Wittman grilled by senior center residents
Wittman's town hall meeting addresses Social Security and Medicare concerns.
fredericksburg.com
(VA)

BY ROBYN SIDERSKY
Date published: 8/23/2011

BY ROBYN SIDERSKY

Rep. Rob Wittman assured about 100 residents of a senior center in Spotsylvania County yesterday that people ages 55 and above would be protected no matter what happens to Social Security and Medicare.

Wittman had a town hall meeting at Chancellor's Village yesterday that focused on Social Security and Medicare, among other topics.

Wittman, who represents the Fredericksburg area in Congress, addressed the budget and the debt issue in Washington and talked about working toward solutions.

"Washington hasn't demonstrated that it can spend responsibly," he said.

The Republican from Montross gave a slide show about the debt and its effect on the national budget.

He said 62 percent of the budget is "auto-pilot spending," and that is projected to grow to 72 percent by 2040. He also said 47 percent of the nation's debt is held by foreign nations.

Some attendees asked about changing the tax system and tax credits for the wealthy.

Wittman said he thinks the tax system needs to be reformed, but the spending issues have to be brought under control first.

Wittman was asked about how military retirement will be affected by cuts to the budget.

He said it will be set aside and not part of the budget discussions.

Another attendee asked that a copy of President Obama's health care plan be placed in the library in Montross so that he and others could examine it for themselves. Wittman promised that it would be done.

Someone asked about cutting costs of Congress and what could be done there.

Wittman said that he has introduced legislation that would reduce salaries for Congress and get rid of automatic pay increases altogether.

"We need to set the example," he said.

Several attendees brought up billionaire Warren Buffett's op-ed asking Congress to raise taxes for the wealthy. They agreed with it, they said.

Another attendee challenged Wittman on why he voted to increase the federal debt ceiling.

"It gets us on track to reduce the debt," he said. "This, I believe, was a good first step."

When the topic of illegal immigration came up, Wittman talked about improving "guest worker programs"--programs where companies can hire temporary workers for less than five years.

He also talked about enforcing current immigration laws and wanting Immigration and Customs Enforcement to work with local and state law enforcement.

Robyn Sidersky 540/374-5413
Email: rsidersky@freelancestar.com

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