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Walden Boardman Town Hall Feb 10, 2017

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Walden Boardman Town Hall Feb 10, 2017  Empty Walden Boardman Town Hall Feb 10, 2017

Post by Brian Sat Feb 11, 2017 10:11 am

Feb 10, 2017

Reporting from the aftermath of Greg Walden's town hall in Boardman. The crowd was probably around 100 people. I figured there would be more. He started off the meeting patting himself on the back a bit with all the (obscure) bills he has helped pass. For instance, it apparently took Congressional action to allow team doctors traveling with sports teams to practice medicine in states other than their own. And we care about this why? Lea Mathieu and I both got our questions in and watched him do some political tap dancing. I had a long question about the ACA. He declared that people would not be excluded from health care with a pre- existing condition on his watch but, listen close, he promised only "access." I asked why would we need high risk pools if pre-existing conditions weren't cut from the herd and he said sometimes they work and some people like them. Ah the answer to that would be NO!

He got some good questions on immigration that he didn't answer. Lea asked what should she tell the scared kids at school who have undocumented family members. Answer--I don't know. Another man had statement that ended up with him begging Walden not to fund the "illegal and immoral" executive orders. His answer which was used several times- we're a nation of laws blah, blah, blah

More later- gonna head home. Blech. Politics.
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I'll add that he pointed out most undocumented workers were people who had outstayed their visas, but he wouldn't say no to the stupid expensive wall (which doesn't solve the visa issue) and "Americans should have those jobs!" Yes, he said that. (Unless they're electrical engineers, because we don't want them to go back to China or India and compete against us.). Folks: You cannot steal a job!!!!! Employers choose who they hire. Why would someone hire an undocumented worker? Hmmmmm...

In other news, he saw no reason for Congress to investigate Trump, and "we" just need to accept the election. Folks: I accept it, but I sure as hell don't like it, nor do I need to act like I do.
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Walden Boardman Town Hall, Part II

One fun fact trotted out by the congressman came up during talk of immigration. He said Obama deported the most people of any president or something like that. Wait, wait, wait. I thought Obama was weak on illegal immigration and never deported anyone, and in fact begged murderers and five time deportees to stay a while longer? You mean he actually was a better deporter than Trump? Another win for Obama!

One man spoke on the wall calling it expensive, unneeded, an environmental disaster and a publicity stunt. He asked Walden to tell trump no to financing it. There was a lovely tap dance performed by Walden who never agreed to stand up against it.

Another immigration question from a lady who talked about all the immigrants who work in Morrow County, mainly in agriculture but also getting to be some in tech. Walden got pretty fiesty with her because those people are stealing the legal resident's jobs by golly. What a crock. I wonder when the last time a non immigrant or refugee applied for a job at Threemile Canyon mega-dairy? It would be pretty safe to say that was half past never. For crying out loud, Lamb Weston has had three hiring events since January 1 where they hire on the spot. Obviously they aren't filling these jobs or the turnover is out of this world. (It would help if the unemployed legal resident population could pass a drug test but that's a problem for another day.)

The last questions came from a lady we talked to in the parking lot afterwards who also attended the morning meeting in Weston. Said she didn't have the nerve to speak up there but she spoke up here. Asked if Walden was going to get behind efforts to investigate trump for his conflicts and possible Russian ties. The crowd was audibly displeased with Walden's answer which was he would, IF he thought there was anything to investigate, and he didn't think there was any reasons whatsoever. Say what? He then kind of lost it a little bit and told us we needed to accept the results of the elections AND they were only three weeks in and to give the Tweeter in Chief a chance. Overwhelmingly, the crowd was not having it although the lady behind me said (not very loudly mind you, "I support my president.")

Lea Mathieu, help me out here. He brought up some article that quoted a terrorist with some fact to back up his argument and someone in the back said, "Why are you listening to that guy? He's a terrorist." That stopped him momentarily in his tracks. He had admonished us/me to not believe everything on social media but he was all for going all in on terrorist quotes.

Overall my impression is that Mr. Walden has now been around DC enough and gained enough power on his committee assignments that he thinks his canned answers will satisfy folks. And there were definitely people that were eating up his non-answers today. But I think a good number of folks have educated themselves to the point where they see his act for what it is.

Keep after him folks. It was pretty clear his town hall schedule was purposely kept quiet so that he could avoid the Jason Chaffetz treatment.
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forgot this--someone asked if he would vote against disbanding the EPA. He snapped "Yes" but then said it needed fixing. Yeah, everything apparently needs fixing, and they are going to take their time and do it the right way according to Walden. But about those executive orders.........
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Good summary part 2, Anne. The terrorist remark (from a Syrian terrorist) was in support of the argument that terrorists are hiding amongst Syrian refugees. I don't debate that may happen when they're walking across borders in Europe, but the vetting process necessary to get on a plane here is extensive. He was using a stupid scare tactic to support Drump, and I immediately raised my hand to protest but since I had already asked a question I didn't get to say anything.
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Mac Stinchfield (press from Gilliam County- Times Journal) will also report in next week's paper. More later.
Brian
Brian
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