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NY-17 voters chanted “Not a dime. Not a dollar. No more cuts, from Mike Lawler”
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More than 100 local labor and community leaders in NY-17 came out this past weekend in protest of Mike Lawler after he cast the deciding vote for Republicans’ Tax Scam that guts Medicaid and SNAP while handing massive tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy.
Lawler’s constituents said they “hear the same canned answers from him all the time,” expressed how angry they are “at the devastation caused by this administration and abetted by Mike Lawler,” and insisted that “these aren’t the values of NY-17.”
Reminder: Mike Lawler promised voters he would not support any cuts to Medicaid (not even $1!), but then turned around and voted to enact the largest cut to Medicaid in American history – putting over 30,000 NY-17 residents at risk of losing their health care.
Read what Lawler’s constituents are saying for yourself…
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Yonkers Times: Labor and Community Leaders Hold Riverside Rally Against Medicaid and Medicare Cuts
- Over a hundred local labor and community leaders rallied at Louis Engel Waterfront Park in Ossining on Saturday in protest of the roughly $700 billion in cuts to Medicaid under the GOP’s budget plan.
- Last month, House Republicans—including Rep. Mike Lawler—voted for a budget that would push millions of people off their health care, while handing massive tax breaks to corporations and the ultra-wealthy.
- The rally was kicked off by Emily Feiner, who was forcibly removed from Rep. Lawler’s town hall in Somers recently. “When authoritarianism and the oligarchs come for your democracy: do not comply,” said Feiner.
- “This bill would cut coverage for millions and undermine our healthcare system while simultaneously gutting environmental protection, virtually ensuring higher rates of asthma, cancer, and other pollution-related illnesses…,” said Assemblymember Dana Levenberg (AD-95).
- “The so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ cuts billions from healthcare—there’s nothing beautiful about it. Mike Lawler voted twice to gut the lifeline that holds our hospitals together. That’s a damn shame,” said Alex Pierre, 1199SEIU Member Political Organizer and Patient Care Partner at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern.
- “Medicaid cuts are a direct attack on the people who rely on Medicaid, not just for doctor’s visits, but for daily survival. We cannot allow Lawler and his ilk in Washington to balance the budget on our backs.”
- “Rep. Mike Lawler needs to understand the billions of dollars in cuts in Medicaid he has voted for three times now will affect all New Yorkers not just those on Medicaid.”
- “Our communities deserve so much better than Medicaid and SNAP cuts. When families have access to quality health care and good hospitals, we’re all better off,” said Jennifer Cabrera, Chair of the Westchester-Putnam Chapter of the Working Families Party.
- “But Rep. Mike Lawler wants to take that all away—all so he can hand more tax breaks to people like Elon Musk. These aren’t the values of NY-17.”
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River Journal North: Seniors Speak Out to Stop Medicaid Cuts
- Over 100 community members gathered to pressure Mike Lawler, the republican congressional representative for New York’s 17th district, to vote against cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.
- The rally came in response to Lawler’s recent vote for the House Republican Party’s proposal that would cut $880 billion from Medicaid as part of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
- Opponents, like those at the Ossining rally, believe the large cuts would unfairly strip many New Yorkers of their access to the program.
- One protester at the front of the crowd even wore a nasal oxygen cannula while holding a sign that read “Hands off our healthcare.”
- Fellow senior protestors gathered around the stage at the small park. They waved American flags, carried banners, and showed off homemade signs reading messages like “These cuts will cost lives,” “We paid for our social security,” and “Save the safety net.”
- Feldman made one that said, “Don’t be cowed, be loud,” with a picture of an angry-looking cow pasted in the middle.
- Protestors used whistles, air horns, tambourines, bongo drums, cowbells and more to make their demands heard. They also repeated chants like “Not a dime. Not a dollar. No more cuts, from Mike Lawler,” towards the river to symbolically shout at the representative, who lives on the other side of the Hudson in Pearl River.
- Emily Feiner, a 64-year-old retired social worker, also took to the stage. On May 5, Feiner was carried out of Lawler’s town hall by multiple New York State Police troopers. She asked the representative where he drew the line with Trump violating court orders, and stood up to ask him again to answer it after feeling he had not done so sufficiently. She was then removed from the town hall.
- “Many people have called me brave for standing up at Mike Lawler’s town hall…” Feiner said. “But I am not a particularly brave person. I am an angry person. I am angry at the devastation caused by this administration and abetted by Mike Lawler.”
- “I find the world getting increasingly more frightening,” Feldman said. “We thought we paid our dues and not only are we back where we started, but we’re farther behind.”
- He said this will affect all New Yorkers, even those not on Medicaid.
- Mayhew said in addition to his pleas at rallies, he has called Lawler many times and even spoken to him face to face.
- “I hear the same canned answers from him all the time, and it’s not what’s going to protect people,” he said.
- “You can almost throw a stick and hit somebody who’s affected by these cuts…” he said. “Everybody gets it because it affects everybody. It doesn’t just affect a class of people that you think no one cares about, it affects every single one of us.”
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