Frustrated by what they hear and see coming from Washington these days, a few dozen voters turned out Friday afternoon at the Boardman Library for what Congressman Bill Johnson's staff call one of their "Open Doors" meetings in Boardman.
Most of them came to vent.
"And I'll tell you what, it's really hard to deal with the amount of money that I get, and welfare helps me very little, and I have a hard time buying food," said Deborah Fox.
A number of the group are involved with the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative and are questioning Johnson's stance on rumored cuts to Social Security.
"What is the truth? You know, what is the truth? What is going on here? Leave Social Security alone," said Myrtis Thornton.
At the same time as Friday's meeting, Johnson was on Capitol Hill leading a session in the House as lawmakers struggle to come up with a deal on the national budget and the debt ceiling, which is something they realize is bound to leave some voters upset.
"There's really no safe position to be in here and that's not where a politician wants to be. This is a no-win situation," said YSU political science chair Dr. Paul Sracic.
While Sracic thinks Republicans may have something of an advantage in pressing for spending cuts as lawmakers lurch towards an August deadline, he said those trying to hammer out a deal both sides can agree on will simply find themselves caught in the middle.
"We don't live in the age of political compromise. You've got the extremes of both sides. If you compromise, what happens is you end up getting run over by both sides and everybody hates you," Sracic said. "That's the difficulty of this situation. The extremes right now are running politics and of course the fact that we're heading in to a big presidential election year is not helping things. Because everyone knows anything you do can and will be held against them in the next election."
Johnson's staff said they are working to schedule a public Town Hall meeting for the Salem area sometime next month so the Congressman can hear from voters in person.
