A standing-room-only crowd of more than 370 Central New York residents turned out for Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle’s first-ever town hall meeting Feb. 22 at Salina Town Hall.
The new congresswoman, a Republican who edged out incumbent Democrat Dan Maffei in last November’s election in the state’s 25th District, addressed topics ranging from energy to education, from Medicaid to the military.
Several of the 18 persons who rose to ask questions clearly disagreed with Buerkle’s conservative viewpoints while several others applauded her faith in the free-market system.
Syracuse Peace Council member Ann Tiffany pointed out that more than 50 percent of the U.S. budget funds military activity rather than health or education. She asked Buerkle how long the federal government will continue its occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Iraq has a fledgling democracy, and the president has an exit plan there,” Buerkle replied. “But Afghanistan is a different type of discussion. It’s very complicated.”
A former nurse and hospital administrator, Buerkle answered several questions about health care. “I think this country needs health care reform to lower costs,” she said. “But government is not the answer. It only increases costs.”
Buerkle reminded her detractors that she cares about disadvantaged Americans.
“We, as a society, have to be there for people who can’t help themselves,” she said, specifically mentioning those suffering addictions or mental illnesses. “But Obamacare is unsustainable. We can’t afford it. We need to increase access to health care and we need to lower costs. Every American should be able to afford health care…My main concern is that you be able to retain decision-making about your own health care and not give it to some bureaucracy.”
Several women complained about Buerkle’s vote against funding Planned Parenthood. “Why in the world would you defund Planned Parenthood?” asked Bobbi Cowan of Syracuse. “Thousands of women depend on Planned Parenthood for pap smears, mammograms and counseling.”
Buerkle held fast to her anti-abortion position. She said Planned Parenthood is “the largest abortion provider in this country…[it] will survive without government funding.”
To pull us out of the recession, Heidi Cross of Skaneateles suggested the U.S. raise taxes for wealthy Americans, but Buerkle disagreed. “Why punish people for their success?” the congresswoman asked rhetorically. “This country does not have a taxing problem. It has a spending problem. At the end of the day the government won’t be the one to create jobs and cure the economy. The private sector will create jobs.”
The nation’s budget deficit “is not a partisan problem,” Buerkle said. “It’s an American problem. I think Republicans are just as much to blame as Democrats.”
Buerkle agreed with residents who questioned billion-dollar corporate giveaways. “Because of the severity of the economic situation, everything’s on the table,” she said. “There’ll be further cuts in corporate subsidies.”
Foreign aid programs may also be reduced, she said in response to Bob Stewart of Liverpool. He called America’s $47 billion foreign-aid program “a slap in the face of U.S. taxpayers.”
Buerkle admitted to her large audience that “I know I didn’t win by a vast majority. I know I have a lot of work to do to prove myself to you.” She pledged to stage more town hall meetings across the 25th District. “The most important thing is that I listen to you because I work for you, my staff works for you…and whether we agree of disagree, this is an important part of the democratic process.”
