Congressman Walter B. Jones did not attend this week’s Beaufort County Republican Club meeting to raise campaign funds.
His current campaign for reelection was an afterthought in his speech.
Jones passed around to the full tables of Golden Corral a petition to bring troops home from Afghanistan before the current 2014 deadline.
“How many more have to die before December, 2014?” Jones said.
Jones said Mitt Romney missed an opportunity to gain points in the polls by not saying he would bring troops home sooner than 2014 during the last presidential debate.
He recommended troops start returning in summer, 2013.
The audience erupted when Jones said, “I’m all for fixing America’s problems first and to heck with the rest of the world.”
First and foremost on Jones’ list was the national deficit. He predicted the nation’s collapse if the problem was not addressed.
“The interest on our national deficit is almost $1 trillion a day. How can you pretend to be so powerful if you’re not paying your bills?” Jones said. “Our children should curse us the rest of our life if we don’t deal with this problem right now.”