Brian Hubert reports for the Daily Freeman that Rep. Marc Molinaro discussed potential cuts or changes to Social Security and Medicare and the debt ceiling at a town hall-style forum March 15 in Saugerties. Two dozen people held signs of protest at the meeting at the Cedar Grove Firehouse on state Route 32, with messages such as, “Keep Medicare and Social Security Corporate Free, no Reach,” “I want my traditional government-run Medicare and Social Security” and “Tax the Rich, Save Social Security.” Molinaro said that “Medicare and Social Security should be removed from budget conversations.... I do not believe, nor could I support Congress nickeling and diming our way to diminish the value of the programs.” Molinaro said he supports a bipartisan bicameral commission to assure the long-term solvency of Social Security. Molinaro would not say directly if he would vote for raising the country's debt limit, but said, “I want to make sure America doesn’t default on its debt.... I don’t want to devastate services that our most vulnerable rely on. I don’t want to undermine those sacred trusts, Medicare and Social Security, that we rely on.” The possibility of a Hudson Valley train derailment with hazardous material was raised by one citizen after the Ohio train accident in February, and Molinaro said, “We’ve demanded Norfolk has to identify all the failings that may or may have not led to this and that the EPA and the Federal Department of Transportation need to identify lack of enforcement, meaning there are regulations that should’ve been enforced but weren’t that resulted in this.... Let’s understand the disease so we can determine the medicine.” Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.