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High Country Press
Story by Kathleen McFadden

On Tuesday night, Representative Virginia Foxx held the Fifth District’s first-ever telephone town hall. In advance of the event, constituents received mailers and email notices about the event, inviting them to call in and “participate in her candid conversation on the important issues facing Congress.”

After brief introductory remarks, Foxx fielded questions and comments from 21 callers, prolonging the conference call, initially scheduled for one hour, by more than 30 minutes. Of the 21 callers who had the opportunity to ask questions, 7 were from Winston-Salem and 2 from Statesville. Other towns throughout the district had one representative caller, including Boone and Jefferson.

Foxx’s Press Secretary Aaron Groen said that 100 callers were in the queue waiting to ask questions, and Foxx mentioned several times during the event that callers whose questions did not make it into the public forum could follow the prompts at the end of the town hall to state their questions and contact info so her office could respond to their concerns.

As the calls came in, callers were asked to provide their names and their county of record and to state their question. Then they were added to the queue. As Foxx moved from one call to the next, she identified the caller by first name and location.

With one exception, every caller prefaced his/her remarks with praise of Foxx’s work in Congress, her stands on the issues and her personal qualities. A caller from Winston-Salem toward the end of the town hall commented that all the calls had been positive and questioned the absence of negativity. Foxx responded that she too was surprised, that she had expected to receive negative calls.

The issues that callers raised ranged from a request to expedite veterans’ benefits to illegal immigration to social security to taxes to the war.

Excerpts from Foxx’s answers follow.

Illegal Immigration

“Illegal immigration is still the biggest issue in the Fifth District. What this administration is doing is cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. I’m a member of the immigration reform caucus and we are working every day to come up with information and recommendations for the executive branch….Republicans are working very hard at tightening up our borders, but you probably won’t see that on the news. They focus on the negatives.”

“We’re getting our grass cut inexpensively, but we’re paying for it in many other ways, especially in medical care.”

“Illegals are costing a lot of money in healthcare and that’s not a racist thing. It’s seeing people coming here and breaking the law.”

“We are a nation of laws and have to protect our borders as much as we can.”

Social Security

“The [Social Security] money should be put into an account with your name on it and the government should pay interest on it. We’ve got to get the government to stop spending the money. By 2041, more money will be going out than is coming in and we need to face up to it now. Republicans are trying to fix the problem, but we’re thwarted on every side.”

State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)

“There were many reasons to vote against this bill. Republicans actually came up with the idea in 1997 and it was designed to help people in the 100 to 200 percent of the poverty level—at 200 percent that would be $40,000 for a family of four… .But the bill permits income up to $83,000, 700,000 adults are covered on SCHIP, it also covers illegal immigrants, and calls for a tobacco tax increase. The President won’t sign a bill with a tax increase, and I have never voted for a tax increase since I have been in Washington.”

“If the Democrats really cared about children, they would find the dollars and not raise taxes. It’s a gimmick; 22 million more people would have to start smoking in the next five years to raise the money.”

“The Democrats don’t want to work out a deal. They want this to be a political issue. They are not serious about solving the issues.”

War in Iraq

“Fighting terror is crucial to our survival. I in general do not support war, but I support defending ourselves. The number one role of the federal government is defense of this nation. State and local governments can’t do that.”

“I would like to see better accountability on how our money is spent. That’s a problem in Congress; we’re not spending enough time setting up accountability.”

“I don’t want to be in Iraq or Afghanistan a day longer than we need to be, but I would like to be out of Korea and Germany too.”

“There has been no attack [in the United States] since 9/11.”

“They attacked us.”

“Pray that the terrorists have a change of heart. They are evil and want to take away our way of life, our choices. Last year, the Democrats ran on a platform of stopping the war in Iraq; they said they would stop the funding, but the haven’t done it because the American people want to support our troops. We’re going to win because we’re right. We’re not trying to impose our will on other countries; we’re trying to spread freedom.”

In many of her responses, Foxx complained about Congressional Democrats and about media in the Fifth District. Additional comments about both follow:

“The Democrats never met a program they didn’t like.”

“When I talk to school kids, I tell them the difference between Democrats and Republicans is that the Democrats think the government can solve all your problems, but needs the money to do it, while Republicans think you can solve your own problems.”

“The spending spree [the Democrats] have been on will put your children and grandchildren in debt.”

“The problem with the media we have is that we can’t get the word out.”

“Some papers will run absolutely nothing that we send out.”