{"id":12853,"date":"2012-12-11T11:42:25","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T16:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=12853"},"modified":"2012-12-11T11:42:25","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T16:42:25","slug":"residents-push-pitts-over-fiscal-cliff-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=12853","title":{"rendered":"Residents push Pitts over ‘Fiscal Cliff’ vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Largely collegial event features satirical carols, detailed talk about spending and taxes at Congressman’s district office<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Local residents gather to sing satirical Christmas carols and talk spending and taxes in the district office of U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts in Unionville, Monday evening. The local group, organized in part by MoveOn.com and the Kennett Area Democrats, was one of more than a hundred similar such gatherings at district offices around the country.<\/p><\/div>\n

EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 At a time when partisan bickering is the norm, there was a surprisingly collegial discussion Monday night between local residents and staffers for U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts on the so-called \u201cfiscal cliff\u201d talks ongoing in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

As happened at congressional district offices around the country \u2014 a program organized nationally by MoveOn.org and locally in conjunction with the Kennett Area Democrats \u2014 about two dozen residents visited Pitts\u2019 Willowdale office Monday night, sang a modified Christmas carol and engaged in spirited but largely polite conversation over tax cuts and entitlement reform with Pitts\u2019 District Chief of Staff, Thomas Tillett.<\/p>\n

The group wanted to press Pitts to support a discharge petition on a bill passed by the U.S. Senate that would extend current tax rates for 98% of the population \u2014 those in attendance from the 16th Congressional District signed a letter asking the Congressman to support the bill. The discharge petition was the first of three questions the group had for Pitts. The second asked him to specify the deductions and loopholes in the federal code code he supported closing and how much those would save. The final question asked about his stance on cuts to Medicare\/Medicaid and Social Security benefits and what the overall savings would be in his plan.<\/p>\n

While Tillett did address all three issues during a roughly 20-minute question-and-answer session with everyone crammed into the district office, Pitts is expected to more formally respond to the residents in writing in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Although it was clear that there were clear policy disagreements between the residents and Tillett, speaking on behalf of his boss, much of the discussion was civil and built around breaking down budget numbers \u2014 spending and revenue \u2014 and how the country found its way into the current financial situation.<\/p>\n

Wayne Braffman, of Kennett Square, who organized the event said that Pitts\u2019 staff were \u201cgracious\u201d and worked with him to make sure there were no misunderstandings similar to an October protest event that led to State Police being called and the event being ended early.<\/p>\n

Tillett was willing to address Pitts\u2019 positions on the issues, but cautioned that the district office is more focused on constituent services, as is typical. Most policy work is done in the Congressman\u2019s Washington, D.C. office.<\/p>\n

Addressing the discharge petition \u2014 a mechanism where 218 members of the U.S. House of Representatives can force an up or down vote on a bill when it is bottled up in committee or when floor leaders decline to bring it to the floor for a vote \u2014 Tillett said that such moves \u201care almost never successful.\u201d He assured the group, though, \u201cCongress does not support raising taxes on the middle class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tillett said that the \u201cfiscal cliff\u201d situation was the result, put simply, of too much spending with too little income coming into the federal government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a serious problem in this country,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

He said federal revenue amounted to roughly $2.4 trillion, while federal spending was $3.7 trillion.<\/p>\n

\u201cElected officials have been promising benefits to people without paying for them,\u201d Tillett said. Up until now, that money has been borrowed, pushing the burden further into the future, rather than addressing it now.<\/p>\n

Although he expressed guarded optimism that the Republican leadership of the U.S. House and Democratic President Barack Obama would find enough common ground to get some sort of deal done in the coming weeks to prevent widespread tax increases and spending cuts currently called for by previous legislation, it would impossible to predict how such a deal would look like.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t predict that,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a fool\u2019s errand.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did say it would be difficult to make either large cuts to current spending or bring in enough money to offset the current deficit. While he said expected that some tax deductions would face the axe \u2014 although that might come in the form of an income barrier (specifically, a set limit on the maximum income deduction, that might have little or no impact on middle class taxpayers but would increase the amount of taxes paid by the wealthy). Tillett also said he felt it was unlikely that current deductions for charitable giving, home interest or the Child Tax Credit would end up on the chopping block.<\/p>\n

Responding to a question about Medicare\/Medicaid and Social Security and possible benefit cuts, he said he thought it was also unlikely that there would be any change in benefits for current beneficiaries of the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know of no plan to cut benefits for current retirees,\u201d he said. \u201cThere could be changes for future retirees.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there were a lot of different discussions ongoing on that topic, from changing age requirements to a \u201cmeans test\u201d meaning some wealthy folks might not qualify for benefits at some point in the future.<\/p>\n

Some of the residents asked why there seems to be discussions about cuts to the entitlement programs, as opposed to defense spending. Tillett said that while Pitts has a long track record of supporting a strong national defense, he would be open to looking at areas where spending could cut, citing some post-9\/11 grant programs \u2014 and possible savings as the nation\u2019s military pivots to a new mission: less large-scale engagements and more focused on the threat of terrorist organizations.<\/p>\n

But he noted, as is an issue elsewhere in government, one of the biggest cost-drivers in defense spending is retiree benefits, something most lawmakers \u2014 Democrat or Republican \u2014 are not likely willing to cut.<\/p>\n

The options, though, aren\u2019t going to be easy, he said. Tillett said that about 22% of the budget is spent on Medicare\/Medicaid; 20% is spent on Social Security; 20% is spent on what he termed as \u201cincome maintenance\u201d various welfare, food stamp and unemployment programs; 20% is spent on defense and homeland security; 6% goes to pay debt service, interest on the money borrowed to cover the deficit; leaving just 13% for everything else the federal government does.<\/p>\n

Put bluntly, he said, the single best option is to put people back to work, increasing the amount of money coming into the federal government and reducing the amount of funding needed for the \u201cincome maintenance\u201d category.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone can agree that high unemployment is unacceptable,\u201d he said. \u201cThe best way to cut the deficit is to put people back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while some cuts are needed in spending, it\u2019s not an easy option, noting on person\u2019s \u201cneedless spending\u201d is another\u2019s \u201ccrucial program.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople tell me we need to make cuts,\u201d Tillett said. \u201cIt\u2019s not as simple as people think. I say \u2018tell me where.\u2019 It\u2019s difficult. It\u2019s very difficult to raise taxes, it\u2019s very difficult to cut spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were a handful of heated exchanges about the proper tax burden for the wealthy as the session started to wrap up, prompting some of the residents to leave \u2014 and continue to offer protest at the intersection of Route 926 and 82 during the evening rush hour.<\/p>\n

Pitts is expected to issue his formal response in writing in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Largely collegial event features satirical carols, detailed talk about spending and taxes at Congressman’s district office By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 At a time when partisan bickering is the norm, there was a surprisingly collegial discussion Monday night between local residents and staffers for U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts on the so-called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[2354,2357,2355,2313,2073,7433,796,2356],"class_list":["post-12853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-16th-congressional-district","tag-deficit","tag-entitlements","tag-fiscal-cliff","tag-joseph-pitts","tag-politics","tag-spending","tag-tax-cut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}