By Carly Newton, Press Republican
Vermont U.S. Sen. Peter Welch and NY-20 Representative Paul Tonko said their visit to Plattsburgh Monday, in a district neither of them represent, was driven by potential cuts to Medicaid in the upcoming budget bill.
“I think the effort to alert people as to what’s going on (is why we’re here),” Tonko, a Democrat, told the media in his visit to New York’s 21st congressional district.
“I’m just concerned that if we’re going to win this, public info is very important. I think we need everyone that’s concerned about this and obviously, every congressional district has a number of people concerned.”
Tonko said in the NY-21 district, 295,000 people qualify for Medicaid.
“There’s 535 (members of) Congress and how each of us votes is going to affect folks on Medicaid in every part of this country,” Welch added.
“If Medicaid goes down, Vermonters are going to be hammered and really hurt … So we’re here — I’m here — because I want to protect Vermonters, but I know that unless we get the votes to oppose this raid on Medicaid, everybody’s going to suffer.”
The rally drew well over 100 constituents, many of who audibly shared their satisfaction with the representatives coming to the area, to the VFW Post #125 on Boynton Avenue in the City of Plattsburgh.
Elise Stefanik, the Republican NY-21 congresswoman, was not in attendance, nor were New York U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, both Democrats. One attendee had a large sign asking where each of them was while thanking Welch and Tonko for showing up.
Asked if their visit to the North Country was a means of putting pressure on Stefanik to vote against the bill, Welch instead said his goal was public awareness.
“Because, again, all of us who have this job, we have an obligation to listen to our constituents, and what I’m trying to convey is we’re playing with reality,” he said.
“The clock is ticking. The reality is Trump wants to have a huge tax cut. He wants to pay for it significantly by taking away health care. and that’s wrong, absolutely wrong. and I think as folks in this community, our communities, realize that this is serious, they can speak to their own representatives.”
Earlier this month, the House and Senate passed a revised budget resolution for fiscal year 2025. Both Welch and Tonko claimed the budget bill will line the pockets of billionaires and Medicaid coverage for Americans will have to suffer because of it.
Tonko said that resolution instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which he is on, and which has primary jurisdiction over Medicaid and other health care programs, to cut a minimum of $880 billion in spending.
“How are you going to, you know, implement these cuts?” Tonko said.
“If you took all the programs under the umbrella of Energy and Commerce and totally wiped them out, you would come up with probably $135 billion. So that’s a sixth of the $880 billion floor, and I can tell you, there’s a lot of thirst to go and cut Medicaid, and so we have to be careful, we have to be vigilant, and we have to raise our voices,” he continued.
“They’re brutal, they’re drastic and it’s done in a vein of illegal, unconstitutional, unprecedented and destructive action on programs that range from health benefits to programs that you have paid into. They’re not entitlements. They’re earned benefits.”
Lisa Morrow, a member of the 1199 Service Employees International Union at Champlain Valley physicians hospital for 22 years, shared her own story about Medicaid and how important it is in her day-to-day work and life.
“Every day at work I see how Medicaid (allows) … small children everywhere, the elderly, our neighbors receive the health care that they need and deserve. If Medicaid gets cut, these people aren’t going to have that health care,” Morrow said.
“If they’re not coming to the hospital, we’re not going to have jobs … the Medicaid cuts just cut everything. It hits home because my sister’s multiple sclerosis forced her into Medicaid. She worked as long as she could until she just couldn’t walk anymore, and now she relies on Medicaid and Medicare for all of her health care. I can’t even imagine if they have this work rule that they want to do … work requirement for people on Medicaid. There’s no way. She couldn’t do it.”
Monday’s rally did not sit well with some area Republicans.
In a statement last week ahead of Monday’s rally, City of Plattsburgh Republican Chairperson David J. Souliere IV called it appalling and disagreed with the assertion Medicaid was facing cuts.
“As Chair of the City of Plattsburgh Republican Committee, I find it rather appalling that the Democratic Party has decided to bring two members (of) the Senate/Congress, both of whom do not represent the 21st Election District, one whom doesn’t even represent the State,” Souliere wrote, “to gaslight, and grandstand the hardworking residents of the greater Plattsburgh area, about the non-existent cuts to Medicaid, and Medicare from the Federal Government, while ignoring the mass exodus of people from the great upstate region, due to 4 years of liberal policies from the Biden Administration, and radical leftists in Albany, leading to high taxes, stagnant growth, and rapid inflation.”
“The people of the North Country are smart, they don’t need to be lectured by Washington Bureaucrats that don’t directly represent them, about issues that aren’t real,” he continued.
“Let’s work together on the issues that are real, and make Upstate affordable, and safe again.”
