Utah Senator Mitt Romney held a town hall meeting in Heber City on Wednesday May 29th at the Public Safety Building. Topics of discussion included China’s influence on politics and economics, the Mueller report and immigration. Citizens were able to ask questions and Romney respectfully answered them often times providing background on issues facing the Senate and how the Republicans and Democrats work together.
“There are things I knew (about working in the Senate), but it hadn’t sunk in really and that is to do, to make anything a law in Washington requires Republicans and Democrats to agree. So that’s to become a law. Now we can stake out territory, and say now we want this and they want that, but it will not become a law unless both parties agree to it. And that’s because in the Senate decisions require sixty votes. And sixty votes, Republicans have fifty-three, if we all stick together, we have fifty-three and so, if we really want something bad, and get all fifty-three of us and we have to get seven Democrats. And Democrats typically stick together as well. So really the only way to get anything done, anything to become a law requires both sides coming together. That’s in the Senate. In the House, that’s not the case. In the House, while the majority rules. And so when we had the majority, we passes all sorts of bills. When Paul Ryan was speaker of the house, they passed hundreds of pieces of legislation. Then they say, how come nothing gets done in the Senate? Well because they couldn’t get any Democrats on that legislation. Now the Democrats are in charge of the House, and they pass all sorts of legislation and bills, and they get angry, “How come the Senate won’t take up our bills.” Well, because they aren’t bills that have bipartisan support. The only things that become law, in Washington today, are bills that have bipartisan support given the make-up of the Senate.
One particular question from the audience was on Romney’s take on immigration for individuals known as DACA, short for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, announced by President Obama in 2012, which includes an estimated 800,000 individuals.
“My own view is that the DACA individuals should be allowed to stay in the country. To be given legal status in the country, if they want to become citizens, they should apply like other people that want to become citizens of the US. Presumably they would be pretty high in the line because they would speak English, they would have a high school degree in most cases and they would have skills particularly those that have already gotten jobs. So they would move under the President’s plan to base citizenship and legal immigration based on the merit based they would move to the top of the line. I would allow them to stay in the country legally and apply for citizenship and if they want to become citizens. That’s my view in regards to the DACA individuals.”
Romney spoke very clearly about his position with President Trump after several audience members asked his thoughts on the results of the Mueller Report, Romney spoke clearly and without hesitation of his position on the president.
“I’m not terribly favored on the right, nor terribly flavored on the left. Because I’m not calling for impeachment, so people on the left aren’t happy, and I’m not willing to just go along with anything the President says, so people on the right aren’t necessarily happy. I’m just saying exactly what I believe and my own view is if the President says something of a significant nature, which I think is decisive and damaging to the country I will speak out on it. And I have and do that on a pretty regular basis.”
The Freshmen Senator was confident in his answers and respectful to the questions from the community and spent just over an hour with constituents.
