REUTERS

CLAREMONT

AT home in New Hampshire, the land of Yankee skepticism, congressman Charlie Bass was being asked to explain his support for the new Republican budget.

“What I have heard is that it would end Medicare as we know it,” a nurse from Charlestown, New Hampshire, told Bass during a town hall meeting last week, holding a printout of an e-mail in her hand. “Who is the author of that thing you’re reading?” Bass asked.

It came from two Washington, D.C., think tanks, she said. “It’s a complete fabrication,” Bass replied, as the two began to speak over one another.

“That’s political dogma.” The scene in Claremont — an old mill town where a 19th-century opera house is a reminder of a more prosperous past — is typical of those in communities across the nation, as members of Congress on a two-week spring break hear their constituents’ concerns and try to explain their actions in Washington.

At a time of high unemployment and home foreclosure rates, frustration with Congress and rising anxiety over how to deal with the national debt without gutting programs such as Medicare health insurance for the elderly and the Social Security retirement program, such meetings aren’t always comfortable for lawmakers.

But they can offer a vivid picture of voters’ feelings, as Republicans and Democrats start gearing up in earnest for presidential and congressional elections on November 6
In 2010, similar gatherings packed with conservatives grew ugly over President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul, providing a sign of the persistence of the emerging conservative Tea Party movement and foretelling the shellacking that awaited Democrats in the fall elections.

This year, the issue of the moment is Republicans’ efforts to trim the national debt, starting with a budget plan put forward by Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

Ryan and Mitt Romney, the likely Republican presidential nominee, say the plan — which recently passed the Republican-led House of Representatives on a partyline vote - is a first step toward curbing the runaway costs of a range of government initiatives, including Medicare.

Obama called the plan “social Darwinism,” saying it would make too-drastic cuts that would disproportionately affect lower-income Americans giving preference to the wealthy.

In New Hampshire and Illinois last week, voters made clear that they were worried about the potential impact of a plan such as Ryan’s — but that they were also alarmed by rising government spending and increasingly annoyed by dysfunction in Washington.

“Our legislature doesn’t know how to fix things, they know how to run for office.

They know how to campaign,” said Carol Fischer of Kane County, Illinois. She described herself as a moderate Republican who, despite her frustration, probably would stick with Republican Representative Judy Biggert in the November election, when Biggert will face Democrat Bill Foster.

Few races offer more fertile ground for testing the strength of Obama and his presumed opponent, Romney, than Bass’ district in New Hampshire.