McMorris Rodgers fields comments

Congressional 5th District Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers likes to refer to her town-hall-style meetings as "Conversations with Cathy."

They're aptly named, as anyone who attended the latest installment Jan. 22 at Cheney's Wren Pierson Community Center might attest, although the conversations are a bit more emphatically delivered than normal coffee talk might be.

McMorris Rodgers fielded comments from a packed room regarding everything from campaign finance reform to immigration, food labeling and health care. She opened with remarks about initiatives in Congress, mainly Republican, to restore a perceived loss of the "power of the purse" to the elected body, provide specific proposals to replace the Affordable Care Act - Obamacare - along with taxation and poverty program reforms.

She also offered her assessment of new Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

"He is a man of action," McMorris Rodgers said. "He is someone who wants us to get more work done than ever."

Trade issues occupied a good part of Friday's discussion, beginning with Spokane County Treasurer Rob Chase presenting McMorris Rodgers with a petition to rescind trade authority granted to President Barack Obama's administration. Another man in the audience commented that the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement contains a clause allowing corporations to sue governments over lost revenues from projects that never took place as a result of governmental policies.

McMorris Rodgers said they are working on greater trade promotion authority in Congress to allow more transparency with proposed agreements. She also said while there are not a lot of barriers to foreign manufacturers and producers selling in the U.S., the opposite is the case when it comes to U.S. goods sold to other countries.

"The goal of trade agreements is to reduce trade barriers," she added.

A man saying he was a Cheney-area rancher, reminded McMorris Rodgers she voted against repealing country of origin labeling, a part of trade he said was important to ranchers so that the quality of U.S. meat products can be distinguished from that of foreign products, which sometimes contain unwanted ingredients.

"I hate to say this, but you didn't represent us in this issue and I don't think you represented ranchers on this issue," he said. "How would Boeing feel about not being able to advertise what is best about their planes?"

McMorris Rodgers acknowledged she voted no on a bill containing country of origin labeling, saying she did so because it contained tariffs she could not support. She added there should be a way to require this type of labeling, and would look into the issue.

Other members of the audience pressed McMorris Rodgers on aspects of campaign finance reform, and the need to get corporate money out of elections. A woman from Spokane Valley asked the congresswoman to start treating climate change more seriously.

Health care surfaced near the end of the hour-long meeting, with one woman saying the ACA had been a benefit to her family, but McMorris Rodgers wouldn't say anything positive about it. Another man said he hoped Republicans in Congress would look at tweaking and changing aspects of the ACA, rather than their current approach of a complete repeal.

McMorris Rodgers said she wants to ensure people have access to affordable health care, but also feels the funding decisions shouldn't be made by "nameless boards and commissions" in Washington D.C. To that extent, she said her colleagues were considering several approaches such as heath care funding tax credits, and making available funding to individuals to make their own health care choices.

One man made the point that the U.S. has some of the highest health care costs in the world, but some of the lowest returns on investment, such as increased longevity. He said the reason was many other countries used a single-payer system.

"People don't like the word 'socialized,' it's a bad word," he said, adding the Veterans Administration health care system is essentially a socialized care system.

"I don't like that system," McMorris Rodgers said, with several individuals replying, "works for me."

The man encouraged McMorris Rodgers to look closer at benefits of a single-payer system, receiving some applause from the audience.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].