Last Monday, March 23, Christopher Newport University (CNU) held Pizza, Politics & Perspectives with Congressman Bobby Scott. The event gave students not only the opportunity to listen and learn from Scott but also to ask him questions during the Q&A session.
“I was interested to see what [the students] would want to speak about,” Scott said.
Scott used the conversation portion to highlight many of the issues that he sees as critical right now. However, the conversation started not with today’s politics but with a family story. Scott’s father was a key witness in a civil rights trial in the ‘60s over whether a black surgeon could practice at Riverside Hospital. A case in which Scott’s father’s testimony played a big part in winning.
Scott used the conversation to raise topics such as health care, including his time in Congress when the Affordable Care Act was passed. Scott recalled the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, which he said forced them to lose out on including certain things in the Affordable Care Act, such as what he called the public option.
“A public option would mean, essentially, you could buy a Medicaid card as one of your options,” Scott said during the conversation.
From there, Scott transitioned into his thoughts about immigration. He said that everyone looked the other way because enforcing these laws could put major industries out of business.
One of the problems is that we have immigration laws that, for decades, have not been enforced,” said Scott. “Everybody knows that a significant portion of the farm workers, people in construction, and a lot of other industries are undocumented. Everybody knows it.”
Yet he disparaged the tactics that he called inhumane, with regard to how people are being treated. He brought up how he thinks that people are uncomfortable and concerned, not with how the law is, but with how it is being done. Scott also called out the republicans saying “they’d rather have the issue than the solution” with regards to immigration.
Scott then touched on the war in Iran and the lack of checks and balances. He explained that members of Congress are not asking enough questions about the war but rather going along with the president’s agenda.
The lack of asking questions and checks and balances was something that Scott heavily focused on.
“The problem is that the majority in Congress, by virtue of their actions, are agreeing with the administration without any questions being asked,” said Scott.
During the Q&A, one student asked for Scott’s thoughts on his “thoughts on the bill that is being proposed to make gerrymandering legal again in Virginia.”
Scott explained that republican states such as Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas started it, but democratic states like California and Virginia used a referendum to alter districts rather than just doing it.
Other questions that students asked included asking about how to enter office and uphold bipartisanship, to which Scott claimed is difficult right now because of the republicans.
Another student asked about the downsizing of the Department of Education and what effects it might have on people. Scott replied that the downsizing will disenfranchise those from section one and those whose English is their second language, and reduce their opportunities to equal opportunities.
Scott encouraged students to get involved in politics, saying that he knew of plenty of different state legislators who like to have students working on their campaigns because even a few students could make a difference.
“You get the democracy you work for,” said Scott.
