Congressmen get an earful from residents

Etheridge, Miller, Price tour districts

From what three local congressmen have been hearing this week, people in the Triangle are worried about paying the bills -- both their own, and the nation's.

On recess from their work at the Capitol, U.S. Reps. Bob Etheridge, Brad Miller and David Price have been touring their districts over the past few days. They've visited high-tech workers at Research Triangle Park, farmers and businesspeople in Wake and Johnston counties, and elderly retirees in Chatham County.

Some of their concerns are familiar ones -- the war in Iraq and illegal immigration, for example. But many residents also had questions for their congressmen about issues that hit them in the pocketbook. They wondered whether the nation's economy can withstand Washington's spending habits and a weakening real estate market.

At Carolina Meadows retirement community in Chatham County near Chapel Hill on Thursday night, residents asked Price how the federal government was going to make up for Social Security shortfalls while paying for the war in Iraq and President Bush's tax cuts -- which Price called "two 800-pound gorillas."

On a farm in Knightdale on Friday, Miller heard that small farm owners can't pay their bills and that their way of life is fading.

And at a lunch meeting of the Greater Cleveland Chamber of Commerce on Friday, Etheridge soothed fears about a faltering economy fueled by mounting residential foreclosures.

In the first half of this year, foreclosures were up 39 percent in North Carolina compared to the same period in 2006. Nationwide, the increase was 55 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped more than 700 points over the past three weeks due to investors' fears over banks' reluctance to loan money to marginal borrowers.

Sandra Rhodes, who owns the Cleveland School Animal Hospital in Johnston County, told Etheridge about a customer who recently asked for relief from her veterinary bill because she had just lost her home to foreclosure.

"Do they have a plan for it to not turn the economy totally upside down if this becomes more widespread?" Rhodes asked.

Etheridge said the Federal Reserve has both the resources and the authority to pour money into the economy to stave off a deep recession.

"It's a big economy, and it's a strong economy, and I think we'll be OK," he said later. "Anytime somebody loses their home, all of us should be concerned."

Etheridge, Miller and Price, all Democrats, complained about a federal deficit which has doubled since 2000. They trumpeted the "new" Democratic Congress and its "pay-as-you-go" philosophy, but complained about the war and Bush's tax cuts.

"Where is all this money coming from?" David Pope, a Knightdale farmer, asked Miller.

"We're borrowing it," replied Miller. "You said you had two children. Are they having children?"

"Yes," said Pope.

"Well, they're the ones that are going to be paying for it," Miller said.

At Carolina Meadows, resident Jim Borden, 80, told Price that future generations will also be paying more for their own Social Security, saying that payments will outpace the system's income beginning in 2017.

"I think there's some real pain coming," said Borden. "What do you think?"

"I agree," said Price. "We have a president who's never acknowledged that there's a problem. I think it will have to be the next administration. It's going to have to be faced, and the sooner the better."

But 97-year-old Ted Plein wondered how Washington could fix the Social Security system while having to pay for the war and the tax cuts.

Price said the tax cuts and the war are going to have to expire.

"I do not think the Iraq situation is sustainable," he said. "The war in Iraq is going to end if enough Republicans march down Pennsylvania Avenue and tell the president he's got to end it."

(News researcher Becky Ogburn contributed to this report.)