MARIETTA — Deftly flipping pancakes and serving them at the Cobb GOP’s Saturday breakfast, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson shared his thoughts on the trillion-dollar spending bill, destroying Islamic State terrorists and whether he would block a nominee to the federal bench.

Conservative activists have ripped the omnibus spending bill signed into law by President Barack Obama just before Christmas, complaining it funds Planned Parenthood, Obamacare and Obama’s refugee plan among other violations of their platform.

“A lot of people didn’t like it. And I voted for it,” Isakson told the crowd.

A positive of the 2,000-page bill is that it is $100 billion less than the one approved in 2008, he said.

“So while people didn’t like what we spent, we spent less money than we did in 2008, and I think that was a pretty good accomplishment given the growth of government in the United States of America in the last seven years under Barack Obama.”

Another victory, he said, was removing language that threatened metro Atlanta’s water supply.

“(Cobb Chairman) Tim Lee will tell you this is the truth. We were in a dangerous situation,” Isakson said. “I will never play politics with water or with people’s drinking water or with their health and safety, but some people will.”

The Republican senator said he understands pro-life conservatives are upset the spending bill didn’t defund Planned Parenthood.

“I want everybody to know that we didn’t defund Planned Parenthood only because we can’t defund Medicaid without repealing all the Medicaid law, it’s an entitlement like Medicare is,” Isakson said. “But yesterday, the president of the United States vetoed the reconciliation act that did defund Planned Parenthood.”

Ultimately, the only way to defund Planned Parenthood is with a new president, Isakson said.

“You can always find a reason to justify why you voted for something. Congress makes everything just confusing enough where they always give you a shred of evidence to go out and make a good case,” he said. “But you know, I was really proud to stand up for your drinking water, I was really proud to cut spending by $100 billion, and I’m glad we’re moving in the right direction, and one of these days, we’re going to run our state just as good as Mr. Weatherford and Mr. Tumlin run Marietta and Cobb County,” he said, referring to Cobb Commissioner Bob Weatherford and Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin, who sat in the audience.

FIGHTING RADICAL ISLAM FOR 200 YEARS

Turning to the Islamic State threat, the solution is to “kill them as fast as you could,” he advised.

“You cannot negotiate with somebody that will cut off your head, blow themselves up anywhere to kill you or burn you in a cage in the town square. It is time that we had a rule of engagement that says if you’re with ISIL, you’re against us and we’re going to get you. We’re not going to contain you, we’re going to get you.”

The U.S. Air Force can drop all the bombs it wants over enemy territory, but unless there are troops on the ground telling them where to drop the bombs, Isakson said not many terrorists will be killed.

“We need boots on the ground to give you the intelligence necessary to tell you where the enemy is. And we need to go after them. We sent 13 men after Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in the middle of the night. They got him. They killed him. And we didn’t even use a Band-Aid on our own troops. We have the power and the capability of going after the bad guys.”

Isakson referenced Thursday’s attack on a Philadelphia police officer by an Islamic State loyalist.

“We’ve fought this radical Islam since Thomas Jefferson,” he said. “The Barbary pirates were Islamic terrorists hijacking American ships off the coast of Africa. The first American president to ever mention radical Islam was Thomas Jefferson. Over 200 years we’ve fought radical Islam. It’s time we not only fought them, but we defeated them and said, ‘Either play fair or you don’t play at all.’”

On national security, Isakson also said the visa process for entering the U.S. was much too lax, and called for spending $1 billion to change the system from one of paper and pencil to one that uses retinal and fingerprint scans. There are 43 legal ways to enter the U.S., Isakson said, from a 3-day bereavement visa to a student visa. The 19 hijackers on 9/11 used paper and pencil student visas. These are easily forgeable, he said.

“You put a retina scan, which we have the technology to do, or you put a fingerprint, and eventually they know there’s no place to hide. We got to spend a billion necessary to see to it no more paper and pencil visas. No more looking the other way,” Isakson said.

Opening it up to questions from the audience, immigration activist D.A. King asked Isakson about DeKalb County State Court Judge Dax Lopez, who has been nominated by the Obama administration to a position on the federal District Court in Atlanta. Lopez is an 11-year board member of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials and among those who oppose his appointment is Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren.

King said Lopez has stood against immigration enforcement, voter ID and other important issues to conservatives. King also said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid have made a deal over Lopez.

Isakson said the process for confirming federal judges ensures that there is not a runaway appointment. The president nominates the candidate and Congress vets them.

“I’m not going to rule out anything as long as we go through the constitutional process of advise and consent which requires that he be vetted before the committee and before the U.S. Senate if we get to that point, and we’re not at that point yet,” Isakson said.

After the meeting, Michael Opitz of east Cobb said he was not pleased with Isakson’s vote on the spending bill.

“I was disappointed that our entire delegation voted for it with the exception of I understand Jody Hice,” Opitz said. “They supported Obama, they supported the Democrats, so then you have to ask what are the principles of the Republican Party?”

Andrea Kalli, a homemaker in east Cobb, called Isakson’s call for turning to retinal scans for visas a wonderful idea and says she intends to vote for his re-election.

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Isakson flips pancakes defends spending bill