LIVE BLOG: Rep. Harris Talks Debt at Kingsville Town Hall Meeting

Republican Rep. Andy Harris held a town hall meeting at the 's hall Monday evening.

The following updates were recorded live during the meeting.

5:03 p.m. Harris introduced Republican state and county elected officials in attendance. He then began showing slides about the national debt.

5:04 p.m. His third slide titled, "Tidal Wave of Debt" was also shown at his in March.

5:05 p.m. He predicts that by 2081, the national debt will exceed a 700 percent share of Americas GDP. His debt prediction was shown in a large red slope on a graph on a slide.

5:08 p.m. Harris showed a pie chart of mandatory expenditures and discretionary expenditures, like defense and non-defense spending.

5:10 p.m. Harris: "Obviously you can't solve the long-term problems ... just be cutting discretionary spending."

5:12 p.m. Harris showed a graph showing that medicare spending is "the one I think is the most dramatic."

5:13 p.m. Harris: "10,000 baby boomers enter Medicare every day now."

5:15 p.m. Based on my photograph from the last , Harris is wearing the same shirt and tie that he wore before.

5:16 p.m. Harris said that 46 percent of national debt was held by foreigners. "Whoever holds your debt holds your destiny," he said.

5:18 p.m. Harris says he did not vote for the debt-reduction congressional supercommittee because "supercommittees are not in the Constitution." He said that their plan to cut $1.2 trillion was not strong enough.

5:20 p.m. An attendee asked a question about illegal immigrants on medicaid and how it contributes to national debt. Harris says he agrees with that.

Harris: "We should start with waste, fraud and abuse."

5:22 p.m. Harris shared a plan by the Mississippi governor who forced people to come in and reapply for medicaid every year. "We have to police that and we don't do it enough," he said.

5:23 p.m. Harris said the federal "disability [welfare] program is rapidly going bankrupt."

5:25 p.m. An attendee said he is "very pessimistic ... this boggles my mind... it's just back and forth... I think we need to get rid of the president and party in power."

Harris says the most surprising thing he's seen, "it's these [debt] numbers." He says he is disappointed that government is not acting on cutting more spending.

"Given the current players, we probably have to have another election," Harris said.

"It can't get any worse than this," he said.

5:29 p.m. An attendee said he is concerned about U.S. investment in European debt.

5:30 p.m. "You're not the only person pessimistic now. I'm pessimistic watching Europe ... the domino is scary," Harris said.

5:32 p.m. An attendee was unhappy about few arrests and investigations into actions by Wall Street executives.

Harris said, "the overhang of the foreclosures ... I'm surprised that they seem to have gotten away with it." 

"Bad decisions were made ... some of it stems from the federal government urging banks to make bad loans," he said.

5:35 p.m. An attendee asked about insider trading allegations. "How do they have all this insider trading. It's wrong," he said.

5:35 p.m. Harris responded, "Most congressman do not have access to internal business information ... it's not corporate information, it's governmental."

"You have to have absolute, real-time information. Right now, you have to wait one year to find out what [stock] trades [by congressmen] are going on. You have to wait a long period of time. One thing that's a good idea is immediate reporting ... I think that's reasonable," he said.

"Beyond that, I'm not sure how you could regulate it," Harris said. "Any investment you make could be made on so-called insider information."

5:38 p.m. An attendee said he is concerned about the value of the dollar and think it would be a good idea to turn to the gold standard.

5:39 p.m. "The concept is good but [Rep. Ron Paul] has to convince me that there's enough gold in the world to back our money ... I support the concept," Harris said.

4:45 p.m. Patch asked why community members were not given more advance notice about the meeting. They were informed about 24 hours before the meeting. Harris said the email that was supposed to go out was delayed and he said he'd talk to staffers about it.

He said he didn't think that more people would have attended if he had given more notice.

5:46 p.m. An attendee asked why the budget isn't balanced and shared concern about Chinese buyers of debt.

5:49 p.m. "We must pass a balanced budget amendment," Harris said.

5:50 p.m. Attendee: "I'm surprised that people are being so gentle with you. ... We sent you and a lot of people like you to Washington, but a year later, it's not enough to say that it's just not happening. What do we have to do, go to Washington with pitch forks and torches?"

5:51 p.m. Harris said he still believes in a balanced budget amendment and will continue trying to get it passed.

5:52 p.m. Attendee: "There's an agenda to make this country more socialist."

Harris: "I'm not sure if that's their agenda, but it's certainly happening."

5:54 p.m. Attendee said he is 69 but this is the first time he's "seen the nation come to this point," but he disagrees with the balanced budget amendment.

5:58 p.m. Harris said he must continue to promote a balanced budget amendment.

"We can try to tax our way out of it, but all we get is an economy that looks just like the Western European economy. ... During a recession is not the time to suggest tax increases," he said. "The other side said we need a $1 trillion in new taxes."

"I genuinely believe that there's a plan to make us fail, and I'm not down there to fail," Harris said.

6:01 p.m. An attendee said some industries get a free ride, like online shops. He said there needs to be a more fair federal sales tax.

Harris: "The reason why the 9-9-9 plan was so popular ... but unless you go to that kind of system that would make it a little easier, it would not affect federal revenue."

"I believe we should get rid of all the other taxes and just have a sales tax," Harris said.

6:04 p.m. Attendee: "As a Republican, I feel like Republicans are losing the political battle ... Sometimes all of you are so wrapped into what you're doing ... you don't realize what a mess the [national debt] is."

6:05 p.m. Harris: "In America, the bully pulpit is with the president ... we elected them to be a leader ... other countries don't act like that."

6:06 p.m. Harris: "The average media in this country is a little bias ... you can't really go around them ... we're sent to Washington to solve the problem ... where is it in the press? That's not news? We haven't had a balanced budget amendment [proposed] in 15 years."

6:08 p.m. An attendee said the president wants to "destroy the capitalistic society."

6:09 p.m. A few people started leaving the meeting.

6:10 p.m. Harris commented on "the overreach of executive authority" and said "president is going to [exercise] the authority over which [immigration] cases he is going to allow to be prosecuted."

"I've got local law enforcement on the Eastern Shore catching people who are here illegally and sending them to the detention center and sending them to Baltimore and the president is saying to them, don't prosecute that case," Harris said.

6:15 p.m. "[The president] is one justice away from doing whatever he wants," Harris said.

6:16 p.m. Another attendee said he is concerned about illegal immigration. "We are not this, 'we are the world' ... that destroyed our country," he said.

Harris responds: "There's an election coming up."

Harris said he would be in Perry Hall next 2-3 p.m. Dec. 19 at the

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Check back at 5 p.m. for the start of our meeting .

Republican Rep. Andy Harris plans to hold a town hall meeting at the 's hall 5-6 p.m., tonight, his office announced in a press release .

The congressman represents Maryland's 1st congressional district, which includes the entire Eastern Shore of Maryland, as well as parts of Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford Counties. The former state senator was elected to the U.S. Congress in November 2010.

During a , held at in Perry Hall on March 23, Harris focused his remarks on .

Were community members given enough notice for the meeting? What would you like to ask the congressman? Tell us in the comments.