Whitfield talks briefly during Town Meeting here last week

Clinton County played host to it’s U.S. Representative last Wednesday morning, when Ed Whitfield made a stop at the Clinton County Courthouse for a brief “Town Hall” meeting in Albany.

Whitfield, (Rep.-1st), spoke for about 10 minutes in the upstairs circuit courtroom to an audience of about 20 local residents, giving updates on several issues that the U.S. Congress is currently addressing.

During his stop here last Wednesday, he touched briefly on the Obamacare health insurance issue, coal production in Kentucky and the United States among other issues.

Whitfield blamed the problems surrounding the health insurance situation and the energy crisis in America on the current Obama administration.

On the Obamacare issue, Whitfield said that when the bill was presented on the House floor, then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama refused to allow any amendments to be made to the bill.

“That’s a terrible disregard to the legislative process because as you know, the legislative process is about amendments, debate and trying to come up with the best product,” Whitfield said. “Barrack Obama and his administration made the decision about what they wanted in this bill and they did not want the bill amended in any way.”

Whitfield said that the President’s two goals after winning the last election, was to change healthcare in America as well as to change the way electricity is produced in America.

Whitfield noted that at the time of that election, the nation was in the “middle of a recession and everyone wanted to talk about creating jobs.”

On the issue of the reduction of coal production and clean air, he also blamed President Obama for steps that he says are harming coal producing jobs and coal related economic impact in Kentucky and the nation.

“The president has decided that he wants to be an international champion on this issue, so what has happened is, Congress didn’t pass any laws, but through executive order and EPA regulations, we in America find ourselves now where we cannot even build any new coal fired plants because the technology is not available to meet these stringent omission standards set by the EPA” Whitfield said.

He added that although European countries are in fact building new coal fired energy plants and exporting coal from the U.S., because of the new strict standards, America doesn’t have the flexibility to construct any new coal fired energy production plants.

Whitfield, who is facing Democrat Charles Hatchett in this fall’s general election, spent only a brief amount of time at the close of Wednesday’s meeting “stumping” for votes, simply reminding the small group in the courtroom that he was in a race on the fall ballot and would appreciatate everyone’s support.

The Congressman’s stop here last week was part of a tour of the 31 counties in his 1st Congressional District, of which Clinton County is included.