Republican Leaders Advise Lawmakers to Avoid Town Halls: Report
By: Nikki McCann Ramirez
elected republicans only have 2 constituents to represent now, felon and elon ...
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Republicans returned to their districts last week only to be met with legions of angry constituents demanding answers over their acquiescence to drastic cuts orchestrated by Elon Musk and the Trump administration. Instead of actually listening to the voters who put them in office, GOP leaders are reportedly advising lawmakers to simply stop meeting with them in person.
According to a Tuesday report from NBC News, House Republican leadership has advised members of the caucus to avoid in-person town halls for fear that voter backlash may become viral if circulated online.
"I don't know that a specific edict is going to come down from on high that they need to stop or anything, but a message I believe has been clearly sent that this narrative should end very soon," one Republican National Committee official told NBC News.
Over the course of the last week, multiple Republican House members saw their names make headlines after tense confrontations with constituents in their home districts went viral on social media. Many of the complaints centered around Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has been conducting mass firings of federal workers, while gutting or effectively eliminating congressionally authorized programs.
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) was recently mercilessly heckled during a town hall in Georgia's 7th Congressional District. He was booed by constituents, several of whom questioned the authority granted to Musk, the seemingly arbitrary nature of the cuts, and Trump's statements comparing himself to a king. "Why is a supposedly conservative party taking such a radical and extremist and sloppy approach to this?" one constituent asked. In Texas, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) recently sparred with furious voters who accused him of ceding his authority as a member of Congress to the executive. "The executive can only enforce laws passed by Congress; they cannot make laws," one attendee said. "When are you going to wrest control back from the executive and stop hurting your constituents?"
Early polling shows that a growing majority of Americans is concerned about the unchecked concentration of power between Musk and Trump. Last week, a Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that 57 percent of Americans think Trump is overstepping his authority, and that "Americans disapprove by a 2-to-1 margin of Musk shutting down federal agencies that he decides are unnecessary, and most (63 percent) are concerned that his team is gaining access to sensitive personal data of individuals."
Voters may be mad, but the Republican Party remains broadly supportive of Musk and Trump's antics — even if they steamroll over lawmakers' constitutional powers.
Chief among constituents' concerns are signs that Musk and congressional Republicans are looking to take a hacksaw to prominent social safety net programs including Medicaid and Social Security. On Tuesday, the House passed a proposed budget that included $4.5 trillion in tax cuts — mostly for the nation's wealthiest Americans — and over $2 billion in unspecified spending cuts.
The budget instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in spending cuts through 2034. If history is anything to go by, those proposed cuts will likely come from Medicaid.
"You're talking about $880 billion of cuts to Medicaid," Sen. Chris Murphy said in a press conference on Thursday. "That's a huge number nobody understands. Let me tell you what that means. That means that sick kids die in this country. That means that hospitals in depressed communities, in rural communities, close their doors, right? That means that drug and addiction treatment centers disappear all across this country. That means that millions of working families who have insurance today — because, by the way, 24 percent of Americans get their health care from Medicaid — they all of a sudden don't have their health care tomorrow. And for what, and for what because Elon Musk needs another billion dollars?"
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in his previous career as in his politics, trumpski has over-leveraged himself ...
Shutting down town halls isn't going to calm the electorate down. It will probably make them madder