Stefanik faces an angry, emotional crowd at Plattsburgh forum
At a town hall forum in Plattsburgh last night, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik faced a tough crowd. Most people in the audience were outraged and...
May 09, 2017 — At a town hall forum in Plattsburgh last night, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik faced a tough crowd. Most people in the audience were outraged and anxious, and they had a lot of questions about health care. They wanted Stefanik to explain her vote to repeal and replace major parts of the Affordable Care Act.
As Stefanik responded to each question and defended her stance on issues, some in the crowd wondered if she was really listening.
After seeing their colleagues in the U.S. Senate get shouted down at public forums across the country, most House Republicans are not holding town halls during their recess this week, but Stefanik booked this televised event at Mountain Lake PBS a month ago before the House passed its controversial Obamacare repeal and replace bill, before all the backlash.
100 people chosen by lottery were allowed in for the taping. Stefanik welcomed them, saying she looked forward to “a respectful give and take.”
“I know there’s a lot of questions on people’s minds and many people particularly want to hear about health care. So I’m looking forward to answering those questions,” she said.
This was a carefully staged encounter, moderated by journalist Thom Hallock, but the room felt icy and tense. Things never slipped out of control, but people in the audience often couldn’t contain their outrage; it kept rumbling up to the surface.
Stefanik answered one question about big tax cuts in the Republican health care bill that benefit wealthy Americans by talking about other tax cuts in the measure.
“It is true, Obamacare increased taxes on Americans across the board on cost of health care,” she said.
Some in the crowd seemed to think Stefanik was dodging the question. They started heckling and Hallock tried to rein them in. “Okay folks, let’s keep this in check, okay?” he said.
“Our legislation repeals the Obamacare taxes, whether it’s the medical device tax, the tax on high quality health care plans. We repeal the tax, the health insurance tax. That will help lower costs,” Stefanik continued when the room quieted down.
No one in the town hall meeting other than Stefanik had anything good to say about the bill. Nina Matteau, a breast cancer survivor, said the GOP plan includes loopholes that threaten people with pre-existing conditions. “Can you explain how this constitutes better health care at lower premiums as promised?” Matteau asked.
“There is language in the American Health Care Act that explicitly prohibits insurers from not accepting patients that have preexisting conditions,” Stefanik said. “You can go to passthebill.gop and read the actual text because that was an important provision.”
The Republican plan does give individual states and insurance companies more flexibility when dealing with Americans with preexisting conditions. That proposed change to Obamacare alarms many health care experts.
The bill Stefanik voted for also cuts hundreds of billions of dollars of federal support for the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. That change could affect thousands of people in the North Country. But Stefanik said she believes people in her district won’t be hurt by the gutting of federal support for Medicaid expansion.
She talked about in this exchange with audience member Harry Cook.
“That is more flexibility for the states to determine how they provide services,” Stefanik said.
“That is a cut to the services in New York state. Because it is an enormous financial cut. There’s no other way around it, you can’t put a spin on it,” Cook replied to a round of applause.
“Again, our proposal wants to make sure we are strengthening Medicaid with the focus on the vulnerable, the poor, and the disabled population,” Stefanik said, prompting more interruptions.
The audience wasn’t all critical. Some applauded Stefanik for taking climate change more seriously than other Republicans. She also took credit for opposing some of President Trump’s policies and actions. But Stefanik didn’t win over the room, and it felt like a big shift.
She won re-election in a landslide just six months ago. In this randomly chosen audience there was a lot of anger. Several people, on their way out, said they were grateful for the forum. But some, like Jeri Zempel, said it seemed like Stefanik wasn’t really listening. She said Stefanik’s responses seemed rehearsed.
“She’s very good at deflecting questions, not answering, and actually giving very circuitous answers that were impossible to understand,” Zempel said.
After the event, Stefanik said she did hear the frustration.
“I know there are certain areas where we’re going to disagree, but it’s my job to listen, even when they maybe completely disagree with me on these issues. And I think I did that tonight, just as I’ve done in the small group meetings and the coffees with your congresswoman that I’ve done since I’ve taken office,” Stefanik said.
She added that people know where she stands; the Obamacare repeal was one of her earliest campaign promises.
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