Sen. John McCain, right, visits with Page physician Ray Holsten, left, following Saturday's Town Hall Meeting in Page. (Todd Glasenapp/Sun Correspondent)
PAGE -- John McCain the U.S. senator, John McCain the candidate and John McCain the Lake Powell backer merged Saturday in a Town Hall stop in Page.
The senior senator from Arizona told nearly 100 people in Page City Council chambers that he is working to keep the 2,250-megawatt Navajo Generating Station open and wants to promote small business job growth in Arizona.
"Our focus has got to be on the economy of the state of Arizona," he said Saturday afternoon, after a morning session in Winslow. "It's got to be about jobs and jobs and jobs."
Mostly, the hour-long exchanges with a supportive audience were about the health care reform bill. McCain accused President Obama and the Democratic Congress of "bribery" for including pork-barrel projects in the bill, including a $100 million hospital in Connecticut.
He heard a number of personal stories from Page residents about struggles with the health care system and fears over changes. The doctor in the house, Lake Powell Medical Center's Ray Holsten, said he is opposed to the bill.
McCain also said a projected $1.5 trillion deficit this year, coupled with the borrowing of 43 cents of every dollar spent, amounts to "generational debt" that will be passed on.
The 27-year Capitol Hill veteran did not specifically refer to his campaign for re-election. He said he has held Town Hall Meetings for many years and has visited Lake Powell often on family houseboat and jet ski trips. He participated in the 1983 version of the annual Page Attacks Trash campaign.
Lake Powell, the economic lifeblood of Page, came up in one question. The state of Utah has proposed a $1 billion pipeline from the lake to Washington and Iron counties in southwestern Utah.
"I am fundamentally opposed to taking water out of Lake Powell," McCain said, then recited an old Barry Goldwater line about Arizona being so dry, the trees chase the dogs.
As for environmental pressure to add expensive pollution controls at Navajo Generating Station, McCain said he and Sen. Jon Kyl are working with the primary utility and the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of NGS. The coal-fired electric plant was built in the 1970s and is located just east of Page. It employs 545 full-time workers and also supports 400 Peabody Western Coal employees.
He said he and Kyl want some assurance from EPA that if changes have to be made, there will be "federal contributions."
A better way to reduce greenhouse gases while generating energy is offshore drilling and construction of more nuclear power plants, he said.
McCain received a warm reception and visited with a long line of locals after the meeting. Page has tended to lean conservative, though registered Republicans outnumbered Democrats by only 6 percent, in 2004 statistics.
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