ROGERS -- Conservatives want assurance electing 4th District Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Dardanelle, to the U.S. Senate would make a difference, they told the candidate at a town hall meeting Friday in Rogers.

"I'm sick and tired of even Republicans shrugging their shoulders and saying 'What can we do?'" said Lisa Richards of Bentonville.

She was one of at least 50 attending a meeting with local members of the Association of Mature American Citizens, a conservative group. They met Friday afternoon in a room for community events provided by the Roger-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce.

"We have a renegade president and Congress is sitting on its hands," said another town hall attendee.

Cotton cited his votes against the Farm Bill and disaster aid after Hurricane Sandy as tough, politically risky votes showing "I'm not just somebody who wants an 'R' behind his name." Cotton is running against incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.

Democratic control of the Senate shields President Barack Obama from the full political consequences of his policies, Cotton said. If elected as part of a Republican majority, Cotton said, a "unified" Congress could at least force the president to veto things such as changes to health care and Congressional restrictions on his power to regulate carbon emissions in power generation.

At best, such attempts would receive support from Democrats who no longer support the president's policies. That would force change, he said.

"I think he will blink on some of these issues," Cotton said. Senate Majority Leader Rep. Harry Reid, D-Nev., "is his veto now. If the president had to veto acts of Congress himself, he would have to explain that to the American people. it would at least define issues for our 2016 presidential nominee."

Erik Dorey, spokesman for Pryor's campaign, said Cotton's other priorities don't take the place of his sworn duty to represent the people who elected him. The votes Cotton cites as courageous were against both the best interests and clear wishes of his constituents, he said.

Dorey cited Cotton votes on a range of issues, including a vote against lower interest on student loans and a protection measure against domestic violence.

"He thinks he knows better than people here in Arkansas," Dorey said. "This isn't about being Republican or Democrat. This is about blind ambition for higher office even if it means voting against families here at home."

On other issues, Cotton said conservatives must acknowledge the health care system before the Affordable Care Act had "real problems, the biggest being that it cost too much."

"We have to reform health care, but we need to start all over," Cotton said. Congress needs to consider measures such as allowing health insurance to be sold across state lines, he said.

The town hall audience asked Cotton about immigration. "Fences work," Cotton said. Effective barriers at selected, high-traffic areas of borders worked in the U.S., near San Diego, and they work in Israel, he said.

Cotton wasn't talking about the highly guarded structures built by that country at areas with a high risk of terrorism, he said, but in southern Israel to stop illegal immigration by transient workers.

Cotton discouraged calls for impeachment of the president by some of the most conservative town hall participants. That would require a two-thirds vote by the Senate. That's unobtainable, Cotton said.

On veterans health care, Cotton said the system hasn't changed with the times.

Veterans hospitals and other institutions were needed in their day because health care services weren't widely available, he said. Now his father, for instance, who lives in Dardanelle "would have to drive past five places" that can do sophisticated medical imaging to get the same procedure done at the nearest VA facility, Cotton said.

Those institutions still fill some needs but more flexibility to use other clinics would clear backlogs and make care more timely, he said.