During Congress's Easter break, 2nd District Representative Charlie Bass has been touring the state.
He's been holding town-meeting style forums to talk about social security and other issues.
Bass has not held meetings in any of his districts larger towns, like Concord, Keene, Nashua, or Hanover.
Instead he's visited towns like Woodstock and Epsom.
And as the Keene Sentinel's Donna Moxley reports, if Thursday's meeting in Marlborough was any indication, Bass has been getting an earful.
Thursday's early evening meeting at the Marlborough town offices generated a great deal of interest.
So much so that about 70 people had to relocate from a town conference room that held less than half that many.
And the crowd grew as the evening progressed.
In the town community room, Representative Bass answered questions about social security, programs for the poor, and even the Terry Schiavo controversy.
No one who spoke supported President Bush's proposals to change social security.
And Bass himself received little praise and a much criticism.
Jean Diamond of Keene came armed with notes,
5:02
Diamond: The focus on social security is a simple one as far as I can see, I don't see it as a major issue, not to make private accounts, especially, because that takes away the safety net entirely, and it adds to the deficit. Social security can be fixed by lifting the cap off the FICA deductions, by raising the retirement age, that can be fixed. That's a minor change, minor, compared to what's happening with healthcare.
Diamond said she wants Congress to pay less attention to social security and more to the state of Medicare and the country's healthcare system.
Many in the mostly senior crowd (??) suggested alternatives to the private accounts proposed by the Republican Administration
The suggestions often were met with applause.
David Van Streen lives in Peterborough.
6:34 - I want to share with Charlie some of my concerns, and one of them is I'd like to know why - I've heard that he supports Bush's plan to destroy Social security as we know it and I think the numbers that the Bush administration is putting out are fake numbers and there isn't a crisis .... as it is now, and with minor adjustments, it can take care of itself.
When pressed, Representative Bass said he is likely to vote in favor of the President's social security reforms should they come before Congress.
But his support for changing the nation's retirement system came with a few conditions.
72:12 or so -
Bass: when and if the social security bill comes to the floor, if it preserves and protects the program, if it comes about as a result of an honest debate that's occurred in this country across this country, if it is bipartisan, if it includes measures that will keep the program solvent, I'll vote for it. If it doesn't, I won't.
In the end the 2nd District Republican said he supports the idea of putting money in personal savings accounts rather than Social Security.
But while preserving his allegiance to the president, Congressman Bass made sure to keep all his options open.
For NHPR news, I'm Donna Moxley.
