Enzi gives his take on local and national issues

After the meet and greet on May 10, the Saratoga Sun asked U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi questions about local and national issues.

Health Care

Since serving in office, Sen. Mike Enzi has sponsored 100 bills, some of which has been signed by the three sitting presidents, since Enzi has been in the Senate.

Most of the bills were done when Enzi was chairman, a position he hopes to hold again. "You're really in charge of what your committee does when you are chairman, it is tremendous power," Enzi said.

"There are some things in health (care) that I absolutely I want to get done, to repair the damage of Obamacare," Enzi said. "We can have a better system than what (Obamacare) is and it would be paid for and it would be voluntary."

Enzi has a 10-step plan for health care.

Education

Enzi said he is trying to ensure that education is a state's right, not a federal school board and that is the exact opposite of what the President wants and what the Democrats are trying to do. Currently, there is a 1,270 page bill to put into affect the national school board. "We have a 228 page bill, which returns control to the states," Enzi said.

"It won't get rid of all the controversy, but at least it will be the states making the decisions instead of a conglomerate of states or Washington." Enzi said. "Very few of the states that followed the waiver requirement that the president put on, but had no right to put on, have actually complied to what they agreed to get the extra money."

Tax Reform

If the Republicans are in the majority, Enzi will get to head up the Tax Reform subcommittee.

Enzi is trying develop a biannual budget and dividing up the spending bills in two parts. Six of the most difficult bills would be passed right after an election and the six that are easier before the next election.

"I think we can get through all 12 every agency would know what they could to spend for a two-year period and be able to make better use of their money," Enzi said.

Enzi also has a plan for prioritization to make more logical cuts and more specific cuts.

Enzi said he has to work every year to get back Wyoming's Abandoned Land Mine money; to protect the payment in lieu of taxes money; to keep sequester from hitting the Federal Mineral Royals money to name a few, Enzi said.

"There are a whole bunch of them that I know the arguments on and I am able to the majority of the people to agree with me, even if it hardly affects them," Enzi said.

"I like to campaign my lobbying one on one," Enzi said. I noticed when I first got (to the Senate) if you gave a speech on the floor, nobody is listening. It is pretty hard to sell something if nobody is listening, so I see them one at a time and talk about one bill at a time and that is how I have been successful at getting all those bills passed. I know how to sell shoes and I know how to sell bills."

Minimum wage

Enzi said he voted against the bill to increase minimum wage, because it really wasn't about minimum wage. "It was the president's way of raising taxes on most of America."

Minimum wage is a way to pay people with minimum skills, Enzi said. He would much rather get workers better skills.

"If you start with a raise, you have to start at the bottom and keep going all the way to the top," Enzi said. "Everybody makes more and that's good, but then everything has to cost more to pay for it. So if you are paying more and getting more, you are just breaking even. But you are in a higher tax bracket if you are in the upper end and that is how the president wants to raise more money for taxes."

It is not a sympathy for the unskilled workers, Enzi said. "It is also a distraction from Obama Care."

Enzi said the President likes to bring up bills that the Republicans will object to, but then doesn't allow any amendments to correct the things that ought to be corrected. "Then we vote against it and it can't go anywhere. Then he says the Republicans are against kids, against seniors, against women, so that is where is gets that, because he brings bad bills," Enzi said.

Common Core

Common Core should not be dictated by the federal government, Enzi said. It was set up as a model and not a mandate. "What we are missing, is we are failing to ask kids what they want to be when they grow up. Then when they tell us, we are failing to ask them 'What do you think you need to know to do that?'"

Education is failing to focus on why children need to learn - "That is what we are missing," Enzi said.

"Common Core tells the teachers what they need to teach, but it doesn't tell the kids why they need to know it," Enzi said. "I haven't seen a list yet that everybody could agree on, particularly if it has a reading list."

Enzi said he reads a lot and some of the books on the Common Core list he has never heard of.

Budget

"If the Republicans get the majority, yes, we will have a budget done by April 15. That is when we are supposed to have it done by," Enzi said.

It is also contingent of the president during in his recommendations, Enzi added. The president's recommendations should be in by Feb. 3, Enzi said, but this president has been late in turning in his recommendations than all previous presidents before him.

Forest Management

The forests can be managed better, Enzi said. He referred to South Dakota, where they are doing "total planning" which is saving money in the forest. Enzi said he suspects that model will be expanded.

The plan includes the bidding process, which includes bids for the timber, underbrush and clean up. The bids include taking the time for bringing equipment in, setting up and then tearing down and then for the next bid doing the same process all over again. "There is a cost of all of that and (South Dakota) has found if they combine the whole package, that they are getting lower bids because people can come in all at once and clean it up."

It is one that the environmentalist like a lot better too.

"We have to get plans done and approved faster and we have got get the beetle-killed timber out of there before it's a big torch and catches on fire," Enzi said. "Colorado is now joining us on that. They had the huge fire down there and then they had a huge rain."

Enzi said a pine needle will hold back one drop [of rain], but there are not pine needles, there are not trees and it causes flooding.

"We need to be responsible with the forests; we supposed to be good stewards."

Enzi said he and Colorado Senators would take pictures of the forest in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming to show the expansion of beetle kill. "We haven't done that for several years, because all the trees are dead."

The trees are still usable at that point, Enzi said.

Environmental

Protection Agency

Enzi was filled in on the background of the Hot Slough in Saratoga classified as a Class II water, and the EPA is requiring an alternate way to move the effluent to the Platte River.

Enzi shared an experience he had when he was mayor of Gillette, he had dealings with the EPA and unfunded mandates. Gillette had received a sewer treatment grant before he became mayor. Then came the boom and they outgrew the treatment plan after it was completed. The EPA fined the city for exceeding its permit. Fortunately, for the city of Gillette, the judge who imposed the fine ordered the city to pay the fine into its own sewer treatment fund. Enzi thought that was pretty just.

"The EPA has a tremendous overreach now in everything, the water control, the land, the air and the water and that is all there is to control," Enzi said. "If we can get a Republican majority, what we do is start defunding some of the overreach."

The president will probably veto it, Enzi said. "But then we will have a megaphone where we can explain to America where he is wrong and we are right."

Enzi said that President Barak Obama is waiving things he has no right to do so, but to reverse them in court, it takes three years. With a Republican majority, it can be reverse in two weeks.

Fracking

Ezni believes tracking is essential. "Wyoming has the first and the best tracking laws and I think other states out to copy that," Enzi said.

Without fracking, the formations with all the gas and oil be not be reached. "It's a necessary part of horizontal drilling," Enzi said.

Gay marriage

"In my opinion, marriage is between a man and a woman," Enzi said.

Marijuana legalization

"I'm really worried about the people who are pushing (the legalization of marijuana use) right now." Enzi said. "I am watching Colorado, where it wound up in a cookie and the person killed himself."

There must be some effects from marijuana and any state that legalizes it needs to revise several of their laws to protect people, he said. "DUI better include marijuana," Enzi said.