Merkley: Keep Medicare, get out of war

SWEET HOME — If the United States can afford to build 26 hospitals in Iraq, Cascadia resident Verde Frazier asked Sen. Jeff Merkley, why are senior citizens in the United States threatened with cuts to the Medicare program?

That was one of several questions fielded Tuesday morning by the fourth-year senator from Portland during a town hall meeting at Sweet Home High School. More than 75 people attended, including several dozen students.

“We must cut overseas spending and that includes retiring our involvement in Afghanistan,” Merkley said. “We are spending $120 billion per year in Afghanistan and it’s not enhancing our national security. We must do more nation building at home.”

Merkley said he opposes raising the minimum Medicare age by two years to 67.

“I’ve spoken with many people in their early to mid-60s with health issues who say they are just trying to hang on until they can get Medicare,” Merkley said. “For some people, increasing the eligibility age two years might be a death sentence.”

Sweet Home Fire Chief Mike Beaver told Merkley that continued cuts in Medicare reimbursements to ambulance services is costing local communities tens of thousands of dollars.

“We lost $60,000 last year due to Medicare cuts and there’s no way to recuperate that money,” Beaver said.

Merkley said legislation to avert falling off the fiscal cliff is only temporary and elected officials will have to deal with the issue again in March.

But, he added, the deal did provide extensions in unemployment payments that affect more than 30,000 Oregon families and halted a projected 25 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement payments.

“It didn’t give us long-term stability, it just moved the issue ahead two months,” Merkley said.

SHHS senior Candalyn Johnson asked Merkley what areas of the budget he is willing to cut.

“We have to raise the debt ceiling,” Merkley said. “It’s like paying off your credit card bill. It would be a mistake to not pay that bill. That could lead to a downgrade of our credit rating.”

Senior Josh Pickett wanted to know how Merkley plans to deal with illegal immigration.

Merkley said he has visited the border between the United States and Mexico and much has been done to shore up fencing and other high-tech systems to prevent illegal crossings.

“But the bigger issue may be folks who overstay their visas,” Merkley said. “Perhaps we can expand the legal visa system. Also, what do we do with the 11 million people in the U.S. who have shadow legal status? As a country, we have not come to terms with that.”

Retired teacher Chuck Thompson suggested Merkley look into the effects of the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires that “prevailing wages” be paid for anyone working on federal construction jobs.

Thompson said those wage levels can be far greater than local wages and in turn cost taxpayers more money.

“If we can cut spending, maybe we could hire two people instead of one and get more people off unemployment,” Thompson said.

Nate Melcher, whose family has logged for four generations, asked Merkley if he supports the timber industry.

“My father was a lumber mill millwright,” Merkley said. “Right now, we have a lot of second-growth, dense timber that is not getting harvested, not creating jobs and not healthy. We need more collaborative programs, where people from both sides of the issue work together to keep things out of the courts.”

Merkley pointed to the community forest concept being formulated in east Linn County as an example of such a program.