While Republican leaders on Capitol Hill are advising GOP members of Congress to avoid doing town hall meetings with constituents because of pushback over actions by the Trump Administration, Democratic Congressman George Latimer of New York’s 16th Congressional District on the evening of March 5 held a virtual town hall that attracted more than 800 participants.
“I was asked about Ukraine, I was asked about tariffs, I was asked about the Elon Musk reality both as it relates to what he is doing in getting rid of jobs and people and then about his ability to have access to data,” Latimer told the Business Journal. He added that Social Security and voter rights were among the other topics on the minds of his constituents.
Latimer said that Ukraine was fresh in people’s minds because of what happened last week when Donald Trump and Vice President Vance lashed out in public at Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.
“In many ways, because of what Trump is doing, and he’s doing things in many different areas that people find objectionable, it’s what he has done lately that makes people upset,” Latimer said. “I talked a bit about the economy and said basically that he won the election when he made a stronger case that he would be better for the economy without specifying what he would do. Now the things that he is doing are going to have a negative effect on the economy and that’s why the stock market has dropped below the level that it was at on election day. There’s a fear on Wall Street as well as on Main Street that he’s just not moving on the economy.”
Latimer said that he told his constituents that one thing he is doing to help improve their economic situation is pushing to restore the full income tax deductibility of state and local taxes, known as SALT, that Republicans had capped.
Latimer noted that while the budget resolution that Republicans recently passed in the House doesn’t directly mention cutting Medicaid, which provides health care services for approximately 70 million Americans, it did call on the Energy and Commerce Committee that controls Medicaid funding to cut $800 billion.
“Medicaid funding is what supports our hospitals, what supports our nursing homes, our home health care and if you pull that out from under people you’re going to have hospitals going under, nursing homes going under and the economic effect is going to be enormous,” Latimer said.
On the possibility of cuts to Social Security, Latimer questioned whether actions such as personnel cuts and planned closings of offices including Social Security’s White Plains Hearing Office are designed to save money as claimed or are actually a reflection of an ideology that wants to kill the program. He noted that Westchester County has offered space that could be used for Social Security’s White Plains Hearing Office when the office’s current lease runs out May 31.
“With an alternate on the table, if they choose not to use the alternate, then you know this is not cutting expenditures; this is ideological and they’re trying to make it harder for people to go to claim what they need to claim. They know that it’s unpopular to go after Social Security but they’re doing it anyway. Elon Musk has called Social Security a Ponzi scheme. It’s not a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme is him making billions of dollars because the perception of his proximity to Donald Trump makes his businesses more valuable.”
Latimer said that President Trump’s March 3 speech to a joint meeting of Congress was more like a political rally speech than a presidential speech.
“I’ve attended 15 State of the State speeches from five different governors. I have attended 20 State of the County speeches, seven of which were my own speeches,” Latimer said. “In those moments you talk about unified platforms, you talk about how we can work together. You don’t use that as a platform to attack the other party or to praise your own party, and that’s what he did. He used it as if this was a rally. After the first 15 or 20 minutes, I said, ‘I didn’t sign on for a rally; I want to hear a president who can unify us. He’ not doing that. I’ve got better things to do with my evening.'”
Latimer said he was one of a number of people who left the House Chamber during Trump’s speech that lasted an hour and forty minutes.
“I showed respect for the position by going there to listen to him but he showed disrespect by not talking in a unifying way,” Latimer said. “(Franklin Delano) Roosevelt saved the nation during the first 100 days of his administration. The banks were going to collapse. People were starving. Franklin Roosevelt turned the country around; Donald Trump is destroying institutions. He’s having an orgy of ideology.”
When the Business Journal asked what it’s like to make a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives as Latimer has done a number of times since assuming office Latimer took a historical view.
“I’ve had the pleasure of speaking on the floor of the Rye City Council, Westchester County Board of Legislators, New York State Assembly and New York State Senate.,” Latimer said. “Every time I’ve done my first speeches it’s been a little intimidating. You’re in a bigger arena.”
He pointed out that speaking in the House allows him to go on the record about policy issues under consideration in Congress that really matter.
“When I put out (video) clips, people respond positively,” Latimer said. “Here I am standing in the well of the House of Representatives. I’m standing 10 feet away from where Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his ‘Day of Infamy’ speech; from where Lyndon Johnson addressed the nation after the death of John F. Kennedy. I’m impressed by the historical reality of the environment that I’m in.”
