{"id":28651,"date":"2016-12-02T22:45:09","date_gmt":"2016-12-03T06:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/young-doesnt-see-gop-as-trumps-rubber-stamp\/"},"modified":"2016-12-02T22:45:09","modified_gmt":"2016-12-03T06:45:09","slug":"young-doesnt-see-gop-as-trumps-rubber-stamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/young-doesnt-see-gop-as-trumps-rubber-stamp\/","title":{"rendered":"Young doesn’t see GOP as Trump’s rubber stamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU \u2014 <\/strong>U.S. Rep. Don Young said there are similarities between the election of Donald Trump and the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, which he said came during a period of \u201cmalaise\u201d when people lacked hope and wanted change.<\/p>\n

Young, 83, is the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. House. Trump would be the ninth president Young has served alongside.<\/p>\n

Young distanced himself from Trump during the campaign and acknowledged he was surprised by Trump\u2019s victory, as he was with Reagan\u2019s. But Young said he doesn\u2019t share the fears that others have about a Trump presidency.<\/p>\n

In a phone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Young said he sees an opportunity for Republicans to advance their agenda and address issues such as health care and burdensome regulations.<\/p>\n

He also doesn\u2019t see Republicans merely rubber stamping Trump\u2019s ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have good ideas, we have good thoughts and we ought to pass the bills and let him make the decision\u201d on whether to veto them or not, Young said.<\/p>\n

The outspoken congressman, who recently won re-election to a 23rd term, said he won\u2019t have a problem speaking out if the incoming president, a fellow Republican, proposes or does something he disagrees with. \u201cI\u2019ve never had that problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Democrats sometimes sided with President Barack Obama on issues just because he was a fellow Democrat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the president is wrong, this is the Congress. This is the house of the people,\u201d Young said. \u201cAnd we ought to be able to be in the position, regardless of who the president is, and say, \u2018This is the wrong way to go,\u2019 and, like I say, not pass his bill rubber stamp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young said he is optimistic about the coming congressional term but said it will be important to begin working immediately on issues like energy, health care and regulations since 2018 is another election year \u201cand nobody does anything\u201d in an election year.<\/p>\n

Young said he would like to repeal Obama\u2019s signature health care law but thinks the chances of repeal are slim. Instead of fighting over repealing the law, lawmakers should focus on parts that aren\u2019t working and fix those, he said.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s nomination of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to be the next attorney general has caused concern among marijuana advocates. Sessions has called marijuana a danger. Alaska is among the states that has legalized recreational use of marijuana.<\/p>\n

Young said he\u2019s never smoked weed but supports states\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

The state voted on it, \u201cand the federal government should stay out of it,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd those people that criticized me and said, \u2018Well, you\u2019re supporting drugs.\u2019 I am not. I\u2019m supporting states\u2019 rights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU \u2014 U.S. Rep. Don Young said there are similarities between the election of Donald Trump and the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, which he said came during a period of \u201cmalaise\u201d when people lacked hope and wanted change. Young, 83, is the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. House. Trump would be the ninth president […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-28651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28651"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}