Senator listens to residents, responds

The struggle to end the war in Iraq is the “single most frustrating thing about being in Washington,” Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse told residents last night.

Efforts to stop the war are painted by some Republicans as unpatriotic and dangerous. Proposals to block spending are equated with denying supplies to 18-year-old soldiers, he said. “Nobody in Washington wants to do that.”

Whitehouse, who invited residents to a community dinner at the Elks Lodge, answered a half-dozen questions about federal politics and programs while residents munched on pasta, salad, rolls and cookies.
Some expressed their own frustration with the government.

Point Judith fishing boat captain Joel Hovanesian told Whitehouse that ever-tightening state and federal regulations are making it impossible for Rhode Island fishermen to earn a living.

“We’ve got a very serious problem here,” Hovanesian said. “We’ve been regulated to the point where we’re dangling by a string.”

He and other fishermen questioned scientific reports that contend that some New England species are overfished and must be protected.

Fisherman Niles Pearsall said he throws back 300 pounds of one species just to catch 100 pounds of another. Most discarded fish die. “That’s not good science,” he said.

Craig Huntley, who owns and skippers the Point Judith boat Miss Trudy, agreed. Regulations are forcing him to dump fish back into the ocean, dead. “If you saw what I have to throw away, you’d put me in jail,” he said.

Earlier in the evening, Whitehouse talked to Richard Fuka, president of the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance.
“Let’s sit down and work on a plan and get it done,” Whitehouse told the fishermen.

Residents also said they are concerned about health care.
Barbara Hackey said she has been hurt by a Medicare plan that provides prescription drug coverage to millions of older Americans.

Under the plan, her cost for three prescriptions jumped from $85 to $346 a month, said the 77-year-old former South Kingstown Town Council president. Said Hackey, who is living on a fixed income, “I’m unhappy with the whole health care system.”

The problem with the program, called Part D, is that it was written by insurance lobbyists and drug companies, Whitehouse said. The government is unable to negotiate drug prices, which would lower the costs to seniors, he said.

For more than an hour Whitehouse talked about Republican rhetoric, tax dodges, illegal immigrants and Social Security.

It was the fourth community dinner sponsored by Whitehouse this year. Earlier, he spoke to residents in Pawtucket, Cranston and East Providence.

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