By Steve Mocarsky
PLAINS TWP. — U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright on Tuesday fielded questions on everything from Social Security and a crime-plagued apartment complex to international trade agreements, all in a room at a local fire station filled with constituents.
Cartwright, D-Moosic, held a public town hall meeting at the Fox Hill Fire House because, he said, “I think it’s part of my job to make myself available and address the questions that you have.”
He spent the first 20 minutes of the nearly two-hour meeting, which was scheduled to last an hour, detailing some of the many services his office can provide, from assisting veterans and service members apply for benefits to helping U.S. citizens abroad in emergency situations. His office also helps local government leaders by educating them on federal grants, he noted.
For the remainder of the event, he answered audience members’ questions.
Getting an earful
The first question was whether Medicare would ever cover hearing aids. Cartwright said it was an issue “near and dear” to him. “These are wonderful,” he said, fiddling with the device behind his right ear. “Mrs. Cartwright has this mumbling problem. It’s cured now,” he deadpanned as the audience chuckled.
Cartwright said hearing aids are expensive, and everyone knows elderly people who don’t have hearing aids or don’t have very good ones, “and you know what it does to them — it isolates them. They don’t get to be a part of so many things, so many social things, so many family things.”
Cartwright said he introduced a bill to include hearing aids in Medicare coverage, but getting it passed is “a huge uphill climb” because it would cost “an enormous amount of money. Right now in Washington … the people who are in control … are against spending money, and a lot of them are against spending money even when it makes sense.”
He said he introduced the bill because “there’s a pendulum in Washington. Sometimes it swings to the Republican side, and sometimes it swings to the Democratic side,” and when it swings back to the Democratic side, he said he wants to be in a position where he can “push the issue.”
Free trade
Asked about trade agreements, Cartwright said free trade is necessary, and erecting trade barriers hurts the world economy. “But my view is you have to have good trade agreements.”
Cartwright said he visited south Texas five months ago, partly to see the immigration situation. Five miles south of McAllen, over the Mexican border, he said, are maquiladoras — assembly plants. American companies ship parts to these plants, where they are assembled and then shipped back to the United States. Workers there are paid about $2 per hour.
He said one assembly plant there makes television sets. “That assembly plant used to be in Dunmore. All of that happened because of NAFTA — the North American free Trade Agreement,” Cartwright said.
He said areas with hi-tech industries benefit from such trade agreements, but he voted against the most recent free trade agreement because he didn’t believe it would benefit people in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Sherman Hills
Someone asked what action would be taken if the owner of the Sherman Hills apartment complex in Wilkes-Barre did not comply with recommendations of a task force, of which Cartwright is a member.
Cartwright said he had to answer carefully because he didn’t want to “show my hand too much, but we are in a position of strength,” given that the owner of the crime-plagued complex receives large amounts of federal housing subsidies. The installation of a high-definition surveillance camera system has helped, and the new owner has “come a long way,” he said.
But he disagrees with “anonymous comments” from people who say the complex should be shut down. “We have to fix the culture in Sherman Hills. We have to look for ways for the community to reach inside Sherman Hills and let these people know we’re watching, we care what goes on, we want to make you part of our community and not make it feel like an armed camp there. It’s not a simple solution.”
Cartwright addressed other issues as well, including gerrymandering of electoral districts, Medicare fraud, streamlining Social Security disability claims, locality pay for Tobyhanna Army Depot workers, the Export-Import Bank, use of casino revenue taxes to relieve property tax burdens and federal employee pay freezes.
Read an extended version of this story at timesleader.com.
Steve Mocarsky may be reached at 570-970-7311 or on Twitter @TLSteveMocarsky.
