Jeff Merkley Visits Eastern Oregon, Talks Issue

"Candidate talks issues"
Phil Wright, The East Oregonian
8/9/08

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley envisions an America where public education is a priority and the federal government's role is to build a road citizens can follow to the American dream.

Before making stops at the Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston, Stetson's Steakhouse in downtown Pendleton and then Baker City, Merkley took some time to discuss what matters in the campaign against incumbent Republican Gordon Smith.

Merkley also seems to have mellowed a little since the early days of the campaign trail. A few months ago at his last visit to Pendleton, the Democrat spoke with a surprising intensity. Now, however, he seemed to speak more from the heart.

Perhaps most surprising, Merkley didn't go on the attack against Smith, which the challenger and the Democratic National Committee have done in television ads.

Rather, Merkley discussed what he said are the issues pressing American families and he what he wants to do about those problems.

A year ago, Oregonians likely would have said the war in Iraq was the most important issue, Merkley said, with health care at No. 2 and the economy in third place.

Now, the war and the economy have changed positions, Merkley said, but he uses metaphors of war when describing the financial problems Americans face.

Merkley said families have to avoid the "land mines" of credit card debt and pay-day money lenders during a time of economic uncertainly and job loss.

"Building the well-paved road for families to follow- that is my mission as U.S. senator," Merkley said.

That road, however, is in serious disrepair and funding education from preschool through college is a cornerstone to rebuilding that road.

Merkley said he told his children the same story his father told him about going to school: "If you go through these doors and work hard, here in America you can be and do just about anything."

Merkley unequivocally said he would vote to eliminate the federal No Child Left Behind Act, with its emphasis on testing.

And he would support a plan that would help schools, but the people on the "frontlines" of education need to be a part of creating such as plan, he said.

Merkley also said he supports Democratic U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden's Healthy Americans Act, a plan to replace employer-based health care with a system of universal private insurance.

Whatever lawmakers create, however, health care has to be more affordable and economically smart than the current system. As it stands now, a three- or four-day stay in a hospital can wipe out a family's bank account.

Merkley also said he's a fiscal conservative, a notion he said he discovered in the final years of the Clinton administration when the U.S. was on the verge of paying off the national debt.

But the Bush administration has managed to take a $500 billion surplus, Merkley said, and in eight years turn that into an $8 trillion deficit. Moreover, foreign countries have been buying up American debt.

"I'm not comfortable with their leverage and it undermines the value of the dollar," Merkley said.

Getting spending under control means revamping U.S. energy policy so "oil sheiks" don't have control of America and the nation's money isn't going overseas to the tune of $2 billion a day.

Along those lines, he also said U.S. investment in Iraq's infrastructure has allowed that country to build a nest egg of about $100 billion.

For every dollar the U.S. spends in Iraq, Merkley said that country needs to spend a dollar or two of their own.

Today, Merkley will campaign in La Grande, Arlington and Condon.

Merkley also said if he's a U.S. senator, he'd follow Wyden's lead and hold public forums in every county in Oregon once a year. That way, Merkley said, he'd be able to stay in touch with Oregonians and learn about what's going on in his home state.

Posted August 11, 2008
In the News