Senator Ron Wyden meets with citizens, again.

     

"At this town meeting there has not been a bad question in the house, and as long as I have an opportunity to represent you in the United States Senate, this is the way we will do it."

                    Ron Wyden, on the completion of his Town Meeting

Senator Ron Wyden

Senator Wyden stood in front of 250 people at the North Medford High auditorium for 90 minutes answering questions posed to him by high school students and community members.

The gathering was open to everyone. The school principal drew ticket numbers from a bowl to determine by chance who could ask a questions.  Approximately twenty questions were asked and answered. 

Questions not raised were as interesting as issues raised. 

All politics is local. 

Not asked about:

   ***No questions or discussion of health insurance eligibility, or the Affordable Care Act, or of pre-existing conditions coverage, or the 2018 health care changes initiated by the GOP.

   ***Nothing about foreign policy, wars, or American troops anywhere. There was no mention of North Korea, the Iran Deal, Afghanistan, Venezuela, NATO, the Military, Syria, or the European conference just concluded.

Students and Community Members

   ***Nothing about the Mueller investigation, including Russia collusion, Russian involvement in elections, potential obstruction of justice, the AG, Trump's campaign, or prosecutions.

   ***Nothing about the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, or nominations.

   ***Not a word about abortion, LGBTQ, or any other culture war issue.

   ***Nothing about Trump, his personality, his tweets, or presidential norms of behavior.

   ***Trade issues. There was no mention of China, Mexico, Canada, nor balance of payments, automation, or anything related to global trade or manufacturing.

   ***No mention of the stock market, the Fed, unemployment rates.

Questions and concerns raised were close to home.

   ***Smoke and forest fire suppression funding and policy. Wyden said the current funding is inadequate and had been focused on suppression rather than prevention, a foolish waste, which he said was addressed in new legislation.

American sign language translator

   ***Protection of rivers and areas, especially the Rogue River. Several people expressed gratitude and concern about the Rogue fishery, Rogue tourism, and the designation of Wild and Scenic rivers.  Wyden said he was proud to have expanded and protected more rivers and forest areas.

   ***Accommodation in health care delivery under the Oregon Health Plan to the deaf, who have a problem communicating their health issues. Wyden said he was absolutely sympathetic to this issue.

   ***Jordan Cove pipeline. There were comments on both sides of this issue, one from the Laborers Union supporting the project and praising Wyden for his neutrality, and others from environmental activists opposing the project. Wyden said he had promised to be neutral and not put his thumb on the scales of the regulatory process that would issue permits for its construction. This answer was the only one which got clear negative response from some members of the audience. Many audience members, in orange tee shirts, were there to protest the project.

   ***Green New Deal. Wyden said he supported it, and that criticism of it as impractical was pre-mature and the criticism mistook the proposal as current legislative mandate, not a long term aspirational goal.

   ***Drug prices. Wyden said they were unfairly high. He said he would have hearings hoping to pin down drug company executives on drug pricing, likening those hearings to the hearings in which tobacco executives were questioned.

   

   ***Immigration. Wyden said he supported the immigration bill had been passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, but which stalled in the House. He said this is a nation of immigrants, that immigration was a good thing for America, that nearly everyone in this room would be a descendant of immigrants, and that his father escaped from Germany and survived the War because of immigration. He gave full throated support for immigration

   ***Border security. Wyden said that he supported it, and had voted repeatedly for fencing, drones, border guards, and other security tools that would actually work. A wall would not, he said, and it was being pursued because it was a vanity project for the president based on a campaign promise saying that we needed a wall that Mexico would pay for.

   ***School funding and its relationship to National Forest history. Wyden said he had supported the program that brought income to the counties and schools, and that without the $5 billion it brought that the distress in Oregon's rural counties would have been far worse.

   ***School start times in the morning. A student said he had a hard time being awake and alert in the early mornings and thought that schools should start later in the morning. Wyden said he had recently read scientific research which concurred with the student. He said that the student should bring this up with the Medford School Board, a member of which was in the room, because this was a local rather than Senatorial matter, but that he was happy to serve as that point of introduction between the two. 

Wyden laughed and congratulated the student for the question. He said that he thought he had heard every possible question and issue raised in his 926-plus Town Halls, but this was a brand new one.

Wyden presented himself as a problem solver, not a partisan warrior.

Wyden sounded like a senator, not a presidential candidate. His only big, overarching theme, was that officeholders should meet their constituents, hear their concerns and answer their questions, directly, as in Town Halls, and not through paid media. Wyden did not talk about "bipartisanship" but it came up repeatedly in how he answered questions, in which he would cite the name of a GOP senator with whom he worked to get things passed regarding preservation of public lands, drug prices, school funding, and smoke. His only reference to Republican Greg Walden was a passing one of having worked cooperatively on some forest issues.

Wyden described areas of legislative agreement, not the issues of division. The overall message was that his purpose was to use his political power, gained by experience and seniority, to get things done. 

The event was oddly non-political. This works for Wyden.