Reporters gathered at an area Congressman's downtown Albany office Thursday for a discussion of the federal government shutdown. WAMC's Capital Region Bureau Chief Dave Lucas was there.
"This is frustrating. The American public is getting hurt," said Paul Tonko, dissatisfied over broken-down budget negotiations. Tonko, of New York's 20th House District, which contains most of the Capital Region, says he and fellow-Democrats have a multitude of concerns about the way that Donald Trump is running the government. Tonko criticized what he called Trump's "shredding of the separation of powers" and his use of military deployment to the nation's cities. Tonko says Trump has left a trail of broken promises, from tariffs that have hiked prices across the board to using the Federal Communications Commission to censor free speech.
"We've seen rising prices, housing, utility bills, groceries, utilities, tariffs that are causing uncertainty in the economy, that have caused a number of small businesses to close, that have delayed decisions to expand and offer work opportunity because of this tariff confusion. So this whole agenda of day one success has turned sour," said Tonko, adding the GOP has muddied the waters concerning health care.
"Republicans are also claiming that this shutdown is about Democrats wanting to provide health care for illegal immigrants, a bold-faced lie that's repeated over and over again, even when they're corrected," Tonko said. "Illegal immigrants are forbidden by federal law from getting health care from Medicare, from Medicaid, from the Affordable Care Act. So tell the truth."
Tonko says lack of bipartisan cooperation is driving the budget impasse. He warns that all Americans will be hurt if the shutdown drags on.
"Instead of sitting down and talking with Democrats about these concerns and how we could best address these issues through a budget bill. House Republicans didn't even bother showing up to work in Washington this week. Who knows when we'll reconvene? Donald Trump and his cronies are now threatening to fire 10s of 1000s of federal employees. They don't need to do that," he said.
Earlier this week the White House said layoffs were “imminent,” aligning with the administration’s plan to slash spending and downsize the federal government.
