By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT / Staff Writer

CALERA – U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, R-Ala., addressed Shelby County residents in a town hall meeting at Timberline Country Club March 10.

Shelby said when he was elected for his fifth term on the Senate in 2010, 83 percent of the Shelby County voters supported his reelection. Shelby is a ranking member on the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and serves on the Committee on Appropriations, as well as the Special Committee on Aging..

In regards to Tuesday’s primary elections, Shelby said he would be in support of the Republican candidate.

“We do have a chance to win the presidency this year,” Shelby said. “I don’t know if this Tuesday someone will move ahead of the others. It could be a fight all the way down. They’ve got to have some values and stand for something. I think they all would do OK.”

Shelby called 2012 a “pivotal year.”

“The democratic administration, this Obama administration, is the most left-wing group in Washington,” he said. “It makes Clinton look conservative in comparison.”

The U.S. government is borrowing 36 cents on every dollar spent, according to Shelby.

“We’re on the same road as Greece, Portugal and Spain. We’re borrowing and spending. Borrowing from who? From China,” he said. “We’re the largest debtor nation in the world, and we’re the richest nation in the world. This is crazy financial suicide.”