SHS students shine at Wyden town hall

Sisters High School students served up some probing questions for U.S. Senator Wyden Friday during a two-hour town hall meeting in the SHS auditorium. A number of local citizens and several veterans groups also quizzed the three-term Senator.

When elected to the U.S. senate, Wyden committed to have a town hall meeting in every county in Oregon every year. The Sisters town hall meeting was the 640th such meeting and the topics covered included gun control, legislative gridlock, the fiscal cliff, gay marriage, term limits, water flow on the Crooked River (as regards steelhead restoration), renewable energy and biomass, the Citizens United super-PAC decision, Simpson-Bowles debt-reduction plan, support for Israel, childhood obesity and the extreme partisanship and the resulting Washington, D.C. legislative gridlock.

There were several recurrent themes throughout Wyden's responses to these wide-ranging questions.

"The overwhelming challenge is the economy, and particularly how we are going to compete in the global market ... how we make those kinds of economic decisions is our number-one challenge," said Wyden.

A second recurrent theme in Wyden's response was Medicare. "Ten thousand people are going to turn 65 every single day for the next 20 years," said Wyden. "The entire federal budget is going to be consumed by this (Medicare) unless we find some ways to make some basic economies."

The subject of gun control was raised by a number of students and adults. Wyden staked out his position as what he referred to as "gun sense."

"The Second Amendment is about rights ... it is also about responsibilities ... we need better background checks to keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous people. I think gun owners have the responsibility to keep their weapons locked and stored, to be kept away from people that would use them irresponsibly. I think more needs to done to ensure that there is oversight when a weapon is transferred from one person to another," said Wyden.

The senator continued, "I think these are the kinds of things that both sides can agree on. There is no one, single answer here. I think those are some of the next practical steps."

When gun control came up again Wyden responded with the need for better mental-health screening and services. He cited his sensitivity to this issue due to his own brother's schizophrenia, and his family's constant worry about keeping his brother from hurting himself or others.

One gentleman that stood in line several times to ask questions read from a prepared statement. He said, "It is widely believed that the Democratic Party has an agenda to gut or overturn the Second Amendment and ultimately confiscate all guns from the American people."

Wyden said that he was not aware of any such agenda item and that would not support such a position.

During the lively questioning, Wyden did get off a couple of one-liners that drew audience approval. When asked about his position on gay marriage Wyden said, "If you don't like gay marriage, don't get one."

On term limits he said, "The Founding Fathers thought there were term limits, and they were called elections."

Speaking to the hyper-partisanship and the resultant gridlock in Washington, Wyden said, "... neither side in the U.S. senate has the votes to do it just their way, so you either act in a bi-partisan way or you just won't make progress. Of all the parts of public service, the single most important (part) to me right now is to show that it is possible to be for your principles and (still) be bipartisan."

The senator referenced the tax-reform bill that he has co-sponsored with Republican Senator Dan Coats from Indiana, an education reform bill co-sponsored with Republican Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, a Medicare bill Wyden co-sponsored with a group of Republicans including Senator Paul Ryan, and a campaign-finance reform bill and an energy bill co-sponsored with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski from Alaska.

The students had to leave for their after-school activities before the end of the meeting. As they left, Wyden asked for and received a standing ovation for the preparation and thoughtfulness of the students' questions and participation.

For this congress, Wyden will chair the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He will also chair the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests and the Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs and Global Competitiveness.

Wyden was born in Kansas and attended UC Santa Barbara on a basketball scholarship. He completed his studies at Stanford, and went on to get his law degree from the University of Oregon. He was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980 where he served seven consecutive terms before joining the U.S. Senate in 1996. Wyden lives in Portland. He has two grown children and three children under 6.