The Madras Pioneer

Merkley draws crowd, C-Span camera crew

Town hall event thoughtful

Holly M. Gill

September 08, 2010

Gone were the loud questions and disrespectful behavior, and in their place, thoughtful questions and comments, when U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley returned to Madras for his second local town hall last week.

A crowd estimated at 100 people attended the Aug. 31 meeting at the Jefferson County Senior Center, which was instead notable for the presence of a camera crew recording it for future broadcast on C-Span.

The Portland Democrat was in the last week of meeting his pledge to visit every county in the state, every year.

After a brief introduction, the first-term senator responded to questions on subjects ranging from guest workers to the war in Afghanistan to the economy.

Margaret Dement, of Madras, asked why the Oregon delegation in Congress has refused to support a bill designating English as the national language.

"I've always considered this a states' rights issue," Merkley said, adding that he believes states should have the right to make the determination on their own, as 30 states have done.

Responding to a question on guest worker permits, Merkley agreed that it is an important concern, particularly if jobs are not available to American citizens.

"The theory is that these programs are to fill positions that aren't being filled," he said, noting that if the workers are taking jobs that American citizens want, "I think we need to look at what's gone awry."

A retired forester, Tony Gruba, of Madras, wanted to know why the forests have "millions and millions of board feet of wood standing there that they are not allowed to cut."

Merkley, who supports Sen. Ron Wyden's Oregon Eastside Forests Restoration bill, would like to see massive thinning projects to create a better forest ecosystem, with the materials from the thinning used for biomass projects.

"We have the potential to create a second market for biomass projects," he said, noting that he has visited several locations around the state that use biomass. "Biomass could be a real part of a clean energy strategy; it doesn't take carbon out of the ground, it takes it out of the air."

In response to a woman's comment that she wants the U.S. out of Afghanistan, Merkley said that he'd gone there with a group of legislators earlier this year.

"Quite frankly, I believe our mission has creeped," he said, pointing out that troops went in to take out opposition, but that has "now morphed into nation building."

Merkley's group met with six Pashtun tribal leaders, who called their government "an affliction," and told them that competent, respected people never applied for government positions, since positions are "sold."

"They like Americans, but said, 'Please don't send in the police force,'" Merkley said, adding that the leaders consider the officers armed thugs.

While he agrees that the goal of taking out al Qaeda was "exactly right," the nation building "is not worth the treasure we're pouring in at $1 million per year, per soldier. I have real concerns about the path we're on."

Robert Sinclair, of Crooked River Ranch, shared a thoughtful plan he'd come up with to help people earn equity in homes. Merkley commented that he appreciated the idea, which was "different from anything I've ever heard."

Merkley said it had elements of ideas he'd laid out earlier this year when he met with Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner. He said he supports a foreclosure rescue plan that would allow people to buy back their own homes, "not based on a FICA score, but on the family's ability to pay."

Jim Kollen, of Madras, suggested that with the deficit at $13.3 trillion, the only solution is to cut government.

Mentioning a related concern, Merkley said, "It's not just that we're going deeper into debt, but the debt is no longer owned by Americans. Now, a growing share is owned by China, Saudi Arabia. We now have debt payments going out of our economy."

A recent bill he supports would put the country on a three-year path "to get back to a point where we're not digging the hole deeper," he said.

Asked why the government continues to spend when the debt is so overwhelming, Merkley said that shutting down government spending while consumer spending drops is what happened under Pres. Herbert Hoover.

"He drove us into a deep, dark recession," Merkley said.

Instead, he said, the government's $800 billion stimulus plan includes tax cuts, direct spending on jobs, and support to states for public safety and education, which he believes will gradually move the country out of the recession.