Peters wants to set a tone of progress; Vargas optimistic about passing reform
By Mark Walker 12:01 A.M. APRIL 20, 2013 Updated 9:05 P.M. APRIL 19, 2013
After a little more than 100 days in office, San Diego County’s two new members of Congress said they’re a bit frustrated but committed to breaking Washington’s partisan gridlock.
“We still have some work to do in changing the culture,” Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, said Friday.
Peters said he’s working with more than 80 other freshmen to set a tone of compromise and achieve progress on legislation that benefits the nation.
“San Diego seems much more able to do that than Washington, D.C., and we need that there,” he said.
The county delegation’s other freshman member, Democrat Juan Vargas of San Diego, said he believes there is enough bipartisan agreement on comprehensive immigration reform to get legislation passed this year.
“I hope this becomes a model for other things we have to do. We’ve got to compromise,” he said. “I think the Democrats and Republicans can get together and compromise on most things.”
But Vargas also said he’s been taken aback at the apparent lack of behind-the-scenes bargaining by what he refers to as the “adults in the room.”
“There doesn’t seem to be anyone behind the curtain,” he said. “I haven’t been there long enough to know for certain if there isn’t, but so far I haven’t seen it.”
The lawmakers’ remarks came during the 20th annual congressional luncheon sponsored by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
More than 600 people gathered inside a Marriott Marquis ballroom, where they dined on Cobb salad and iced tea and heard from four of the county’s five House members. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, was unable to attend.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, said entitlement reform is his top fiscal priority.
“If we are going to have Social Security and Medicare not dealt with and continue to balloon past their revenue base, then either we are going to tax ourselves out of doing the things that all of my colleagues say are important, or in fact we are going to run out of money,” he said.
Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said budget proposals from the Democratically controlled Senate and President Barack Obama don’t adequately address entitlements.
“It’s the No. 1 priority if we are going to keep from cutting defense or cutting our core priorities,” he said.
Issa also said federal and state regulations are combining to drive businesses out of California.
“This state has told people to leave,” he said, adding that unless onerous regulations and taxes are relaxed, an increasing numbers of large businesses will leave for states such as Texas.
“I predict we will keep small, innovative businesses,” he said. “But when they get to the point of breaking even, they’ll leave.”
San Diego Democrat Susan Davis said she supports Obama’s call for universal preschool access.
She also said she continues to strongly support the Affordable Care Act and encouraged business executives to work with Congress to make its implementation a smooth process.
All the lawmakers spoke in support of $226 million in federal funding to complete an expansion of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. But Issa predicted that it wouldn’t be long after all that work is done that calls for even more inspection lanes will begin.
The luncheon was one of the first appearances by former San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders before a large group since leaving office and becoming the chamber’s new president and chief executive.
He and his successor, Mayor Bob Filner, whom Sanders jokingly referred to as his twin brother, just completed a chamber-sponsored trip to Mexico City together.
“It’s wonderful that we get to work together,” Filner told the crowd during brief remarks that included praise for Sanders’ work in straightening out city finances.
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Related:
Issa Offers Dems a Trade: Back XL Pipeline to Speed Border Crossings
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Issa, a North County Republican whose district includes southern Orange County, told 600 members of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce that if Democrats want the border crossing funds, they’ll have to bend on another border issue—the Keystone XL pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico.
“You can’t be territorial on import and export,” Issa told the luncheon at the bayfront Marriott Hotel near the San Diego Convention Center. “If you want to get bipartisan buy-in on these trade issues, you have to take the big picture.”
Calling the XL pipeline “just as important to the national dialog” as San Diego’s border with Mexico, he said: “Right now, we’re telling Canada that we will stop the exports of their oil for no particular reason except that we can.”
But Issa incited bipartisan laughter when he responded to a comment by Vargas that the county’s congressional delegation had three border members—the Democrats who visited the border earlier Friday.
“We have a border crossing in my district,” Issa said. “Come up to San Onofre.”
To which Vargas, the successor to Bob Filner in the 51st District fronting the border, responded: “As a Democrat, there’s that border crossing—between San Diego and Orange County.”
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