to resolve it, but they don’t dismiss the possibility that this is a serious issue that impacts them.”

Students in attendance were able to ask both prepared and non-scripted questions.

One student asked the congressman about his thoughts on the United States’s involvement in foreign countries, specifically citing Egypt, Libya and Syria.

“I don’t have a simple answer,” Lungren said. “I do think that for instance what we are doing in Libya, we ought to have an established policy and follow through with that policy right now.”

Then, there were some of the more fun questions from students who are tuned into cable news politics.

A student asked for Lungren thoughts on Democrat Nancy Pelosi, knowing the Republican congressman would have some interesting words on the Democratic House Minority Leader.

“I have a respect for her,” Lungren said. “I have strong disagreements for her on policy and the way that she leads her party. … She seems to overreach all the time. She won’t take 80 percent of what she wants; she has to have 110 percent. As a result, we get a stalemate far more often.”

He also took a light tone with one student who asked if he saw the Tea Party as a threat to the Republican party.

“No, I don’t think it’s a threat,” the congressman said. “I think Donald Trump is a threat. He’s been on every side of every issue. Hey, he’s shameless about it. … I am absolutely amazed by the amount of press he is getting on this.”

The congressman’s visit also included a student-led tour of the high school’s campus.

“I think it’s important for [students] to see that they may be in that role someday,” said James Harper, a social science teacher at Laguna Creek who helped organize the appearance. “Somewhere in America right now is the future President of the United States and I don’t know what his or her name is, but he or she is in high school—maybe here.”

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