UPDATES TO CORRECT SPELLING OF MEADOW RIDGE RESIDENT SUSAN AUSLANDER
REDDING – U.S. Rep. Jim Himes had some bleak news for a group of senior citizen residents of Meadow Ridge Thursday, March 20 regarding the impact of President Trump’s actions during the first two months of his second term.
From the future of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to the effect tariffs will have on all businesses, the congressman spelled out tough times ahead for all Americans.
“Businesses are terribly worried about what this means” (regarding tariffs), he told a crowd of nearly 200 residents of the senior living facility. “I think it means two things: it means a lot less trade because tariffs are a tax on trade and it also means we will see a resurgence in inflation. Why? Because if you import a bottle of French wine and there is a 25% tariff, that $20 bottle of wine is now a $25 bottle of wine with that money going to the government.”
Some of the biggest proposed tariffs are 25% against Chinese, Canadian, and Mexican products with a warning that those could increase to as high as 50%. Meanwhile, China and Canada have responded with their own tariffs on American products.
As part of a mini-tour of nearly “sold-out” Congressional recess town halls, Himes included several such meetings with constituents. Some of those town halls were aimed at senior citizens, many of whom could be affected by any cuts or changes to the “safety net” programs. In addition to the Meadow Ridge event, Himes also spoke with the Y’s Men of Westport/Weston earlier in the day, held a town hall in Fairfield Saturday and will have a virtual one tonight. That event drew more than 200 people.
Himes, a Greenwich resident, is ranking member on the House subcommittee on intelligence and a member of the House Financial Services Committee. He drew from his experience on those committees as he spoke to the crowd.
“I am very, very concerned with plans with respect to Medicaid,” he said. “Americans hear the words ‘Medicaid’ and they think insurance for poor people. There are millions of Americans that don’t have the money for insurance, so they are on Medicaid. It also allows senior citizens to stay in nursing homes and senior living facilities when they run out of assets. It also provides insurance for children.”
Social Security is the next part of that safety net that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has his sights on.
“Social Security is the proverbial third-rail of politics,” Himes said. “When George W. Bush was president, the privatization idea went over like a lead balloon. The risk to Social Security is not the system will be shut down, it is that they are firing people who are on the end of the phone so that the processing will take a lot longer. I am worried about it.”
He said he thinks the President’s people will be wise about not looking to Social Security for cuts. But he said Medicaid is a different story since DOGE has already said they are cutting $88 billion next year.
Other concerning issues
The economy and safety net weren’t the only issues on Himes’ mind. He addressed the Trump administration’s foreign policy and congressional Democrats’ strategy to counter the president’s actions. Specifically, he is worried about the aggressive deportation of Americans to such countries as El Salvador as well as his party’s inability to halt these actions and the possibility of a constitutional crisis.
“For me, the sum of all fears is that the President does something unlawful and defies the courts and people take to the streets and Donald Trump does what he didn’t do in his first administration, which was declare and employs the public emergency access and uses military inside the United States,” Himes said. “And then he declares martial law.”
The first sign Himes and his Democratic colleagues have seen that scares them was the administration’s refusal to follow a court order to return more than 100 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador.
“In just the last 72 hours, a federal court judge in Boston said you will stop the deportation of alleged gang (members) and turn the planes back,” the congressman said. “The White House didn’t do that. It is a politically uncomfortable thing to talk to you about because I don’t think anyone opposes the idea that criminals who are in the country illegally should be deported. But, because false arrests are made and because we have a process to make sure that in fact someone is a criminal and undocumented, the court said you need to go through that process.”
The one action he cited that federal courts can take is to hold those responsible for such actions as disobeying a court order is to hold people in contempt and possible garnish the paychecks of them.
“It is critical at this moment for the judiciary – and I hope that Republicans and Democrats agree on this – to say you cannot violate a court order,” he added. “If you do so, you will be held in contempt. The wages of those involved, down to the pilots in the planes, will be garnished.”
In response to a resident’s question about the congressional Democrats can do, Himes believes they need to do a better job of communicating with each other.
“The main reason the President was elected was because of the failures of my own political party,” he said. “Probably the main reason he was elected was that people were outraged by inflation. And that’s a hard thing to change politically. People saw that chicken used to be $6 a pound and now it is $12 a pound and they were very angry.”
He said the next two weeks where the next fiscal year federal budget will come up for a vote will give the Democrats the next opportunity to resist Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s massive layoffs and shrinking of federal agencies.
A congressional thank you
Susan Auslander, a Meadow Ridge resident, was thankful for Himes’ vote for former President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act because it helped the senior living facility complete a green energy program that included the installation of solar panels in the parking lot.
“I want to thank you for the vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, which made possible ou
