ALLEN: Congressman Tom Reed spent last Saturday meeting constituents
in a few small towns including at the Town Hall in Allen where people arrived
early because the meeting was scheduled indoors, in a facility that seats only 49.
Hoping to get in at 4, the queue formed at 2. Voters wanted to express concerns, ask
questions and listen to both their representative and fellow citizens.
Unseasonal
warmth melted snow turning the parking area into a gooey mire that little by
little was filled with people who left their cars parked as much as 1/4 mile
away on the road sides to stand between puddles or climb on a flatbed. An hour
before the meeting started there were 90 people in line.
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| Jacob Elias |
While
waiting I talked with Jacob Elias, a graduate student at Cornell. With no meetings
scheduled near Ithaca, he felt he had to drive to Allen to voice his support
for funding the National Science Foundation.
With Elias was Rachel Fordise who was one among many worried about
losing the ACA.
As time
passed, about 25 gathered around Trump/Pence signs. A few of them were
concerned about “outsiders” being at the location. They felt that the meeting
was for constituents in Allen and with so many people from Hornell, Bath, Geneseo,
and Ithaca, local residents would be drowned out.
(The 23rd
Congressional District sprawls from Lake Erie to near Endicott, not on county or
town lines but on party registration.)
Shortly
before Reed arrived, the crowd of about 400 sang Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land. With the
cooperative weather, Reed chose to stay outdoors as he had at earlier meetings.
A megaphone was used by both Reed and questioners but at times words were lost
in the wind, covered by boisterous shouts or drowned by booing.
To
begin, Reed led the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance with the crowd shouting
the final words “with liberty and justice for all.” Reed then took the first
question in which he was asked why he voted against demanding Donald Trump’s
tax returns. While Reed said that Trump deserved his privacy the crowd shouted
that they deserved to see what was being hidden.
The
second question was one of many about health care. People in the crowd shouted
that they want to improve the ACA. Questions and shouts also made clear that these
constituents want to preserve Medicare, to create a single payer healthcare
system, and to allow bargaining with pharmaceutical companies to bring down the
costs of prescriptions.
Reed
said, “Just so we’re clear. I’m going to stand for the repeal of the ACA in
spite of your feelings.”
When
someone shouted, “You work for us.” Reed, smiling, declined to support
universal health care or negotiated drug prices. He wants Medicaid to be
available for those at 100% of the poverty level and thinks that people should
put money into a health savings account. He supports offering birth control over
the counter and keeping people on their parent’s insurance until they 26 but
not the entire ACA.
Reed
wants older citizens to have a choice for their health care rather than continuing
Medicare as it is. That statement drew shouts and boos. While Reed said that
this would save Medicare people shouted that Medicare is not broken and that
elderly can’t afford private insurance.
Fred
Sinclair, from Alfred, asked for Reed’s stance on DAPL, Keystone and NAPL pleading
for support for the people being massacred at Standing Rock. Reed said that he supported the construction
of those pipelines and, later, added support for gas storage at Seneca Lake.
Another
environmentalist asked about the EPA and Reed said that he supported the EPA
but felt that many regulations, particularly those regarding water, harmed
farmers.
A woman
stated that half of the money donated to Reed’s election campaign came from healthcare,
pharmaceutical and financial institutions, all based outside of the 23rd
Congressional District while donations from people like her accounted for only
3% of his funding. “Why should I believe that your positions are based on data
and not donations?” she asked.
Reed
said that he didn’t know about his donations but high-spirited booing drowned
the rest of his answer.
In
response to questions about investigating Russia’s influence in the Republican
Administration Reed said that there is no evidence. Many in the crowd shouted
for the release of Trump’s taxes and toi “follow the money”.
Fears
about cutting Social Security bought out a self-identified “68 year old nasty
woman”. She said that she paid and paid into SS as her children are paying and
paying but she fears for their future. Reed said that he is committed to changing SS
to save it.
Several
shouted, “Raise the FICA limit,” but it wasn’t clear that Reed heard them.
When
asked if Black Lives Matter, Reed said that all lives matter and someone
shouted, “Then refugees should matter.” When asked how the Dreamers can be
helped, Reed said that he hoped there could be a path forward for those young
people while someone in the crowd shouted, “Arrest and deportation will work.”
When
Reed announced that he had to leave, the crowd applauded dispersing in groups
toward their vehicles but Gary Ostrower, former Mayor of Alfred and Reed’s
college history professor, stepped up to shake his hand.
Later Ostrower
said, “First of all, you’ve got to give Tom Reed credit for showing up. There
are scores of congress people who are cancelling these kinds of things
precisely because they are fearful of controversy. Second, he’s not an
ideologue in the way that Lamar Smith and others are. Tom will talk and will
listen so I feel a personal loyalty to him that I don’t feel for the Republican
Administration and I’ve been a Republican for 50 years.”
