U.S. Representative Ronnie Shows wants people to think towards the future.

And the future of America is its children, Shows said.

Shows spoke to a group of local residents Thursday evening at Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

The visit was part of his week-long &uot;For the People Community Tour&uot; to talk with his constituents.

&uot;We made a commitment during the campaign to be visible to the community,&uot;&160;Shows said.

He said this country needs to think of its children when discussing issues like the national debt and the budget surplus.

With the national debt at $5.7 trillion, Shows thinks the country needs to take action.

&uot;If we don’t start paying on our national debt, our interest rates are going to keep getting higher and higher,&uot; Shows said.

He told the crowd of about 20 that the government should leave the $120 billion social security surplus alone and use the actual budget surplus to start paying off the debt.

&uot;That budget surplus will be nearly a trillion dollars in 10 years,&uot; Shows said.

Under a plan called the Blue-Dog Democrat, Shows thinks the government should take 50 percent of the budget surplus to start paying off the national debt.

Shows then supports taking 25 percent of that surplus to support the military, veterans, education and other issues and then use the remaining 25 percent for a reasonable tax cut. Shows also talked to the crowd about the importance of the census and the problems facing health care.

&uot;Our hospitals in rural and urban Mississippi are absolutely going out of business because of the budget caps,&uot; Show said.

Shows also wants to lower the costs of prescription drugs for Americans.

‘The people in America pay more for prescription drugs than anybody else in the world,&uot; Shows said.

Shows also presented a new American flag to Yvonne Robbins for Natchez Veterans Memorial Park.