The United States, four years after the devastating collapses of the real estate and financial sectors, shoulders a national debt of $16 trillion, maneuvers through vast changes in the health-care system and braces for possible changes to safety-net entitlement programs.

Against this backdrop, Virginia Foxx, a four-term Republican incumbent in northwestern North Carolinas 5th Congressional District, and her Democratic opponent, Elisabeth Motsinger, a member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education, seek to deal with those national issues, among others.

Last week, in separate interviews, they answered questions about five key national issues, including military spending, the Affordable Care Act and illegal immigration.

Entitlements

Programs such as Medicare and Social Security should be strengthened and preserved so that they may continue to benefit future generations, Foxx said in an email.

Motsinger gave a similar response.

But they have different views on how these programs should be preserved.

Motsinger opposes proposed reforms that have in the past been favored by Foxx and recommended by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the GOP vice presidential candidate and chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee.

Ryan, in 2005, recommended a plan that would offer a privatization option for Social Security for younger people, and the 2010 budget he proposed had a privatization option, though his latest plan does not, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

Motsinger said she is opposed to privatizing Social Security or creating individual accounts.

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Foxx, Motsinger clash on most issues