(Chambersburg) -- Unemployment rates across the midstate typically fall below the state average of 7.9 percent. But some residents still feel uneasy about the economy, as many find themselves between jobs or living paycheck to paycheck. Pennsylvania's junior U.S. Senator recently hosted a town hall meeting at the Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg on jobs and the economy. He spoke with witf's Megan Lello about what should be done to improve the country's financial situation:

The event is held in Franklin County, which is Republican territory. As GOP Senator Pat Toomey addresses a sea of dark-colored business suits and winter coats, Sheri Morgan stands out. She's wearing a white T-shirt with the words "Barack Obama 2012" emblazoned on the front. Morgan, a single mother from Greencastle, puts her arm around her son, who also came to the event. He's autistic, she explains. "Charles is 21-and-a-half. He graduated from high school this past June, and now he has some skills, although, in this particular job market, no one will hire him," she says. "He's been pretty much unemployable because competition, you know, are people who don't have any challenges. In this area, people with disabilities have a very difficult time getting employed." Morgan, who's unemployed since she stays home to take care of Charles, has tried to help her son open a T-shirt-making business to keep him busy and bring in some cash. But the bank wouldn't grant her a loan. So, she asks Toomey what can be done to help the unemployed find jobs or start their own small businesses. The senator says the answer is to curb spending and reduce the federal government's deficit, which is more than $15 trillion. "I've talked to, I can't tell you how many, small business owners, managers, and workers, and I'm just convinced that we're not going to get the kind of investment, the kind of hiring, and the kind of expansion until people who would be engaging in that activity have the confidence that we've got our budget under control," he says.

 

A member of the so-called "super committee" that failed to develop a plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the budget over the next decade, Toomey says there are certain areas where federal funding should be cut. "Three categories: the Social Security program, healthcare entitlement programs, and interest on our debt. Within 10 years, those three will consume at least 90 percent of all the money we can hope to collect in taxes."

Another Franklin County resident in attendance is Jack Ireton-Hewitt. The Chambersburg man has been president of several manufacturing firms along the East Coast in the past couple of decades and says he's concerned the industry's not as popular as it once was. "I grew up in the '50s and the '60s when things were booming, and it was based on a manufacturing economy," he explains. "I attribute that to being the problem we have today because all the manufacturing has moved out of the country." Like many areas, Franklin County has experienced a loss of manufacturing jobs in the last few years. But the county's unemployment rate, around 6.2 percent, is faring better than other parts of the state. To Ireton-Hewitt, more needs to be done to create large numbers of jobs. "Our politicians are talking about helping the small business owner. The problem with that is they'll hire five or six people. What we need is to get big industry back into this country. Those people then hire 100 people or 200 people." Touching on many Republican themes, Toomey says U.S. companies are currently paying extra costs that hamper them. "We've got a tax code that's extremely counterproductive. We have the highest corporate tax rate in the industrial world, putting ourselves at a competitive disadvantage," he says. "We tolerate more litigation than any other society on the planet, so our manufacturers have to deal with all kinds of legal costs. All of that gets passed on to the cost of the product, and makes it harder to compete."

Toomey speaks and answers questions for 45 minutes in an effort to let the crowd know how he plans to address issues surrounding the country's economy. It's clear some attendees, like Ireton-Hewitt, are cautiously optimistic, and recent economic indicators have shown a slow improvement. But others, including Morgan, are more unsettled. "Things are so unfair, and somebody needs to stand up and say, 'Stop this. This system is not fair. It's not working.' To use the cliché now, 'It's not working for the 99 percent.'" And with that, she zips up her coat over her "Barack Obama" T-shirt, calls for her son and heads outside, still frustrated with the way things are and unsure about her family's future.