Fourth Congressional Representative Burgess Owens sat down with the Review to discuss his views for a second term and expressed thoughts on his first term in office.
“I don’t think that, since I have left the NFL, that I have had this team feeling,” Owens said, regarding if politics was like football, in an interview given in the Wolverine Buzz Podcast. “We have a remarkable delegation here in Utah … to be a part of that has been pretty good.”
“In the football game, somebody wins, somebody loses, who really cares?” Owens stated. “That’s why I kinda drifted away from sports.… What I am dealing with now is the real world. That is what I love about it.”
During the Review’s interview with Owens, a wide variety of topics were discussed on what the representative will do with a second term if he is sent back to the House of Representatives. Topics about the national debt, the water crisis, the state of politics, education, and term limits among other things were talked about. Owens had stressed the need for action when it comes to sorting out the country’s national debt.
“Right now we have too many people in Congress who have never run a business, who have never really had to sign on the front of a check; money to them is whatever the government can come up with,” Owens asserted. “The consequences of where we are today, 31 trillion dollars, and most people don’t really understand what that will do to our future.”
Owens points to Utah as an example of how the federal government can balance its budgets. He says Utah is able to come together each year and balance its budget, and that each year they are able to come to a compromise on how best to do that.
During the Review’s conversation with Owens, education became a topic of strong passion with the representative. As a ranking member of the House Education and Labor Committee, this is a topic that the representative feels strongly about.
“We have to make sure that we are giving every young person who comes through the system a way to see the American dream,” Owens stated. “We should not be pushing everyone toward higher education. Some should go there, some could come out and actually be making a six figure income in welding when they’re two years out of high school!”
Owens voiced his disapproval over the recent actions by the Biden administration to cancel student loan debt, saying that people who have their debts paid and didn’t choose to go to college shouldn’t have to pay off someone else’s loans.
“We started getting to the point where we expect other people to take what we decided to do … that is the beginning of losing our nation [and] our culture,” Owens stressed. “Why should [Americans who didn’t take on loans] be paying out themselves for someone who made that decision?”
The representative also made the point that this is also a university problem, saying that some universities rip students off with degrees that don’t mean a thing and strap them with loans they won’t pay off until they are a lot older.
During the interview Owens also addressed the recent controversy of excluding United Utah candidate January Walker from a rescheduled debate that both the Owens campaign and McDonald campaign had organized. Owens pointed to polling, saying that Walker hadn’t been showing good numbers with only 2%, which is what he says didn’t qualify her for the rescheduled debate. “She didn’t have the numbers that I respected.”
It should be noted that Walker qualified for the Utah Debate Commission debate with 6.15%, as shown by the UDC surveys.
Owens also pointed towards the McDonald campaign for the reasoning behind excluding Walker, “It was Darlene who made it clear [to my campaign] that she didn’t want [Ms. Walker] there. We didn’t debate that, we didn’t fight that … she made it very clear.”
McDonald had stated previously in her interview to the Review that her campaign hadn’t been involved in that planning of the debate. According to Owens, they took her lead from the beginning that she didn’t want Walker at the debate.
Owens wrapped up the interview for a call to vote for him in this upcoming election, saying that a Republican controlled house will be good for America, and that the Republican party will be the party of diversity and hope, and that it will be a good view to the future. “When you finish any conversation with any representative, you should be hopeful, excited, looking toward the future in a much more positive way than not. Democrats give nothing but a dark bleak picture of who we are, what we’re doing… and where we came from. Who wants to wake up depressed everyday?”
The deadline to register to vote online has passed, and Nov. 4 is the last day to vote early in person. You can still register to vote in person on election day, and all mail-in ballots must be postmarked no later than Nov. 7, or turned in to a polling station on Election Day, Nov. 8.
For more interviews like this, visit the Wolverine Buzz Podcast; for more information on voting visit voter.utah.gov.
