KEARNEY, Nebraska — (AP) — Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts on Thursday repeatedly returned to his call for spending cuts amid grumbles from a central Nebraska audience during a public meeting that illustrated the tension between some voters in the country and Republicans.
And though Ricketts was interrupted at times by shouts and jeers, including occasional chants of "tax the rich," the 30 minutes he allowed for questions elicited civil exchanges on health care spending, President Donald Trump 's agenda, and the war in Ukraine.
Ricketts, one of only a handful of GOP senators and representatives who have risked direct public exchanges with constituents by holding in-person town halls this year, urged support for Trump's proposed increase of $175 billion for U.S.-Mexico border security and $150 billion more in military spending, while urging deep cuts elsewhere.
When he was challenged on staffing cuts and other changes made during the aggressive first three months of Trump's second term as president, Ricketts repeatedly insisted that something had to be done to curb the $36-billion federal debt.
“We gotta, again, get that spending under control,” Ricketts said, prompting grumbling from the audience of more than 100 at an events center in Kearney, 185 miles (roughly 300 kilometers) west of Omaha.
Ricketts stressed his support for renewing the 2017 Trump tax cuts but said it was the Senate's responsibility "to find the cost savings to pay for that."
Ricketts stopped short of answering John McDermott's question on whether he would support eliminating the Social Security tax cap for wealthy Americans like Ricketts, son of billionaire TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts.
“If we simply eliminated the cap, we would expand its benefits,” McDermott, of Grand Island, Nebraska, said, sparking applause from the audience.
Ricketts countered by invoking Trump's campaign promise to not change Social Security benefits or the retirement age. He acknowledged the need for a long-term solution to keep Social Security solvent but did not offer one himself.
“There's a number of different things we can do, but nothing has gotten a consensus on how we can address it going forward,” he said.
In replying to Kearney resident John Stritt's question testing Ricketts' past statements of support for Ukraine, Ricketts praised Trump for getting Russia to the negotiating table.
But Ricketts also acknowledged that Trump's strategy might not work.
“It may not be successful, and then President Trump is going to have to come up with another strategy to deal with Putin,” Ricketts said.
But to McDermott, Trump's suggestion this week that Ukraine should simply cede Crimea to Russia as part of peace negotiations doesn't make much sense.
“If Russia attacked the United States, would we just give them Alaska to get them to stop attacking us?” McDermott said to The Associated Press.
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
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