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Politico...
Freshmen feel the
heat back home
LANSFORD, Pa. — Any lawmaker in a swing district can expect to take
criticism from his right flank at a town hall meeting. But at an
American Veterans outpost tucked deep in the Pocono Mountains this
week, freshman Republican Rep. Lou Barletta took heat from every
direction — from Democrats angry with the tax cuts in the GOP budget,
to conservatives who thought he caved on the last continuing resolution
vote, to a precocious 16-year-old critical of the lawmaker’s
environmental record.
First Barletta was told “not to be steadfast in Paul Ryan’s Republican
plan,” to “bend a little, work and come together to pass something
that’s agreeable to everybody.” Moments later, another constituent told
him, “I don’t want you to bend; I want you to stand firm” on spending,
even if that means a national debt default.
And hardly anyone in his senior-heavy district wants to see Congress
touch their Medicare benefits.
Barletta’s district is one of a handful that Democrats have zeroed in
on this spring break: One of 13 that voted for John Kerry in 2004 and
Barack Obama in 2008 but elected a Republican to Congress in 2010. The
town halls in Pennsylvania showed deep concern about the national debt
but extreme wariness of cuts to entitlements, and constituents are
starting to vent their frustrations with the new House GOP majority,
bolstered by 87 freshmen, all but one of whom voted for Ryan’s budget
plan. Five of the Kerry-Obama districts are in eastern Pennsylvania —
and three are represented by freshmen, including Barletta, Rep. Patrick
Meehan and Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick.
In his blue collar Scranton-area district — birthplace of Vice
President Joe Biden, hometown of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham and
represented for the past 26 years by former Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a
Democrat — Barletta is trying to strike a balance that stays true to
his conservative campaign but is sympathetic to an aging constituency
fearful about entitlement reform.
In the middle of Barletta’s presentation on the national debt, a man in
the front row interrupted him. “As a senior, did I not pay for these
Medicare and Social Security benefits? Didn’t I give Washington my
dollars so that as a senior I could live on them?”
Barletta replied “Yes, and it is going to be there. It’s not being
touched for any of the senior citizens now, but for my daughter—”
The man cut him off again. “It should be there for her as well.”
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