President Trump's funding cuts could have major impact on Massachusetts, Rep. Jim McGovern says
Freezes in National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation grants, reductions in Medicaid reimbursements - all are on the table these days in Washington, D.C. And all are crucial elements of the Massachusetts economy and health care structure.
That's why veteran 2nd District Congressman Jim McGovern, a Democrat, said he has "chills up the spine" these days.
"It means an awful lot for Massachusetts and our economy," he told WBZ-TV. "NIH is more than just a line item. I mean, it is about investing in research to find cures to things like cancer and every other disease and ailment out there, Massachusetts has some of the finest medical schools and universities in the world, and we get a pretty big chunk of those research dollars here, which helps support this research that saves lives but also creates lots and lots of jobs."
Importance of Medicaid
McGovern also spoke about the importance of Medicaid.
"It not only provides health care for people who struggle and are in the lower income brackets, but it also provides benefits to people who are in the middle income," McGovern said. "Oftentimes when people have long-term care it means they transition onto Medicaid. But look, we should be talking about expanding health care benefits, improving our health care system in this country. We shouldn't be talking about how we how we can contract it, how we take benefits away from people. That's shortsighted, and by the way, it doesn't save you any money, it just adds costs in a whole bunch of other areas."
So what do McGovern and his fellow Democrats in Congress intend to do about it?
"We are fighting like hell," he said. "We're fighting in committee. We're fighting on the floor. We are offering amendments. We are making demands of this new administration. We are supporting litigation when that is appropriate, and we're using every maneuver and every mechanism available to us to try to stop things that we know will do harm to the people of Massachusetts and of this country."
Rising prices
The Massachusetts Democrat said he believes Trump's policies are harmful to working class Americans.
"As we speak, the overwhelming majority of the American people disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling the economy. He came to office in part because he promised he was going to lower the cost of living for people, and the opposite has happened," McGovern said. "Prices have gone up, but it's not just eggs, it's gas, it's everything, and with the tariffs that he's putting in place, you're going to see costs rising in construction. And this is not what he promised. And he has been focused on things that are about enriching him and his buddy Elon, and about trying to get a tax cuts passed to help millionaires or billionaires, but he hasn't done a damn thing for average working people in this country."
McGovern was asked if Democrats need to change their messaging and priorities in the wake of their losses last fall.
"I think we have to be in sync with where average working families are...talking about those bread and butter issues," McGovern said. "My old boss, Congressman Joe Moakley, used to say people look at life through their kitchen window. I think he was right, and we have to make sure that we are understanding where so many working families are and what they're dealing with. And we have to address those issues."
McGovern warns of "full-blown constitutional crisis"
He said members of his party have to focus on fighting Trump's cuts.
"We have to fight Trump on the cuts and on the terrible priorities that he was kind of putting forward ... and we have to outline a positive vision that is convincing," McGovern said. "I think one of the mistakes that Kamala Harris made was not conceding that people were struggling. I get it, you know, she was Biden's vice president and didn't want to criticize him, but the bottom line is, a little more criticism might have been helpful in helping her get over the finish line."
So what happens if the White House chooses to ignore the growing number of court orders to delay or stop the cuts?
"Then we have a full-blown constitutional crisis and I think it requires some dramatic action in response," McGovern said. "We can't just sit back and let our democracy just fall apart. You can't let Donald Trump and Elon Musk basically rob us of our democracy and disrespect the Constitution. What we need to think about are things like maybe a national strike across this country, and there's precedent in Europe and Poland, I remember a national strike helped stop the communist government from cracking down on the Solidarity movement. But we're going to have to be thinking out of the box, because if we have a constitutional crisis, it's not going to be fixed by an amendment. It's going to it's going to be fixed by the people. Institutions will not protect our democracy. People will protect our democracy."
You can watch the entire interview on-demand in the video player above and join us every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. for the weekend edition of Keller At Large.
