Dozens turn out for casual gathering with Senator Rounds

It's one of the biggest complaints in politics – leaders are not accessible to the people they represent. But that wasn't the case in Rapid City as dozens of people turned out on Wednesday for a Coffee and Conversation event with U.S. Senator Mike Rounds.

Concerned citizens with a variety of topics on their minds peppered the senator with questions ranging from country of origin labeling to health care. While Rounds touched on a number of different subjects, one overwhelming question was brought up time and again. How does a "broken" Washington take care of Americans? Rounds says, "Anything we can do to bring attention to the mismanagement that's occurring within the federal government in all of the agencies will help us, whether you're talking about the department of education or whether you're talking about the VA. In all those areas there's ways to make things more efficient, but it's even worse than that, it's intrinsic within the federal government itself. I look at the way even the United States Senate runs and the amount of money that is wasted in the United States Senate. And you realize that this is every place; it is pervasive within the Washington scene. Whatever those individuals that are running for the president of the United States can do to bring more attention to the mismanagement in the VA, that's going to help us."