One-on-one: Senator Ron Wyden discusses key issues impacting Central Oregonians
Claire Elmer
(Update: adding interview with Senator Wyden, video)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has been in Central Oregon this weekend to speak with residents about their most pressing concerns. Before continuing onto the next destination in his state-wide tour, Senator Wyden stopped by KTVZ News to speak with Claire Elmer and Spencer Sacks.
Social security, wildfires, medicaid, Secure Rural Schools (SRS), and tariffs were the main topics of conversation during Wyden’s candid conversation with KTVZ.
Sacks asked Wyden, “we recently celebrated the 90th anniversary of President Roosevelt’s landmark social security legislation. According to the Social Security’s Trustees’ Annual Report, by 2033, the program may only be able to pay 77%. How can we solve this looming problem and what kind of bipartisan solutions should we be looking for?”
“First of all, these reports are being done at my request. I’m the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over Social Security,” started Wyden.
“One of the obvious steps we ought to be taking is ensuring that the billionaires and those at the top actually pay into the program. The billionaires don’t do that today because they really make sure they don’t take any income. They buy, borrow and die and evade taxes. I’m going to change that,” Wyden stated.
In regard to wildfires in Oregon, Elmer asked, “you push back on the Trump administration for downplaying wildfire risks. What do you think Washington still doesn’t understand about the scale of wildfire danger in the West? And what would you like to see change as far as federal policy?”
Wyden referenced his recent conversations with community members when replying, saying “what I heard over the weekend is that these yo-yo policies, like when the Trump people came in at the beginning, they really weren’t dealing with these burnable fuels on the forest floor. Folks in Prineville and elsewhere were talking to me about it.”
“You’ve got to go in there and get those burnable fuels off the forest floor, because we have lightning strikes, we have fires, and all of a sudden you have an inferno on your hands. That’s what I want to change,” said Wyden of his intended solution.
Touching on Medicaid, Sacks asked, “massive cuts are being projected to Medicaid after the ‘one big bill’ passed. How do you balance fighting those cuts while also working towards bipartisan solutions to reduce healthcare costs?”
Wyden replied, “well, a bipartisan solution. What I and Senator Merkley, and others, are interested in, is dealing with something called up-coding. It’s really an insurance company rip-off. You know, they take a condition that really isn’t particularly serious, they blow it up into a big deal so they can get more money out of the taxpayer. We could save billions of dollars by stopping insurance company up-coding.”
In regard to Secure Rural Schools (SRS), Elmer asked, “you and Senator Merkley have celebrated the reauthorization of Secure Rural Schools, but local leaders often call it a band-aid. What’s your vision for a permanent fix that keeps rural counties from facing a budget crisis every few years?”
Wyden replied, “I’m for multiple-use in terms of our policy in the forest, but the way to get off this roller coaster is to create something that I propose, in effect, is an endowment — where you take that money and make sure you gain interest as you go, and the counties have a fund they can count on.”
To end the conversation, Sacks wanted to touch on a topic that has recently been looming-large in many minds — tariffs. Sacks asked, “there’s a lot of debate about whether tariffs hurt or help American workers. What specific policies do you support to make sure trade rules actually strengthen jobs here at home, especially in manufacturing in rural communities?”
Wyden wanted to clarify his definition of tariffs and explain the impacts by saying, “as far as I’m concerned, these these tariffs are taxes. They hit working people. I and Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, offered the proposal to get rid of the Trump approach, which we believe is illegal. We lost on a 49 to 49 vote. There were a couple of senators absent. I think we’ll get those votes in the future. And we want to end these Trump policies because they’re clobbering small businesses and individuals. Tariffs are taxes and we ought to recognize that.”
After concluding the interview with KTVZ, Senator Wyden and his team headed off to Crater Lake for another speaking event. While on recess, the senator is packing his schedule with his trademark community events which he uses to stay connected to his constituents.
KTVZ News appreciated the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Senator Wyden. You can view our earlier story on Wyden’s town hall in Madras here — that event took place on Saturday morning.
As part of KTVZ News’ commitment to connecting our communities to their members of congress, you can watch our recent interviews with Rep. Cliff Bentz and Rep. Janelle Bynum.