U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor and the Big, UGLY Bill

MidPoint welcomed U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, Democrat of District 14 in Tampa, to Studio 2 today. We had a lot to talk about. First up was Iran. As of the time of the broadcast, the Israeli attack on Iran was still new. President Trump is weighing American involvement in Israel’s military action and whether to commit American resources to aid Israel’s efforts to end Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. Rep. Castor indicated that there has not yet been much discussion in Congress about Iran yet, although Congress certainly has a role to play.

IRAN

She explained:  “But I’ll have to say that Trump loves this discussion (about Iran) because it takes all of the attention away from the detrimental impacts of the Big, Ugly Bill. The fact that they’re going to rip health care away from millions of Americans. They’re going to raise your electric bill. They’re going to rip food assistance away to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. But, it’s very serious, and it’s going to destabilize the world. Certainly, Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. Trump never should have torn up the JCPOA, the nuclear deal that was negotiated years ago by Obama that had inspectors in there, but, nevertheless, Iran cheats, and they have fueled chaos. They’ve fueled terrorist organizations, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, and it’s good to contain their malign fueling of these terrorist organizations and to set them back. But, I would hope that the Iranians take a hard look at a diplomatic solution here.”

THE BIG, UGLY BILL

Whatever the issue before her, Rep. Castor circled back to emphasize to our listeners how the GOP budget, what she called the “Big, Ugly Bill,” was going to hurt hard-working Americans.  She feels responsible for informing the public about the bill because, she claims,  the Republicans will not. They refuse to hold town halls, refuse to meet with constituents, and refuse to publicly defend their bill.  “Some of the Republicans in Congress are scared,” she said. “Many of them, though, are right on committed to tax breaks for billionaires, the wealthy, and the well-connected. But here’s their strategy. They do not want people to know what they are doing, and I do find, as I travel across the Tampa Bay area, that folks often are not aware of what is in this big, ugly bill. I think recently there’s been a turn. But, when you have a political assassination like we had in Minnesota, when you have a fight with Elon Musk, when you have this conflagration with Iran, Trump and the Republicans are very happy for you to be distracted by all that, because it takes all of the attention away from the biggest loss of health care coverage in American history, that they’re pressing the deepest cuts to food assistance in American history, where billionaires are going to win and hard-working families are going to lose.”

WHAT TO DO?

What to do? Rep. Castor urges Americans to keep up their activism and their demands of their Republican  Senators. “It is up to ‘We, The People.’ Unfortunately, we have a minority in the Congress right now in the House and Senate, so we don’t control the agenda, but that means it is a time for all of us to stand up. I hear a lot of frustration with calling your Senators, but you have to continue to do that. You can’t let them get away. Can’t give them a pass. You have to continue to write your letters, too…. You’ve got to exercise all of your 1st Amendment rights to ask for meetings, call their office, their Washington offices, their local offices. You need to write letters, comment on their social media, and continue to pressure them to stand up for the people and not for the wealthy and the well-connected.”

You can listen to our entire wide-ranging discussion On Demand from the MidPoint archives here, or in the WMNF app, or from our WMNF MidPoint podcast on Spotify or Apple Music.