Congressman Neal Talks 'Chaotic' Trump EdictsBy Brittany Polito, iBerkshires
Washington, D.C.,
February 14, 2025
At call-in town hall on Thursday, constituents in the First Mass District shared their fears and concerns over actions being taken at the federal level.
U.S. Rep. Richard Neal detailed the "chaotic nature" of President Donald Trump's recent executive actions during a telephone town hall that drew more than 8,000 participants.
"Congress does not serve under a president of the United States," Neal said from his Washington, D.C., office, the Capital dome in the background.
"I need and you need to have our colleagues on the other side of the aisle begin to challenge some of these edicts that are coming from the administration."
In the last couple of weeks, Trump has filed 60 executive orders including "Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization" and "Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling." Neal said that 56 lawsuits have been filed in response and describes the administration's actions as "executive overreach." What has been bothersome to Neal and many of his colleagues is "the fact that there's been a usurpation of congressional authority in the effort to announce these edicts that may well have very little legal standing."
He said this doesn't deny the pain caused to many, whether it is the U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Institutes of Health, the General Services Administration, or for those on Medicaid.
Many expressed concerns for the future of Medicaid and Social Security, the largest federal government programs. A nearly 80-year-old caller is worried about her disabled daughter who lives in a group home and is dependent on it. "All of this is being done to provide an avenue to maintain substantial tax cuts for people who aren't even asking for them at the very top of our economic system," he said. "So the numbers look like this: The proposal is $4 trillion borrowed over the next 10 years, borrowed for the purpose of tax cuts for wealthy people, and again, when you hear and look at distribution tables, the argument that everybody's getting a tax cut might be true but the more effective argument is who's getting what."
The congressman said anyone following his career knows his support for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is "unwavering," as "Social Security is the basis of our nation's retirement system."
"The average Social Security benefit is $1,976 a month, or $24,000 a year. What that means is that half the people who receive Social Security receive less than $24,000 a year. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, every child in Massachusetts has health insurance. Let me repeat that. Every child in Massachusetts has health insurance as do 97 percent of the adults," he said.
"One hundred eighty-three thousand people in our district, they depend on Medicaid. Sixty-four thousand children and 18,000 seniors over the age of 65 derived that benefit. The idea that we're going to give a tax cut to the top 2 percent of the American family at the expense of these initiatives, raise the debt ceiling in an arbitrary manner so that we can borrow more money for tax cuts, and then say that we need to cut health care to pay for all of it is irresponsible and indeed reckless."
Neal urged attendees to contact both Democratic and Republican lawmakers with their concerns.
"I'm glancing right over at that dome," he concluded. "It means something to me and I know it means something to you and we're going to stand together to push back at these ill-conceived proposals that we're witnessing."
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