CARENCRO — With Congress in recess, U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany used the time to meet with constituents Tuesday.

“I’m just here to listen. I want their ideas,” the Lafayette Republican said.

He also shared with the dozens of concerned citizens a new website — AmericaSpeakingOut

.com — that he said is being used to gather idea in preparation for a new Contract with America.

“This will be used as a vehicle by the House Republicans, and I want to make sure our district is represented,” Boustany said.

The earlier Contract with America was issued in 1994 and is often credited with helping the Republican Party gain control of both houses of Congress for the first time in more than 40 years.

He said the website is interactive, allowing people to have a voice in deciding which issues are most important in helping shape a new direction for the nation.

“This will be a new agenda to get our country moving again,” Boustany said.

Much of Boustany’s talk was focused on the nation’s problems, and he laid almost all the blame at the feet of the Democrats, which currently control both houses of Congress.

Taking The Biggest Hits Were The Growing Federal Deficit And The New

health-care plan, which Boustany argues will only added to an already unsustainable level of debt.

On these and other issues, Boustany’s attacks on President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress drew heavy applause.

“We can’t fix this,” Sandy Hindelang of Lafayette said of the health-care plan to loud applause. “We need to repeal this. We want it out.”

Boustany said that might be impossible, but said Republicans have a strategy to gut the plan by cutting off funding to its various parts.

“We will go after the parts to make it fall apart,” said Boustany, who argued Republicans are unlikely to get the 60 voters they need in the Senate to kill the measure outright.

While much of his talk was about what is wrong with the path the Democrats are taking, Boustany insisted that Republicans can’t just be the party of “no” — the GOP needs to come up with a plan to move the country forward.

For Boustany, that means balancing the federal budget, developing a credible plan to deal with the debt that already exists and making America competitive again.

He argued these are not Democratic or Republican goals, but goals that all Americans

should support.

“We need to do what is right for the country — period,” Boustany said.

Finally he urged everyone to vote, arguing elections are decide by those who show up.

“On Nov. 2, there will be an awakening,” Boustany predicted, referring to the upcoming federal elections in which most polls show Republicans making major gains.