McCain started on Obamacare, “First of all on the government shutdown. I was very much opposed to the Affordable Care Act as its official name is, and I opposed it because I didn’t think it was good for the country and I thought it was bad legislation. I am of the agreement that the healthcare system in this country needs to be fixed. I have a number of ideas as do a number of my colleagues and I didn’t think that quote Obamacare would be the answer. Well umm we know now that this rollout has turned into a fiasco. We know that people are unable to register and there have been huge quote glitches in the system. And people are very frustrated by their inability to get on the system. Whether to get information about it or to sign up and register on it… So there are a number of things that we need to do I think to quote Obamacare in order to fix the system”
The room in which the town hall was staged, wasn’t full and the atmosphere was particularly relaxed and easy-going. There were no rude comments or questions and both McCain and the residents kept any insinuations at an arms length. This is in sharp contrast to his last town hall when the hot topic was Syria.
The next issue McCain addressed was the shutdown, “The shutdown was in my view and most people that I know a devastating impact on the state of Arizona. When you look at for example there was a number of six hundred thousand visitors who were turned away from our national parks, six hundred thousand people who came to visit our national parks. Not only from around the country, but from around the world and they came to visit the Grand Canyon, Canon De Chelly many of our other national monuments and others and they were turned away. That translated into a loss of forty-five million dollars in visitor spending… It was a fool’s errand to embark on this shutdown of the government and cause so much discomfort, dislocation, and even pain to so much of our citizens including the citizens of Arizona.”
Sergio Arellano, a combat veteran and a wounded warrior, expressed his concerns for veterans and their families not receiving disability and death benefits during future shutdowns. McCain responded, “As you know this issue was brought to a head when there were five of our members who had made the ultimate sacrifice that they were notified that they would not receive those benefits. Which you know congress quickly reversed that. But very frankly we should have never put them in that position to start with. I opposed the shutdown from the beginning for a whole variety of reasons including the fact that it wasn’t going to succeed… When you say you have a mission and you embark on that mission you should have some reasonable chance of success. There was no chance of success…”
Finally Senator McCain shifted to immigration reform, “Finally I want to talk about the issue of comprehensive immigration reform… It is now up the House of Representatives. I would hope that some of my republican friends would realize that the American people want us to get on a positive agenda and part of that positive agenda I would hope would be we would join together and pass comprehensive immigration reform… So we need to have a comprehensive approach and that comprehensive approach that we passed through the senate was a very tough approach…”
When a reporter insinuated that the Tea Party republicans may try another shutdown McCain replied, “I’m saying no. I’m saying the American people and the people of Arizona are giving them a resounding no. They should listen to the American people. Over 80% of the American people are saying that they disapprove of shutting down the government.”
It was clear from the town hall that McCain was shifting most of the blame for the shutdown and immigration reform onto his fellow republicans. McCain is also considering another run for the Senate in 2016.
I asked Senator McCain if he was open to a piece meal approach to immigration reform and McCain remarked, “I am for any effort that we can get legislation that would bring us to conference. The fundamental principle has to be a path to citizenship, but we would be glad to consider whatever the House of Representatives could pass. You know right now they haven’t passed anything.”
Videos courtesy of Keith van Heyningen: