Two Congressional representatives from outside New York’s 21st House District held a rally in Plattsburgh Monday evening to discuss preventing cuts to Medicaid.
A standing room only crowd inside a local VFW welcomed Vermont U.S. Senator Peter Welch and New York Congressman Paul Tonko, both Democrats, to the northernmost city in the 21st Congressional District, currently represented by Republican Elise Stefanik.
Why was the duo in Plattsburgh when neither represent the area?
Welch notes that the vote of each of the 535 members of Congress will affect everyone on Medicaid.
“The stakes are very high for everybody in this country as to whether or not Medicaid is going to be used as a pay-for for the billionaire tax cut. What every representative and Senator does is going to affect people in Vermont,” Welch offered. “And the Republicans are in support of the Trump tax cut and that means they’re largely in support of cutting Medicaid. Their voters have to know that.”
Tonko, from the neighboring 20th district, adds that the impact of Medicaid needs to be viewed from a wider perspective.
“It’s also circulating dollars into the regional economy. These dollars aren’t going flying away. They’re going to a service provider. He or she is paying the staff. The hospitals are paying their staff. This is, it’s circulating in the local area and we’re addressing quality of life,” Tonko noted.
Often interacting with the crowd, Welch’s and Tonko’s comments received outbursts of comments and occasional questions interrupting them, such as one moment when Tonko was speaking to the crowd.
“You’re cuter than Elise!” shouts a woman in the audience.
“Cuter? Oh, we won’t go there! We won’t go there!” laughs Tonko. “Look, this is a very pivotal moment. Now the hard work begins because we have to bring these people to the table and say okay how are you going to implement these cuts. They’re brutal. They’re drastic. You know, and it’s done in a vein of illegal, unconstitutional, unprecedented and destructive action on programs that you have paid into. They’re not entitlements. They’re earned benefits. Let’s keep that in mind.”
A member of the crowd shouted a question to the duo, prompting Welch to searchingly look out the window and draw laughs.
“By the way, where is Elise?” shouts a man.
The crowd then starts shouting, “Where is Elise? Where is she?”
Welch looks out the window behind him. The crowd laughs, claps and begins chanting “Where is Elise?”
“You’ve got a feisty crowd over here,” Welch remarks. “We’ve got to be at that table and it can’t be a table that’s controlled by Elon Musk who doesn’t care about that.”
Tonko continued his criticism of Congressional Republicans’ targeted cuts.
“So far all they’ve talked about is cuts. Well, where are the efforts for better, more efficiency? Where are the efforts to go after fraud?” Tonko asks. “It’s a pell-mell wild west cut frenzy because we need to line the pockets of billionaires. Already news reports are leaking out that the Republican majority has indicated to its membership do not go and promise what you’re going to save or protect or cut with these Medicaid frenzy approaches. Just stay quiet and don’t share. So, to me that’s saying anything is possible here.”
Reached for comment, Stefanik’s office said in a statement, “Republicans want to strengthen and secure Medicaid for eligible citizens as it is an indispensable lifeline for our nation’s most vulnerable. However, Far Left Democrats continue to fearmonger because they know that President Trump is delivering results for the American people.... in order to continue protecting and preserving benefits for America’s most vulnerable, waste, fraud, and abuse must be rooted out.”
