Seven takeaways from U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie’s telephone town hall
U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie held a town hall via telephone Thursday night. During the hour-long session, constituents asked about whether he supports cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare and how he felt about Elon Musk and DOGE firing federal employees and closing federal departments. He was also quizzed on his thoughts about Ukraine and illegal immigrants.
Here are some key comments from Mackenzie, a Republican who represents the 7th District. He began his first term in January after defeating three-term incumbent Susan Wild, a Democrat, in November.
On the continuing resolution that funded the government through September: “There were no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security benefits, anything like that. But it did make critical investments to things like national security and public security, including $485 million to help clear the backlog of deportations that had been building up. There was expanded funding for cybersecurity, an additional $750 million for air traffic controllers and then also in the category of veterans and service members … It included funding for the largest pay increase for junior enlisted soldiers in more than 40 years. … There was also an additional $6 billion for veterans health care. … The final category that received an increase in funding was for far too many people dealing with food insecurity. There was additional funding that was provided, $500 million of additional funding for WIC (food program for women, infants and children), and $36 million of additional funding for food packages for seniors.”
Helping families: ”I introduced a package of four bills for working families ... [that would] expand tax credits for paid maternity leave to make it more likely that businesses offer and give their employees paid maternity leave. … I also offered a second proposal that would expand tax credits for child care. … And the third bill … is making sure that we expand the child tax credit. … The fourth and final bill, my working family tax package, was offering an expansion of the adoption tax credit, but then also saying that there should be companion tax credit funding for IVF.”
Jobs and immigrants: “I think it's important that we make sure that only authorized and legal citizens or those that are eligible to work here in the country are being placed into jobs, particularly when it comes to tax dollars in the federal government. So I've offered legislation to expand the use of E-Verify for all contractors dealing with the federal government.”
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid: “No changes should be occurring for Social Security or Medicare. Those are for seniors. And we want to make sure that we protect those benefits … [and] support making sure that the traditional Medicaid population, those vulnerable individuals, children, low-income seniors, individuals with disabilities, we want to make sure that the care is protected for them as well.”
USAID: Mackenzie serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee. “USAID was something that comes under our purview. … We as Congress should be making a lot more of these decisions. We should utilize our powers legislatively to make changes that we see fit and that we believe are appropriate. But that is a much more deliberative process that goes on in Congress, which I think is a good thing. When you're dealing with massive programs or changes like this, you wanna make sure that everybody has the time to weigh in on those changes, different stakeholders, different recipients of the programs before anything gets done. … As the legislative body and a branch of our government, we are going to have to be looking at what is going on in the executive branch, and really making sure that we are fine-tuning legislation to make sure that our will is going to be carried out to the best of our ability through the executive branch. And so the appropriations process is certainly one of those areas where we do control the purse strings. … The other thing is through oversight making sure that proper hearings are being conducted on the oversight front to hold the executive branch accountable.”
Ukraine: “I am again horrified at what I've seen from Russia. And Vladimir Putin simply doesn't care about the lives of other people or even his own people. And I am very concerned that this could continue for a long time. So I've been an advocate for a peaceful resolution. I know that is extremely hard to believe that we might be able to get to that point, but I think it is important that we try because if we do not try to achieve a peaceful resolution these horrors of war are only going to continue. And so I do think that the current administration is at least starting that effort and approaching it correctly by speaking with Ukraine, speaking with Russia, ultimately understanding their positions in the first round of talks. … Obviously territory is only one element of those kinds of discussions. Ukraine security is something that is obviously going to be a key component of this as well.”
National debt: “We have over $36 trillion of debt annually. We have a budget deficit of around $1.8 trillion. So our revenue that is coming in from taxes and the amount of spending that is going out are totally out of whack at this point. And it's been going on for a long time. And so your right to ask about what we should be doing to get our fiscal house in order, because if we don't we are going to be — even more so than we are now — in serious financial trouble.”