Boyda buoyed by Y.C. visit

By BOB JOHNSON
Register City Editor

Nancy Boyda visits with Alfred Link in Yates Center Saturday morning.

YATES CENTER — Nancy Boyda is a good listener. What she heard here was music to her ears.
Boyda, 2nd District U.S. representative, was cheered frequently during an hour-long presentation Saturday morning and got verbal support from several Republicans who said they would support her in November.
The Topeka Democrat noted “some positive things we’ve done,” in adding $5.2 billion to veterans benefits, moving a smidgen forward in ethics reform and making college more affordable, “in my two years in Congress.”
She noted college loan rates were cut in half, from 6.4 to 3.2 percent, application forms were streamlined, grant money was increased and provisions were made for college loans to be forgiven in return for 10 years of public service.
Meanwhile, Boyda said she was distressed that nothing had been done to deal with health care, energy and immigration concerns, which her listeners frequently said they shared.
The first-term incumbent faces no partisan opposition in the August primary. Jim Ryun, whom she defeated in 2006, and Lynn Jenkins, Kansas treasurer, are seeking the Republican nomination.
But, if the 30 people who came to hear her had their way, Boyda would be re-elected by acclamation.
That was her audience’s main positive. They were sour on the economy, irritated by trade agreements they said took jobs away from America workers and were disgruntled by soaring costs of fuel, energy and food.
Boyda said she was sympathetic and was doing what she could to restore the American ideal that hard work paid dividends and led to the American dream of home ownership and a secure future, but that she was somewhat hamstrung as an individual member of Congress.
“When I got there I was told that big oil, big drug companies and the health insurance industry were off limits,” Boyda said. “Health insurance companies are being subsidized by $65 billion over five years and the five biggest oil companies are getting $18 billion a year in subsidies, even though they had profits last year of $123 billion, including $41 billion for Exxon.
“Why is nothing changing? We can’t agree to stop the subsidies,” she said.
Boyda, much as John McCain, presumptive GOP presidential candidate proposed, said she co-authored a federal gas tax moratorium bill. Boyda’s is different. A provision of it would take money from oil company subsidies to make up lost federal revenue, which goes for road construction.
“How do we get jobs,” she was asked.
“Stop losing them,” Boyda replied. “We need to look at NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and all other trade policies,” and reshape them more to the advantage of U.S. workers, who “haven’t fared well under what we have.”
Boyda fears that the U.S. dollar, long the dominant currency in the world, “may not be too much longer. As the trade deficit increases, the value of the dollar decreases.”
Fuel and energy also are much on Boyda’s mind.
“What’s scary is that the input costs (for farmers) are likely to stay high when commodities prices come down,” she said. “I’ve voted to increase off-shore drilling and we need to bring nuclear back into the conversation.”
Boyda hedged some when the coal-fired power plants proposed for Holcomb were mentioned.
“Washington is going to do something on CO2 emissions and Holcomb could get caught in the middle. Will technology (proposed for the plants to reduce emissions) be good in 15 years?
“We haven’t made advances in a national energy policy since the 1970s,” when oil prices first spiked, “and we need to look at breaking energy dependence through additional drilling,” off shore, on the North Slope and anywhere else feasible. “It can be done and still keep the environment intact.”

ERIN RHOADS asked what could be done to get younger people, particularly the 30-somethings, to return to small towns such as Yates Center.
“Young people have to be inspired and you need to make government more transparent” to restore younger voters’ faith in the system, she said.
Boyda recalled what prompted her to become involved.
“I woke up one morning and thought what can democracy do without me?
“I’m going to give some graduation speeches this year and I’m not going to say that one person can make a difference. I’m going to tell students that one person has to make a difference.
“There are many things going on that are wrong. We’ve inherited a mess and we have to do something about it.”