U.S. Congressman Paul Broun (R-Athens) visited Covington Tuesday as he continued his tour of his newly drawn 10th congressional district.

Broun, 65, is a medical doctor from Athens, who was first elected to Congress in 2007. His district, like all others, was redrawn this year during redistricting and Broun is meeting residents and community leaders as he seeks reelection in 2012.

Like many politicians, jobs were first and foremost on Broun's mind. He touted his jobs bill - H.R. 660: Jumpstarting Our Business Sector Act of 2011 - which would permanently eliminate capital gains, dividends taxes and the corporate tax rate.

He said lowering corporate taxes to zero would incentivize U.S. companies to move their overseas business back to the U.S., bringing back trillions of dollars in investment. Promoting service sector jobs was not a sound economic strategy Broun said, noting that the county needs to create wealth through construction and manufacturing.

He called Obama's job plan another stimulus package and said the country needs to lift regulations and taxes off of companies.

Broun is a proponent of reducing the size of the federal government - he proposed eliminating both the U.S. Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency - and wanted to return more power to states. He said the Georgia Environmental Protection Division could handle its own state issues without federal oversight.

Broun said the federal government's number one priority should be national defense and the military needs to be built up, not torn down.

He called the Occupy Wall Street movement "Woodstock on Wall Street" and said the group's philosophy is socialism. He believed most American's bedrock values included their work, family and hobbies and that they simply wanted the federal government to leave them alone.

He criticized former President George W. Bush, who he called a big government Republican, but was even more critical of President Barack Obama, who Broun said believes in socialism and is pushing the country to be more like northern European countries. He said any of the current GOP presidential candidates would be a far better choice.

Broun said he believes in the "six pillars of America:" constitutionally limited government; free enterprise; equal application of the rule of law; private property rights; individual responsibility and accountability and morality. He's worried about those pillars being eroded and wants to stop that process.

He serves on three house committees, including homeland security, natural resources and science and technology, where he is chairman of the investigations and oversight subcommittee.

There had been talk that Broun could chose to run in the 9th district, instead of his current 10th district, because much of his previous district was moved to the new 9th district. Broun said Tuesday he would run in the 10th district.

To learn more about Broun visit his web site broun.house.gov.