MIDDLETOWN>>> Following a forum with other legislators in the Bay Area last week, Representative Mike Thompson (D-4th District) held a town hall at Middletown’s Twin Pine Casino where he addressed Democratic leaders’ part in the passage of the budget resolution, proposed cuts to services like Medicaid, and president Trump’s orders to dissolve agencies such as the Department of Education, among other issues impacting local governments and their constituents.
A resident asked if Thompson has heard of any legislators planning to go against what they are being told to do with regards to important decisions such as ongoing government program cuts. “Do you have conversations with them, and do you feel like you can have an influence?” he was asked, “You are in the front line for all of us to do that”
According to the Grant Makers in Health, a Washington-based national network of health funding partners which works with philanthropic organizations and analyzed potential Medicaid changes in the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Bill, policy options to reduce Medicaid spending include per-capita caps, which could set a federal cap on per-enrollee spending amounts using prior year expenditures, which could increase annually. According to further analysis of the bill, these changes would significantly impact state Medicaid programs in several ways including: States having to bear all financial risk for costs exceeding the federal cap, and the need to reduce optional benefits, lower provider payments, or restrict eligibility for certain populations.
According to a recent GMH report, The Congressional Budget Office estimates per-capita caps could reduce federal Medicaid spending by $900 billion over 10 years by slowing federal Medicaid spending growth. Thompson stressed his efforts to work with other legislators across party lines. “I think it’s important,” he said. “I think people in our district sent me to Congress to get things done and I try and do that. It was because I was able to work across party lines that I was able to take home $550 million dollars in tax breaks for people who lost their homes in fires and who were being taxed on the money they got to replace their homes.”
Thompson said despite his efforts to work on a bipartisan manner, that he was “incredibly disheartened and disappointed” with the budget reconciliation resolution and the reconciliation Act for spending reforms passed two weeks ago. “That showed that members of Congress voted against their districts and voted against Article 1 of the Constitution, quite honestly, because that continuing resolution took Congress out of the mix for reviewing federal funding and federal programming and that is a Constitutional duty we have, three separate branches of government” he said, adding, “I am not going to acquiesce to any President, not withstanding the Party stance, my responsibilities, my duties and the needs of the people that I represent. It was a 100 percent partisan vote as you know. I think it’s going to come back to haunt people.”
Thompson said that just the Medicaid cuts themselves are going to be devastating throughout the district and throughout California. The House on February 25 by a vote of 217 to 215 approved a fiscal year 2025 budget resolution that directs the House Ways and Means Committee (one of the committees in which Thompson sits) to approve net tax cuts of $4.5 trillion over the next decade, Democratic lawmakers say that their Republican colleagues plan on slashing $880 billion dollars from Medicaid, (referred as Medical in California.)
The stated Republican’s aim is to cut more than $1.5 trillion in spending, but according to an analysis by the Washington D.C. based bipartisan policy Center, even with the huge proposed budget cuts, the Republican plan doesn’t achieve its intended goal of balancing the budget due to increases spending on defense, homeland security and other Republican fiscal goals.
“They are not interested in going against this President at this particular time,” said Thompson when asked by attendees and constituents about his efforts to talk to his colleagues in Congress. He noted, “I think things are starting to shift, you’re seeing a lot of protests in some of these Republican districts, I think that’s going to cause folks to rethink what they are doing.”
Thompson also addressed questions about agricultural projects and regarding grants earmarked for land conservation projects such as the proposed biochar project in Upper Lake and on the federal level, he talked about efforts and strategies to push back against Elon Musk and the dismantling of government agencies. He also addressed questions from students in the audience about possible cuts to the federal student aid program in the wake of the President’s order to dissolve the Department of Education. He said it was a possibility those programs would be cut. “Pells grants are very popular,” he said and added he thought there would be a lot of resistance to those proposed cuts.
“We gotta keep talking about it, we gotta keep working on it… we gotta put pressure on the folks, the enablers that I work with that are allowing him to do this. It’s not gonna be easy, it’s not going to be quick, there’s no magic lever to pull, but the midterms are right around the corner and we gotta be prepared for them and make sure that we are successful there.”
