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Rep. Gosar talks economy and mining at Tusayan town hall Jan. 7

Clara Beard/WGCN<br>
Rep. Paul Gosar tells audience members at his Jan. 7 town hall meeting in Tusayan that business is hurting in the U.S. due to over regulation and over taxation.

Clara Beard/WGCN<br> Rep. Paul Gosar tells audience members at his Jan. 7 town hall meeting in Tusayan that business is hurting in the U.S. due to over regulation and over taxation.

TUSAYAN, Ariz. - U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Doney Park, visited the town of Tusayan Jan. 7 addressing budget dysfunction in the U.S senate, federal spending and education.

Earlier that day, Gosar announced at a Yavapai County Republican Party monthly meeting that he will run in the new 4th Congressional District instead of his hometown's new 1st Congressional District.

Newly drawn, and still tentative, final congressional districts put Gosar's hometown of Flagstaff in From Page 1B

the 1st District with a stronger majority of Democrats than before. Part of the Verde Valley and Sedona ended up in CD1.

Prescott and the rest of Yavapai County ended up in a Republican-dominated 4th District with no current House incumbent. The new CD4 also includes parts of Maricopa (including Apache Junction), Gila, Pinal (including Florence), Mohave, La Paz and Yuma counties.

A resident from Tempe asked Gosar about future development in Tusayan and, more specifically, where the town will get its water.

Gosar suggested he talk to Tusayan's local government about the answer to that question.

"I wish I had more information to give you, but that is something that the people of Tusayan decided on, that's what the vote was," he said.

Gosar had harsh criticism for Operation Fast and Furious, an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) gun walking scandal where approximately 2,000 firearms were lost and linked to 179 crime scenes in Mexico.

"I am ashamed to say that if we had stronger gun laws this would not have happened. It is a farce," he said. "When you play the race card, give me a break. Tell that to the Mexican people. Over three hundred have lost their lives."

Targeting Congress and Attorney General Eric Holder on their accountability over the issue, Gosar said there are two scenarios.

"Either you did know about this, and you are covering it up, or you didn't know about it and you are incompetent."

The economy was also a strong talking point with the freshman congressman, who urged community members to start reinvesting in their own state and country. He asked audience members to make a choice: do they want the country to be like Europe or do they want it to be like an "America from the past?"

"Businesses are hurting. Why? Because one, we are overregulated and two, we are overtaxed," Gosar told an audience of about 30 people inside a Grand Canyon Airport hanger. "What we've got to do is, we've got to minimize those. That's how we have to recreate this economy, we have to get people back in and reinvesting in education and high technology and you know what? It's right here in District One."

Gosar also mentioned the importance of copper mining. He sponsored a measure in the House supporting the mining, and said copper was needed to support "high technology" like wind turbines.

Along with copper mining, Gosar also touted the Arizona forest as another untapped resource to save the state's money.

"We need to start introducing language that will actually expedite getting into those forests and utilizing the salvaged wood for use," he said.

On education, Grand Canyon School Superintendent Sharyl Allen prefaced her question to the congressman by making a few comments relating to the Obama administration's responsibilities regarding the No Child Left Behind waiver. The U.S. Department of Education introduced a waiver system that would exempt states from having to meet adequate yearly progress requirements in exchange for several changes, including statewide school accountability systems and performance-based teacher evaluations.

"This is the conundrum that we are continually facing in education. The mandates after mandates that are starting at the federal level, and coming to the state level," Allen said. "Education is a state right, not a federal right, so now we have that constitutional violation."

Allen went on to say she believes congress created the waiver, not because they think it is a bad law, but because they "want it to do what they want it to do, which is incredibly egregious."

That being said, she wanted to know why congress has not started the impeachment process of the president if they continue to mandate the law.

"I would appreciate it if we quit comparing our children to, 'well we need to be like Finland or we need to be like Singapore.' What we need to be saying is, and I wish every one of our congressmen would do this, is 'no, we need to be like America and what it stands for," Allen said.

Gosar agreed and said No Child Left behind was an interesting concept, but it just isn't going to work because it is overlain with administrative concepts.

He also told Allen he believes impeachment can't work, due to the division of Congress.

"It is very obvious that this president is not a uniter, he is a divider," he said. "He's going along the lines of Harry Truman, and picking a fight with congress."

A Flagstaff resident asked Gosar if the moratorium on uranium mining around the Grand Canyon area pertained to all mining or existing mines.

Addressing the moratorium, he felt the language contained "too many grey areas" and it needed to be looked at closer.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a 20-year ban on new uranium mining claims on 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon on Monday. The moratorium does allow mining on nearly 3,000 existing claims.


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