Syria, health care, education, and immigration were all topics of conversation at the breakfast table as Maury County citizens met with U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander.

The lawmaker spoke to residents in the Memorial Building Monday at a breakfast event hosted by the Maury County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Alliance.

Alexander said much has changed in the country since he last visited Syria and its leader, President Bashar Assad, two years ago with a delegation of senators. He said that at that time, many of the young people in the country were “encouraged,” as Assad had opened Syria up to business with the west and was on friendlier terms with neighboring countries such as Turkey.

However, the senator said he is now “disgusted” by the use of chemical weapons in the country and favors a plan to remove them. He added that he does not support a U.S. military strike against Syria because it would “not be consistent with our military interests.”

“I could not support a military strike because I could understand ‘Step A,’ but I could not understand what Step B, C, D, E and F might be,” he said. “I don’t want to run the risk of getting our country involved in yet another Middle Eastern war.”

As for the national debt, Alexander said his biggest concern was the amount of interest the country accrues will eventually take money from necessary programs the government must fund, such as roads, education and Medicare.

“At the rate we are going, we are going to be spending as much on interest as we are on national defense,” he said. “It is getting so big, we are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars when we could be using that money to make our country strong.”

Alexander also called for “tolerance of different points of view” and said he did not agree with fellow conservatives willing to “shut down the government” rather than implement the Affordable Health Care Act. Instead, senators should “focus on what gets results” and try to come to the table with a better plan, he said.

“I’m not for a government shutdown,” he said. “I’m for taking over the government and taking care of things from the inside.”

Instead of expanding health care, Alexander said he would like to see a plan that makes Medicare more solvent, Medicaid more flexible and repeal rules he said “make it harder for employers to give employees cheaper insurance if they adopt a healthier lifestyle.”

Alexander and fellow Tennessee lawmaker U.S. Sen. Bob Corker are also working on legislation to reduce entitlement programs and give governors more flexibility over Medicaid.

When asked about the state’s new Common Core education standards, Alexander said he doesn’t want to see “a national school board” and feels curriculum decisions would best be left in local hands.

“I believe the states working together can do better than anyone in Washington,” he said.

In response to a question on undocumented immigration, Alexander said he voted for a plan that increased border security and rewarded immigrants based on merit, such as graduate students and guest workers for farms.

“If Vanderbilt had a graduate student who gets his Ph.D. and is about to create the next Google, the current law would require that person to get sent back home,” he said. “I would much rather that person stay here and invent that company here.”

Alexander said a plan that would deport the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. did not receive a single favorable vote in the Senate. Instead, a plan has been proposed to penalize those who came to the country illegally while still allowing them a path to citizenship, he said.

Under this plan, immigrants entering the country illegally would be given legal status — but not citizenship — and would only be allowed to apply for legal citizenship after 10 years living under legal status, Alexander said. They would also be fined, have to pay back taxes for their time in the country and be ineligible for food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid and other assistant programs.

MCCEA President Will Evans also presented Alexander with the Spirit of Enterprise Award on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for his top ranking on Senate votes dealing with the business community