U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., spoke for more than an hour Wednesday, answering questions from nearly 100 people who attended a town hall meeting.

Not long ago, Corker said, "It was tough getting a crowd" for a town hall meeting, but in recent months, crowds at some he has attended have swelled to the thousands.

Wednesday's meeting was attended by many who could not find seats, but stayed anyway.

Corker, a former Chattanooga mayor, said, "The Town Hall movement is the most healthy trend in American debate in 10 years. I believe that."

Corker said people attending such meetings are doing their part by standing up to be counted. The movement is affecting politics at the national level, he said, especially the health-care reform bills and the "cap and trade" issue on carbon emissions.

Corker was greeted by Greeneville Mayor Laraine King in the lobby of the Chuckwagon Bar-B-Que & Grill, and introduced to the crowd by Greene County Mayor Alan Broyles.

He spoke at length, then answered questions for even longer.

Corker got his first applause for saying that he believes that "no company is too big to fail, and a company that fails ought to go out of business."

Congress is "getting ready" to deal with a 1,176-page bill regulating financial institutions, he said.

Corker said U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., agrees with him that, when a complex financial institution fails, "there ought to be a mechanism" to let that company go out of business in an orderly, controlled way.

Corker noted that there are only 40 Republicans in the 100-member Senate, but 60 votes are needed "to make anything happen," so the key to getting things done if you are a Republican is to find moderate Democrats to work with.

He said that he and Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, agree that U.S. soldiers fighting in Afghanistan need to know what their mission is, and need to have a clear definition of success in that mission.

The audience applauded when Corker charged that this country now has "the most irresponsible, selfish political leadership this country has ever seen."

But he was applauded again when he said that although the audience "might not like to hear it, both Republicans and Democrats have been a part of that" irresponsibility for some time now. Many of the listeners appeared to agree.

In 2002, he said, the Republican-controlled Congress "passed Medicare part D without paying for it," creating a huge deficit for the program.

Later, when Corker asked for a show of hands from anyone who believes Medicare is solvent, no hands were raised, and one woman said, "Of course not."

In response to a question about a proposal by President Obama to send a $250 check to seniors on Medicare, Corker said he could not in good conscience vote for it. He noted that there were "no claps" when he said that.

Corker went on to say that the health-care bill passed Saturday night by the U.S. House by a thin 220-to-215 margin is "one of the worst pieces of legislation I've ever seen in my life."

However, "We need to solve the issue of pre-existing conditions," Corker said, "and we need tort reform," triggering not only applause but shouts of "Amen."

The House-passed health care bill is "fundamentally flawed," he said, because it uses 10 years of taxes to pay for the first six years of benefits. No business can operate that way for long, and neither can government, he said.

Corker said he has met with Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and author of the Senate version of the health care bill, "until I'm blue in the face," met with the president, and sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, stating that he and 35 other senators will not vote for the bill if it takes any more money out of Medicare.

Corker said the Obama administration is "fundamentally reordering the relationship that Washington has with the people across the country," charging that the change is "not in the best interest of the country.

Several questions dealt with the economy and jobs. Asked for a solution, Corker said that if Congress would "slow down and quit scaring corporate America" with talk of tax policies that make it impossible to plan, the private sector would right the economy by itself.

In response to questions about why illegal immigration continues and America's borders are still not secure, Corker agreed that the situation is "almost criminal."
He said it is ludicrous that government has no system that tracks whether someone who has entered this country on a visa has left the country. He noted that Federal Express knows where each of the packages in its system is at all times.

The meeting was one of 10 such sessions Sen. Corker has scheduled in Tenneseee this week.