Standing room only in Ephrata meeting

EPHRATA - Despite snow and freezing temperatures, U.S. Rep. Doc

Hastings, R-Wash, spoke to a packed Ephrata City Hall.

The congressman stopped by Ephrata for a town hall meeting while

Congress was out of session.

EPHRATA - Despite snow and freezing temperatures, U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash, spoke to a packed Ephrata City Hall.

The congressman stopped by Ephrata for a town hall meeting while Congress was out of session.

"It was awesome to see him show up even during this snowstorm," said Dani Bolyard. "It really shows his commitment to this area."

Close to 60 people attended the hour-long town hall session last week.

Hastings updated audience members on issues Congress faces.

"Every legislative session is different ... I can tell you without qualification every congressional session is different," said Hastings. "I say that because of the profound change that was reflected in the poles last November. The Republicans gained control of the House and Democrats had control of the Senate. But that change in the US House of Representatives was largest since 1938, the largest change over one party."

He said the "common denominator" he saw between the two parties was the fiscal health of the nation.

Hastings stated the federal budget has had a continuing $3 billion dollar deficit three years in a row now.

The Senate and House hope to have a preliminary federal budget by the middle of April, he said.

The House has already submitted a budget to Congress, he said.

The congressman presented financial charts of projected budget trends. In one chart, he charted a 80-year gross domestic product (GDP) financial timeline of the country.

"In the short term, if we don't change right away, we will exceed 100 percent of our GDP just in 10 years," he said.

The congressman suggested the way to balance the budget was through cutting entitlement spending on the federal level.

He pointed to restructuring Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits.

According to statistics provided by Hastings, the United States paid $519 billion in Medicare costs and $701 billion in Social Security benefits in 2010.

"I have long advocated we needed to reform these programs. Anybody in the system right now, you don't change the rules ... to the change the rules would be unconscionable. All that changes that need to be made are all perspective," he said.

He suggested capping spending on Medicaid, block-granting it back to the states.

The state level would cap what it spends on the program, and put Medicaid off of the table as a federal entitlement, he explained.

For Medicare, the congressman suggested going to a voucher system where Medicare patients would be able to buy their own health care.

"The beauty of that is it recognizes two things: it puts the individual in charge of his or her health care and it recognizes just because you get older you're not incapable of making your own decisions," he said.

For Social Security benefits, Hastings wanted to allow individuals to have personal accounts, to build their own retirement based on what they pay for Social Security.

"Within the next few years, Social Security is going to go into a deficit situation, the sooner we get to this, the better off we are," he said.

During the town hall meeting, the congressman answered some questions from audience members.

Most questions asked revolved around environmental issues. Hastings was appointed as the Natural Resources Committee chairman in early December.

As chairman, the Hastings oversees wildlife, national parks, water and power and energy issues on federal lands.

An audience attendee asked how the congressman felt about national oil drilling sites.

Hastings reiterated his "all-of-the-above energy" plan, which supports off shore oil drilling in Alaska and federal lands among other energy solutions.

"I think it's in our best interest to have the best portfolio as possible ... I believe we should be more aggressive utilizing the resources we have in this country," he said.

Hastings said he planned to ask Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar in a committee meeting why "this administration has essentially locked up our federal lands."

The hour-long town hall meeting was not long enough for some audience attendees.

"I thought the questions asked were good. The answers were sufficient, but there really wasn't enough time to make follow-up questions," said Chris Haag, of Ephrata.