WINNEMUCCA — On his first swing through rural Nevada since winning the special election for Congressional District 2 in September, Congressman Mark Amodei was greeted on Tuesday (Nov. 8) by a crowd of rowdy voters who wanted answers on everything from the federal debt to the potential closure of rural post offices..

It was Amodei’s 57^th day in office. He told the audience he wasn’t playing hookey from school as the week was set aside for congress to meet with their constituents.

He gave the audience some idea of what he was working on in Washington, including a Balanced Budget Amendment that’s coming up for a vote next week.

Similar to state legislation, the amendment would require the federal government to operate within its budget.

Amodei expressed dismay that $.42 of every dollar spent by the federal government is borrowed calling it “a phenomenally disruptive financial situation for a country.”

Noting the budget grew by 40 percent in five years, Amodei said it was important to look back and determine how the situation was created if it was going to be fixed. Additionally, he said he wasn’t blaming anyone for the situation, which was created over the course of several administrations.

An audience member asked what Congress was doing to grow the US job market. The congressman noted they had recently passed a multi-country free trade agreement, but he was shouted down by attendees. 

One said, “We don’t care about them. What are you doing to create jobs here?” Another said, “Free trade doesn’t build the home economy.”

Both Republicans and Democrats supported the free-trade agreements made with South Korea, Panama, and Columbia. In theory, the agreements would lower tariffs and ease trade restrictions, which in turn allows American manufacturers to export more goods to these countries, increasing manufacturing jobs.

But for many Americans, and perhaps those in the audience, free trade agreements usually mean more jobs for other countries and the closure of factories here.

An audience member called repeatedly for the creation of a fair monetary system with money that had actual worth.

He asked the congressman if he supported Ron Paul’s proposal to audit the Federal Reserve, Amodei said he supported the proposal and added, “I think Ron Paul is right about most of the financial issues.”

Paul, who is a 2012 candidate for the Presidency on the Republican side, has repeatedly raised concerns about loans made by the Federal Reserve, which he (Paul)  said weakened the value of currency worldwide.

While Republicans frequently talk about cutting the budget, one audience member asked about cuts to the Department of Defense whose budget has more than doubled in ten years.  Amodei said he expected cuts would be made to the DOD budget.

Introducing a theme that would be repeated throughout the meeting, Amodei said when it comes to cuts you have to go where the money is – and that includes the DOD.

He would later use the same expression on the topic of closure of the rural post offices. Members of the audience attended the meet & greet wearing t-shirts protesting the closure of the post offices.

The congressman noted the United States Post Office spends about 1 percent of its budget on rural offices. Rural post offices are not where the money is, he explained, and it wouldn’t make sense or solve the larger problem by closing them.

Although he appeared to support the end to Saturday services, noting it could reduce the USPS budget by 20 percent, as one person noted that would send business to USPS competitors -- making it even harder for the USPS to do business in the long run.

Talking from a lawyer’s perspective, Amodei said it was important for the USPS to honor the contracts made with labor unions; however, when those contracts expired it was time to renegotiate.

He said, “I’d rather save the Post Office than the union.”

He said where the USPS should be looking to make cuts are the large distribution centers in urban areas where there are multiple distribution centers that could be combined.  He said the financial problems of the postal service weren’t so much rural issues as urban issues.

The congressman and audience members noted the challenges of the problem.

Amodei acknowledged he doesn’t lick a stamp to pay his bills; he uses electronic bill pay. More and more people are just doing their business over the Internet.

And as a member of the audience pointed out, the USPS does not get a cent in taxpayer money. The postal service is expected to operate like a business, but it can’t earn revenue like a business.

While audience members expressed their fears the USPS would simply close their offices, and decisions on that were expected soon, Amodei said the USPS doesn’t get the final say on that – Congress does.

Another audience member railed against federal employees who inspect mining and related operations. He said it had a negative effect on business and hindered them from flourishing.

Specifically naming OSHA, he said the agency needed to be harnessed and prevented from writing tickets for every petty thing and making life miserable for business.

Amodei acknowledged his office had received complaints and in the future members of his staff would accompany inspectors.

He said, “We’ll be providing the oversight.”

Amodei talked about life in Congress. With special reference to the Judiciary Committee, he said, “A lot of what I do is listen to adults sniping at each other over nothing that has to do with the issue.”

Audience members also remarked on changes for retired military personnel that cut benefits; expressed their support of the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011; promoted their support of E-Verify, which would verify a potential worker’s US employment status; the fact the solar panels used by the school district were imported; a role for Yucca Mountain; and Amodei’s yeah vote on HR 358, which would prevent federal dollars from being used for abortions where the life of the mother was at risk.

After the lengthy meeting in which many contentious topics were discussed, the last question was given to a representative of Mr. Clark’s sixth grade social studies class at French Ford Middle School.

If Congressman Amodei was hoping for a softball question -- such as where do you get your favorite fries from? --  he hoped for too much.

Rebecca Holzel asked the question suggested by her classmates, “Why is the price of gas so high?”

The room erupted in laughter.

Amodei explained Nevada has one of the highest gas taxes in the US.  Approximately $.58 for every gallon of fuel goes to the gas tax. This stems primarily from the fact there’s a lot of roads that need to be maintained for a small population.

He added the ability of the US to control its destiny relies on the idea the country has to become independent of foreign oil.  He said he supports measures that would allow the US to use more of its own natural resources – including increased drilling.