Voice of the Voter and the issues they're concerned about
9:48 p.m. Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The discussion around the table tended toward broad topics that the people being elected this year will have to deal with. They all fell under the broad umbrella of the economy, starting from a recent speech by Barack Obama.
"His last speech that he gave a couple days ago about how he was going to move us away from dependency on foreign oil, was the first time I really heard him define anything specifically what he was going to do, and he really wasn't very specific about some of that," Doug McHatton said.
Many of our citizen panelists disagree about how big a problem immigration is, but all agree it is an issue that needs to be addressed. Somewhat surprisingly, there was a lot of talk about education, something Claudia admits is a hot-button issue for her.
"I think everyone should be given the opportunity for a good education," Claudia Hamer said.
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"Does that mean free-at government expense?" Doug asked.
"No," she responded.
"Then how you going to pay for it?" Doug asked. "What if you're a young kid out here and your folks have been working blue collar jobs for minimum wage, you can't afford it."
"There are scholarships out there, from companies, from everyone," Claudia said.
"There won't be when you start taxing those companies," Doug said.
"There are a lot of scholarships out there if people would go after them," Claudia said.
"And I don't buy the free education thing," James Meier said. "I've studied in Prague and I've gone through what free education in Europe has to offer and it's bad."
"I went in the military back in the 60's, got out and got the GI bill," Bennie Davis said. "I don't think it should be free. You gotta pay somethin' for it."
You'll hear more from our Voice of the Voter roundtable.
We'll be bringing them back together this fall, to get their take on the general election.
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