Congressman Bobby Bright told Andalusia Lions Club members Wednesday Congress needs to forget about party lines and focus on “righting the country and fixing the economy.”

“(Congress doesn’t) need to compromise our values,” Bright said. “We need to do things on behalf of our country. We need to keep everything working for our people and don’t put party labels ahead of our country.”

Bright, who was elected to a first term representing District 2 in 2008, is up for re-election this year. He spoke Wednesday to a group of more than 30 club members, their spouses and special guests and discussed how he considered himself “not a Republican or a Democrat, but rather an American elected to address the issues (his constituents) want addressed.”

“You are my boss,” he said. “(This country) is in a quandary, and (Congress) needs to quit being divided. We all have a goal of having a strong country, and we need to work on getting our country on solid ground.”

The No.1 priority in Congress should be correcting the economy – not health care reform, he said.

“We should focus every effort on our economy first and foremost,” he said. “We should have been addressing it for the last 48 months. Instead we tried to do health care reform.

“(Health care reform) should not be something that adds tremendous debt. We all believe we should have access to health care, but we need to do it right and be able (for the nation) to afford it. If we did what is on the table now, it would break our country.”

Questions posed by Lions members ranged from differences between the political parties and regulations in federal government to Bright’s accessibility to his constituents.

“I want to know how we can get rid of greed in the federal government,” said Jimmy Kirkland.

“I think the federal government should be concerned about two things,” Bright said. “One, having a sound military defense and two, helping protect the middle class, poor and small companies from powerful corporations. If there is no oversight of those large corporations and we sit back and let them regulate themselves, greed sets in.”

Lion Kylan Lewis questioned Bright about scheduling a traditional town hall meeting in the area.

Bright said he is working establish a date, time and location for an open forum; however, constituents are free to contact his office with questions at any time.

Bright’s office may be reached by calling Montgomery at (334) 277-9113; Dothan at (334) 794-9680,; Opp at (334) 493-9253; or Ozark at (334) 445-4600 or on the Web at bright.house.gov.