Utah’s junior U.S senator is devoted to the demise of “Obamacare,” is prepared to support incremental immigration reform, but is not ready to approve U.S. military action in Syria.
That’s what Sen. Mike Lee told the 200 people gathered in the basement of the Tooele County Building Tuesday night.
Before Lee opened the 7 p.m. town hall meeting, additional chairs were added to the aisle and hallways to accommodate people who came from as far away as Washington County to exchange questions and answers with the senator.
Several questions put to Lee centered around his plan to stop the Affordable Care Act, or better known as “Obamacare.”
Lee made it clear that his intent is to see that Congress gets a chance to make an independent vote on funding Obamacare.
“The idea that I want to shutdown government is wrong,” he said. “I don’t want a shutdown. We don’t need a shutdown. What I’m trying to do will really avoid a shutdown.”
Lee’s plan is to divide the next continuing resolution, the mechanism used by Congress to keep the federal government running in the absence of a budget, into two parts. One part would be to fund the entire federal government except Obamacare. The other part would fund Obamacare.
“What those people planning on a shutdown are really saying is, ‘Unless we fund Obamacare, we are not going to fund armed services.’ That’s immoral,” he said.
The senator wants Congress to have the opportunity to stop Obamacare by not funding the legislation.
“My goal is to defund Obamacare. This is a law that will make health care more expensive,” he said. “Make no mistake: This law will result in fewer jobs. Make no mistake: This law will result in people having their hours cut. Obamacare should be funded on its own merit, not on the merits of social security or national defense.”
Lee also fielded a question from the audience about immigration and border control. It was: “What can you do, what will you do, to protect our borders?”
Lee expressed his disagreement with the bi-partisan proposal drafted by eight senators referred to as the “gang of eight bill.”
“The bill was designed to fail,” he said. “Among other things, one of the most controversial things in the bill is amnesty. A virtually certain pathway to citizenship for all of the 11 million people that are here illegally, making no distinction whatsoever between those who came here illegally and those who have overstayed their visa perhaps under innocent circumstances, making no distinction between the age at which they came here, just saying if you are here illegally by a certain date you are going to become a citizen.”
Rather than a large omnibus bill that addresses immigration, Lee favors separate incremental bills with reform measures implemented and verified in proper sequence.
A good place to start, he said, is supporting Rep. Rob Bishop’s, R-Utah, bill that allows federal officials to enforce the law on miles of the border that crosses environmentally sensitive lands.
Lee also said more “boots and on the ground” are needed along the border.
The final question of the hour long meeting was about Lee’s position on military action in Syria.
The senator indicated that President Obama needs to consult with Congress before taking action in Syria and at this time he has no inclination to support U.S. military intervention.
“My heart goes out to the poor people of Syria that have suffered for so long,” he said. “In order to get my vote, the president needs to articulate a few things. We need to know what victory would look like, why is this in our national security interest, and would a post-Assad Syria be better for the U.S. than the status quo.”
Karl Swan, former 20-year Democratic state senator from Tooele County, offered some advice to Lee.
“During the time I served, we had a great bi-partisan situation in our state,” said Swan. “My request to you is to work as well as you can with the other side. I believe bi-partisan work can help.”
Lee concluded the meeting by talking about his view of the proper role of government.
“We need to return to our founding principles and restore limited government and we can do that without war, that war has already been fought,” he said.
“What we need to do is change the way we vote,” he added. “What we need to do is change what we demand of our elected representatives. We want Washington to let decisions be made at the appropriate level — the state and local level — but most importantly the family level. That’s what I am about.”
