Mike Lawler Rebuffs Constituent Over 'Demonstrably False’ Budget Cut Claims: ‘I'm Going To Correct You’

Forbes Breaking News

During a town hall event on Sunday, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) had a tense exchange with a constituent over proposed budget cuts.

Transcript

00:000-5-8-0-6-4. 0-5-8-0-6-4. 0-5-8-0-6-4.

00:22Good job, Don.

00:30Many of my questions have already been asked, but I would like to point out that many of

00:36your answers have really obfuscated the questions that were asked here.

00:43You have not answered.

00:45You have not – you tout yourself as a moderate bipartisan leader.

00:50I would like to see Congress put together a coalition of people who could actually do

00:55something about the cuts that have been made to Medicare.

01:00Medicaid.

01:01There have been no cuts to Medicare.

01:02Excuse me.

01:03Let me finish.

01:04There have been no cuts to Medicare.

01:05Excuse me.

01:06Excuse me.

01:07Excuse me.

01:08Ma'am, if you're going to say something demonstrably false, I'm going to correct you.

01:12The agencies – the agencies that run Social Security, Veterans Affairs, Medicaid,

01:20education, our welfare programs to help people overseas, to prevent disease coming to this

01:28country.

01:29What is Congress doing to coalesce behind a movement to stop this administration creating

01:39chaos and destruction, not only in this country, all over the world?

01:45So you talked about foreign aid with respect to diseases, right?

02:01And preventing diseases around the globe.

02:04One of the things that I did immediately with respect to USAID was reach out to Secretary

02:11Rubio with respect to PEPFAR.

02:14PEPFAR has been one of the most consequential and significant foreign aid initiatives ever

02:20created by the United States.

02:22It has saved over 25 million lives around the globe.

02:26And you're talking about $80 on an annual basis per individual.

02:31It is one of the most effective programs.

02:34And I reached out immediately to make sure that while there was a 90-day pause on foreign aid,

02:42that they provided the waiver for PEPFAR to make sure that that program continued forward.

02:50Yes, it is.

02:51And so, ultimately, where, as I said before, Congress is going to be going through reconciliation,

03:03appropriations, and a rescissions package.

03:07And through that process, Congress will exert its constitutional authority of power of the purse and control of the spending.

03:17And that is the give and take.

03:20The administration has an ability to put forth rescissions that they would like to see.

03:27That does not mean that we have to accept it.

03:30And that is the process we are going to be going through in the coming weeks and months.

03:36And so, that's where Congress will exert its authority when it comes to spending.

03:41Under the Impound Control Act, the administration has the ability to offer a rescission.

03:58Congress can either rescind or reject.

04:01That is the process.

04:03058063.

04:08058063.

04:15Okay, another one.

04:17058063.

04:23Nope.

04:24280...

04:27Got it.

04:29Got it.

04:32.

04:37Oh, do you have to?

04:46Yes.

04:47My question is about SSI.

04:52And Social Security, I'm sure, has not been cut.

04:57But the administrative staff and the people that administer it, the workers, have been cut.

05:05How is it possible to give the people that have paid into it what they deserve when the ability to implement it is gone?

05:17It's going.

05:18It's gone.

05:20It's gone.

05:21It's gone.

05:23It's gone.

05:24And it is much more than a candidate.

05:26This it is going to force to vegetal than a worker.

05:27The organization helped to become effective.

05:28It's because, if, if, if, if, if.

05:29If.

05:30If, if, if people are going to feel agitated, you're not res dicable.

05:31So, you're going to hire a person to get their contact, or, keepорот, take care,

05:32or make sure to them all back come on.

05:33administration, at the end of Joe Biden's administration, the federal workforce was

05:39about 3 million people. Based on all the estimates that we have, based on changes that the

05:47administration has made to the federal workforce, they are still above 2.8 million people in

05:58the federal workforce. And so the, the numbers, the numbers in the federal workforce are still

06:06higher today than they were prior to COVID. Now, COVID saw a surge in hiring. COVID saw a surge in

06:17hiring for a reason, for an obvious reason. And so what the administration has said, it's not

06:24bullshit, folks. It's actual numbers. What the administration, what the administration has,

06:31what the administration has put forth, what the administration has put forth is an objective

06:38to bring the federal workforce down to roughly pre-COVID levels. Now, when it comes to Social

06:45Security and Medicare, there have been no cuts. Nobody has received a cut in benefits. There's not

06:53a single person in this room that is on Social Security or Medicare that can honestly stand here

06:59and say that they have received a cut because you haven't. Now, with respect to, with respect to

07:07Social Security, sir, just yelling out is not going to change anything. All right, you're interrupting

07:13everybody else. So enough. The fact is that during my time in Congress, I have fought to protect Social

07:24Security and Medicare. I helped pass the Social Security Fairness Act so that people who, for the

07:32last 40 years, have been getting screwed because they had a pension and they were losing Social Security

07:40benefits, they now get those benefits because I fought to get that done.

07:49So when people say, oh, they're cutting Social Security or they're cutting Medicare, that is a lie,

07:55period. We are not cutting Social Security or Medicare.

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