New U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Heath) told a “Coffee with the Congressman” public meeting in Gilmer on Wednesday that the Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare,” should be repealed, and he suggested several possible alternatives for dealing with health care costs.

Ratcliffe, whose 18-county Fourth Congressional District of Texas includes most of Upshur County, addressed numerous other issues at Wednesday’s event, attended by about 25-30 persons at the Black Kettle Cafe.

The former federal prosecutor took office in January after ousting the oldest member ever of the U.S. House of Representatives, 91-year-old Ralph Hall, in the 2014 Republican runoff.

After speaking for less than 15 minutes, Ratcliffe opened the floor for a question-and-answer session which lasted more than 50 minutes and which covered several diverse topics. They ranged from Obamacare and the closing of area hospitals to division within the Republican Party and government subsidizing rural telephone cooperatives.

He termed Obamacare “the worst piece of legislation,” charging it is “intrusive” and “expensive” and not working. The congressman also said that the most heartbreaking of problems he hears about from constituents involve the Affordable Care Act.

Ratcliffe said people tell him their health insurance premiums have swelled from $235 monthly to about $800. In addition, he said, the act has caused businesses to make full-time workers only part-time.

“I don’t fault the President for the goal,” he said. “The vehicle is the problem. I think it needs to be repealed.”

While President Obama will veto any repeal approved by Congress, he said, a U.S. Supreme Court case scheduled to be decided in June might result in striking down the law on the issue of its subsidizing some people’s health insurance costs.

Ratcliffe said he wants to “move forward” on a “repeal and replace bill” when a new president takes office. He said it was “noble” for Mr. Obama to address the matter of allowing those with pre-existing medical conditions to get coverage, and that should be addressed.

He also said he favored flattened universal tax treatment for all health insurance coverage, portable care (allowing someone who leaves one job to take their coverage to their new one), and allowing insurance to be sold across state lines, which he said would increase competition and lower costs.

Ratcliffe also said “tort reform” (limits on medical lawsuits) had worked in Texas, and that he favored Health Savings Accounts.

Replying to a question from Gilmer resident Robert Cox on what he thought of the closing of northeast Texas hospitals (Gilmer’s closed last year), Ratcliffe indicated he thought Obamarcare could cause rural hospitals to shut down. The congressman argued that was one reason the law “needs to go away.”

During the question session, Ratcliffe on his own raised the issue of the nation’s recent negotiations with Iran. Citing his background as a terrorism prosecutor, he said the negotiations are “one of the great threats” to the United States and that the Iranians should have no right to a nuclear weapon since “they cannot be trusted.

“We had sanctions in place that were crippling the Iranian economy,” but were lifted, he lamented. The congressman said he was not advocating war with Iran, but favored “sticking with the sanctions that were working” since “this is a country that hates America” and could cause “chaos” here.

As for the Middle East situation overall, Ratcliffe termed Israel “our most important and strategic ally in the most volatile region in the world,” and called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent address to Congress a “fantastic speech.”

The congressman noted he is on the House’s Homeland Seucurity Committee dealing with violent Islamic terrorists. He said the difference in his two teenage daughters and terrorists is that “on occasion, we are able to negotiate with terrorists.”

Asked about another topic, divisions in the GOP between its leadership and conservatives, Ratcliffe said, “We need to do a better job of trying to find common ground with ourselves.”

The freshman congressman expressed concern that making a change in the House speakership could result in electing “someone less conservative than (controversial Speaker) John Boehner.” Ratcliffe said Republicans “don’t have enough conservatives the way I define conservatives” to replace Boehner.

“We have diverse thinkers (in the Republican Party) and the diversity helps us,” whereas Democrats “herd together like sheep,” Ratcliffe said.

Saying he was “not big on labels,” such as “constitutional conservative,” he said, “I’m a person that’s hard to put in a box.” For example, he noted he had been in a minority which voted against the so-called “doc fix,” which increases government payments to doctors, and which Ractliffe objected added $140 billion to the national debt.

During his speech, the representative said he would hire a veteran to be a “liaison” with veterans, and that veterans’ issues will be “an area of focus” for him.

“Almost one out of every two calls (to his office) is a veteran dealing with some issue,” Ratcliffe said. He said the government needs to do a better job on such issues, and Upshur County Pct. 2 Commissioner Don Gross thanked him from the audience for his actions to help veterans.

Ratcliffe also said he had cast 142 votes during his first three months in the House, including one to defund President Obama’s executive amnesty. The new congressman additionally said he had co-sponsored legislation approving the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, that he introduced “the most conservative balanced budget proposal” in Congress, and that he proposed preventing executive amnesty.

Ratcliffe also said he would introduce legislation on cybersecurity. Besides noting breaches of computerized information from such large businesses as Anthem, Target and Home Depot, he said there are threats to the nation’s infrastructure in cyberspace.

In fact, a hacker could control the core temperature in a nuclear reactor or even what prescription a doctor gives someone, Ratcliffe said.

On another topic, he said, “I’m desperately trying to get rid of the Department of Education.”

As for his voting record overall, the Congressman noted that of 57 freshmen in the House, he was among only four to receive a 100 percent rating from the Heritage Foundation (a conservative group). The congressman said that when voting on an issue, he always asks himself first, “Is it constitutional?”

Ratcliffe said he believes “in more freedom and less government.”

“What you don’t need is unelected bureaucrats making laws and legislating” as now occurs. Noting he was on the regulatory reform subcommittee, he said part of his mission will probably be preventing governmental expansion.

After the congressman noted he had toured Etex Telephone in Gilmer before coming to the town hall, the vice-president of the telephone cooperative’s board, Lindley Hagler, asked him whether Etex would survive if government got out of the way since Etex receives a 60 percent governmental subsidy.

Ratcliffe replied he did not know if that figure was accurate. Hagler said it was and called on Etex General Manager Charlie Cano, who confirmed it.

(After the meeting, Cano clarified this, saying the cooperative is a regulated industry which receives 60 percent of its revenue from a governmental subsidy, but that the other portion of Etex, called Etex Communications, is unregulated and receives no governmental funds. Etex Communications provides internet, cable television and long distance services).

Hagler argued that without the subsidy, citizens living in the “boondocks” would have no telephone service. Ratcliffe responded that the Internet was created without government help, and that while the federal government has “a role that we should play,” the private market is why “we have what we have in this country.”

On various other topics, Ratcliffe said he wanted to make it where foreigners “don’t want to come” to the United States for governmental benefits (which drew applause), and condemned the Environmental Protection Agency for “essentially interpreting the waters of the U.S.” to include bar ditches in front of homes and puddles in residential back yards.

He said legislation is pending to rein in the EPA.

The new congressman also said he had committed to hosting at least six town halls yearly, and that he was in the midst of having that many in less than two weeks. He said he had “talked about engaging” with the public as “I’m a new face to many of you,” and that he wanted to sit down and visit with constituents.

Ratcliffe noted he had recently held a telephone town hall involving 9,500 participants from his district, and “I cannot represent people if I don’t understand what they care about.”

He additionally said that his predecessor, Hall, who served 34 years in the House, “has been very gracious to me.”

Ratcliffe also revealed he had toured Etex Telephone for an hour to an hour and a half, meeting its employees, and found it “an impressive facility.

“The technology over there is amazing,” he said, adding he is “fighting for businesses like Etex here in Gilmer.”

Cano briefly introduced Ratcliffe at the town hall, and the Congressman noted that Cano and his wife had driven in a “driving rainstorm” to Ratcliffe’s home town of Heath on election night, which “spoke to what the people in this county mean to me.”